The Past and Future of Egypt

Egypt has zoomed into daily front-page news covering demonstrations, violence and American-Egyptian relationships. Bible students are caught unawares as most end-time prophetic teaching centers on areas of the world elsewhere than Egypt.

Everyone is focused on Egypt politically, but few are aware of Egypt prophetically. Egypt is mentioned in 32 books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, with 250 Old Testament prophetic verses written of Egypt’s future. Entire chapters refer to Egypt’s fate, verses which are not fulfilled to date but may be fulfilled shortly.

Centuries of dynasties gave us the pyramids, the Sphinx, astounding culture and complex paganism. But biblical references to Egypt are many and varied. Looking back in Bible history, Egypt is significant for multiple reasons:

• Abraham traveled there in time of famine (Gen. 12:10)

• Its northern border was a benchmark for the southern border of Israel’s land grant (Gen. 15:18)

• Joseph was sold into slavery, rose to fame and power and delivered his family there (Gen. 37-50)

• Moses was born there and led his people out in the Exodus (Ex. 1-15)

• Jeroboam took refuge there (I Kings 11:40)

• Some Israelites took refuge there to escape the Babylonians (Jeremiah 42)

• Christ was given refuge there as a baby (Matt2:13-15)

Largely ignored and enigmatic prophecies concerning Egypt’s future are found in Isaiah 19 and Ezekiel 29-32.

Isaiah 19 records that the Egyptians will fight each other, a cruel lord and fierce king will rule over them, top political advice turns out to be “stupid,” the Nile dries up, vegetation along its banks suffers, and the fishing and textile industries will be damaged. Eventually there will be a great national revival with Israel, Assyria and Egypt in praise of the Lord.

Ezekiel 29 & 30 forecast marine creatures thrown up on the banks of the Nile, a forty-year deportation and then a return. Egypt becomes desolate among other desolate countries, a great fire is set in Egypt, and the rivers are dried up.

For centuries, these prophecies were so improbable that Bible students either consigned them to a figurative interpretation or ignored them altogether. Only in our recent age of technology and more recently in the current strife do we find some movement toward literal fulfillment.

Until the Aswan Dam with it huge Nile River impoundment in Lake Nasser could we observe any possibility of this. The Russians, against the better engineering judgement of the US who refused to build the dam, took a mortgage on the Egyptian cotton industry and constructed the dam. It now appears that the rulers' judgement was ill advised.

The Aswan Dam is killing Egypt by eliminating the annual floods that brought free natural fertilizer, rodent control and rinsing the soil of excess salinity. The lack of river silt means it runs faster, eroding shoreline and bridge supports. Altered wave patterns in the eastern Mediterranean are eroding delta farmland and affecting the fish and shrimp harvests. Silt is building up in the lake causing pressure behind the dam.

Nuclear threats now abound in the Middle East, and recent news releases note that Egypt has had its own nuclear developmental program for twenty years. A “fire set in Egypt” may refer to a nuclear explosion. If that happened to include the Aswan Dam, it would release a radioactive flood of waters to throw dead fish on the banks and make the land uninhabitable. Enemies of Egypt may make such an attack, and it was even once suggested that the Dam be blown to restore the Nile to its previous state.

The recent civil strife surely sounds like “Egyptians set against Egyptians” in fulfillment of Isaiah 19:2. Christ repeated this prophetic theme speaking of “nation against nation” or ethnic groups against each other in Luke 21:10.

The best hope in the prophecies regarding Egypt is in Isaiah 19:19-25:

In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty one, and He will deliver them. Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.

In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

A bad day is at hand for Egypt, but a better day is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ rules all nations from Jerusalem in the blessed Kingdom age and Arabs and Jews will worship Jehovah together. “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The Lord is one,’ And His name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

Dave Virkler