The Egypt Factors 1

Anwar Sadat

Under normal circumstances we would not interrupt our study of a particular book of prophecy such as the book of Daniel. However the headlines of the world news (1/31/2011) the past few days have been centered around one of the most mentioned if not the most mentioned nation of OT prophecy next to Israel. For those who are not big followers of world affairs we are talking about Egypt. Of course some of the information we study and will study in the book of Daniel includes Egypt. We can list some of the similarities below.

Egypt is the 1^st nation or empire mentioned in biblical prophecy and Daniel details much history and prophetic outcomes for these empires including the mentioning of Egypt 3 times in current study of chapter 11.

Egypt is a word which appears 587 times in the OT throughout 536 verses. 199 of these are found in 181 verses between the prophets from the book of Nehemiah through the book of Zechariah.

With the exception of the journey into Egypt of Joseph, Mary and Jesus there are 20 appearances in 18 verses between the book of Acts and Revelation.

Many of the plagues suffered by the empire of Egypt in the book of Exodus are very similar to many of the judgments we find in the book of Revelation.

In the book of Isaiah the word “burden” is found 18 times in 18 verses between chapters 9 and 46. There are 3 different Hebrew words used among these verses each containing a different meaning. The one we are concerned with for our study is below.

H4853

משּׂא maśśâ'

mas-saw'

From H5375; a burden; specifically tribute, or (abstractly) porterage; figuratively an utterance, chiefly a doom, especially singing; mental, desire: - burden, carry away, prophecy, X they set, song, tribute.

As we can see in this use of the word we have a prophetic implication associated with doom.   

This version of the word occurs 14 times in the book of Isaiah. This is the word we will be focusing on concerning the nation of Egypt. Beginning in Isaiah 13 and moving forward through chapter 23 the Lord begins some very specific prophecies concerning specific nations. The prophecy spoken against Egypt is found in chapter 19.

Isa 19:1-4 KJV

(1) The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

(2) And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

(3) And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

(4) And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

In the grand scheme of things this prophecy has much to do with events covering the last 60 years of Egyptian history. It also has a great deal of association to the events of the last week in Egypt.

Beginning on 25 January 2011 Egyptian people took to the streets to protest against the government under president Hosni Mubarak. Today (2 February 2011) there are pro Hosni Mubarak protestors out in the streets. The Egyptian military has up to this point been praised in their efforts for not taking violent actions. However with the pro Mubarak protestors taking to the streets it appears that we definitely have Egyptians against Egyptians. Some news reports are speaking to the possibility of violence in the streets at this time. In essence we can see some association to verse 3 in the fact that Egypt's future concerning the government is up in the air with much uncertainty about what type of leadership will come into power. With regards to verse 4 many people consider president Mubarak to be a tyrant.

As a matter of fact we have heard statements to the description of his government compared to a Pharaoh.

Another part of recent history that puts light on the subject has to do with the actual rise to power of Mubarak. In our studies of the book of Daniel particularly in chapter 11 we have studied the make up of the remnants of the empire of Alexander the great. These passages describe warfare between the kingdoms north and south from the promised land most likely the city of Jerusalem. These are represented as Egypt to the south and Syria to the north. In order to put the prophetic perspective to this we must move forward in history to 1970.

In 1970 a man named Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt. This happened upon the heels of what was known as the War of Attrition. The primary enemies being Israel and Egypt. It should be mentioned that there were many other nations involved including the Soviet Union. September 28, 1970: President Nasser dies of a heart attack, and his Vice President, Anwar al-Sadat, takes the reins. Sadat agrees to end the War of Attrition and almost immediately begins planning the Yom Kippur War, which would take place three years later.

On 6 October 1973, in conjunction with Hafez al-Assad of Syria, Sadat launched the October or Ramadan War, also known as the Yom Kippur War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights in an attempt to retake the territory captured by Israel six years earlier. The Egyptian and Syrian performance in the initial stages of the war (see The Crossing) astonished both Israel and the Arab World. The most striking achievement was the Egyptian military's advance approximately 15 km into the occupied Sinai Peninsula after penetrating and largely destroying the Bar Lev Line. This line was popularly thought to have been an impregnable defensive chain.

The Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Washington, DC, United States, on 26 March 1979, following the Camp David Accords (1978), a series of meetings between Egypt and Israel facilitated by US President Jimmy Carter. Both Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the treaty. In his acceptance speech, Sadat referred to the long awaited peace desired by both Arabs and Israelis.

“Let us put an end to wars, let us reshape life on the solid basis of equity and truth. And it is this call, which reflected the will of the Egyptian people, of the great majority of the Arab and Israeli peoples, and indeed of millions of men, women, and children around the world that you are today honoring. And these hundreds of millions will judge to what extent every responsible leader in the Middle East has responded to the hopes of mankind”

The main features of the agreement were the mutual recognition of each country by the other, the cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the complete withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the rest of the Sinai Peninsula which Israel had captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The agreement also provided for the free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal and recognition of the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways. The agreement notably made Egypt the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel. The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel has remained in effect since the treaty was signed.

The treaty, which gained wide support among Egyptians, was extremely unpopular in the Arab World and the wider Muslim World. His predecessor Nasser had made Egypt an icon of Arab nationalism, an ideology that appeared to be sidelined by an Egyptian orientation following the 1973 war (see Egypt). By signing the accords, many non-Egyptian Arabs believed Sadat had put Egypt's interests ahead of Arab unity, betraying Nasser's pan-Arabism, and destroyed the vision of a united "Arab front" and elimination of the "Zionist Entity". However, Sadat realized early on that peace is the solution. Sadat's shift towards a strategic relationship with the US was also seen as a betrayal by many Arabs. In the United States his peace moves gained him popularity among some Evangelical circles. He was awarded the Prince of Peace Award by Pat Robertson.

In 1979, the Arab League expelled Egypt in the wake of the Egyptian–Israel peace agreement, and the League moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis. Arab League member states believed in the elimination of the "Zionist Entity" and Israel at that time. It was not until 1989 that the League re-admitted Egypt as a member and returned its headquarters to Cairo. As part of the peace deal, Israel withdrew from the Sinai peninsula in phases, returning the entire area to Egypt on 25 April 1982.

The last years of Sadat's reign were marked by turmoil and there were several allegations of corruption against him and his family. In January 1977, a series of 'Bread Riots' protested Sadat's economic liberalization and specifically a government decree lifting price controls on basic necessities like bread. Dozens of nightclubs on the famous Pyramids Street were sacked by Islamists. Following the riots the government reversed its position and re-established the price controls.

Islamists were enraged by Sadat's Sinai treaty with Israel, particularly the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad. According to interviews and information gathered by journalist Lawrence Wright, the group was recruiting military officers and accumulating weapons, waiting for the right moment to launch "a complete overthrow of the existing order" in Egypt. Chief strategist of El-Jihad was Aboud el-Zumar, a colonel in the military intelligence whose "plan was to kill the main leaders of the country, capture the headquarters of the army and State Security, the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing - he expected - a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country."

In February 1981, Egyptian authorities were alerted to El-Jihad's plan by the arrest of an operative carrying crucial information. In September, Sadat ordered a highly unpopular roundup of more than 1500 people, including many Jihad members, the Coptic Orthodox Pope, Bishop, and highly ranked clergy members, but also intellectuals and activists of all ideological stripes.

The round up missed a Jihad cell in the military led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, who succeeded in assassinating Anwar Sadat that October.

According to Tala'at Qasim, ex-head of the Gama'a Islamiyya interviewed in Middle East Report, it was not Islamic Jihad but the Islamic Group (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya) that organized the assassination and recruited the assassin (Islambouli). Members of the Group's 'Maglis el-Shura' ('Consultative Council') – headed by the famed 'blind shaykh' – were arrested two weeks before the killing, but they did not disclose the existing plans and Islambouli succeeded in assassinating Sadat.

On 6 October 1981, Sadat was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt's crossing of the Suez Canal. A fatwā approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Sadat was protected by four layers of security and eight bodyguards, and the army parade should have been safe due to ammunition-seizure rules. As Egyptian Air Force Mirage jets flew overhead, distracting the crowd, Egyptian Army soldiers and troop trucks paraded. One troop truck contained the assassination squad, led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli. As the truck passed, the assassins dismounted, and Islambouli approached Sadat. Sadat stood to receive his salute, whereupon, Islambouli threw three grenades at Sadat, only one of which exploded, and additional assassins rose from the truck, firing assault rifles into the stands. After Sadat was hit and fell to the ground, people threw chairs around him to protect him from the hail of bullets. He died from bullet wounds to his aorta though he also had intestinal and neck wounds.

The attack lasted about two minutes. Sadat and eleven others were killed, including the Cuban ambassador, an Omani general, and a Coptic Orthodox bishop. 28 were wounded, including Vice President Hosni Mubarak, Irish Defence Minister James Tully, and four US military liaison officers. Security forces were momentarily stunned but reacted within seconds. Two of the attackers were killed and the others were arrested by military police on site. Sadat was rushed to a hospital, where eleven doctors operated on him, but was pronounced dead within hours.

Islambouli was later tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in April 1982.

In conjunction with the assassination, an insurrection was organized in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Rebels took control of the city for a few days and 68 policemen and soldiers were killed in the fighting. Government control was not restored until paratroopers from Cairo arrived. Most of the militants convicted of fighting received light sentences and served only three years in prison.

Sadat was succeeded by his vice president Hosni Mubarak, whose hand was injured during the attack. Sadat's funeral was attended by a record number of dignitaries from around the world, including a rare simultaneous attendance by three former US presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon. Sudan's President Gaafar Nimeiry was the only Arab head of state to attend the funeral. Only 3 of 24 states in the Arab League – Oman, Somalia and Sudan – sent representatives at all. Sadat was buried in the unknown soldier memorial in Cairo, across the street from the stand where he was assassinated.

Over three hundred Islamic radicals were indicted in the trial of assassin Khalid Islambouli, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Omar Abdel-Rahman and Abd al-Hamid Kishk. The trial was covered by the international press and Zawahiri's knowledge of English made him the de facto spokesman for the defendants. Zawahiri was released from prison in 1984.

Despite these facts, the nephew of the late president, Talaat al-Sadat, claimed that the assassination was an international conspiracy. On 31 October 2006, he was sentenced to a year in prison for defaming Egypt's armed forces, less than a month after he gave the interview accusing Egyptian generals of masterminding his uncle's assassination. In an interview with a Saudi television channel, he also claimed both the United States and Israel were involved: "No one from the special personal protection group of the late president fired a single shot during the killing, and not one of them has been put on trial," he said.

How all this fits into the prophecy of Isaiah 19.

Isa 19:1-4 KJV

(1) The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

(2) And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

3) And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

(4) And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

The intervention of God in this passage could be symbolized in the form of a peace agreement between the Egyptians and God's chosen nation of Israel. Indeed in the act of choosing peace the Egyptian people became very much divided against one another. This is also one of the driving forces behind the current violence which is starting to escalate in Egypt. The camps that divide the people consist of pro and anti government in addition to those who wish death to America and Israel. We can symbolize verse 3 in the fact that between the fighting and uncertainty over the leadership many may consult what could be described as the occult just as their ancestors did in times past. In closing out the passage in verse 4 it could be said that the successor to Anwar Sadat being Hosni Mubarak has been referred to as a tyrant and compared to Pharaoh.

In the first passage we explored political and physical calamities that promote the division between the people. In this passage we observe circumstances which could represent both cause and effect. In other words the descriptions of the lack of food, goods and services can often lead to and follow after civil unrest. During Sadat's rule the folowing rioting began over certain policies he wished to implement.

The Egyptian 'Bread Riots' of 1977 which rocked most major cities in Egypt from January 18-19 of that year, were a spontaneous uprising by hundreds of thousands of lower class people protesting World Bank and International Monetary Fund-mandated termination of state subsidies on basic foodstuffs. As many as 800 people were wounded, and the protests were only ended with the deployment of the army.

The riots' origin lay in president Anwar Sadat's 'Infitah' policy, which had, since he took power in the beginning of the decade, sought to liberalize the economy. In 1976, he sought loans from the World Bank in an effort to relieve the country's debt burden; the bank criticized the state's policy of subsidizing basic foodstuffs, and Sadat announced in January 1977 that it was ending subsidies on flour, rice, and cooking oil and that it would cancel state employee bonuses and pay increases.

Popular rejection of the announcement was not long in coming: On January 18 and 19, rioting by lower-class people who would be hardest hit by the cancellation of the subsidies erupted across the country, from Aswan in upper Egypt to Alexandria on the shores of the Mediterranean.[1] For two days, rioters attacked targets that symbolized the prosperity of the middle class and the corruption of the regime, shouting slogans like, "Yā batl al-`ubūr, fēn al-futūr?" ("Hero of the Crossing, where is our breakfast?") and "Thieves of the Infitah, the people are famished." There were also shouts of "Nasser, Nasser." Some 79 people were killed and many more injured. The rioting ended when the state abruptly canceled the new policies.

One of the interesting parallels with the book of Daniel is that we have been studying how the empires of Syria and Egypt fought many wars over territory and wealth putting the promised land in the middle.

In our recent history we have the 1973 war in which Egypt and Syria act in unison to try and overtake the nation of Israel. In spirit and in purpose Egypt pushed against Syria just as in the book of Daniel. Egypt did so by making peace with Israel which was not part of Syria's interests. It was 925 days later that Sadat was killed by an assassin who was a fundamentalist committed to destroying Israel.

"Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual – and the soul of a people."

"Most people seek after what they do not possess and are enslaved by the very things they want to acquire."

"Peace is much more precious than a piece of land... let there be no more wars."

"Russians can give you arms but only the United States can give you a solution."

"There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones."

"I should like them to write on my tomb... he has lived for peace and he has died for principles"

"He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never therefore make any progress”.

Psa 122:6-9 KJV
(6) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
(7) Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
(8) For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
(9) Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.

Thanks and God Bless