Tag: Egypt

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The Prophetic Puzzle.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

”After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If you look at all the pieces of prophecy spoken about the Messiah, hundreds of years earlier, you begin to understand the amazingly complicated movement it took to get all the key figures in place to fulfill every single promise made by God.

Jesus was from Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, but came out of Egypt? How was this all supposed to work? At one point, Jesus was just a baby in womb, a newborn in Bethlehem and a toddler in Egypt, how did the God-child get around? Jesus even made a quick trip to Jerusalem at 8 days old, to fulfill that prophecy as well and meet two very special people that God promised would see the messiah, Simeon and Anna.

It is a wonder to behold that God carefully orchestrated Joseph, Mary and Jesus to be exactly where they should be, exactly when they were supposed to be there! These are just a small grouping of miracles that took place. I have already commented about Jesus coming from a sordid family in the past. And, I’ve already commented about how difficult it was on Mary and his foster dad, Joseph, who were already poor and from a small village known as Pitville (Nazareth was strangely known for lots of holes in the ground). Jesus was born into a brand new loving environment, but it was not comfortable and certainly not what would be expected for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! But remember the extraordinary places Jesus had to be at, timed perfectly!

“Flee to Egypt,” the angel told Joseph! And they did. After Herod died, the family would return to Nazareth, where Jesus’ journey would lead him to fulfill every single prophecy, many say at least 300 of them! What are the odds of that? I read that just fulfilling 8 of them is 1 in 10 to the 17th power or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000! I don’t get super excited about the incredible odds, I get excited about God telling us what He will do to save us and Him following through with every single one of those promises! He is faithful and true! I can absolutely trust Him because He has proven His trustworthiness.

Prayer

​Dad,
Honestly, I trusted you well before I knew any of these stories. I believed before I knew you had a perfect track record since the beginning of time. I committed my life, ALL OF IT, to you because you offered me something no one else could give. A life! A life different from the one I saw played out in my broken family connections. One different than the chaos, fear and sadness that surrounded me as a child. You offered me hope – and I believed You. My life is a miracle of your grace. The odds of me being anything other than what my family origin story would have predicted are outrageous. But You changed all that. All these promises you’ve kept are amazing, but I only needed one promise kept – that you would be my Father and I would be adopted into Your family. The promise You kept. Thank You.

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Joseph knew.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this. He said, “God will certainly come to help you. When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭13‬:‭19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Joseph lived a very long and productive life! He held his viceroy position in Egypt for 80 years and lived to 110 years old. But he knew Egypt wasn’t his final resting place. Moses records, ““Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.”

“So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭50‬:‭24‬-‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬. Jewish historians tell us the Egyptians, at the time of Joseph’s death, ALSO knew that the Jews would not stay in their land forever. However, they did not want Joseph’s family to take their beloved leader out of Egypt, when the people would finally leave.

To guarantee the Jews could NOT honor Joseph’s solemn request, one of the stories is the Egyptians put Joseph’s body in lead casket and sunk his remains in the deepest part of the Nile river. Even more mysteriously wild is the story that Moses went to one of Joseph’s long-living nieces, Serach, and asked her where they had sunk the casket. Moses, supposedly went to the edge of the riverbank and called out, “Joseph, Joseph – present yourself or release us from our oath!” Of corse this is all in Jewish folklore and not in the Bible at all. But it is fascinating to think that both the Egyptians and Joseph knew Israel would be moving on.

Jewish history tells us that it was 139 years later that Joseph’s bones would be taken with them and be buried in an odd, full-circle, final resting place. In Joshua 24:32, it is recorded that they bought a piece of land in Shechem, “The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought along with them when they left Egypt, were buried at Shechem, in the plot of land Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor for 100 pieces of silver. This land was located in the territory allotted to the descendants of Joseph.” Why is that so strange? The Jewish Talmud says, “It was from Shechem that they [the brothers] stole him, and it was to Shechem that he was returned.” And continues, “Remember that when Joseph was sold as a slave by his own brothers and taken away from his dear father, it was in Shechem. Bringing him back to this site was an act of closure and historical justice.”

Are you kidding me? That’s so amazing! What’s the takeaway in all this? God is really into keeping His word and the level of detail spanning thousands of years is unfathomable! Everything, and I mean everything, is not just for a specific reason, it is also accurately timed and supernaturally placed to defy the possibility of anything being a coincidence. Everything God does is providentially perfect. The sooner we wrap our brains around that the faster we understand how critical it is that we not only trust God but in total faith believe Him at every second of every day.

Prayer

Dad,
Wow. Just wow. I am always so impressed by the level of detail and perfection that you carry out your will and your ways! No wonder Isaiah said your thoughts and your ways are so far above ours! It is so amazing to see this truth in history, yet so difficult for me to see them in both the present and the future. How can I doubt when there is such consistent evidence of your patient faithfulness in all of our human history? I have faith, but I always seem to need more when facing a dilemma or decision. Thank you for your grace as I grow in that faith.

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That death would pass over.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal.” Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Like a scene right out of modern day horror movies, God tells His people, in these very ancient days, how to avoid the Angel of Death.

This one night, the Angel would makes its way through about 5 million people. Egypt’s population at the time was about 3 million and Israel had about 2 million. That’s a little more than the population of Los Angeles. Imagine the terror of a cataclysmic event sweeping from the foothills to the Orange Curtain when only and every and first born male (animals included), young or old, would be killed. This makes the Final Destination franchise look like a Saturday morning cartoon comparatively.

It is estimated that at least a half a million people did not wake up the next day. Lesson to be learned, don’t mess with God. When God asks a world leader to let his people go and warns them multiple times, showing them unfathomable miraculous power to carry out His plans – DO IT. Alternatively, when God warns His own to prepare (in great detail) and avoid death – DO IT. Both secular and sacred were adequately warned and given time to decide. Both secular and sacred would either heed and be spared or stubbornly deny and die. It was likely that some Egyptians close to the Israelites, listened and also participated in putting the Angel avoiding marks on their doorposts!

Is God cruel or our we just that stubborn? God is not cruel, but He is just, and always right. Here’s the overarching lesson for humankind. This absolutely true story stands as a global warning for all time.

Surprisingly Egypt as a country survived and still exists today, probably as a reminder to all of earth’s inhabitants. Is Egypt the superpower it was then? Does it still host a Pharaoh, who is the most powerful man in the entire region? No and no. It’s a very poor, broken country still plagued by death. Now, right alongside the wonders of ancient pyramids and the grand, but filthy Nile River there is danger, corruption and millions in slavery to its own poverty. God, in human flesh, actually lived in the country for a few years as and infant, yet still the secular, political powers that be will NOT bend a knee to the creator.

However, amidst the rancid smells of refuse and feces, under the oppressive rule of Islam (90%), there is a small but growing redeemed people of God in the country. The country no longer needs a death angel to remind them of their demise. Every single day poverty and disease does that. Thankfully things are improving for the ancient country of Egypt. One difficult data point – infant mortality, was peaking at 385 deaths per thousand births in 1955. Now, since 2020 that number has been lowered to only 20 deaths per a thousand births. One of the coolest opportunities to be a part of is our own SoCal Assemblies of God “Gateway Project.” One of the efforts in that project is to bring clean water via a simple water filter to the poorest parts of the nation. Clean water equals health!

Prayer

Dad,
So remarkable that one man, one ancient ruler could make a decision to try to annihilate an entire race by murdering their children. One child, through the disobedient intervention of his mother not only survived, but was raised by the same maniac who ordered his death. And that same child grew up to challenge the next ruler of that nation to set your people, Israel, free. And in that place of power, this new Pharaoh would make the decision that would cost the death of a half a million of his own people. What a stunning turn of events in history! Today, death still comes for all of us at some point. And today, like ancient days, you have provided a way of escape through Jesus. Thank you for the sign that hangs above my life and my family. We have the marks of Jesus telling the final death to passover, allowing us to live with you forever.