The houses of the gods of Egypt (Jer 43:12, 13)
May the Lord God help me as I pen this post to try and bring out to you in a very clear fashion the reality of the idolatry that I saw in the land of the Pharoahs during my recent trip to Egypt.
I don't know where to begin in order to describe what I saw. I will retrace my steps and try to describe what I saw and what went on in my mind as I compared all the ruins with the biblical prophecies and God's word in relation to Egypt and the gods of the Egyptians. I am sure I will skip a few things here and there but please bear with me. My trip began in Cairo where we had a business meeting, but on the Saturday that preceded, my colleagues who had been to Egypt for the first time decided they wanted to see the pyramids of Giza. I will try to upload a picture in another post. I have been to the pyramids three times now but everytime I see them I discover something new about them. If you have any idea at all of the geometrical or astronomical design of the pyramid of Giza you will be aware that it was built in the centre of the earth, to align with a certain configuration of the stars, and that the circumference of the pyramid compares to the nth degree to the circumference of the earth itself. The inside of the pyramid is design to reflect an upward path called in the Egyptian book of the dead "the passion of the Christ" (believe it or not). The passion of the christ leads to an uppper chamber called the queen's chamber (made of pink stone) that also leads upward to the King's chamber which is in the uppermost part of the pyramid. At some point in this path, there is a path that leads to a what a called a bottomless pit. Many tourists have falled and died inside this payramid, that is why the authorities have now closed the inside labyrinth of the pyramid, and you are only allowed to go few meters down. Inside the pyramid of Giza, and surprisingly enough, no statues were found, no graven images, just an open sepulchure. Beside the pyramid, the archeologists have recently found dug underground a boat like shaped like the ark of Noah. This was new to me, it has now been raised to surface level and turned into a glass museum. Why am I writing all this description is to bring to you the subject of the giants and the fallen creatures which we read about in Genesis chapter 6. Let me say one thing before I proceed. I offer no apology for my comments herebelow. All you have to do is reserach your Bible, and you will be faced by the most convincing of biblical truths, although I will leave the subject of the pyramids to your imagination.
After the meeting was over, a few colleagues and I flew from Cairo to Aswan (a one-hour domestic flight) where we began our fascinating tours to the temples of the gods dating back to the Greco/Roman era. There we found huge stone temples fashioned in what seemed to me very similar to the tabernacle of God in the wilderness. In every temple we visited was designed with an outer court for the public, an inner court accessible only to priests and royalty, and then of course the inner sanctuary where the statue of their God resided. Isis and Osoris and Horus, as a triad figured prominently wherever we went. I was constantly reminded of the Trinity. Every temple had on the left hand side a birthing house (called Mamisi). The birthing house represented the mother giving birth to the divine child (does that remind you of anything?) A most interesting detail I found was that in the holiest of holies of their temples, their god was always placed in a boat. Now why a boat, I don't know. I could think of the Noah's ark. I could think of the flood. Did they fear the flood was coming, and wanted their god to sail away. Who knows? Remember they also worshipped the nile river as a sources of life.
Then of course the entrance to the temples, especially at Edfu (and Karnak in Luxor), were decorated by huge statues of either eagles, elephants or even baboons. At the top of the entrance to each temple, was the picture of the sun disk with eagles wings on each side and of course the two snakes one on each side of the sun disk. These were to protect the kings/gods whose images or statues were inside. The pillars that were roundabout in the outer court were huge and decorated with either the Lotus or the Papyrus plants symbols of lower and upper Egypt. The statues of the several Ramses were grotesque, huge and very high. I kept thinking to myself as I stared these must be the giants of old (supposing that these were life size statues). Images from the books of Genesis Exodus, Joshua, Judges etc. came back to life as I visited the temples in Edfu (the most complete temple ever found), Comombo, Philae and Elephantine Island. The two obelisks (of course, how could I forget those) at the entrance of each temple stood huge shaped like an arrow pointing upwards in defiance to God. I was reminded of Nimrod. In one temple one obelisk was missing and our tour guide told us it stands today in the centre of the outer courtyard at the Vatican. I don't understand either why there is an obelisk in Washington too. I leave it all to your imagination. Then of course there was the scarabee and the cartouche. The tourist guide explained to us why the scarabee charm is a symbol of good luck to the Egyptians, and why the cartouche. The cartouche is shaped like the egg of the scarab, which itself is a kind of cockroach that comes out of the manure (dung, excuse the expression) in the morning and returns to it at night. So the ancient Egyptians thought these come up with the sun rise and go to bed at sun set, then these are a symbol of life, and they worshipped it. Do you still want to buy a scarabee as a good luck charm? They also sell what is know as the key of life. I hope you all know who the way, the truth and the life is. Just think that human kind has always wanted to have eternal life but they seek for it in all the wrong places, forgetting the true creater and author of life himself. They have rejected the creator and worshipped the creature.
From Aswan we sailed in a cruise ship along the Nile river(several hours) we came to Luxor where we visited the Karnak temple (the biggest temple ever found about 62 acres if I am not mistaken). It is at Karnak that I saw the huge statues of Ramses and the giant men, and the elephants and baboons. In one area at Karnak we came to a huge man made lake which contained the "holy" i.e. stagnant water which the priests used for their purification. (Does that remind you of anything in the Old Testament?) We also visited the Luxor temple there, but the highlight of the trip was the Valley of the Kings. I hope every one of you can make that trip some day because you will be in the middle of a desert land, with huge limestone mountains, and at the mouth of each mountain are several entry ports. You step inside and you find yourself in a huge but beautifully decorated wide alley made of white limestone leading downwards, and all walls, side walls and ceiling you see colorful paintings of all the mythical gods that you can think of. People offering sacrifices to the mytical gods, and kings offering sacrifies to the gods, and then of course the famous judgment scene as each dead person stands before Horus and his heart is weighed in the balances, and should have led a good life then he moves on to purification, but if he has led a bad life, then his is either mutilated, or his heart is plucked out. You feel a combination of feelings. Disgusted yet fascinated to be in the very famous deserts that were once trodden by Moses and Joseph.
At some point, I wanted to leave the land because I had seen enough paganism and idolatly, and I came to grips with God's words about the gods of the Egyptians and his hatred for them. I remember seeing blue painting in the ceilings of the temples representing the stars (you could still see the colors even though faded with time) and how they worshipped the host thereof. A woman wrapped around the ceiling represented the goddess of whatever. There were gods for anything and everything painted on the walls. We even saw mummified crocodiles. The ancient Egyptians worshipped anything they feared and tried to please them in order to avoid their evil. Anything ugly or evil. Three headed snakes were to be feared the most, crocodiles, rats, mice, baboons, eagles, reptiles, eagles. (Think of the ten plagues). Every mythical god had either the sun disk or the moon shape on his head. All this time I kept telling myself, this is what God meant in Jeremiah 43 and in other reference too where he said he will break the images of Bethshemesh (house of the sun) that is in the land of Egypt and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire. Remember I did see some blackened ceilings too because apparently when the early christians were persecuted in Egypt, they ran and hid in these huge temples (some are still standing, one is rather complete) and since they cooked their meals inside them, it is thought that they had caused the black ceilings of some of the temples we saw.
You would not believe the deceit and idolatry that pervaded the land of Egypt in those days. Its greatness and its riches are still manifest, although the present day Egyptians are not the same people. The stories that are told along side every wall of every temple talk about the need for pleasing the gods in order to obtain eternal life. Unfortunately they missed the point big time. And as the Bible says in Romans 1: 25. As a matter of fact Romans chapter 1 verses 19 onwards came brilliantly alive as I toured in the lands of the pharoahs, and when Jeremiah 46:25 says, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings even Pharaoh and of them that trust in him, I felt sorry for every tourist who unwittingly thought it a privileg to visit the goldsmiths and buy either the "key of life" as a pendant, or even more popular the cartouches with their names engraved inside the egg of a beetle.
I should not forget to mention that we also visited the high dam built by Gamal Abdel Nasser in the late sixties, early seventies. We saw the nubian areas where nubian villages are now flooded because of the high dam project. Some nubians (who speak nubian as well as Arabic) village people who have been relocated tell you the stories of their flooded villages. They recount how once a fertile soil is not bereft of the silt which covered when the Nile flooded. The older folks told us that even the taste of the fruits have changed. The soil is not as rich as it used to be. That was one negative aspect of building the high dam.
One place I would have loved to visit would have been the temple of Abou Simbel. This temple was going to be flooded when the high dam was built but UNESCO intervened, and they chopped up the temple into 15000 pieces and they raised it. Here's a fascinating detail however. Apparently the temple was built to align with the stars in such a way that on the birthday of the king (21 October) when the sun rose, at midday the sun rays would shine right on the face of the god or king. Apparently after UNESCO raised the temple, using all the atronomical calculations as though it was built at the time, they missed by 24 hours. Therefore when the shines on the face the king it misses it by one day and now it shines on his face on two days, 22 October and 22 November of each day, thus missing the date by one day. Does that remind you of a missing day in the Old Testament? Think of Joshua and you might have a clue.
May be on another visit if the Lord permits I would like to also visit Tal El Amarna as well as Abu Simbel temple.
There, I hope I have been able to present you a bit with what it felt like to be in the lands of the pharoahs. In three days we were transported thousands of years back into history. Fascinating and saddening at the same. To me it only made me glorify the Only True and Living God all the more for his grace and mercy which saved a sinner like me from the deceitfulness of worshipping idols which come hidden in the form of charms. Who knows?
