We have been looking at the historical parable of Joseph and Jacob. Let us read the last few verses of Genesis 45, where we left off. Verses 25-28 say:
And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
We know that, spiritually, this famine is picturing the Great Tribulation. We read in Acts 7 that there was a great famine or dearth that came over the land, and great affliction: those two words “great affliction” are the same Greek words as “Great Tribulation.”
Joseph has revealed himself to his brethren and told them to return to Canaan and bring his father and all of the family back to Egypt. Pharaoh has then emphasized the same thing, commanding they load up the whole family and come back.
Now, Jacob’s sons have returned from Egypt. Jacob is hearing for the first time that Joseph is yet alive. If we remember, Jacob had thought his son was dead, torn by some evil beast. These same brothers had earlier sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt. To cover it up, they took a sheep of the flock and sprinkled its blood on Joseph’s coat of many colors. They showed the coat to their father and said to him, “This is Joseph’s coat. What has become of him?” They did not come right out and say that he was torn apart, but they implied it, though they knew the real truth—that they had sold Joseph as a slave.
Now they are forced, by the circumstances of God’s arranging, to tell the truth and to be open and honest with their father. They come to him with all of these riches. Under any normal circumstances, what they brought back with them would have represented the abundant riches of Egypt; but when you add the fact that there was a severe famine over the entire face of the earth, these wagon loads of food and goods from Egypt would have represented a tremendous amount of wealth.
Jacob’s sons relayed to him all of the words of Joseph—that he was alive and that he was ruler in Egypt, the second in command to Pharaoh. Once Jacob heard these words and saw the wagons, “the spirit of Jacob their father revived.”
We looked at the word “revive” and saw that it is used, for instance, when the spirit of a dead child came back to life in 1 Kings 17:22. This word is being used here to describe Jacob, however, Jacob had not died. He was not dead. We can understand that he was, very likely, cast down in his spirit over everything that had happened to himself and his family. He had always loved Joseph and was continuously saddened that Joseph had been taken away at a young age and presumed for dead. Yet Jacob was alive.
God uses this word “revive” in this verse to indicate that the spirit of Jacob revived, as though his spirit were dead. This is because Jacob is a picture of the two witnesses that we read about in Revelation 11. He is picturing the true body of believers who are in the churches and congregations. They have been dead and lying “in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt” for three and a half days. But then comes the dividing point of the Great Tribulation when God opens up the Scriptures and reveals Truth. This causes the two witnesses to stand upon their feet. Their spirit revives, just as Jacob’s. In the dividing point of this historical famine (that pictures the Great Tribulation), Jacob hears that Joseph is alive and that he is reigning and ruling in Egypt, and Jacob’s spirit revives.
We know that, historically, Jacob was jumping around his house. He was as happy as he could be to hear that his son was alive. He says in verse 28:
And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
Jacob gets into the wagons and returns to Egypt. In Genesis 46:1-4, we read:
And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
Once again, Joseph has already commanded his brethren to return to Canaan and to bring their family back to Egypt. Pharaoh has reiterated the same command. He said in Genesis 45:19:
Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
Joseph commands them to come; Pharaoh commands them to come. We know that Joseph is a type of Christ and we have seen that Pharaoh is a picture of God. Then God Himself says outright in Genesis 46:3-4:
…fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt…
God is telling Jacob, “Go to Egypt.” It is the same command that both Joseph and Pharaoh gave, but God is no longer using any kind of figure or picture of Himself. This time, God speaks directly to Israel and tells him to “Go to Egypt.”
God does not want us to miss this commandment (and this is a commandment from God, as the whole Bible is the Law Book and full of God’s commandments). He commands mankind not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, not to commit adultery—these are all commandments of God, and God can expand upon these commandments if He so pleases.
In our day, He is opening up Scriptures concerning those in the churches and congregations. He is decreeing, issuing a commandment, that it is time to leave the church. This is not coming from men; it is coming from God, and, therefore, needs to be obeyed, and it must be obeyed.
God is assuring Jacob, “Fear not to go down. Fear not to leave the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, and to go down into Egypt. Normally, I would forbid you to do this because Egypt is the land that typifies the house of bondage. But in the circumstance of this famine that is come upon the world, do not fear to go down into Egypt. Go ahead, I will be with you. I will go down with thee into Egypt.”
This is what God is saying today to His people. “Do not fear to come out of the church. Do not be afraid of leaving the congregations and worshipping Me in the world, away from the ministry of the church. Trust Me; I will go with you when you leave your church and your congregation. When you are worshipping at home all by yourself, when you have no fellowship with other believers because you cannot find any, and you are sitting at home alone with your Bible, fear not because I will be with you.”
It is easy to think that there is something to fear. As God sends out this word, a lone believer in some church finally hears the information that the Church Age has come to an end. This person understands it and can see that it comes from the Bible, not from a dream or a vision. This person thinks, “If I leave the church, what will happen to me? This is where my friends are. This is where the pastor and the elders are that look after me. They are the ones who teach me; and if I leave the church, where am I going to go? I am going to go home, and I will be left alone with my Bible. How will I be able to fellowship with others? How can I possibly do this?”
It seems frightening when people find themselves in this situation. And a lot of people were in this very situation. Many, at least at first, were not even aware of one other person who believed along these same lines. Were they to leave the church? Were they to come out and enter into the world, even though they would be all alone? God says, “Yes! Fear not to go down into Egypt. Fear not, I will go with thee.” This is God’s promise for every true believer who has left their church and is out there in the world alone at this time. God promises that He will be with them.
He also says, in Geneses 46:4:
…and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
What is the next event that we can expect to happen once the Great Tribulation has begun? We know that this historical famine is picturing the Great Tribulation. We also know that during the time of the Great Tribulation, the true believers are to leave their churches and go out go to Egypt. It is out in the world that God will find His children and bring them up again to the Promised Land, to Canaan. After this has been accomplished, we know that it will be the end of the world.
We depart out of the churches and out of the congregations, and God will be with us for however long a period of time that is—a few years or months or weeks, depending on when someone comes out. God will be with us, and He will bring us up again. There will be that day of resurrection. There will be that day when the end of the world comes, when we will enter into what the corporate church has been picturing—the Kingdom of God. There will be that day when we enter into the New Heaven and the New Earth. That is what God is saying here.
Let us read the following verses. Genesis 46:5-7 says:
And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
Was any member of Jacob’s family left in Canaan? From reading this passage, we would have to conclude that not one member of Jacob’s family was left in Canaan. Not one son, not one grandson, not one relative was left behind. The entire clan, the whole family of Israel, was loaded onto the wagons and went to Egypt.
So we wonder whether or not the spiritual picture of this passage is that everybody will come out of the church? Is everyone going to leave the corporate church and go out into the world? No, this is not the meaning of this passage. However, everyone who is a part of Jacob’s family will leave. Everyone who is identified with Jacob will exit the congregations.
Jacob typifies the elect; therefore, everyone who is one of God’s elect will come out. No matter where they are in the world, no matter what nation or denomination they belong to, or who they are or how old they are—they will come out. Eventually, everyone who is spiritually of the seed of Jacob will end up leaving the churches and congregations.
Does this mean that everyone who is going to depart out of their church has already done so? No, there still could be believers within the church today. Even if they all came out this minute, the corporate church is continuing to evangelize. Because they are continuing to evangelize, they are continuing to attract new people to their services. So tomorrow, the church might catch in its net another true believer. However, if they are a true believer, once again, God would send the Word to that person, and He would make sure that they do come out before the end of the world.
We would have to conclude then that it is probable that right up until the very end, there will be true believers in the church. However, they will come out before the end, every single one of them. The true believers will leave the church. All of those who are left and remain in the church at the very end, as the Bible says, are the tares that have been bundled for the burning that we read about in Matthew 13:30. Therefore, anyone found remaining in the corporate body at the very end will be in a horrible situation, because the Bible indicates that they are going to be under the judgment of God.
In this historical parable, we are at the point where the entire family of Jacob leaves Canaan. From verse 8 and on, we have the information that describes who they were. We will just read verses 8-15, which says:
And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn. And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi. And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman. And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul. And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron. And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padanaram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
If we count all of those who are named in this passage, we reach the number thirty-three. The problem is that we have to count Er and Onan to arrive at that number, and Er and Onan, as God even says here, died in the land of Canaan. Yet verse 8 indicates:
And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt…
So the Bible tells us that there are thirty-three souls who left Canaan and came into Egypt, but included in that number are Er and Onan who died in the land of Canaan. Right away, we realize that there is something here that we need to look at a little further.
Of course, the list that God gives is perfect. But we cannot just assume that the thirty-three people who are named in this list are the same ones who went into Egypt because we know that Er and Onan definitely did not—we can read about them in Genesis 38. They had died well before this time. The list, therefore, is not what it appears to be; and as we move on to Genesis 46:26-27, we read:
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six; And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
“Threescore and ten” equals seventy. From this passage, God is telling us that seventy souls went into Egypt, and this agrees with what we read in Exodus 1:5, which says:
And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
Also, we read in Deuteronomy 10:22:
Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.
Again, we see the number seventy. There is no question about this—there were seventy souls that went into Egypt. The problem arises with what we read about this account in the New Testament in the book of Acts. As Stephen is giving his defense, he goes through this period of history and says in Acts 7:11-14:
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction…
Again, “great affliction” is “Great Tribulation.”
…and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Here, we read that there were seventy-five souls. This is a different number, and that is a problem. Three times in the Old Testament, God said that seventy souls went into Egypt; but here in Acts 7, He tells us that seventy-five souls went into Egypt. What is the answer?
Of course, there are people in the world who are not Christians and who do not study the Bible who might say, “The Bible has errors; it has mistakes.” I remember a psychiatrist who once said to me that the Bible was full of errors. I told him that I did not think so. I told him that I did not think that the Bible had any mistakes. It is because of verses like these and because people fail to truly study the Word of God that causes them to come to this wrongful conclusion.
We have determined that the Old Testament states in several places that the number was seventy, but the New Testament states that the number was seventy-five. Theologians and those who study the Bible incorrectly have tried to come up with an explanation to conflicting passages such as these. They say that the Bible in it is original Hebrew and Greek was absolutely perfect. They correctly conclude that there were no mistakes or errors in the original manuscripts. That is, when a prophet wrote something down in the Old Testament or a scribe in the New Testament, God was the One Who was moving them to write and record those words, and that there were no errors. But then they incorrectly conclude that because the Greek and Hebrew texts were copied many times over the centuries, that the nature of copying the manuscripts over and over again caused errors to creep in—especially when it came to numbers or other information. These theologians wrongly conclude that the Bible is perfect and absolutely true in its original manuscripts, but that we use a flawed copy in our day.
It is vital to realize that these people who come to this conclusion are not talking about the translation of the King James Bible, or the translation of the Bible into Spanish or any other language. They are actually talking about the Hebrew and Greek that we use today. They are going to the actual Hebrew and Greek that we see in our Interlinear Bible and declaring that there could be errors that have crept into these copies of the text.
This is like a con game—a shell game where they did a switch, and we missed it. They say, “The Bible is perfect, but it is not perfect.” They claim that the Bible is only perfect in the original manuscripts that God first gave us, but that we no longer have access to those manuscripts. They say, “The original manuscripts are long gone, and we do not know where they went. Because of that, any copy that we have today, for example, the manuscripts that the King James is based upon, are definitely at least a copy of the copy. We do not have those originals, and so certain errors have crept in. Now we need a science of textual criticism. We need individuals who have studied these things to tell us what is correct. Was it seventy souls or was it seventy-five souls?”
This is where this “textual criticism” begins to enter in, and we end up with all these people trying to tell us what the original manuscript of the Hebrew and the Greek is. It is based on verses like these, and actually many other verses in the Bible. I do not have any problem with this, because a true child of God knows that there are no mistakes or errors in the Word of God. Everything in the Hebrew and Greek that we have today, that Hebrew and Greek text that the King James is based upon, is perfect. There are no errors in it. When we read of seventy souls in the book of Genesis, it is correct. When Acts 7 says that there were seventy-five, it is also correct.
Whenever we find two statements that seem like a contradiction, the problem never lies in what the Bible says. The problem will always lie in our lack of understanding. Somehow seventy souls went into Egypt and somehow seventy-five souls went into Egypt.
Let us look at some other examples. In 2 Samuel 24, when David commanded the people to be numbered, we read in verse 9:
And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
Compare this with 1 Chronicles 21:5, a parallel chapter, which says:
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
In this account, we read that those of Israel were 1,100,000 (and of Judah 470,000).
It is vitally important that we read the Word of God exactly as it is written, and that we read every single word. 2 Samuel 24 stated:
…and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword…
And 1 Chronicles 21 said:
…all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword…
There are 300,000 more in 1 Chronicles than in 2 Samuel—how can we understand this?
The 1 Chronicles account leaves out the word “valiant.” When we look up that word, we see that that word is referring to men of experience, or men who had experience. It is referring to the men who were professionals, men who had most likely previously been in the army or who had fought in previous wars. We learn that there were 800,000 of them.
Then we learn that there were 300,000 others who drew sword. Those who drew the sword were men who did not have the same kind of experience as the earlier group, so they were not valiant men. Now we can understand that these two passages are just focusing on a different aspect, even though the same number of people is in view.
What about Judah then? In 2 Samuel it says:
…and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
And we read in 1 Chronicles:
…and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
Is there any difference between these two passages? The “men of Judah” in 2 Samuel were 500,000; the “men that drew sword” in 1 Chronicles were 470,000 (which is 30,000 less).
We also read language of “drawing sword” in Judges 8. There we read of Gideon speaking to his son, who is a young man. Judges 8:20 says:
And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
Jether was not old enough and not qualified to draw his sword. Evidently, to draw your sword at that time in history meant that you were of a certain age. This is similar to our day when one has to be of a certain age in order to be enlisted into the military.
Therefore, as Joab took the census, he numbered 500,000 in Judah. It is important to note that there had always been friction between Israel (the ten tribes in the north) and Judah. After seeing that Israel had 1,100,000 men, Joab must have wanted to find as many able-bodied young men in Judah as he could find in order to inflate their numbers. In doing so, it would make it appear that there could be a contest between them. And there was, not long after this. Israel rebelled against David, who was of Judah, and there was a war between Israel and Judah.
We learn that God’s wrath fell on Joab as he was numbering the people, which David had commanded him to do. We have to wonder why it took so long for God’s wrath to fall. We learn that Joab went from Dan to Beersheba numbering the people—a process which took over nine months. If it was a sin in God’s eyes to do this, why did God not send judgment immediately? Instead, God waited several months. We learn that the reason for this was because Joab had done something wrong.
In 1 Chronicles 27:23-24, it says:
But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under…
Those that were from twenty years old and under were those that drew not the sword. One had to be over twenty in order to be allowed to draw the sword.
It continues:
…because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens. Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of king David.
What number is being referred to here? The account in 1 Chronicles has 30,000 less than the 2 Samuel account. The reason being that Joab began to number those that were under twenty years of age—those who were not qualified to draw the sword. The wrath of God fell for that reason. Therefore, the extra 30,000 young men were not included in the number that is recorded in the 1 Chronicles account where we read of 470,000 men of Judah.
This helps us to better understand what is going on in 2 Samuel 24. We have a tendency to think that it was David’s pride in numbering Judah that brought about the wrath of God—and that certainly played a part in it—however, Joab’s general was doing something that he should not have been doing by numbering the men that were too young to draw their swords.
From looking deeper into God’s Word, we find that we have an apparent discrepancy cleared up. By not reading the Bible casually and looking only for the surface meaning, but by studying and checking these things out on a deeper level, we see that both statements are correct. There were 500,000 numbered of Judah total, however, there were only 470,000 numbered of Judah that drew sword and were qualified to fight. Both statements are true.
In taking the time to examine any apparent discrepancy that we might find in the Bible, we discover that not only is it incorrect for others to conclude that the Bible is full of errors, but we find just the opposite. We find the Bible to be extremely precise and accurate. When we study these things, we see that God is very careful in the tiniest of details in His Word. Everything He says is true and faithful.
Let us go back to 2 Samuel 24 and look at verses 10-13. It says there:
And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
Then in 1 Chronicles 21:11-12, we read:
So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land…
What is the difference? The three months of fleeing before the enemies was the same. The three days of pestilence was the same. What was different? The length of the famine. 2 Samuel says:
…Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land?…
And 1 Chronicles says:
…Either three years' famine…
Which is it? Is this another mistake in the Bible due to scribal error? No, of course both accounts are correct. Whenever we find these apparent contradictions, we rest in the fact that because they are both the true Word of God, they are both, therefore, correct.
Where does the problem lie then? The problem lies with us. We are the ones who lack the proper understanding of the Word of God. God has given us a method by which we find truth (we realize, of course, that it is God Himself who reveals the true understanding of His Word in His timing), and that we are to look elsewhere in the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture, to discover what else the Bible has to say (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Let us go to 2 Samuel 21:1. I think this will help us to understand. We read:
Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
There was a famine during David’s reign, year after year. It had been going on for three years by the time we are reading this. David goes to the Lord to inquire for the reason of the famine, and the Lord says, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” The Gibeonites were a group of people who had come deceitfully to Joshua during a great battle and had told him that they had come from a very far country in order to not be slain by Joshua and his forces (Joshua 9). They had put on old shoes and had brought crusty bread and broken wine bottles with them to show to Joshua to try and prove that they had come from afar. They had told Joshua, “We are from a far country. Make a league with us.” Joshua was deceived into doing so, and he made peace with them.
This is a spiritual picture of salvation, with Joshua being a type of Christ. The Gibeonites were spared destruction and left alive. However, they became servants to the congregation—“hewers of wood and drawers of water” (Joshua 9:27). This is another spiritual picture pointing to believers after they have become saved. Those who have become saved minister the Gospel. We are carrying the water of the Word to the people of the world. Therefore, the Gibeonites typify the body of believers.
Saul, in 2 Samuel 21, is representing the unsaved in the corporate church, and he slays the Gibeonites. Saul and his bloody house slew the Gibeonites.
After inquiring of the Lord, David understands what the problem is. He goes to the people of Gibeon and says, “What can we do to make up for this?” They say, “We want seven sons of Saul, and we want to hang them up.” David then has to gather seven sons of Saul from different women and turn them over to the Gibeonites, who hang them up.
In other words, there had been three years of famine up to this point. It had taken a certain period of time for David to find out the reason for the famine. He then had to go to the Gibeonites in order to understand what was to be done for them. After that, he had to gather seven sons of Saul from their mothers and bring them back to the Gibeonites for them to hang them up. It took a certain period of time for all of this to be arranged, and we are now into the fourth year of the famine.
If we go back to 2 Samuel 24:13, we read:
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land?…
In 1 Chronicles 21:12, Gad had actually said “three years of famine.” Because this is the Word of God, we know that what Gad had stated was absolute true. He said, “Choose thee either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land.” These were the choices that David had. But if David had chosen the three years of famine, what would the total number of years of famine be in Israel during David’s reign?
“Shall seven years of famine come unto thee?” Gad is saying, “You had famine year after year, for three years. It entered into the fourth year, maybe for only a few months (we do not know how long). Now you can choose three more years, which, if you round it off, will be seven years of famine during your reign. Shall that happen?”
Gad is embellishing and adding a little more information. Everyone who lived at that time knew that there was a famine in the days of David. Gad is asking, “Shall another famine take place?”
Again, there is no error or mistake in the Word of God. Three years is absolutely true. Seven years is absolutely true. God’s Word is perfect; there are no mistakes.
Let us take a look at a subject that is even broader in scope. If you want to read more about this, you can obtain a copy of the book, The Perfect Harmony of the Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. It is free and available through Family Radio (www.familyradio.com).
Let us go to 2 Kings 8. If someone is ever going to make an argument for there being a mistake in the Bible, this is the place that they would most likely point to. There are actually two apparent mistakes here. In 2 Kings 8:25-26, it says:
In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.
We see no apparent contradiction until we compare these verses with other places in the Bible dealing with this same king. In the very next chapter, 2 Kings 9:29, it says:
And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
Now this seems sloppy, does it not? The idea of scribal error is almost understandable when we think about one person writing down the book of Samuel and another person writing down the entirely different book of Chronicles. But here, we are talking about the same book. In chapter 8, it says “the twelfth year of Joram,” but in chapter 9, it states “the eleventh year of Joram.” This seems extremely sloppy. Any student who would give their teacher a work with an error such as this—a discrepancy from one page to the next—would probably get a very bad grade. Because these apparent discrepancies are very easy to spot, theologians blame them on scribal error. After all, we have to wonder whether or not anyone was checking the scribes’ work. Did anyone have to approve what the scribes were writing down? And, over the years, would the scribes not have noticed these apparent errors?
It is obvious that this is not a mistake and that this is what God meant to write down. God meant to say, “In the twelfth year of Joram Ahaziah began to reign,” and He meant to say, “In the eleventh year of Joram Ahaziah began to reign.”
We understand and that there was an “ascension year” system and a “non-ascension year” system for the kings of Israel and Judah. Again, we can read more thoroughly about this in the The Perfect Harmony of the Numbers of the Hebrew Kings.
Sometimes, in keeping track of their reign, God would count the immediate time they ascended the throne as year one. This is the “non-ascension year” system. Say, if someone began to reign in January of 2005, that would be considered year one.
However, God would sometimes record the duration of their reign in the “ascension year” system. This means that the first full year of their reign would be counted as year one. In this system, we would call January 2006 the first year. Yet, if we count by the “non-ascension year” system, 2006 would be year two.
It all depends on how we look at it. If we are starting from January 2005, we could count that as year one. By the other method, however, January 2006 would be year one (though this would be year two by the first method).
These are the “ascension year” and “non-ascension year” systems. In giving us this information, God is telling us that some of the kings were recorded by one method of timekeeping, and some of the kings by another. With the beginning of Ahaziah’s reign, God gives us both dates. It was the eleventh year of Joram by the “ascension year” system; it was the twelfth year of Joram by the “non-ascension year” system.
To prove this, let us go to 1 Samuel 13:1, where we have this information about Saul:
Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
God is telling us that Saul reigned one year at the same time he reigned two years. This is because God can use either the ascension year system or the non-ascension year system in keeping track of a king’s reign. Saul’s kingly reign was only one year by one method of keeping track, yet it was two years by another method. Again, we know that the Bible contains absolutely no errors.
Now if we go back to 2 Kings 8:26, we see:
Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.
Let us compare that with 2 Chronicles 22:1-4. It says there:
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.
What is the problem here? How old was Ahaziah when he began to reign? If we compare this with 2 Kings 8, we read a different age. 2 Kings tells us that he was twenty-two, but 2 Chronicles states that he was forty-two. That is a big difference—twenty years of difference. All kinds of people point to this as their proof text that the original Hebrew and Greek of the Bible contains errors.
We cannot fit this situation into the ascension year systems in order to understand the apparent discrepancy—that will not solve the problem. How then could there be a twenty year discrepancy?
I am not taking any credit for understanding this because I do not believe that I could have ever solved this mystery. Once again, this information is found in the free book that is offered from Family Radio, The Perfect Harmony of the Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. I strongly recommend that everyone get a copy of this book and study it.
To understand this, it is important for us to notice how Ahaziah is linked to Omri in 2 Chronicles 22:2-3. We read there:
…His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
We see the same thing in 2 Kings 8. We find there a link to Omri, who was a king who reigned over Israel in the north and had a continuing dynasty of a few generations.
Omri began to reign in 885 B.C., and his first year, by the ascension year system, would have been 884 B.C. Then Ahaziah began to reign over Judah in 842 B.C., forty-two years after Omri took the kingdom and began his dynasty. Therefore, we can understand the wording of 2 Chronicles 22:2, which says:
Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign…
Ahaziah was the son of King Omri, a part of the dynasty of Omri. This dynasty was entering into its forty-second year when Ahaziah was twenty-two years old and begun to reign.
This fits too well to ignore with the fact that Omri began to reign in 884 B.C. Time and again, God links this man Ahaziah to the house of Omri. As we read both accounts, it is too obvious for us to miss. It has to be this dynasty that was in its forty-second year.
What happened at this point historically? Jehu slew both Jehoram and Ahaziah because of the wickedness of Ahab and Jezebel’s house, who were also part of Omri’s dynasty. This was the end of that dynasty, and this took place in its forty-second year.
Again, these seeming contradictions are not always easy to understand. Sometimes, the answer is not very apparent at all, but there is an answer. Both statements are always correct. There are no mistakes in the perfect Word of God. Therefore, we also know that when we read other parts of the Bible—those that talk about sin or God’s judgment on sin or the fact that He is going to throw people into Hell eternally—those statements are just as trustworthy and faithful as the statements dealing with ages or the years of a king’s reign or the number of souls that went into Egypt. We know that both seventy and seventy-five souls went into Egypt.
In sum, the number of souls of the seed of Jacob was seventy. They would be the household heads of Israel that went into Egypt. However, the actual number of the family that went into Egypt was seventy-five. This would include the wives and the children, the sons and the grandsons. Both statements are correct.