December 20, 2025

Included in this week’s post:

The Archaeology of the Exodus, Psalm 23, Schnitzel, God’s Relationship with Creation, Chorazin.

Dating the Exodus

(Scripture and Archaeology)

Did the exodus occur in 1446 B.C. as the Bible teaches when read at face value or did it occur two centuries later, approximately 1270-1250 B.C., as commonly proposed by most secular historians and even some Christian scholars?

The first of the three historical arguments for the late date, which we examined last time, holds that the city of Raamses, mentioned in Exodus 1:11, refers to the city of Rameses built by Rameses II (1304-1236). It can be demonstrated, however, that the name Rameses existed in Egyptian history long before the time of Rameses II, so putting all one’s eggs in the Rameses basket may not be the safest approach. In fact, Rameses cannot be the pharaoh of the exodus for one convincing reason, which I’ll state very briefly. According to Scripture, the pharaoh from which Moses fled reigned at least forty years (and historical records show that Rameses is the only thirteenth-century pharaoh who reigned that long), but Moses only returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites to freedom after this long-reigning pharaoh died. Therefore, a late date would require Rameses II’s son, Merneptah, to be the pharaoh of the exodus. Surely, the historians know this, and it’s simply baffling to me why they continue to hold on to this broken timeline which embraces a rejection of the Bible’s proven reliability.

Nevertheless there are two additional historical arguments for a thirteenth-century date of the exodus with which we should be familiar. In 1939 an eminent archaeologist named Nelson Glueck first presented his findings, based on pottery analysis, that large areas of the Promised Land showed no evidence of permanent settlements during the period from 1900-1300 B.C., prompting secular archaeologists to conclude that the Israelites did not settle in the land around 1400 as the Bible teaches. Following Glueck’s research, secular archaeologists with little exception adjusted their dating of the Israelite conquest to the 1200s, and they have remained committed to this date ever since even though Glueck’s findings have been fully discredited.

Lastly, proponents of a late date for the conquest have pointed to the archaeological evidence of a widespread devastation of Canaanite cities in the thirteenth century, which they routinely attributed to the conquest under Joshua despite the fact that there is not one scrap of inscriptional evidence from that time which identifies the invaders and despite the fact that the Israelites were instructed to spare the physical cities of Canaan except for Jericho, Ai and Hazor (cf. Deut. 6:10-11; Josh. 24:13). Thus, we should not expect to find large scale destruction at the time of the conquest.

All three of these historical arguments for a conquest around 1270-1250 B.C. fall dramatically short. It’s true that archaeologists are now moving on to new unsatisfying arguments in support of a thirteenth century exodus, such as the sociological, geographical and political timeline of Egypt, the Merneptah Stele, and Israelite settlement patterns, but they strike me as an attempt to shore up an already weakened theory that’s either rooted in a professional bias against the biblical account or in a failure to accept a literal rendering of biblical passages that date the exodus.

Daniel McCabe

Trivia

What is the name of the Israeli parliament? (Answer near bottom of page)

Life in the Land: Schnitzel

As a pre-teen, growing up in Longview, Texas, my older brother sometimes rewarded me with a visit to Der Wienerschnitzel on Marshall Avenue for a hot dog and root beer after helping him with his paper route. The name literally means, “Schnitzel from Vienna,” which sounds a lot more exotic than “Hot Dog Express,” the restaurant that sits on the same site today.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans consume seven billion hot dogs each year whereas you can buy schnitzel on virtually every street corner in Israel. Hot dogs and schnitzel are actually quite different. Schnitzel is thinly-sliced, breaded, fried veal, pork, or chicken that originated in Austria and Germany and was introduced to Israel by Ashkenazi Jews. Schnitzel might be served on a plate with potatoes, salad, rice or chips, but as a street food it’s usually served in a pita, baguette, or laffa mixed with favorites like cabbage salad, pickles, garlic mayo, tahini, hummus and, yes, even French fries.

Next time you come with me to Israel, I’ll show you my favorite places to find one. You’re in for a treat!

Daniel McCabe

Scripture Study: God’s Relationship with Creation

The final subtopic we’ll study is God’s relationship with the created order. This is where you and I come in! God created the material universe out of nothing for His own glory, and I will die on this hill. What’s the meaning of life? What’s the ultimate reason for anything? God’s glory! That’s why the universe came into being. That’s the ultimate purpose of all things—for His glory (Isaiah 43:7; Ephesians 1:11, “to the praise of His glorious grace”). God has complete sovereignty over His creation. He’s a personal being. He’s available to His creatures, and I am so thankful for that. God is at once imminent, close at hand here within the created order, especially in the person of the Son, as well as transcendent. He’s also beyond the created order.

God is eternal, existing before, during, and after time although I might argue—as crazy as it sounds—that time doesn’t actually exist. There is no time as an object, but we can get to that another time. Anyway, God is completely righteous. He’s just and He is the only rightful judge. God continues to hold the universe together, and He governs its affairs. He orders the affairs of human government, even the animal kingdom. But as God reveals Himself in Scripture, there are many places at which He speaks anthropomorphically, which means in ways that we can understand. When He mentions the sun rising in the east, for example, does it really rise in the east? We know that it doesn’t because the earth rotates. But it’s a figure of speech. It’s an expression of ways that we communicate and can understand, and although the Bible sometimes seems to describe things casually, really it’s God orchestrating it.

He’s also in control of every aspect of people’s lives. Here again, we might find some disagreement, but I’m convinced that He does control every molecule of the universe and all that happens. It is all for His glory. Even though He controls all things, He’s neither the author nor an approver of any sin. He has orchestrated the created order and all that happens, but He is not at fault for sin. It is our fault. This is a real tension found in Scripture, which we try to solve. But we need to hold these two supposedly contradictory things in tension. If I sin, ultimately it’s in God’s sovereign plan that I did, but I’m responsible for it. I can’t claim before God, “Well, really, it’s Your fault because You orchestrated this universe.” No, it is my fault. The Bible presents the reality that God has ordained the created order and all that happens, but also that I’m the one at fault for my own sin. The Bible presents both. They’re not a contradiction. They’re not in conflict with one another. Both are realities.

He is the just judge, and He does not tempt anyone to sin. This is very clear from 2 Chronicles 19, Hebrews 1 and James 1. God tests all the time. In the Garden of Eden, for example, He tested Adam and Eve with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they failed. He has tested people at many times and in many ways, but He’s never tempted anyone to sin. God is not the one enticing somebody to do evil. He can test, but He doesn’t tempt. Thankfully, God is knowable by His creatures—that’s us!—through the nature of the creation. We see this in Romans 1, the general revelation we talked about in my previous bibliology series, but also specifically in Scripture. God is known optimally by Jesus Christ Himself who is the perfect revealer of the Father to us. Jesus Himself makes this clear (Matthew 11:27; John 1:18).

I know that I’ve worked through a lot of different things with you here—God’s essence, His nature, His attributes, and His relationship with the created order. There are many more things I could have said, and if I were sitting down with you, holding a cup of coffee in my hand, I would love to have a great conversation about all this.

I am so thankful that His ways are not my ways. His ways are better than my ways. His thoughts are not my thoughts. His thoughts are so beyond my thoughts. I wish my thoughts and ways were like His because then I would be better. I would be holier.

I would be walking closer with Him, and as believers, we all must have the humility to say, “God, I will never comprehend You, and I know that I can never be as holy as You.” But our prayers should always be to walk closer with Him and to represent Him well in this world by sinning less and obeying Him more, walking uprightly and justly.

Even though we will never fully comprehend Him, we can be ever thankful that God is our Father, and through the grace and mercy provided through Jesus Christ, we can enjoy life in His presence forever.

Adam Keim

Ten of My Favorite Places in Israel: #9, Chorazin

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes,” (Luke 10:13)

I could have picked any number of Galilean locations for this entry, considering the pleasant climate and meaningful history of the region. Chorazin, located up the hill just northwest of Capernaum, is one of those places that makes you feel like you are exploring an ancient town. Many basalt stone remnants of the 3-4th century AD city still stand, but they are very similar to what was there in biblical times.

You will be impressed by the sturdy architecture of the buildings (walk with confidence under the old archways!) and the implements of daily living: olive presses, mangers, millstones, etc.

Pictured is the synagogue that features a “seat of Moses,” a chair of honor in which the synagogue’s authoritative interpreter of the law sat. Jesus said that the scribes and Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses, and so their instructions should be heeded. But their hypocritical actions should be avoided (Matthew 23:1-7).

Unfortunately, Chorazin is mentioned in the Scriptures for a sad reason. The only times the city is mentioned is when Jesus uses it as an example of faithlessness. Consider that the Lord wrought countless miracles throughout Galilee. There could have been almost no death or disease in the whole area for years, for those who bothered to come to Jesus.

Those miracles drove people to heed His teachings, at least ideally. Chorazin and Bethsaida are chided for not responding positively (Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13). Surely some individuals believed, but the towns at large apparently did not. Even Tyre and Sidon, Gentile Phoenician cities, would have repented if they had seen what the Galilean did!

Adam Keim

Answer to the Trivia

A. Knesset

Who We Are

Shalom Y’all Ministries is a 501(c)(3) organization, and all gifts to our ministry are tax-deductible. SYM was formed in 2021 to teach the Bible and lead tours to Israel. Our teaching and presentations feature the acronym S-H-A-L-O-M, which means “peace” in Hebrew.

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To teach and encourage those who love the Bible, the land of the Bible and the people of the land and to lead educational tours to Israel that forever change the way you read your Bible and worship the Lord

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