So, I’ve been slowly reading a little book about Egypt because we’ve been studying ancient Egypt.

I finally put together the annual Nile River flooding with why/how there was a famine in Egypt–the famine that Pharaoh dreamed about. Every year, the crop was dependent upon the rains happening in the upper Nile regions, so the Nile would flood, the Egyptians would conserve the water in their irrigation system, be blessed by the rich silt that flowed down, and be able to grow crops.

Egyptians believed their god Hapi caused the flooding. They also believed their Pharaoh was a god.

A king who was a god could intercede with his brother god Hapi to make sure that the valley received a good flood each year. And this, in fact, became one of the Pharaoh’s most important duties. Every June, when the flood was due, he voyaged to Egypt’s upper borders, where the waters first began to rise. There, in solemn ceremony, Pharaoh “spoke” to his brother Hapi and exacted his promise to send the kemi-laden [kemi = rich, black silt] waters down into the valley once again. (The Pharaoh’s of Ancient Egypt, Elizabeth Payne, p.37)

All this becomes very significant cultural information surrounding the story of Joseph, and how God caused both the years of abundance and the years of famine.

Next, I was pondering the Egyptians’ beliefs about the afterlife, and the elaborate processes they went through to preserve bodies; the massive wealth they stored in the tombs with the mummies…. How it all must have seemed so real, so important, so impressive, so believable.

But still their bodies are destroyed– useless, disemboweled of their organs, examined and x-rayed. Robbers and museums enjoy their treasure.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matthew 6:21

So those are some lessons from studying this ancient culture. Now I’m very interested to start a timeline to see parallels of whose lives intersected.