From The Garden To Goshen

By: James Robinson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In “From the Garden to Goshen,” we will look at the people who made life-changing decisions that would change not only their lives but the lives of their families, tribes, nations, and eventually the whole world. God chose one man by the name of Abram to be the person who would lead his family, which would become his tribe, which would become a nation, which would provide the savior of the world. So the journey begins.
Where does the journey begin? Where did the journey of the Israelites begin? Was it when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt? Was it when God used Joseph to make a way for his family to save themselves from the famine and find a home in Egypt? Was it when Jacob, at a place he named Bethel, made his commitment to God? Was it when Abram gathered up his family and left Haran? Was it when God sent the flood? Or was it when God banished the sinful Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? When did the journey of God’s people begin?

All of these events could be a beginning. Was one event more important than the other? Would any of the other events mentioned have happened without the fall of man in the garden? The answer is, of course not. God has a plan! We do not always recognize God’s plan. But the all-knowing God has a plan.

From the very beginning, God had a plan for the redemption of the world, and through one chosen individual and his descendants, God would provide salvation for the entire world. Salvation has been provided for all of us. All we have to do is accept it. As we will see, there were many times in the history of the chosen people of God when things looked bleak. Where bad decisions were made. Where God could have just abandoned these individuals or the group as a whole, yet He did not. He knew they would fail Him and follow the nature of Adam. But God has a plan.

First, we will look at where I come up with the timeline used to document the dates given to the events of Genesis. (Chart A) shows the timeline from Adam to Moses. Many Bible scholars claim the beginning date as the date of creation. I will explain why I believe this date is the date Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Bible does not give us a date for creation, but it does give us a timeline starting with the fall of man.

Where did I come up with the dates used in this book? The first source used to calculate the dates of biblical events is the Bible itself. Most people seem to want to skim over genealogy portions of the Scriptures, believing there is little relevance to their Christian walk. But in my case, at a time when I was struggling with my faith, the genealogies made me curious as to how accurate these numbers really were. This is when I began to study and document the dates, ages, and other time-related numbers in the Bible.

The dates of the timelines and charts you will see in “From the Garden to Goshen” have, in most cases, been worked out by me in my study of these numbers from the Bible. I have compared my dates and timelines with other sources and have made an occasional correction to my timelines over the years. My biggest error was in assuming Abraham was Terah's eldest son. I will explain how the Bible lets us know this was not the situation later in the book. In fact, Abraham was the youngest son of Terah.

One of my favorite sources has been the book “The Chronology of the Old Testament” by Dr. Floyd Jones. I have been able to make a few adjustments and fill in a few holes using his timelines. Most of the time, his numbers have validated my numbers and vice versa. I have actually found one minor error in his timeline. I believe he is one year off on the birth and death dates of Sarah. This does not affect any other timelines...