Egypt in the Bible

One of the most fascinating things about Egypt is it's history, and you can not discount the fact, that Egypt is one of the most frequently named places in the Bible. Two of the most famous Bible characters associated with Egypt are Moses and Joseph, but the mentioning of Egypt spans from Genesis to the Gospels, starting with Abraham and going to Jesus.

One of the earliest mentionings of Egypt was in Genesis 12:10 which says "And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land." This probably meant that Egypt was prosperous and had plenty of food. Egypt was a very rich nation. All one has to do is go to the Cairo Museum and see all of the artifacts that were made of pure gold to know that.

The second significant thing that took place was the incident of Joseph. Joseph was the favorite son of his father, and because of this, his brothers were jealous and sold him to a caravan on their way to Egypt. If you know the story, you know that Joseph worked for a very important man in Egypt. Later he was falsely accused of attacking that man's wife and put in prison. But the interesting thing is, is that all of this was in God's plan. Later in the story, Joseph helped the Pharoah out, and because of this, he was promoted to 2nd in the kingdom.

The third, and probably most famous happenings in Egypt that were mentioned in the Bible was the mentioning of Moses and his life. There are so many things that happened to Moses it would take too long to retell his whole story here, but it is fascinating that there are certain spots one can visit here that is associated with Moses. There is Mt. Sinai, where God gave Moses the 10 commandments. This Mt. is a popular tourist attraction. People go there, climb the mountain and spend the night there. The point is to wake up and watch the sunset. I have yet to do this, but it is definately on my "to do" list. Another thing associated with Moses and the Bible is the Nile River. As a baby, Moses was put in a basket and floated down the Nile, and then there was the later instance where Moses turned the Nile into blood. I could go on and on about Moses, but maybe I'll save that for a later date.

Then, there was the instance Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus fled to Egypt. God told Joseph to take his family and "flee to Egypt" because the king at that time wanted to have baby Jesus killed. In this situation, Egypt was seen as a place of safety, but Joseph, Mary and Jesus were not relying on the Egyptians for their safety, they were relying on God. There is a tourist spot here called "The Virgin Mary's tree". I have not been there, but I do plan on visiting there some day and will post a blog about it. It is "supposedly" a place where Jesus and his family stopped for rest and shade. Who really knows if this is true or not, but it is possible.

Some of you know this about me, but for those of you who don't, I am a born-again Christian. I believe God guided us to this special place, and He has specific purposes for us being here. He has blessed us so much to have given us this opportunity and I hope and pray that his purposes will be fulfilled in our lives.

Like I said before, there is so much more that can be mentioned on this subject, and probably in the future I will do more posts on these individual characters and events, but for now I will just let you sit back and dream with me of those fascinating events that took place here, in Egypt, the place that I am so blessed to live.