March 3, 2013 – Ezekiel 29

Egypt is such an interesting character in the Bible. It plays such an important role in world civilization, at least that is what I remember from world history, yet it is only a supporting role character through much of the Bible. The only main role it has is with Moses and the Exodus, but that part is not found in Egyptian history. (I wrote about that when we were going through Exodus and that the episode with Moses was a very short time frame and not something the Egyptians would be proud of so it is not surprising we do not see it in their history.)

I thought it was particularly interesting how their power is connected to the Nile. This does make sense since all early civilizations are tied to the rivers they formed on. The Nile is such an important part of Egypt, but the scripture seems to take it a step beyond importance and illudes that the Nile is the source of Egypt’s strength. That is where God attacks them when He is going to bring them down. When you think about that, it makes you curious about Moses and one of his first acts was to turn the Nile into blood. If the Nile is Egypt’s strength, you would think that would have either done the trick or been a later act. Perhaps God was showing how stubborn Pharaoh was going to be because he wouldn’t back down even when the Nile, the source of their power, was turned to blood.