March 2024: Seeing Easter with New Eyes / Reliving the Red Sea Crossing

Steve:
“This is supposed to be victorious. He’s supposed to be the Messiah. He’s supposed to be delivering us, giving us freedom from the Roman oppression.”

But little did they know, just like in the Red Sea account, God is up to something.

Hello and welcome to the BC Messenger podcast. It is March 2024. This is episode 20, and we are so glad that you have joined us for the Easter episode of the BC Messenger. We welcome you and thank you for listening in. As always, I’m sitting across from my wife, Jennifer, and the two of us host this podcast each month as we bring you real science, real Bible, real history, and real world.

Jennifer:
As we begin today, I have a question for our listeners to think over. What would you say to a pre-teenage boy who goes to Sunday school, hears the stories, and asks questions like this?

“What do you mean the waters parted? That’s not possible.”

Well, what this young boy’s mother eventually did was allowed him to stay home and read books on Sunday mornings. And this young boy who rejected Christianity became a man who is among the most famous today. I’ve been reading this biography and I read this early in the account of this person’s life. Came up against some questions, some things that seemed to defy the laws of physics—incredible, unbelievable, and, wasn’t really presented any answers and rejected Christianity, even probably before he was 13 years old.

Steve:
And you’re not going to tell us who this was?

Jennifer:
Well, let’s save it for the end.

Steve:
OK, We will tell you who it is at the end of the podcast.

Jennifer:
And more than likely, you’re familiar with the name of this individual.

Steve:
Well, there’s nothing wrong with asking questions as a Christian. That’s that’s actually a good thing, right? We want the truth. Christianity is based on real world history and that’s what our ministry here is all about. And content such as we present on our podcast, as we are presenting this month on our podcast, this needs to be readily available to everyone, but especially to the upcoming generations, so that they aren’t turned away from Christianity by the good questions that they’re asking.

Now, of course, some people are going to be scoffers and mockers and their questions, you know, they’re trying to prove Christianity false. But for those real seekers, those people who really are looking for answers, again, the content that we are presenting is so important.

Now, let’s get to it. But before we do, Jennifer, why don’t you give us our monthly rundown: bullet points of this particular episode?

Jennifer:
Our monthly roundup of content for you begins with our featured topic, Seeing Easter with New Eyes, and specifically seeing Easter through the lens of the Exodus and the Red Sea crossing with new eyes. And maybe you’re wondering how those things will go together. We’re going to be exploring that here very shortly. After that, we will be talking about a special sale being offered on the manna book and manna packet for the month of March. Then we have an update on our aging research. And moving from there, we will end close out with Helen’s View Part 2 of her interview from last month with Eldora, who is 99 years old, sharing more about her life there at the close of the podcast.

Seeing Easter with New Eyes / Reliving the Red Sea Crossing

Steve:
Well, who doesn’t love Easter in the Easter season?

Jennifer:
I do. It’s my favorite holiday, favorite of all time holidays.

Steve:
Well, and it’s the springtime. We’ve come through the winter and the cold and where we live, we had, we got spoiled here some weeks ago, had had some nice warm weather and then a snowstorm comes in and we get what, 3-5 inches of snow and that’s fun for me, a very short while. Until you have to start shoveling it and everybody’s bringing mud in the house and all of that.

But then finally, spring does come and you have new life and you have the green coming back into the ground grass and the buds on the trees. And what a wonderful time to celebrate the triumph of Jesus Christ over death in this real world. New life. You know, God doesn’t do anything by accident, right? That’s Easter. That’s what Easter’s all about to the Christian is this real world event of the resurrection of Jesus.

But foundational to Easter is the historical event of the Passover and Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Same time of year, springtime. Of course, it was Passover when Jesus was crucified on the cross, it was Passover week where he instituted the Lord’s Supper and had the Last Supper with the disciples. So it’s tied in with this historical event of the Passover, when God delivered his people from Pharaoh’s hand and he delivered them in many amazing ways, miraculous ways, also in real world history.

Jennifer:
Many Jewish people at this time of year. The most widely celebrated Jewish celebration festival is Seder, and this happens very close to the time of Easter, and it is the memory for them as the Jewish nation of when God brought them out of Egypt and delivered them from bondage delivered them from slavery, brought them to freedom. And all the amazing things that God did for them as a as a nation. And the Seder is a very detailed celebration or tradition that the Jewish people celebrate, and they welcome all other people to join them in the celebration of the Seder. In fact, many Christian people find great meaning in celebrating the Seder at this time of year.

There are groups that you can invite to come in to your church and lead a Seder celebration as they go through all the different parts of the symbolism of the meal and the different things they do, the breaking of the matzah, which we’re going to talk about here on our podcast.

But one Jewish website says, “at the Seder, every person should feel as if he or she were going out of Egypt. We begin with the story of our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and recount the Jewish people’s descent into Egypt, recalling their suffering and persecution. We are with them as God sends the 10 plagues to punish Pharaoh and his nation, and follow along as they leave Egypt and cross the Sea of Reeds. We witness the miraculous hand of God as the waters part, allowing the Israelites to pass and then return to inundate the Egyptian legions.”

So this particular Jewish celebration happens right at the time of Easter and of course for the Christian, we see Christ’s death and burial and resurrection as the greater fulfillment of all that God did there thousands and thousands of years ago when he brought his people out.

Steve:
Right. It’s all about redemption from captivity, redemption from slavery coming out from that into freedom, as you said.

Jennifer:
So we’re making that connection Easter to Passover to the Seder. And now we want to just quickly talk about the breaking of the matzah. There are three pieces of flat bread that is used during the Seder, and one of the pieces is broken in two as part of the rituals and symbols that are done. And two different sites that I was reading about the Seder said that this unusual action of breaking the matzah recalls God splitting the Sea of Reeds. Or some people say that it represents the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, which of course we commonly would say the Red Sea.

Steve:
Right. Of course the matzah is unleavened bread, and knowing the biblical accounts, we understand that they did that because they were in such a rush to leave Egypt and to get out of Egypt quickly. And they didn’t, it seems, have time to put the leaven in the bread. So they made the matzah, and that became part of this tradition, this remembrance in the Passover, in the breaking of the matzah. So there’s all kinds of things here that bring into remembrance again the the redemption out of captivity. But yes, and there even seems to be some correlation to the parting of the Red Sea when that’s broken in half.

And that takes us into what we really want to talk about today and look at that particular event of the crossing of the Red Sea with new eyes and see just how God did this and seeing it more clearly. Knowing now where this took place in the real world and seeing the events on a map and how they transpired really gives us a new understanding as to how God can work, even when nobody else is suspecting it, even when the enemy themselves do not understand what God is doing. And when it even seems like the heroes and the good guys are failing and going to die, God comes through and God redeems and God gets the glory for it.

And boy, we see this now more clearly in the story of the parting of the Red Sea.

Jennifer:
So as we dive into the historical account of the Red Sea crossing, we are going to be referring to an article written by Dr. Aardsma last summer in July of 2023, “Understanding the Red or Reed Sea Crossing.”

Now that we know through correct biblical chronology where this happened, we can look at the geography, we can read the biblical account, we can put two and two together, and we can really relive the crossing of the Red Sea and all that God did at that time.

And, you know, as I was watching different pieces of the Seder and trying to understand more of the Jewish people’s traditions with this at the time of Easter, I was struck by how often some of this symbolism seems to be left out. Of course, we did a whole episode last November on Israel, a nation robbed of its history and these dear Jewish people who, their heritage is so precious to them. And yet the applications being made in the Seder are much more about oppression today and social justice today. And of course we want those things, but reaching back into their history seemed to be less and less of a thing that’s being done today.

And I can only imagine that that is because their history has been so negated and nobody can tell you where the Red Sea crossing happened or how it happened or answer this young boy’s question, “what do you mean the waters parted? Seems a little bit fairy tale-ish there.”

And so I’m just so thrilled to present this content today that once again can reaffirm the reality of God at work in history in ways we would never expect. And then in ways that just shows God for who he is in such amazing ways.

Steve:
So let’s get into the story. Let’s get into the story of the Red Sea. Let’s relive it some here today. And what we want to do— now, you probably know the story. You maybe you heard it in Sunday school and you know this account very well, but you may not know it as well as you think you do.

Dr. Aardsma, as Jennifer mentioned a minute ago, has a new article, and actually I have it pulled up right here in front of me. So we understand from the account that Israel has come out of Egypt. They have exited out. They’re in the wilderness. They have gone to a number of different places the Bible talks about on their journey very early here. And they have come to Etham.

And then at that particular place, God tells them, and I’m going to go here to Exodus chapter 14, “tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before (a place) called Pi Hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal Zephon, opposite it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘they are wandering aimlessly in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.’”

And then God goes on to tell what he’s going to do, what Pharaoh is going to do, and how he’s going to have victory over Pharaoh, which also of course gives a victory to to his people, to the Israelites over Egypt and over Pharaoh.

Jennifer:
So you can just imagine they have left Egypt in a rush, emotions are probably very high, excitement. God has promised to bring us out. He’s promised to bring us into our own land and very fearful, but also very excited. And Moses is the leader and he’s done all these incredible things in front of Pharaoh and God has sent these plagues and God has brought us out and so they camp at Succoth and at Etham. And Etham is quite a distance. I mean, they they covered a lot of territory there in those first couple of encampments, and they camp at Etham, which is right on the edge of the Promised Land.

I mean, it’s literally like right there beside the Gaza Strip today, which, again, most biblical researchers aren’t really going to be able to tell you where Etham is. But they are right there. And then God, like you said, tells them, tells Moses, turn around, go back towards Egypt. So they go, they go backtracking where they just came from. And I can only imagine at that point, many of these Israelite families are already beginning to think, “what in the world are we doing? OK, we’re passing by where we just camped a few nights ago. You know, here we go back towards Egypt.”

So there they are.

Steve:
That’s what we want to do throughout this episode is to just keep referring to the fact that this is how God works. This is how God redeems. We’re going to tie all of this into the Easter story that the same thing happened when Christ came. But but a fingerprint of God is God’s people often scratching their head thinking, Lord, what are you doing? And as you pointed out, you can’t fully understand these things until you get the real world data in front of you to show you how it actually happened. The the phrase in Exodus 14 “turn back” doesn’t mean much of anything until you see it on a map and you understand, oh, God was telling them literally like make a U-turn in the wilderness. I’m taking you out into the promised land.

We get to the promised land, but now we’re going to turn back and go back toward Egypt? And in a minute we’re going to see and actually end up in the front of a body of water! Lord, what are you doing to us?

Jennifer:
And to the South of them, as they are in front of this body of water, to the South of them is wilderness. And if they could go far enough South, they would be into mountainous territory. And so, you know, “Moses, I think we need to go. We’ve got probably an army coming after us here. We don’t have much time. We better go scatter out into the mountains or get a, you know, why are we coming back onto the doorstep of Egypt?”

And now God told them even which direction to face and. At the water, if you go into the show notes, look at the images we have there for you. They are facing north, which really is towards basically the Mediterranean Sea. Although there’s several bodies of water in between, God camps them right there and faces them toward this thing called Baal Zephon, which we now know from the pottery and from the geography here, was a hill basically rising up way in the distance and God said “face towards that.”

Steve:
So this is part of the downside of having a podcast. We can’t show you maps, we can’t show you pictures. So you got to go to the well, you can go to the show notes. We have a little bit on the show notes there that you can see, but also Dr. Aardsma’s newsletter, July the 11th newsletter 2023 and look at these pictures. Look at these Google map pictures. You can go to Google Maps too and and see the area if you know where you’re going and see what Jennifer is describing there.

But there’s so many misunderstandings when it comes to this story. And Dr. Aardsma goes through these in his newsletter that, you know, after leaving Egypt, the Israelites were suddenly trapped by the Pharaoh and his army by this body of water so they can’t get out.

Jennifer:
They went as far as they could and they rushed out of Egypt and went into the wilderness and suddenly they were trapped by a sea and they had nowhere to go.

Steve:
But this is a mistaken ideology if you understand correctly how this happened. And it’s important to understand this because we learn some things of God. No, apparently, with the pottery that’s been found with the different locations that have been found now, understanding how they came back, they were not trapped by a body of water at all. They were actually, as we’ve stated three times now, on the cusp of the promised land. But they came back to a body of water for a different purpose altogether than getting away from Pharaoh. They are setting a trap.

Well, more correctly, God, is setting a trap.

Jennifer:
The people have no idea what’s going on at all. And there they are, deliberately camped in front of this body of water facing north, where there is no escape. If they would go for far enough north, they would literally need like ships to escape because they would be on the brink of the Mediterranean Sea or a giant lake. So there they are. And here comes Pharaoh. I mean, he’s coming out of Egypt, he’s changed his mind. He’s got the army, which the Bible tells us was 600 chariots. Even though Egypt was collapsing itself after all that had gone on, he was still able to gather his army together. And we have to think about the fact that Israel in the wilderness was never going to actually be free until they were free of the potential pursuit of Pharaoh and his army.

They would have always had the threat that they’re going to come after us sooner or later. They’re going to pull it together. Pharaoh will change his mind and we are not going to be free in this wilderness until this army is dealt with.

Steve:
Right. So while the whole account of the Exodus (and we’ve mentioned this) is a story of redemption ,it’s a story of being set free from captivity and slavery, (which is also the Christian story), this particular event is not.

This particular event is the story that God, though he is long-suffering, there comes a day of reckoning. And when it comes, as Dr. Aardsma says in his newsletter, it’s not pretty, but he’s God and he will not be mocked. And the Bible says in Exodus 14:4, God’s saying, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will chase after them. And I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

Not only will the Egyptians, so will the Israelites, and so will we. And so that’s what happens. They come to this body of water, God’s purpose in the whole thing, and again, if you see the map, you can see, they’re facing north, as Jennifer said. They’re going to go through this body of water in a way that is going to completely cause them to misunderstand what’s going on and trap them in a way that only God could do.

Jennifer:
So God has them planted there, basically, and the people don’t know what’s going on. And then God tells Moses as this army is advancing, stretch your arm out over the sea and an east wind begins to blow.

Now the body of water they were in front of is called today, on Google Maps, Ar Ruwaj. I think I’m saying that right. Ar Ruwaj. It’s a lagoon.

But when I think of a lagoon, I think of like, your neighborhood, like pond or something. That is not what this is. I mean, this lagoon is miles across. A couple, I think, 2 miles wide, 3 miles tall looking at it here on the satellite image.

Steve:
10 feet deep.

Jennifer:
So this is this is a huge what I would call a lake or not a small pond at all. So it’s miles across and that’s where they’re camped in front of. And then if you look on the on the images, you see there’s an arm of the lake up to the side on the north, and then there’s the rest of the lake there a little bit lower. And the geometry of this setting is just key. Go look at the pictures, but that’s where they are.

Steve:
So let’s get the scene in our mind again. We have millions of people with millions and millions of livestock standing at the bottom southern part of this body of water facing north, facing toward Baal Zephon, just as the Bible says at Pi Hahiroth. They’re standing there, Pharaoh and his army is coming. They now see it.

If you’ve ever seen the Charlton Heston movie you can picture that in your mind. The people are starting to they see the army coming, they’re screaming. They don’t, you know, “God, what have you done? Moses, what are you doing to us?” and start complaining.

And then a wind.

Now, many people may not realize that the text specifically says that a wind comes from the east and dries up a path in this particular body of water.

Jennifer:
And actually, not just a path, but the text actually says the sea became dry land, which we’re going to see. But I think even just the wind. Do we realize the Bible says a wind blew all night? And sometimes people want to say, well, what are you trying to do? Provide natural explanations for God’s miracles?

Well, right here in the text we have a natural explanation. A wind blew all night. And if this was something that defied the laws of physics in some way, where water was just standing up on end and a dry path channeled out through the middle, then I don’t think a wind blowing all night would have anything to do with it in the text. This is a very real world physical thing that the Bible is describing.

Now an east wind coming in on this body of water, which is explained in the article here, would have been very hot, very dry wind. Where is it coming off of? It’s coming off of the deserts of the central Negev. And in fact, Steve has been doing some reading about the strong force hot winds that can blow in this region of the world at times and that seems to be indeed be what happened here when Moses stretched out his arm.

Steve:
Yeah, I looked up an interesting article about how some physicists were trying to show that this is a very possible thing in that part of the world that these strong winds can dry up these paths in certain parts of bodies of water in that area. And I’ve read this a couple times that there was a British general, Alexander Tullock, who claims to have witnessed the waters of a Lake Manzala, which is a little bit north in the same general region, but the Nile Delta region, pushed back. The waters of this lake pushed back 11 kilometers, and I believe that’s approximately 6 miles, by a strong easterly wind back in 1882, I found that to be very interesting, again in that same particular vicinity and region.

But the point here is that this is what the biblical account describes, and this is what took place at this Ar Ruwaj right there near Lake Bardawil.

Jennifer:
So the geometry of this lagoon as the wind was blowing so strong from the east, would have heaped the waters up in this one arm of the lagoon, and a lot of the rest of it would have been swept dry. There would have been water up to the north, more water above them there, and then half of this Ar Ruwaj Lagoon was dried up at least by this unique geometry and wind direction there on this body of water.

Steve:
And you have to imagine millions and millions of people with millions, millions of livestock crossing this water in the time allotted. So it can’t be this little path. It has to be a massive mile or even two miles wide path opening up in the water. And you can imagine, OK, miles and miles of water at places 10 feet deep, all heaped up. By this wind, by this force over on one side, and now there’s this huge dry path they walk across, they go up into the northern part of this particular region and again, looking at the at the map and at the pictures, you can see now they really do look trapped. Now, in many ways, they’re in safety. Dr. Aardsma points this out in the article that there’s water now on their right and water on their left. So there’s no army going to be able to come around and get to them.

Jennifer:
And there you have the text saying the waters were like a wall to them on the right and on the left, looking at the landscape there from these satellite images. We know that this is not now describing a narrow path with with water standing up on each side. It’s describing they walked across the dry seabed, they got up on this very large land bridge and there were bodies of water on each side, which is good militarily. The only place they could be attacked by Pharaoh was from the front, but also, seemingly quite trapped because as I said, the farther they went north, the more quickly they were going to be coming to enormous seas of water.

Steve:
So this is how you convert the Ar Ruwaj into a death trap. You push the water out of the way. Apparently this is what God did. You get the people who are now the bait to go into the dry land, walk through it, go out onto the other side and now it’s possible for Pharaoh and for his army to get out into the middle of this lagoon on dry land.

Jennifer:
Before we get to Pharaoh, though, we got we’ve just got to think a little bit more about what these people are experiencing as we relive this. The Bible says they went across the seabed, when in the early wee hours of the morning, right?

Steve:
It was still dark. Yep, it was actually at dawn when the waters came back in, according to the scriptural account.

Jennifer:
OK, so they are standing there, camped there all night, waiting for God to do something. And then they are just really astounded that they are now going to proceed into this dry seabed. But don’t forget, there are winds. I mean, dry, hot wind is just blowing. And these people have their little tiny ones and their pregnant women and their elderly and their tents and all of their livestock. And there they go, miles down into this bowl-shaped lagoon that’s dried up. And then they have to make this ascent up the other side, at least 10 feet up to get onto the up to where this land bridge is, and then only to look around and and say, well, now what?

Steve:
Now we’re trapped.

Jennifer:
Yeah, I mean, we really don’t have many other places to go at this point. And just the fear and the extreme anxiety of waiting and then making this trek and then ending up there on the other side.

And here and here comes Pharaoh. I mean, obviously, if we could go across, he could go across.

Steve:
Now, it’s pretty crazy to think that a trained Pharaoh military leader would actually take his army into such a situation. Really, it’s something to think about this, but it really is telling, I think, in the pride of his heart. I mean, the Lord’s making this very clear throughout the entire Exodus account about these pharaohs and the naivety of the of this man just going ahead. And they went across and it’s almost like a dare. It’s almost like a dare, the only way now to get to the Israelites, to the slaves, to bring them back is to go to tread the same path they just trod. And if they can do it, we can do it too. And they took his entire army down into this lagoon to go after those people.

And then the trap had been set and the bait had gone in and now here they come, and what happens?

Jennifer:
And as we look at the satellite images and these rough drawings of how the water would have dried up in the in this big section we can eat. We can almost picture and see from the account how far Pharaoh and his army even got. They were definitely a couple miles in and then they began to have trouble with the chariots. Now the Bible says God did that.

It’s almost like God is saying, nope, not that far, buddy. You’re not going that far. Your chariots are going to have trouble. And it unnerved the army and said, well, we can’t go attacking them. We’re having trouble. Let’s retreat.

Steve:
And they realized God is fighting for these people, but it’s too late.

Jennifer:
Yes. So as they begin to retreat, they’re in this lagoon, dried up miles wide and tall lagoon, wide and long, I should say. And they’re in there. They begin to retreat a little bit and the wind stops and you can see in the image here what would have been a tsunami, heaped up water in the arm, in the western arm there of our Ar Ruwaj. The wind stops and it just comes rushing in into the lower portion and then explodes up into the northern portion.

Steve:
Just for a minute, try to picture that in your mind. Think about this for a minute. I mean, the noise, right? Just the constant blowing to be able to do that and all these people crossing and then the soldiers and their chariots and the horses. And then all of a sudden, I mean, picture the eeriness.

You’re in the middle of this bowl, this lagoon, and the the wind just stops. Can you imagine the quiet? And then the rushing in of the water like a tsunami?

And the Bible even gives indication, shows here, and Dr. Aardsma shows that the way this happened, looking at the map, they turn around, come back south and it is like you said, rushes right down upon them where as they’re trying to get out.

Jennifer:
As they’re trying to retreat and deal with their chariot wheels, whatever that that is giving them trouble.

So yes, here we here we solve a long-held mystery about the wording of the biblical account. Why did the Bible say the Egyptians said, “let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea, so the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it.”

Right into it, fleeing right into it, now that we see where this happened and exactly what it all looks like and how this east wind would have worked in this body of water, we can see exactly what that’s talking about, that they had retreated a little bit and then here came this water just rushing in.

Steve:
The notion of walls on both sides, walls of water with a narrow path in the middle of it, like we often think of or see in pictures, that doesn’t make any sense. But seeing the geography and the maps and understanding this area more clearly, it makes total sense how this happened. The only way we got here, the only way we can see it and make sense of the biblical account like we’ve done, is to get the chronology of the Exodus right and then be led to the proper site by the Exodus pottery.

Real-world stuff, not just a hunch. And thereby we learn about the unique geometry of the Ar Ruwaj Lagoon. And I mean, we could talk about right there is where at Cayceon, many believe, is one of the strongest candidates for Baal Zephon, that is where that was located. I mean, what are the odds that that would be the the location of Baal Zephon? On and on and on that is showing us the reality of this event.

But the main take away here is what God did, how God worked, what the story wasn’t an account of and what it was an account of.

Jennifer:
Yeah, and we should take a minute and try to get inside Pharaoh’s head. And I think you did that a few minutes ago, but, just to go a little farther with it, he is definitely feeling very confident as the enemy, as hardening his heart against God. He would not listen to God. He scoffed against Moses.

And so here he is watching these people flee across this dried up lagoon and thinking they obviously don’t know what they’re doing. They’re placing themselves in the perfect place for us to just deal with this swiftly and quickly. He feels very confident that himself and his army can get across there, can get up that up to where they are and finish off the situation in whatever way he had planned. He was very sure of himself and for good reason.

He wasn’t even going in to fight soldiers. I mean, this was literally a band of a mob of freed slaves like, you know, a few days ago, so. From a human perspective and from Pharaoh’s perspective, and from probably the Israelites’ perspective, this whole thing looked like it was a setup for certain disaster and defeat.

Steve:
And that’s the fingerprint of God.

Jennifer:
And now, after Pharaoh and his army are drowned, not one remains and the Israelites stand there and witness this rushing in of the water and the bodies washed up on the seashore, I believe is what the Bible tells us. Now they are literally free.

Steve:
Free.

Jennifer:
God has brought them through a very dark time of uncertainty and frightening them half to death, not understanding his plan, but yet the day breaks and the army is literally defeated right in front of them, of no doing of their own. And now they’re really free, that now they’re truly delivered and they go straight from there down into the wilderness and the path that God has for them. And God has a mission for them, a job for them to go in and conquer the Promised Land and take the land that he’s given them.

Steve:
They never forget this event.

And along the way, they’re singing songs of victory. It’s all through Israel’s history that’s recounted through the Old Testament and into the New. Miriam is leading the women and in playing timbrels and singing songs of praise. The Lord has triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider thrown into the sea. And so the victory that was won was beyond what anybody ever imagined in a way that nobody ever imagined.

Steve:
And this was their great enemy. I mean, it was Egypt who they were enslaved to. It was Egypt who they were in captivity to. This is the great military power of the day. And you’re right, had God not gotten rid of the Pharaoh and his army, they would have been chasing them all through the wilderness.

And so, yes, it’s redemption, restoration out of captivity. A beautiful account of that in the crossing of the Red Sea. And I’m sure for so many of those Israelites, a realization, oh, that’s what God was doing. That’s how he planned it. Now we see now, and it’s always after the fact, isn’t it? Still so hard for us to trust him. And we see that, boy, it doesn’t take long for the Israelites to start complaining again and not trusting God.

Jennifer:
But but learning to know God more for who he is.

Steve:
Yes.

Jennifer:
And to trust in Moses as the leader that God had appointed and knowing that, OK, we didn’t understand anything about that. But in the end, God had the final word and God has had the victory. And so let’s let that give us a foundation of trust as we move forward because we’re going into the unknown.

Steve:
Right, but all of this pointing to the greater redemption to come. All of this pointing to the redemption of the souls of men and the redemption of the whole world by the one who would come, the Messiah, Jesus.

Jennifer:
The breaking of the matzah, which represents for some Jewish people the parting of the Sea of Reeds. Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, was celebrating the Passover with his disciples. Now, we don’t know if it was a Seder as we have today, but he broke the bread, and what did he say? This is my body. My body was broken for you.

Steve:
Yes, Jesus Christ came. He was doing things no man had ever done through the miracles. He was showing who he was. But what happened? A terrible tragedy took place. They took the Lord of glory. They beat him and mocked him and crucified him, Roman crucifixion on that cross. It looked like the greatest tragedy in history, and it was a tragedy for them to crucify the Lord.

Jennifer:
It sure did. You know, I’m a mom and I think of Mary, Jesus’s mother, who was a regular lady just like the rest of us. But God used her in incredible ways, and God had promised her when he gave her this child, that his Kingdom was going to have no end.

Steve:
Right. How’s this going to work?

Jennifer:
And there she is at the foot of the cross on this day of crucifixion, her own dear son is being crucified and it makes absolutely no sense.

Steve:
Human sense. That’s right. And that’s just one example. I mean, we can talk about the disciples, we can talk about everybody who knew the Old Testament accounts and how is this working out and and their faith being tested and challenged over and over again. Through the tragedy, through this horrible event— this is supposed to be victorious, he’s supposed to be the Messiah. He’s supposed to be delivering us, giving us freedom from the Roman oppression.

But little did they know, just like in the Red Sea account, God is up to something. God is bigger than this. He’s going to do something great through what looks like a terrible tragedy. And that’s what he always does. And so Christ is crucified. He’s hanging on that cross. He dies. He’s buried, just like the prophets said. And three days later, he comes out of that tomb, the living, resurrected Lord, just like the Israelites got across that water and the sea came rushing in on the Pharaoh and the enemy, what happened when Jesus Christ was crucified and he comes out of that tomb?

Well, not only is he now the living Lord forever, never to be destroyed again and bringing redemption to all who believe in him and true freedom from the bondage of sin, but he also destroyed the enemy.

We forget that the Bible very plainly says that he made a show of the principalities and powers. He took the devil’s stuff, as one preacher says that sometimes we listen to, that God, in this event, destroyed, just like the Pharaoh was destroyed in the sea, he destroyed the enemy and he took the title deed of the earth.

Jennifer:
Yes. And just like the fact that the Israelites were never going to be truly delivered and truly free until this army and this Pharaoh were defeated, and so that’s what the Red Sea was actually about, the fundamental defeat that led to the victory. It’s the same thing in the cross of Christ. So often we we say Jesus died to save us from our sins and praise the Lord, that’s true. But there is so much more to the fullness of the fact that shortly before Jesus went to the cross, he said now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And so the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ was about the defeat of the enemy.

Steve:
A trap.

Jennifer:
The crushing of the serpent’s head.

Steve:
That’s right.

Jennifer:
So that redemption, salvation, restoration could be offered freely and the world could be redeemed.

Steve:
As we’ve often said, God is the master storyteller. He he’s the master of cliffhangers. And his people wonder, what are we going to do? Just like in a good story. And then he comes through in what looks like the greatest tragedy and disaster. He comes through and defeats the enemy.

I love what this Jewish individual says from a website called jewsforjesus.org. I don’t know anything about this website, to be honest with you, but Jennifer found this quote, and I think this is very fitting. Here’s what this Jewish individual says, a Jew who has come to trust Jesus Christ as his Savior.

“The New Testament is a continuation of the same story as the Exodus itself. At the Last Supper, the teachings of Jesus brought continued meaning to the core narrative of our people through the ages, that our God has provided redemption for us by his mighty hand and his stretched out arm. For me, the meaning of Passover was enhanced after I came to faith in Jesus. It was like looking at an old tradition with a new pair of glasses. Rather than taking the focus away from Israel and the Exodus, I found that my Passover experience was fuller. It made sense to me that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not only brought our people out of bondage in Egypt, but also sent Jesus the Messiah to deliver us from the greater bondage to sin and to bring us freedom in order that we might know and worship him.”

That is so good.

Jennifer:
Amen.

Steve:
And it’s good to know that whatever you’re facing in life. Right now, and you say “this does not make any sense. This is this is not what I have asked for. Why did this have to happen to my loved one?” Whatever it might be, you also can know God is up to something. He does know what he’s doing. His people have nothing to fear. You may have to go through hard times. You may have to go through strong winds and storms. Sure, go through these cliffhangers, these stories, but God is bringing redemption.

God is bringing life out of death. God brought the Messiah. He brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He brought, gave them the freedom. He destroyed their enemy, and he’s still doing it. He’s still writing the story. You and I are right in the middle of it.

Jennifer:
Amen.

Steve:
Well, hopefully you can see the tie in there between the account of the Exodus and Easter and have new eyes to see this event in the Old Testament and showing us really what I think what we’re seeing here is the way God works, with new eyes. We’re seeing that there’s a pattern here and he was showing us way back then what he was going to do with Christ.

Jennifer:
In a fuller and greater way.

Steve:
And yet what is he going to do in our future? We don’t know for sure all those details and through the dark times and the questions.

Jennifer:
And things that don’t seem to make sense, we can believe that God has a plan and that he’s working a beautiful tapestry of the story of history, and he’s put us in it. And on this side of the cross, we have been sent forth to conquer the land as the Israelites were.

Steve:
Amen.

Manna

OK, moving forward, we’ve been talking about the Red Sea crossing, one of the most famous stories in the Bible in the Old Testament, of course. But another very familiar account in the Bible is God supplying the needs of his people when he gave them manna in the wilderness. We have done podcasts on the topic of manna. Dr. Aardsma’s research has just really set off a domino effect of all kinds of discoveries into these biblical accounts, and one of those discoveries is the discovery of manna and how it worked and how God worked in his real world to provide this substance for his people.

One of the things that we are able to do, it’s it’s hard for a lot of people to believe it or understand it, is that we are able to have a recipe to understand what the manna was. We are offering that to people. We have a book that Dr. Aardsma has written. It’s a short book, just clearly explaining how this works, and we are also offering to people sample packets of what the manna substance was. You can right now, through the month of March, get the book and this one-of-a-kind resource for your family, for yourself, to learn more about how God worked in these ancient times when Israel sojourned in the wilderness of the central Negev and how God provided this manna.

Now this manna is totally like everything else God does. It’s not like what you would have thought. It’s not like what you would have been probably taught in Sunday school. Very different, but very real world.

Jennifer:
The manna set comes with the book about the manna discovery, which has color images in there, and then a packet of manna that you and your family or Bible study group can experience after you read about how this all worked. And so whenever you’re ready, when you’re ready to experience this Old Testament history, hold it in your hand, you can order this resource and the month of March is a great time to do it. It is typically $49.99 for this resource, but through the month of March it is 50% off, so it’ll be $24.99.

And so for everyone who has been considering getting this resource and keeping it in the back of your mind, it’s a great time to take action.

Steve:
So you can go to the show notes, there’s a link there to go to the sale. And order this or you can go to biblicalchronologist.org sidebar, click on “Manna” and you can find the sale. It’s in bright red letters right there and you’ll see it.

Aging Research: Recent Conversations and Observations

Jennifer:
OK, moving into the aging research section. We just have something brief here to share today before we hear from Eldora again, who is 99 years old and the oldest known person to be supplementing the anti-aging vitamins today.

Although many people today are seeking increased longevity, and you can see this in different discussion forums, different areas out there on social media, I even saw where there’s an individual who is wanting to form a longevity party. For the United States, and he invited us to join us to join it. You don’t even know this because Steve, because I haven’t had a chance to tell you, but we were invited to the longevity party of the United States because they are pushing hard for solutions to aging and they’re very, very good at pointing out how atrocious aging actually is and the suffering that it involves and how if it was coming in in the form of a pandemic or something, we would be fighting it with all of our might, but instead we just accept it.

And so they have a lot of good things to say, but what they do not do across the board, these very intelligent and competent people, is they do not take Genesis seriously and, for what in their mind is very good reason. And of course the aging research here has come from specifically and only from the ancient book of Genesis. So we put that out there as, this is super longevity data.

And guess what one person said to me when I entered into a discussion about longevity and hoping to see this in the future of our world? I brought up Genesis. And the comment that came back to me said, “I really hoped this was satire. You can’t be serious.” You know, “please tell me you’re not serious.”

But we are, we are serious. And you know, one other thing quickly that I saw was somebody said, “when do you think we are going to actually have something to extend lifespans?” And another researcher guy replied and said, “I think by 2065.” And the first person said, “are you serious, 2065, I hoped for something a lot sooner than that.” And again, I’m thinking, well, here we are talking about Genesis and we’re also talking about anti-aging vitamins and you can get those right now. You don’t have to wait till 2065.

So we’re coming from an angle that most people don’t want to take seriously, but maybe 2024 will be the year where we will see people begin to understand the treasure that’s given to us there in Genesis and taking the Bible and science seriously and where that can lead.

Steve:
That’s right.

Helen’s View

And that leads us into the second part of Helen’s interview with Eldora. On our last podcast, we had the first part of the interview with Eldora, who is 99 years of age. Eldora is the oldest person that we know of who is supplementing the anti-aging vitamins on a daily basis. And in this second part, she shares more of her life story. And really what’s so neat about this interview is, it’s neat to hear Eldora’s story, but to hear her, to hear her being so cognitive and so able to recall to memory the things that she is saying.

Now, is all of this due to the vitamins? The truth is, we don’t know for sure, but we do know she’s been on them. And we do know she’s showing good signs and it’s just so interesting to hear her talk.

Jennifer:
And of course the anti-aging vitamin drops, which are two newly discovered vitamins and not the same thing as any traditional vitamin, are available to you there on the Biblical Chronologist website. You can order them and have them on your doorstep just in a matter of days.

We have been seeing quite a few orders lately coming through for the four bottle quantity, which is $115.99 for the four bottles, but you do have the option to get 3, 2, or 1 bottle and one bottle is $31.99, and if a husband and wife take that together, it will last 32 days, basically a month and it’s a very wise investment in your health and taking part in what God is doing here in the aging research.

Steve:
We hope you enjoy this interview between Helen and myself with Eldora, 99 years of age.

Helen:
So after living for 99 years, what’s the one piece of advice that you would give people that you had a chance to talk to, either young people in their 20s or 50s or even in their 70s, what message would you like or piece of advice would you feel should be passed on?

Eldora:
Eat properly.

Helen:
Eat properly. Interesting.

Eldora:
Yes, and stay away from sweets. You know, it’s nice to have it once in a while, but as a treat, but not to— I think that has a lot to do with health—and exercise. And I still try and take a walk every day.

Helen:
Wow, good for you.

Eldora:
And even though, if the weather is really, really bad, I just try and take 600 steps in the house, you know, somehow or other.

Helen:
Wow, good for you.

Eldora:
So So that I can say I was walking, you know what I mean? And I do still do some bed exercises or at the side of the bed, and I’m trying to keep my joints—so they don’t get stiff and a lot of it is up to you to to take care of yourself. And then of course I really—just like yesterday, I took my blood pressure and it was 122 / 72 or something like that. And I used to have hypertension, which was like in the 190s. But I was put on some medication and it’s just come down now for a year or two. And I have no problems health-wise.

Helen:
Good.

Eldora:
But it’s all this aging stuff, you know, like vision and hearing. Yeah.

Helen:
When’s the last time you had your eyeglasses strengthened?

Eldora:
Probably a couple years ago. And each time I go, it kind of increases.

Helen:
Your hearing’s pretty good.

Eldora:
Not without hearing aids.

Helen:
Do you have hearing aids in right now?

Eldora:
Oh, yes. Or I wouldn’t be able to hear you.

Helen:
So you were single for quite a long time. How old were you when you got married?

Eldora:
36.

Helen:
36. Tell us a little bit about meeting Henry, I believe his name was.

Eldora:
Okay. Well, This is all in God’s timing and leading. At that time, I was living in Illinois. There was an apostolic Christian meeting of young people in Indiana. It was at… well, it’s in my book. I can’t think of the name right now. But anyway, there was a lady there with a lot of children. And so I went up to meet her, and I said, are all these your children?

And she said, “no, they’re not, but I claim them.” She runs a children’s home. And so she said most of them, all of them all were from the children’s home. And she says, “by the way, um her live-in help is leaving.” So she’s looking for someone to live in and help take care of the kids.

And that and that was it. I thought, now, you know, that’s almost like a mission, you know. And so, I told her that I was interested and I that’s how I got there.

And she had a mother and a dad and they had a little mobile home that was right next to the house. And the dad took care of the garden, wonderful gardener. And the mom did the cooking, most of it. And—

Helen:
This is at the children’s home.

Eldora:
That’s the children’s home now. And every evening before we’d go to bed, there was devotions. And we’d kneel at the side of the bed and have our prayers, you know. And then all of a sudden, one day, there were two little boys that were brought to the home. Their mother had deserted. And their names were Henry and Kevin.

And so Henry must have had the flu or something because I needed to take him in and change him, to the bathroom. And I took him in there and gave him a bath and put on clean clothes. And Josephine, the one that runs the home, she came in and wanted to know how I was doing.

And I said, “well, we’re almost done.” And then Henry must have called me Mommy, but I didn’t understand it because he was just two. And he called me Mommy. And do you know that little boy wouldn’t let anyone take care of him except his “mommy?”

That was me. And so this is how I met the Bondures family. And then I remember Kevin, he’d come home from school and he’d come up to me, put his arms around my waist, look at me. It was so pathetic. He said—I worked in the hospital part-time—He said, “was my mommy in the hospital? Maybe she’s sick and can’t come home.”

Just very, very sad. You know, that’s kind of how I met the Bondures family. And so they were there. So I was at her place for maybe about two or three years. And of course, during that time, I met their father. He would always get them every weekend, very faithful. And he would come, I can still remember, he put newspapers down on the living room floor, and I was working nights at the time, and so I had slept and was coming down the stairs, the open stairway.

And there he was on the floor with the two boys carving out a pumpkin. You know, put eyes in it and everything. And it was just such a beautiful picture that I think that’s when I first, first kind of was interested and thought, you know, a guy like that has to be a nice guy, you know. But anyway, through the years and while we were there, that’s kind of how I happened to get acquainted with Hank.

And one time he called me at the hospital and said, Could I pick you up after work? And I said, well, sure. And so that’s when there was a nice park across the way from the hospital and he drove over there and finally he just, he just started talking.

He says, “you know, how would it be if you and I would get married and make a home for these boys?” And of course, at that time I couldn’t give an answer. But through through praying, a lot of praying and stuff, I could finally say yes. And so I got married when I was 36 years old.

Helen:
And how old was he?

Eldora:
He was two years younger than me.

Helen:
Oh, he was younger than you.

Eldora:
But I had the best kids in the world.

Helen:
Now, there were the two boys, but there was also Julie, right?

Eldora:
There was a Julie, there was also a girl, but she didn’t live with us. She lived in the—she stayed at the children’s—no, she stayed with Josephine. Josephine is the owner of the home.

Helen:
I see.

Eldora:
And went to school there.

Helen:
I see.

Eldora:
And then she finally went to live with one of her uncles.

Helen:
I see. So she never lived with you.

Eldora:
Never lived with us. Just the two boys. And to this day, everybody should have a Henry. Because he is the best and he is most attentive and loving. I just am so fortunate.

Helen:
Yes.

Eldora:
Now see, I give God the the glory for this because he’s the one that led me there. All my life he’s been in the lead and and so anyway, I’ve got a Henry and a Kevin.

Julie passed away about five years ago. She had a lot of issues. She was a diabetic, and she had a lot of complications and had to be on dialysis for three years, twice or two or three times a week.

Finally, she just said, “I can’t do it anymore.” She called me, and I said, “well, Julie, you can’t do that.”

And she says, “I have to,” she says, “’cause I can’t do it anymore.” So the doctors told her that she’d be gone in a couple weeks if she didn’t— if she quit.

Helen:
So she stopped the dialysis.

Eldora:
She stopped the dialysis. And then at her funeral and her—they lived in Ohio. Well, she was married and had a you know daughter. But I guess what I’m trying to say, I wanted to go to the funeral and the visitation. And I had no way, and there weren’t any direct flights. So I called the limousine service. And the limousine service um provided a driver and a car.

And so I I drove there to Lafayette, and when we got in the car, I was informed that he had been a minister for 18 years and that he had a counseling service by appointment, and work part-time for the limousine service.

Well, I’m going to tell you something. That was one of God’s doing again. Most beautiful conversations, had such comfort from him. And it just seemed like that after that trip, that I had been out there, came home, I was just on a different level of my Christianity.

just almost floating, you know what I mean? That God provided again. And so, so all through my life, you know, I just always give God the credit. And I was so glad that I got married and could be a mom and a wife.

Helen:
And you’ve never had any children of your own, naturally.

Eldora:
No.

Helen:
Now I remember one of the things—your husband had already died when I met you. And I remember you sharing some very difficult marriage years with some deep struggles that you went through.

Eldora:
Yeah.

Helen:
Want to talk about that?

Eldora:
But do you know, at the end he got on sobriety and it was just like a different life. Just beautiful.

Helen:
So it was alcohol was one of his problems.

Eldora:
Yeah, alcohol abuse. But you know, when I got married, he was on sobriety for a long time. But he said, “once you take that first drink, you’re back in it.” And but he, toward the end, he wanted help.

And I can still remember him kneeling in front of me, taking a hold of my hands. And he said, “Eldora, help me. I just can’t do it anymore.” He says, “I don’t want to be this way.”

And I said, “well, that’s the first step of wanting to wanting help.” And so he had to be hospitalized three days.

Helen:
And you went with him, didn’t you, to all the AA meetings?

Eldora:
And took him to the doctor. And the doctor said, “my dad was an alcoholic, so don’t waste my time. If you really mean it, I’ll help you.”

And so he was admitted and he was there for three days. I guess when they go off, it’s suddenly like that they convulse. And so he had to be monitored. And so he went to… Alcoholic Anonymous and I went to Al-Anon and he finally kicked the habit.

Just just totally different world.

Helen:
Yeah. No, he was a totally different person.

Eldora:
Yes.

Helen:
And so how many years was he completely sober before he died?

Eldora:
I think it was 11 years before. He died young.

Helen:
Yeah.

Eldora:
Before he was 60.

Helen:
Really?

Eldora:
Before his 60th birthday.

Helen:
And probably not helped by the alcohol problem.

Eldora:
Well, he had heart issues and a circulatory problem. He couldn’t even walk to the mailbox anymore without using his truck or something to get the mail, and it wasn’t that far, you know?

Helen:
So what really impacted me was your faithfulness to him, despite all the things you went through.

Eldora:
Oh, it just seemed like I needed to be there. I never once thought of divorce or anything. I mean, for better or worse.

Helen:
Yes, right.

Steve:
Well, Eldora, you, you look great and you sound great. I mean you’re we’ve asked you a bunch of questions here today and we’ve been talking for a while and you’re… you’re answering them all right off the right off the bat.

And I know we talked a little bit about aging and of course and aging is terrible thing. We all know that, I mean, you know it better than anybody sitting here today. There’s a lot of suffering involved in it. And Dr. Aardsma, He’s been fighting this battle against aging for a long time now, and Helen. And you are a very big encouragement to all of us in this. You’ve been on the vitamins. Of course we are with you. We give glory to God as well, but, we’re all still trying to figure this out, you know, trying to understand how is this helping us, how you know, what is it doing in people’s bodies and and we’re taking great encouragement from you today and we appreciate the interview that you’re doing as well as you are and that you’re able to answer these questions.

And I know you’re a great encouragement to to Dr. Aardsma, Gerald and Helen today and this has been a blessing. This has been good.

Helen:
And we’re going to come and celebrate for your 100th birthday.

Eldora:
Oh, absolutely! Absolutely.

Helen:
Don’t forget to put us on the invitation list. We’ll be there, and I bet the Halls will be there too.

Eldora:
Well, I’m going to tell you something. My doctor said that if I turn 100, that the staff and he are coming over to help me celebrate.

Helen:
Well, it sounds like a grand party.

Eldora:
It’s about 12 miles. That’s where he is.

Helen:
Well, that’s great.

Steve:
I’m planning on your 110th birthday party. We’ll be there for that one.

Eldora:
What’d you say?

Steve:
Your 110th birthday party.

Eldora:
Oh, no, no, I don’t think so.

Steve:
We’re gonna plan ahead.

Eldora:
But you know, basically, that’s true. I’m not… I’m fine. But I do watch what I eat. I eat wholesome. So that’s what I do.

Helen:
Well, it’s been great to see you and I’m really glad you came to visit and thanks for taking the time for this interview. It’s been really special and we love you bunches.

Eldora:
And you don’t know how, you know, you guys come to mind many, many times. You were my family when I lived here and that just meant so much to me.

Helen:
So many memories.

Steve:
Well, thank you so much. Thank you, Eldora. This has been very good.

Closing Comments

Jennifer:
As we enter into the Easter season, we all have something to celebrate, from the very youngest to the most elderly among us and everybody in between. It is the most joyful time of the year for the Christian as we celebrate the resurrected, ascended, and reigning Christ of glory.

Steve:
Now, Jen, you’ve got to reveal to us who the young man was that you were talking about at the beginning of the podcast.

Jennifer:
Oh, yes. OK, we almost forgot. We must deliver on our promises. OK, so who was the boy who said, “what do you mean the waters parted? That’s not possible.”

It was Elon Musk.

Steve:
Elon Musk.

Jennifer:
I’ve been reading his biography, which was released, I believe, last year by Walter Isaacson. And I have been very fascinated to learn about Elon Musk’s life. But when he rejected the Bible, he read science fiction instead. And Nietzsche and other philosophers. And he reached in his teen years an existential crisis of saying the laws of physics could not explain to me the why of the universe and how I wish that he hadn’t been turned away by his questions and he could have read the Bible in addition to the other things and found out more of the why of the universe.

But that’s who it was. Elon Musk.

Steve:
We need the Elon Musks of our world. And yes, we need them to understand the truth of Christianity and the truth of the Bible.

Jennifer:
Yes, we do.

Steve:
And ask those good questions. And we have answers for them.

Jennifer:
And help answer more questions and help continue to take dominion of this world for the glory of God.

Steve:
Yes. Well, until next time, may your Easter celebrations be filled with joy in this Easter season and this spring season.

Jennifer:
We will see you next month as we continue on real science, real Bible, real history, real world.