Tag Archives: Egypt

The pattern of biblical judgment

05 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in Idolatry

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Biblical judgment follows a consistent pattern: we judged on the basis of our idol 

Consider the plagues of Egypt. The Pharaoh orders the death of infant boys; one by one they are cast into the river, the Nile, that great god of Egypt. The Nile brings life in the desert: their water, their food, their safety are all bound up in that great god.

But when God sets his eyes upon Egypt, it is the Nile that fails. The blood of the boys wells and the river is blood. The life of Egypt has become a gushing artery of death. The Nile has been killed and kills in turn.

The sun was a great god, the source of life. And so, God in his turns, kills the sun. The sky grows dark at day.

The Pharaoh himself is the issue of the sun. The Pharaoh’s firstborn boy is likewise a god and the son of a god. Rather than turn their worship to the true Creator, the Egyptians gave their praise to the boy in his turn.

And so the Pharaoh who brought death to the son of his slaves finds death in his own home. 

There is a pattern here, the idol matches the judgment. One the type, the other the antitype. 

Our idols fail precisely in their promise. They promise life, but deliver death. 

The judgment need not be the end. When God first struck the Nile, the plea was for Egypt to turn. When God brought night and day, the proof was the Sun was no god. But persistence in rebellion is its own curse. And finally, the child of a lie, the promise which could not deliver, the god who is no God will fail. 

Hebrew Alphabet in Egypt in 1874 B.C.

25 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in Apologetics, Uncategorized

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Here’s where to read it

“Alphabetic inscriptions on an ancient stone slab (left) have been identified by a researcher as Hebrew and translated. A drawing of the slab’s inscriptions (right) shows early Hebrew letters next to corresponding modern Hebrew letters (green). Inscriptions along the left edge of the slab translate as “The one having been elevated is weary to forget.” Inscriptions across the top translate as “The overseer of minerals, Ahisemach.””

 

And here is someone contesting the finding.

To make the people of God comfortable in their captivity

16 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by in Ecclesiology, Os Guinness

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Modernity, like the empire of Egypt that Moses faced, is so massive and strong that nothing short of the power of the true gospel can prevail over it. So any movement that steps forward to champion Christian renewal in the setting of modernity soon discovers that it confronts the ultimate challenge: modernity’s exposure of its character and strength. Is it the genuine article or not? This fateful exposure by modernity of the megachurch movement’s “new ground” is the nub of the argument of this book. In short, the argument is that the megachurch movement is flirting dangerously with modernity.

Or, more prosaically, that church growth on the basis of the church-growth movement’s “new ground” is no answer to the crisis of modernity because the use of the “new ground” itself is an uncritical accommodation to modernity. Far from leading to an exodus, modern church growth often uses the ideology and tools of Egypt to make the life of the people of God more comfortable in captivity.

Guinness, Os (1993-08-01). Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity (Hourglass Books) (Kindle Locations 199-206). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

An Ancient Plea for Judgment Day

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Old Testament Background

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This is a text written on a tomb from the 6th Dynasty Egypt (2345-2181 B.C.). The supplicant lists out his moral deeds, his care for the weak, his mercy & kindness, apparently as a sort of plea for Judgment Day. The text makes sense in light Paul’s argument in Romans 2:

Romans 2:12–16 (ESV)

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

INSCRIPTION OF NEFER-SESHEM-RE CALLED SHESHI:

(1) I have come from my town,
I have descended from my nome,
I have done justice for its lord,
I have satisfied him with what he loves.
I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
(2) I judged between two so as to content them,
I rescued the weak from one stronger than he
As much as was in my power.
I gave bread to the hungry, clothes 〈 to the naked 〉,
I brought the boatless to land.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who lacked one.
I respected my father, I pleased my mother.
I raised their children.
So says he (4) whose nickname is Sheshi.

STE
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 17.

A Sphinx Found in Canaan

09 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Exodus, OT Background

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A granite sphinx dedicated to Mycerinus, the ruler of Egypt in about 2500 BC has been uncovered in Tel Hazor, in Galilee:

City in northern Palestine in the territory of Naphtali, called “head of all those kingdoms (of Canaan)” in Joshua 11:10 and Asher in Tobit 1:2. Located 5 miles southwest of Lake Huleh and 10 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, it is known as Tell el-Qedah (or Tell Waggas) today. At its peak it numbered 40,000 inhabitants and was by far the largest Canaanite city in area and population. It was a great commercial center on the trade routes between Egypt and Babylon.

Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 934. Photographs and a description of Tel Hazor can be found here: http://www.bibleplaces.com/hazor.htm).  The location is mentioned in Joshua 11:10, “And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. ”

Amnon Ben Tor, Professor at Hebrew University gave some possible scenarios as to how  the discusses the possible sphinx wound up so far away from home.  (A friend pursuing a ThD in OT suggested a Babylonian soldier growing tired of his plunder on the way back from sacking Eygpt: ‘It would have made pretty cool lawn ornament…I’m going with Babylonian soldier who got tired of carrying it, or by the time he got to Israel, he had heard back from his wife saying “thanks for the thought, but Sphinx’ are no longer in vogue in Babylon”‘).

The article ends with this hopeful bit:

To Ben-Tor, however, the true coveted find would be archives buried somewhere on Tel Hazor that could serve as an inventory to the ancient city’s content.

“I know there are two archives,” he said. “We already have 18 documents from two periods, the 17th and 14th century BC. If I found those archives, people would come running here.”

Unique Egyptian sphinx unearthed in north Israel – FRANCE 24

Photo of Tel Hazor:

I spoke truly, I did right

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Ecclesiastes, OT Background

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This inscription was found a tomb of the 6th Dynasty in Egypt (2300-2100 BC). It is interesting in that shows a list of good works performed in his lifetime. The list is interesting for a few reasons. First, it is interesting that he makes the list at all. Human beings wished to thought to performed appropriately in the opinion of other humans — and this inscription being on a tomb, in the eyes of some god who judge. We are incorrigible in our desire to be found right (there is the matter of the rare one who has no conscience (or at least denies one) of any sort, which is for a different time). This is his opening argument on Judgment Day:

6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

Romans 2:6-8.

Second, the list is interesting in how similar it might be when given by one alive today. I could imagine a good, moral man making the same type of profession. He tells the truth. He helped those in need. He respected his family.

Third, the list is interesting in how mundane and stereotyped it seemed. He seems to have disappeared behind the list of expected good works — it makes me wonder if actually did anything of note. Did he really spend his day looking for poor, boatless people on the Nile?

I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
(2) I judged between two so as to content them,
I rescued the weak from one stronger than he
As much as was in my power. [Ecclesiastes 4:1-3]
I gave bread to the hungry, clothes 〈 to the naked 〉,
I brought the boatless to land.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who lacked one.
I respected my father, I pleased my mother.
I raised their children.
So says he (4) whose nickname is Sheshi.

You Shall Not Do as They Do

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Leviticus, Romans

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Leviticus 19:

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God.
3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God.
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

The circumstances and temptations have changed, but the desire to be conformed to the world in which we live is the same:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2.
To prevent conformity which must keep our bearings. In Leviticus, the Lord reminds them from where they came and where he is leading them. The same principle applies today. We have been rescued from ignorance and live in the hope of glory:

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16. We must live like where we are going. Holiness is a life fit for eternity. We must live like ransomed people:

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:17-21.