I arrived in Aswan, Egypt on the afternoon of May 5th. After a 20 plus hour train ride, we were met by the Spanish-speaking guide of Memphis Tours because the English one was not available. With my Spanish and his English, we were able to piece together what was going on. We were heading to the Movenpick Hotel.
There was no way to drive to the Movenpick Hotel. You had to take a ferry across the Nile River because this hotel was located on Elephantine Island (pictured above). There is something magical about crossing a river in a boat to get to your hotel.
As the night went on, I was thinking, “I know that name, Elephantine Island. Where have I heard it before?” I finally remembered. It was the island where the Jews went after the destruction of Jerusalem by King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Some of the remaining Jews had fled to Egypt to escape his wrath after they had killed the governor that King Nebuchadnezzar had put in power. With them went Jeremiah the prophet, whose prophecies I had read many times. “Wow! And to think, I am on the very island to which Jeremiah came with the Jews.” It was a profoundly moving experience.
And that was one big surprise of Egypt. It is the second Bible land. After Israel, Egypt is the most prominent “land” of the Bible. Besides the experience on Elephantine Island, I had many other experiences in Egypt that illuminated the Bible for me. In this series of articles, I want to share them with you. The first thing I learned was why Egypt was so inviting. Why did Abraham want to go to Egypt? Why did the Israelite former slaves even want to return there? I understood much better after visiting Egypt.
Why Go to Egypt?
When Abram went to Canaan, there was a famine in the land. Abram might have thought, “God told me to go here, and now this place is a total bust!” So, where did he go? To Egypt.
Now, why would he go to Egypt? Isn’t Egypt just a big desert?
Well, yes. It basically is a big desert. Except for 3% of it. But that 3% is extremely productive. You have the most barren desert you can imagine, and then you have the green line. Inside that green line you have some of the most productive farmland in the world. Inside that green line, it looks like Hawaii. Inside that green live 97% of the Egyptian population.
Why is that area inside the green line so fertile and productive? It is the Nile River. The Nile River created Egypt. Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
Unlike Canaan, Egyptians were not dependent on rain. If they had been, there would have been no Egyptians. Get this. Aswan, Egypt in the south of Egypt (Upper Egypt) gets .1 millimeters of rain per year. You read that right millimeters. They weren’t going to water their crops with rain.
So, how did they water the fields? Up until the last century, Egypt was flooded every fall. The cities would stick out of the flooded area like little islands. The flood waters would even reach the pyramids, which today are a long way from the Nile. This water would leave behind a rich silt that would make the farmland productive for the rest of the year. The floodwaters failed from time to time but not very often.
For this reason, Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world. It would provide food when other areas were in famine. Rome had its bread and circuses for the masses, but it had its bread because of Egypt. Egypt was the Rome’s breadbasket.
That’s why Abraham went down to Egypt.
One thing about having a lot of food is that you have a lot of extra calories and time to build civilization. So, what do you do with all those extra calories? You build temples and palaces and pyramids.
Consider this. Egypt was already a marvel and already had ancient buildings when Abraham went to it. The pyramids were already centuries old when he went down there. They looked different. They were covered with a white limestone that you can see at the top of the middle pyramid. The Arabs stripped the pyramids of this limestone to build mosques. Seems like something you might lament, but I never heard anybody say anything about it in Egypt.
At any rate, Egypt was a marvel and filled with food when Abraham went down there. That’s why Abraham went down to Egypt.
Why Go Back to Egypt
The Israelites left Egypt and wandered in the desert. When you talk about the Egyptian desert, you are talking about a real desert, a desert of deserts. It is completely dry. There is nothing there. Contrast this with the lush area around the Nile, and you can understand why the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt.
The Israelites complained to Moses about the lack of variety in their diet. They said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4–6). It’s easy to judge the bad behavior in the Bible as if we would act very differently. However, when you see the rich farmland around the Nile, it’s relatively easy to understand why they might complain. To go from the varied diet provided by the Nile River Valley to the monotonous food of the desert was a shock to the system.
The Lesson
One lesson I took from all of this is that what appears better may not be God’s best. There are many things that are more desirable in themselves that may not be what God wants for us. Just because the job is better, the experiences are more enriching, or the variety of food is greater does not mean that this is the best path for us.
God wanted Abraham to go to Canaan, not to Egypt. He sent him to a place that was going to experience famine. He brought the Israelites to the wilderness. When we are lacking things we like, it’s easy to complain and pine after the past. But God may be leading us elsewhere.
That’s one of the lessons I learned about the Bible from visiting Egypt. What do you see here? What might you add? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below. If you liked this post, please subscribe below and share this post with others who might find it helpful. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog.