Mount Sinai and Midian

I learn that Exodus was written in Hebrew and that the Greek translator of the Old Testament gave it its Latin form. Exodus means “exit” or “departure.”

It had never quite struck me that the Hebrew people were liberated from the oppression in Egypt many years after Joseph had had such a big influence there, but also it was a liberating of their thought which came with Moses' teaching of the Ten Commandments and the whole of the Law.

Dummelow's One Volume Commentary on the Holy Bible (Dummelow) says the book falls into three parts: 

1.     Israel in Egypt: their Oppression and Deliverance

2.     The March from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai

3.     Israel at Sinai

It is always helpful to check the geography in Bible study. Perhaps the reference to Egypt and the Red Sea is easier to comprehend than Sinai. The Sinai Peninsular is that V-shaped piece of country

between Egypt and what are now Israel and Palestine. My map tells me the area is about 140 miles by 120 miles at its widest point.

At this stage I looked up Sinai using Google. I see that it is part of Egypt now, and in Moses time was under the influence of Egypt.

Then my attention was drawn to a YouTube video titled The Real Mount Sinai Found in Saudi Arabia. Wow! It has totally changed my view of the location of the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The people in the video feel they have proved the site is in Midian, on the north western part of the Arabian Peninsular.

I am now reading Exodus with this important Midian angle in mind. It is my hope readers of this blog will investigate that internet site for themselves, and journey with me as I see what the Bible really says.

The original man Midian was a son of Abraham and the concubine Keturah; he was expelled as being a rival to Abraham and Sarah's son, Isaac. We hear the name Midianites in Joseph's story – he as sold by his brothers to the Midianite merchantmen in their jealousy of Joseph.

“Midian” makes an entry early in Exodus. It was to Midian that Moses fled after he killed a man - he felt he was defending his people, the Israelites. It was in Midian that Moses married one of the seven daughters of the priest of Midian (Reuel in Ex. 2:18 and Jethro in Ex. 3:1), Zipporah. They had a son Gershom.

So, we find that Moses was very familiar with Midian. It was here also that God told him it was his task to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt (chapter 3 and 4).

Joyce Voysey