A PHARAOH WHO KNEW NOT JOSEPH
After the Children of Israel had settled in Egypt (through the efforts of Joseph) they became fruitful, and increased abundantly, and the land was filled with them. Now there rose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph. Pharaoh feared that the Israelites might over take them, so he set taskmasters over them to afflict them with harsh burdens – slavery. The Children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God. And God, remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the Children of Israel, and God had respect towards them.
Now Moses was born into a Hebrew family but was hidden due to the degree of Pharaoh that all male Hebrew children must be cast into the river. Not only was Moses’ life spared but he was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, after drawing him out of the water from the reed basket his birth mother placed him in. Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Hebrews 11:24). And he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. It was at this time that Moses killed an Egyptian that he saw beating a Hebrew. Once Moses found out that his crime was known, he fled Egypt and dwelt in the land of Midian. It was there that Moses settled and married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro the priest of Midian, and Moses tended the flocks of his father-in-law.
MOSES AT THE BURNING BUSH
Several peaceful decades passed as Moses kept the flocks of Jethro. One day, as Moses led the flock to the backside of the desert, he came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. It was there that Moses approached the burning bush. In Exodus 3:2 the holy text states that, the angel of the LORD appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. Further down in Exodus 3:6 the voice from the burning bush identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And in Exodus 3:13,14 when Moses asks God what His name is, God revealed that his name is, I AM. Now in the Gospel of John chapter 8, after disputing with the Jewish leaders about Jesus’ relationship to Abraham, Christ made a profound statement. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58). Thus it can be seen through these scriptures, that Jesus Christ is none other than the great I AM.
THE EXODUS
After answering the Lord’s call to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses and his brother Aaron stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. They told Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go!” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he would not let the Children of Israel go. So, the Lord sent plagues upon the land of Egypt, ten in all. Only after the tenth and final plague would Pharaoh release the Hebrew slaves. So God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.
And it was told to Pharaoh that the Israelites fled, and so Pharaoh’s heart was hardened yet again. So, he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. And he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over each one of them. Now the wilderness of the Red Sea is what we know today as the Sinai Peninsula. As the Israelites camped in the wilderness of the Red Sea, God told Moses that Pharaoh will say of the Children of Israel, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. This statement in the Bible of the wilderness shutting them in and being entangled in the land could be explained by examining the geography of Sinai.
The Bible states that on their journey from Succoth, the Children of Israel encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. When they continued their journey it is very likely that they traveled through the Wadi Watir, which is a narrow valley in the Sinai. A wilderness that would very much shut them in and entangle them. In his Antiquities of the Jews, the Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus wrote of the wanderings of the Children of Israel. He also makes mention of something that could very well be the Wadi Watir, where the Israelites possibly passed. Josephus speaks, “For there was [on each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight.” This reference would give credence to the theory of the Children of Israel passing through the Wadi Watir.
After traveling through the Wadi Watir, the Children of Israel ended up on the shore of what is today known as the coastal town of Nuweiba, Egypt – on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. Now the Red Sea splinters off into two “fingers” that surround the Sinai. The Gulf of Suez to the west and the Gulf of Aqaba to the east. It is most likely that the eastern portion of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Aqaba is where the Children of Israel passed through when the waters were parted by the hand of God. Depth charts of the Gulf of Aqaba show a portion of sea bed significantly built up between the Elat Deep to the north, and the Aragonese Deep to the south. This elevated strip of sea bed extends from the beach of Nuweuba in Egypt, all the way to the western shore of Saudi Arabia.
Evidence of the Gulf of Aqaba being the Red Sea crossing site, was found by the late archaeologist Ron Wyatt. In 1978 while scuba diving off the shore of Nuweiba, Mr. Wyatt found chariot wheels, horse remains, and human bones. He also found a Phoenician style pillar laying partially in the water. Amazingly, on the Saudi Arabian side of the Gulf of Aqaba, Ron discovered another Phoenician style pillar just like the one he found on the Egyptian side. From the inscription on the Saudi pillar it was revealed that king Solomon erected these two pillars to commemorate the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea and to mark its location.
Since the Children of Israel crossed from the Sinai Peninsula into what the Bible calls Midian, but today is known as the territory of Saudi Arabia, then Mount Sinai must be in Saudi Arabia and not in Egypt. Traditionally speaking Mount Sinai is believed to be in the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula, in the territory of the country of Egypt. At the foot of this mountain the Byzantine emperor Justinian built the monastery of Saint Catherine in the sixth century AD. Though the Greek Orthodox Church holds to this site as where Moses received the ten commandments, the actual site of Mount Sinai is most likely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
A couple verses of scripture found in the New Testament support the theory of Mount Sinai being located in modern day Saudi Arabia. In Galatians 4:25 St. Paul writes, “For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem,” so according to the Apostle Paul Mount Sinai is in Arabia, not Egypt. Also of importance within this scripture is the meaning of how Mount Sinai in Arabia answereth to Jerusalem. Now the Greek word for answereth is found only once in the New Testament. The word answereth can mean, “to file together as soldiers in rank,” or “to be in the same line or row.” Incredibly, when examining the geographical locations of Jerusalem and the mountain Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia it is revealed that longitudinally speaking, these two points line up perfectly. So if we start off in the south at Jabal al-Lawz and move due north, we see that Mount Sinai in Arabia truly does answereth to Jerusalem which is above (Galatians 4:25,26).
CONCLUSION
With what has been presented it can be firmly argued that the mountain Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia is in fact the true Mount Sinai. Since this discovery was made by the late Ron Wyatt, the Saudi government has fenced off the area surrounding Jabal al-Lawz and designated it as an archaeological site which is prohibited to enter. Other amateur archaeologists were able to survey the area before the barbwire fence was erected, and many key elements were documented and filmed. And even though the traditional site of Mount Sinai may not be the actual location, it indeed serves the purpose of remembering Moses, the Children of Israel, and the Exodus.
References:
Brenton. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., 1851).
Caldwell, P.C. The God of the Mountain. (Newberry, Florida: Bridge Logos, 2008).
Green, J.P. The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible. (Lafayette, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2000).
Nelson. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1984).
Strong, J. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2010).
Zondervan. The Holy Bible, King James Version. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).