Egypt the Haven for Godly People

So Pharaoh said to Joseph,

 “I hereby put you in charge 

of the whole land of Egypt.” 

    Watching what is happening in Egypt is remarkable. I can not help but feel drawn to pray for the Egyptian people and their country.  They are at the threshold of a whole new era in their history and the history of the Middle East. A form of Democracy or even the next level of religious tolerance would be a huge step forward for their country and those other Islamic nations surrounding them. We are witnessing the cry of a people to be free. And our prayers must help pave the way for their total liberation. Their cries are before us and must not be ignored.
     I believe the scriptures ask us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem"(Ps.122:6). In the years I have been doing this I have noticed that Jerusalem encompasses many people and a host of religions. Those "who live within her walls" need to open up to each other in a new way. Moslem with Christian and Christian with Moslem and Jew with Moslem and Moslem with Jews and Jews with Samaritans and even Jews with Jews, etc., all need prayer for tolerance and love.
      Egypt has led the way in the past for toleration. It was the first of the Islamic countries to make peace with Israel and recognize them as a sovereign nation. And it is not the first time that Egypt has opened its heart to its ancient relative Israel.

Coptic Church

     Egypt as we remember received Abraham in a grievous time of famine (Genesis 12). They received Joseph and his family during another hard time for Israel(Genesis 41). Even though they ended up being slaves in Egypt it was the birth place of the nation of Israel as they left it. During the time of the exile to Babylon, Jeremiah the prophet and some of the priests, and possibly the Arc of the Covenant, were taken to Egypt (Duhm, p.235).  The Arc is said to reside to this day as part of the Jewish ancestry of Ethiopia and the Coptic church. The Coptic heritage goes back as far as early church father Origen and the ancient sea port/library/school of Alexandria.  And of course Egypt was the safe haven for another Joseph, and his wife Mary and their son, Jesus. Jesus was saved from Herod and the execution of two year old children. Their route to safety came from an angel (Matthew 2). So Egypt has played a huge part in the establishment and safe conduct of Israel from enemies both foreign and domestic in ancient times as well as modern.
    It is for this reason and others that prayer should be raised in all quarters of Christianity and from our elder brothers of Judaism for God to return to Egypt the blessing it has been for Christians and the Jewish community in times of need. Now Egypt is having a famine for freedom and the truth. Her cries are coming up before the world of Godly people. Let us pray that God will raise up a Gandhi, a Mandela
a King, or a "prophet like unto Moses" to lead its people to freedom.

Not the Daddy

Not the momma?

      In John the eighth chapter, we see Jesus talking with the "Jews" in Jerusalem. There is a very interesting theme that runs through this discourse, vv 30 - 59.  This theme can be summed up in one statement, "not the daddy."  Jesus and "the Jews" go toe to toe over who is their father.
      C. H. Dodd has remarked that Jewry of the first century had an almost if not complete sub-conscious understanding that since they were "Abraham's seed" that that alone would make them blessed (Brown p.360). They believed that all nations would be blessed through them  (Genesis 22:17-18).  Abraham had in himself the power to save. This idea can be seen in the story of Lazarus who was in the bosom of Father Abraham and the rich man prayed to Abe to "let Lazarus dip his finger in the water and come cool my tongue for I am tormented in the flame".  (Note to self: Once a person has been rich and spoiled by being waited on hand and foot, its a hard to break the habit, even in hell.) Anyway, they had internalized this idea that all Jews are blessed because Abraham was chosen of God and they were Abraham's sons. Jesus had to fight this same conditioning in Nicodemus (chapter 3- Born of the Spirit). He was not a spiritual man, but earthy. Here, these Jews thought the same way. Their right to righteousness cames through a natural blood line. But Abraham had received the blessing through acts of obedience (Hebrews 11:8).
       Paul attacked this same thinking in Galatians 3. "If you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed". Interestingly the Jews base their thinking on Genesis 22:17-18. Exegetically, Paul saw the word "seed" as being singular, sperma (LXX), ergo Christ. It is in Christ that all the nations shall be blessed. Christ is the true seed of Abraham, son of God. Christ obtained the blessing the same way as Abraham, through obedience to the Father (Genesis 22:18 and Heb. 5:7-8). And we obtain sonship through obedience too. There is no blood line of the righteous, not natural anyway. You can not be born a son of God or raised a son of God. Just as the Jews could not be born a son of Abraham or God. Like them we, in and of ourselves, alone, can become a son.  Who is the true Jew? Who is the true son? The one who does the will of the Father (John 5:30). {Hear more about this - Learn Obedience! }
       Even in extra-Biblical material we see this persuasion of the divine right of Jewry. In the philosophical discourse of the early church,  Dialogue with Trypho by apologist Justin Martyr we can see this same thinking. Trypho the Jew argued for Jewry's claim that the Jews as seeds of Abraham expected to receive the Kingdom of God, no matter what they did. It was promised to them (CXL 2; pg. 6:797). Yet in Matthew 3:7-10  John the Baptist claimed to the circumcision that God could raise up sons of Abraham from the stones on the ground.  And just as pointedly Jesus threatened the Hebrews that strangers would sit at the feasting table and the children could be thrown out (Matthew 8:11-12). And more to our point here, Jesus warned that you should "call no one your father, except your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9).
      All these warnings, threatenings and pointed comments will lead us straight to the heart of this discourse. In the end the Jews called Jesus fatherless, a bastard.  Jesus countered that they are the sons of their lying father the devil. All in all it was an ugly name calling event; an event ending with the Jews wanting to stone Jesus as they had earlier in this chapter wanted to stone the adulterous woman.  Jesus miraculously slipped out from their midst going as he came to the feast, encrpto, in secret.
    What does this exchange mean to me? I remember a sitcom that had a brief stent about 20 years ago. It was about dinosaurs. It began with the baby dino sitting on the shoulders of the father dino with a milk bottle in the baby's hand. If I remember correctly the baby was hitting the daddy on the head with the bottle and saying "not the momma, not the momma".  I know it is "the momma" the baby is saying and not the daddy, okay. But in a strange way it reminds me of this scene. Jesus is hitting the Pharisees on the head and saying "not the daddy, not the daddy".