The Bible conveniently provides a direct way of making the connection from the period of the United Kingdom back to the Exodus because (I Kings 6.1) says that Solomon’s 4^th year, the year when he began Temple construction, was also the 480^th year after the Hebrews had made their Exodus out of Egypt. Therefore, we can make the following calculation.

967/66 BC (Solomon’s 4^th year) + 479 years = 1446/45 BC (year of the Exodus)
(goes back to the first year)

It is acknowledged that there is much controversy associated with such a literal interpretation on the grounds that the result seems to conflict with the time periods given in the book of Judges and with the Generally Accepted Date (GAD) for the Exodus by a consensus of archaeologists. However, the Bible will be taken at face value at this point, anticipating a resolution of the Judges issue shortly that gives an end result appearing to be more defensible than any other.

This alleged "480 year" time actually spans two major periods in the history of Israel. First, there was the Exodus, the giving of the Law, then 40 years of wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai. Second, there was the entrance into the promised Land and a long Tribal period before the United Kingdom began. We need to look at each of these time frames in more detail.

The period of the Exodus and wilderness wandering that followed spans only 40 years, but it is extremely important for an understanding of the Bible. The book of Genesis covers many thousands of years from the creation of mankind, but the next four books, i.e. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are mostly devoted to this brief 40 year span of time.

The story of the Exodus is the story of the man Moses. It began when he was 80 years old (Exodus 7.7). It followed a series of plagues against Egypt leading up to the Exodus, and amounting to judgements by God against that nation. The final plague culminated with the death of all the Egyptian firstborn (Exodus 12.29-30). The outgoing of the Hebrew people then occurred on Passover in the first Levitical month of Nisan (Exodus 12.2).

God brought them miraculously across the Red Sea as they escaped from Egypt. They apparently traveled in a Southeasterly direction through the desert, arriving at Mount Sinai in the third Levitical month of Sivan (Exodus 19.1). It was at that location that Moses was given the Ten Commandments along with 603 other Statutes and Commandments prescribing the Law (Exodus 19-24).

The wilderness Tabernacle was built and furnished at Mount Sinai in the months that followed (Exodus 25-40), along with duties for the Priesthood, a sacrificial system for the people, special Set Season times, and restrictions on the use of the Promised Land they were to inherit (Leviticus 1-27).

They pulled up stakes leaving Mount Sinai on Iyar 20, the second month of the Levitical year, in the second year of the Exodus. By then, they had completed the organization of the Twelve Tribes for their journey to the Promised Land and received detailed instructions regarding administrative duties pertinent to the Law and the Priesthood, (Numbers 10.11).

They arrived in a complaining attitude at Kadesh Barnea after traveling a distance of about 175 miles, and camped near the southern border of the Land. It was the time of the summer harvest (Numbers 13.26-27). Since the Land produces its bounty during the third Levitical month with a celebration on Sivan 6, the trip from Mount Sinai must have taken on the order of 30-60 days.

(Numbers 13-14) gives an account of twelve Hebrew leaders, sent to reconnoiter the Land, their negative report to the people when they returned, and the people’s refusal to enter their promised inheritance. Only two of the leaders, Joshua and Caleb, spoke positively but the people rejected it in favor of the "majority report".

The next several chapters of the book of Numbers gives an account of the remainder of a 40 year period, wandering in the Sinai wilderness (Numbers 15-20). Near the end of that time, they made a circuitous trek around the Eastern side of the Dead Sea before confronting several Gentile kings in that region (Numbers 21-36).

Deuteronomy may be regarded as a "Doorway Book", written as the Hebrews stood at the threshold of the Promised Land. In the book, Moses looked retrospectively back to their 40 years of wandering in rebellion and unbelief (Deuteronomy 1-11.7), then prospectively to the time when they would inhabit the Land (Deuteronomy 11.8-33).

On the basis of the starting year for the Exodus, and from the information contained in the above relevant Scriptures, the following calendar may be developed.

REDEMPTIVE PLAN