A Chapter of History

A Chapter of History

1991 5-6 May-June 14 A Chapter of History (357) When the Prophet Joseph called his family to Egypt, their number was put at 67, according to the Bible. (This number does not include the girls married into Jacob’s family.) About 500 years after the death of Joseph, the Prophet Moses appeared on the scene. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, their numbers ran into several lakhs. We know from the Bible that in the second year of their migration, Moses conducted a census in the Sinai Desert. The number of able-bodied men listed in this census totaled 603,550. This means that counting all the men and women, young and old, they must, taken all together, have numbered at least two million.

It is obvious that a family of 67 people could not increase at this very high rate just by the natural process of birth from one generation to the next. This extraordinary increase in their numbers was certainly due to the missionary work carried out by the Israelites. Those Egyptians who converted evidently came under the influence of their culture as well, for when the Israelites left Egypt, these brothers in religion went along with them. The Bible describes these neo-converts as ‘mixed multitude’. (Exodus 12:38)

It is common knowledge that the Israelites in Egypt were in a state of total subjugation, being employed by the Egyptians as daily wagers and slaves. While the Copts enjoyed an honourable position in society, the Israelites were looked down upon; they were not even worth mentioning. Even so, a number of Copts came under the influence of the Israelites’ religion, forsaking their own religion in order to enter the fold of Moses.

This shows that the true religion is possessed of the greatest of all powers. It can thus conquer people’s hearts, even when there does not seem to be the remotest possibility of its being able to do so.

The longing for the religion of God is present in human nature itself; and this is religion’s real power. The religion of God enters people’s hearts by virtue of its own strength, and not because of the national, communal or material strength of the believers’ group.