From Joseph to the Exodus
A family goes down into Egypt and a nation comes out. Keep pp. 52–53 open: family lines at the top, the stream of time in the middle, Joseph’s dream to Sinai along the bottom.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 52–53). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
A Family Goes Down, a Nation Comes Out
Two hundred and fifteen years: that is how long Adams keeps Jacob’s family in Egypt, and on pp. 52–53 you can see both ends of it. Down at the bottom a young man sleeps in a field while sheaves bow to his sheaf and the sun, the moon and the stars shine over him, under the words “Joseph’s Dream.” Look straight up from the picture. High above, in the same columns, a red line marked “11th Joseph, 110” leaves the bundle of Jacob’s sons and runs right until it stops at a heavy red rule in 1635. That rule is Joseph’s death and the end of Genesis.
Between the dream and the rule lies the story you know. His brothers sell him, and Adams dates it 1728, when Joseph is seventeen. Egypt makes him governor in 1715. A famine brings the whole family south, and Adams draws them on the road with their donkeys and baggage, “Jacob and his family going into Egypt, 1706.” He even counts them. Genesis gives sixty-six who went down, and seventy for the whole house of Jacob; Stephen gives seventy-five, and Adams explains that the nine wives of Jacob’s sons make the difference. It is still a family small enough to list by name.
Then Israel drops out of the pictures. From the caravan of 1706 to the burning bush, the row of scenes shows nothing of Israel’s life, and Exodus passes over those years in a few verses: a king who knew not Joseph, hard bondage, brick and mortar. What Adams gives you instead is a family line. At the top of the page, Levi’s line runs through Kohath, who lived 133 years, to Amram, “Father of Moses,” with Jochebed joined to him. Out of that line, in 1571, comes Moses, 120 years, with Aaron and Miriam beside him.
Find a figure bowed low beside a bush: “The Burning Bush,” in Midian, 1491. Take 1491 from 1571 and Moses is eighty, the age Exodus gives when he stood before Pharaoh. Up at the top Adams lists the ten plagues one to a line, from waters turned to blood to the death of the firstborn, and slips “Passover instituted” in just before the last, without a number, because it is not a plague. Next to the list come his three great events and three great changes: out of bondage, into the wilderness, new homes and new laws.
The same year fills the rest of the column. Below the stream, Moses lifts the stone tablets over a golden calf, and beside him stands a serpent of brass on a pole with the words “The law given on Sinai, 1491.” Adams counts the 430 years of Exodus 12:40 from the call of Abraham, 215 in Canaan and 215 in Egypt, and cites Galatians 3:17. Some Bible students place all 430 years in Egypt; the order of events on the chart is the same either way.
Higher up, a short note tells you why the journey took so long: twelve spies, a people who murmured, forty years turned back into the wilderness. At the right edge Moses’ line runs out at 1451, and the people are standing at the Jordan.
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”Genesis 50:20 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- Find Joseph’s dream on p. 52, then the dashed 22 on p. 56. How many years passed between his sale and his father’s arrival, and what became of the dream?
- Genesis 46:26 counts 66 who went down; Acts 7:14 counts 75. How does Adams’ note let both numbers stand, and why might Scripture bother to count one family?
- From the caravan of 1706 to the burning bush, the chart shows no scene from Israel’s life. What does Exodus 2:23–25 say God was doing in those silent years?
- Adams splits the 430 years in two and cites Galatians 3:17. Read it beside Exodus 12:40–41: what does Paul want you to see about the promise and the law?
- The serpent on the pole and the cross stand on one stream of time. What did a bitten Israelite do to live, and how does Jesus use that picture?
- Adams writes 1491 beside the law but no date beside the serpent. Where does Numbers place the serpent, and what does that teach you about pictures standing side by side?
“Dies on Mt. Hor” sits under Aaron’s bar on p. 53. Which lower pillar is to its left? What does Key 1 · Dates ride the stream of time tell you?
Show the answer
They sit just right of the lower pillar 15, so in the 1400s B.C. Numbers 33:38 puts Aaron’s death on Mount Hor in the fortieth year after the Exodus.
The Promise Came Before the Law
Adams prints one sentence above the caravan of 1706 that holds this whole stretch together. Two hundred and fifteen years after the call of Abraham, Jacob’s family went down into Egypt, and two hundred and fifteen years later Moses received the law on Sinai. At the end of it he writes a reference, Galatians 3:17. That is where he found the shape of his count, and it is worth reading why Paul cared about the number at all.
Paul’s point in that verse is a piece of arithmetic. The promise came first; the law came four hundred and thirty years later, and something that arrives four centuries afterward cannot cancel a covenant God had already confirmed. On Adams’ chart you can measure it with your hand: one finger on the dashed line of 1921 in the last stretch, one on Sinai in 1491. Some Bible students count the 430 years differently and place them all in Egypt. Either way the promise stands first in the line.
Notice, too, the order in which God speaks at Sinai. The law opens by reminding Israel who brought them out of Egypt. Rescue comes first, and the commandments come to people who are already free. The long silence on the chart between 1706 and 1491 is not empty either. Exodus says God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
Then go to the serpent on its pole beside Sinai. In the wilderness a bitten Israelite was not healed by medicine or effort; he looked, and he lived. Jesus took that picture for himself. On the same stream of time, far to the right, Adams draws the cross just past the pillar of 4004, at the opening of the Christian era; the year of the death, A.D. 33, is written at the end of the line from Adam, “JESUS, 33 A.D.” Put one hand on the serpent and one on the cross. The promise was older than the law, and it was kept.
Read and reflect
“… the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.”
Why does it matter to Paul that the promise came first?
“And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”
What does this verse tell you about the years the chart leaves silent?
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:”
What did a bitten Israelite have to do to live, and what does that teach you about the cross?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.