by David Brickner…

We find ourselves riveted to news of the Middle East and this time it’s not because of trouble between Israelis and Palestinians. This time, all eyes are on Egypt.

Chaos throughout the country has captivated attention all over the world. As we watch and wonder at the success of the protesters and the toppling of a regime, we can see the hopeful faces of the Egyptian people, many of whom are just seeking a better life for themselves and their families. At the same time, fears that all this might result in the ascendancy of an extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism may be well founded. What would that mean for Israel and the prospects for peace in the Middle East?

How does Egypt factor into our understanding of Scripture and God’s plans for the future? How are followers of Jesus to understand what is happening there now?

Egypt is an unquestioningly important nation that figures prominently in God’s plan of salvation—past, present and future. Most of the over 500 Bible references to Egypt are to remind the Jewish people of God’s great deliverance of Israel as recorded in the book of Exodus. But there are other significant references.

For the people of Israel, Egypt has been a place of blessing and curse, an incubator of protection as well as a crucible of persecution.

The very first scriptural reference finds our father Abraham going to Egypt to escape the ravages of famine (Genesis 12:10).

Ironically, another such famine led to the promotion of the Jew, Joseph, to the second highest rank of Egypt’s government…

Of course this “safe haven” changed radically with the ominous ascendance of “a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8)..

…Israel’s deliverance from slavery came in the context of God’s judgment on Egypt. Israel’s grief and mourning over all the newborn boys Pharaoh had condemned to death was matched by the horrible suffering Egyptian families endured when their firstborn sons died as a result of the tenth plague.

Blessing and curse, protection and persecution, trouble and deliverance seem always to go hand in hand when God is doing His work of saving and judging people. So Egypt became more than a place where these things happened; it became a symbol of these mighty works of the Lord. It is a place of refuge and safety, and also a house of bondage from which deliverance will come.

The Gospel of Matthew tells how the Lord appeared to another Joseph in a dream, centuries later. It was Joseph, the husband of Miriam (Mary), who was warned to flee to Egypt in order to protect the child Y’shua from the murderous plans of King Herod…

Since the days when Messiah walked this earth, the peoples of Israel and Egypt have had a tenuous relationship with one another at best. The blessing and curse motif has continued; at times, Egypt has been a place of safety and security for Jews. Large communities of Jewish people have lived and prospered in Egypt. During the Middle Ages, for example, Jewish people were suffering greatly in Europe. Egypt became the incubator for what could be called a golden age for the Jewish people of Egypt—a safe haven to such great Jewish leaders as Maimonides and Judah ha Levi.

In the early twentieth century nearly 100,000 Jews were prospering in Egypt. Now fewer than one hundred are estimated to live there. Once again, the safe haven became a place of horrible persecution and death.

Read the full article by David Brickner.

See photo-journalist Dave Bartruff’s Still Burning for God In Egypt’s Sinai Wilderness