The Trial of the Egyptian Pharaoh

Phineas Nyabera

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781645157038
• eBook ISBN:
  9781645157045
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This joyous book came out of my love for teaching. It is the product of teaching and lecturing in schools, universities, and prestigious conferences. The trial of the Egyptian Pharaoh was a case of human rights violations. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, his officials, and the Egyptian people forced the Israel people into slavery and treated them with extreme cruelty.They forced the Israelites to do hard labor and they mercilessly oppressed them and heavily exploited them. The Israelites cried to God and God agreed with them.God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites leave Egypt, the land of slavery, and go to Canaan, the promised land flowing with milk and honey.God gave Moses two miraculous signs and wonders to perform before Pharaoh and his officials. God hoped that the two miraculous signs will convince Pharaoh and he will let the Israelite leave Egypt and go to Canaan. In his famous call to Pharaoh, God ordered, "Let my people go." Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh in Egypt and told him everything that God wanted him to do. Let the people go. But the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, refused to let the Israelites go out of Egypt. He refused to let God's people go out of Egypt, the land of slavery. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, adamantly asked Moses, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go." Then Moses left Pharaoh alone but God sent him back again. Moses and Aaron threw Moses's staff on the ground in front of Pharaoh and his official. Then Moses's staff turned into a great snake. Pharaoh watched the great snake crawl in front of him. Then Pharaoh summoned his wise men, and his sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians, and ordered them to do what Moses and Aaron did in front of him and his officials.The wise men, the sorcerers, and the great magicians of Egypt threw their staffs in front of Pharaoh and his official, but their staffs turned into small snakes and Moses's great snake swallowed them all.However, those miraculous signs and wonders did not deter or stop Pharaoh from his stubbornness. He refused to let God's people go out of Egypt and God decided to take this case to a higher level.The case of the Israel people, as plaintiffs, vs. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as the defendant, was indeed a unique case. There has been no case before and since then where God himself presided over the case like he did before Pharaoh and his officials, God was the judge in this case. And God chose Moses and Aaron to prosecute Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his officials for violating the Israel people's human rights when they forced them into slavery and treated them with extreme cruelty.Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go out of Egypt. He disobeyed God's order to "let my people go." God performed a lot of miracles and wonders throughout this unique case. But Pharaoh refused to obey those miraculous signs and wonders. Then God decided to inflict Pharaoh, his officials, and the Egyptian people with deadly plagues. God sent ten deadly plagues that devastated the whole land of Egypt. God sent (1) the plague of blood, (2) the plague of frogs, (3) the plague of gnats, (4) the plague of flies, (5) the plague on livestock, (6) the plague of boils, (7) the plague of hail, (8) the plague of locusts, (9) the plague of darkness, and (10) the plague on the firstborn.The plague on the firstborn was the last straw for Pharaoh, king of Egypt. There was great crying, wailing, yelling, and mourning in the whole land of Egypt. God sent the angel of death to Egypt and killed all firstborn sons of the Egyptian people, including Pharaoh's firstborn son. Finally, Pharaoh woke and hurriedly summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds as you have said and go. And also bless me." So, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. God opened up and divided the Red Sea and the Israelites walked and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground.God was with the Israelites all the way to Canaan, the promised land. He fed them on manna and honey. He gave them the Ten Commandments and he led them across Jordan River into Canaan, the promised land. God helped the Israelites conquer the land of Canaan.Joshua divided the Land of Canaan among the nine and a half tribes of Israel, as commanded by the Lord. The land east of the Jordan River had already been assigned to two and a half tribes of Israel by Moses as commanded by the Lord. The whole land is commonly known as "the land of the twelve tribes of Israel."

Chapter 7

The Israelites Enter Canaan.
The Promised Land.

Crossing the Jordan River

The major aim of the trial of the Egyptian Pharaoh was that God wanted to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. God wanted to take the Israelites to Canaan, the promised land, the land he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. But after God had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them out of Egypt, the Israelites disobeyed God and broke God’s commands. Therefore God punished them and forced them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. And God promised that not one of the Israelites who came out of Egypt and was counted in the census will enter the promised land except Caleb and Joshua because the two obeyed God’s commands. When all the Israelites who came out of Egypt and all who were counted in the censuses had died, God was then ready to let the Israelites cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan, the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey.

After the spies had spied the land of Canaan, they came back and reported to Joshua what they saw in Canaan. They reported to Joshua that the land was good, flowing with milk and honey, and that God had given them that land and they should go and take possession of it.

Then Joshua and the Israelites left Shittim and went down and camped on the banks of the Jordan River ready to cross the Jordan River into Canaan. After three days, the officers went throughout the camp giving orders to the people. They told the covenant of the Lord, your God, and the priests who are Levites carrying it, “You are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark, do not go near it.”

Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

And he said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.”

So the priests took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

God appeared to Joshua and said to him, “Today, I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant when you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.”

Then Joshua, the servant of the Lord, summoned the Israelites and told them what the Lord, God said to him. And he assured them that the Lord, their God, will drive out the Canaanites, the Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

Joshua said to the Israelites, “See the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all earth, set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

Then the Israelites left their camp in order to cross the Jordan River, and the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam, in the vicinity of Zarothan, while the water flowing down to the sea of Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan River, while all Israel passed until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

And when all Israelites had crossed the Jordan River, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River, from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

Then Joshua, the servant of the Lord, summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe of Israel and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord, your God, into the middle of the Jordan River. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites to serve as a sign among you. In the future when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Tell them that the flow of the Jordan River was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan River, the waters of the Jordan River were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

The people of Israel did exactly what Joshua commanded them to do. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites as the Lord had told Joshua, and they carried them over with them to the camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan River at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had stood. And they are there to this day.

The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord remained standing still in the middle of the Jordan River until everybody had crossed the River as the Lord commanded.

The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed over, the ark of the lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched.

The men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the Plains of Jericho for war. On that day, the Lord God exalted Joshua in front of the Israelites and the Israelites revered Joshua every day just as they had revered Moses every day before he died on Mount Nebo.

Then God said to Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan River.”

And as the priests came up out of the Jordan River carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, no sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan River returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

On the tenth day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan River and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan River.

He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. For the Lord, your God, dried up the Jordan River before you until you had crossed over the river. The Lord, your God, did to the Jordan River just what he had done to the Red Sea; when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over the sea. He did this so that the people of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord, your God, is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord, your God.”

“Circumcision at Gilgal”

The Amorite kings who lived west of the Jordan River and the Canaanite kings who lived along the coast heard the news of how God dried the Jordan River before the Israelites and that the Israelites crossed over the river on dry ground with the Lord, their God, ahead of them, they became afraid and their hearts melted in fea...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• The Origin of the Hebrews and the Israel People.
• The Israelites in Egypt
• Israelites as Slaves in Egypt
• The Trial of the Egyptian PharaohThe Israelites vs. the Egyptian PharaohPlaintiff—Defendant
• Exodus
• The Israelites Enter Canaan.The Promised Land.
• Conclusion“Guilty”