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Escape From Planet Egypt

Part III

In Escape From Planet Egypt, we've taken up the daunting task of recognizing the uncomfortable fact that the entire secular world (particularly the scholars dedicated to the documentation of history), has fallen prey to the Spirits that deceive the nations.

"For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:14).

Of course, we tend to think of this passage in a military venue because of the word battle – but the war between the LORD of glory and the fallen angels is in the realm of righteousness versus iniquity. Further, the Scripture declares just how this "battle" is fought:

"The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:4,5).

As we sought to show in the first two installments of Escape From Planet Egypt, the anecdotal data concerning the chronological history of the empire of Egypt has been misinterpreted on a massive scale. We have also sought to assert, with each ensuing period, the sequential errors have progressively become compounded. Moreover, as historic research (notably archaeological data) unearths more information, the instinct is to seek to validate an existing thesis, rather than re-address inherent flaws in the original perspective.

We've already shown an enormous error has gone uncorrected with the identification of Joseph, the son of Jacob, as the "foreigner" who designed the first pyramid of Egypt.

Since the primary account of Joseph deals with the fate of the family of Israel who sought shelter in Egypt in his time (because of a catastrophic famine), by disconnecting the subsequent Egyptian historical timelines from the Biblical narrative, the scholars have perpetrated a deadly disservice to those seeking to understand antiquity.

As the Scriptural account tells us the family of Jacob migrated into Egypt at that time, and the chronology tells us they sojourned there for over 400 years, to casually discard such invaluable information because of a religious bias is a crime against humanity.  

Nevertheless, the tale tells us that after Joseph was gone, and the clan of Israel was flourishing in the land, a new Pharaoh who never recognized Joseph's heroic handling of the great famine (an intervention which allowed the Egyptians to survive catastrophic conditions), came to resent the presence of the Israelites in Egypt.

"Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8).

The account goes on to say the new Pharaoh was concerned the Israelites were too abundant, and he feared they might take over the leadership of the nation. After several futile efforts to impede their vitality, the government gradually enslaved the foreigners, and oppressed them through a harsh servitude.

"And they built for Pharaoh…And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick" (Exodus 1:11,14).

Since the entrance into Egypt occurred with Joseph (Imhotep in the Egyptian records) who engineered the first of the massive constructions containing secretive tombs and "treasure" rooms we know as pyramids (Exodus 1:11), it is now self evident the Hebrews supplied the slave labour required for these gargantuan projects.

After centuries of grinding slavery, the Israelites called out to the God of their fathers, and his deliverance was manifested in Moses. In our last installment, we noted the scant records left from the Egyptian side of the Exodus account contained the Papyrus of Ipuwer, who recorded the devastating conditions in which the Egyptian army and the Pharaoh perished.

After Israel escaped from Egypt, secular history speaks of a period in which a foreign occupation of Egypt occurred, and it was called the Hyksos dynasty. The antipathy to the Bible we're addressing has even led some to completely ignore the Scriptural account, and suggest the Israelites actually took over Egypt, and they were the mysterious Hyksos.

Unfortunately, because the antiquarian authorities reject the veracity of the Scriptural accounts (particularly the Genesis/Exodus records which place Israel in Egypt at the time of the pyramids), they miss the smoking gun in the story of Moses leading Israel out of Egypt.

As Israel journeyed through the Wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:1), they encountered a military force which the Scriptures labeled Amalek. As Israel was numbered in the hundreds of thousands at the parting of the Red Sea, it is obvious the Amalekites comprised a substantial force, as Amalek was willing to engage such a large number. Further, since Israel was moving away from Egypt, it is inferred that Amalek was travelling towards Egypt.

"Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword" (Exodus 17:8, 13).

The Scriptures indicate that as Amalek was defeated, they continued what appears to be a migration towards Egypt. An Arabic writer named Al-Samudi (844-911), quoting an earlier writer named Yaqut in a writing published in a German publication, stated the following:

"The Amalekites reached Syria and Egypt and took possession of these lands, and the tyrants of Syria and the Pharaohs of Egypt were of their origin" (Ages in Chaos, Velikovsky, page 84).

Comparing Egyptian data which characterized the reign of the Hyksos as cruel and particularly vile, Velikovsky showed the same characteristics were revealed in Scripture concerning Amalek. Eventually, a French archaeological research team confirmed the Biblical pointers indicating the Amalekites were associated with Arabia.

Bible readers may recall Amalek was the grandson of Esau, whose descendants became the Edomites, the eternal enemy of Israel. Esau had defied his father Isaac's wishes, and married a daughter of Ishmael (the father of the Arabs), as well as other Arab women related to the Hittites.

In the last book of Moses, the LORD references Amalek's treachery and, embedded within that informative passage is information indicating the Amalekites were in the position where they could easily subdue whatever governmental authority was left in Egypt, after the Egyptian elite was crushed at the Dead Sea:

"Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou was faint and weary; and he feared not God" (Deuteronomy 25:17,18).

The Spiritual deception associated with Egypt has taken another turn as the true route of the Exodus of the Israelites has been obscured. Tradition has it that the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments is in the Sinai Peninsula (as the name of the holy mountain is Mount Sinai in Scripture) and modern commercial interests have developed significant tourism around this site – in spite of the fact that we now know it is a counterfeit locale.

Because the adjacent mountain at the traditional site does not even remotely resemble the Biblical description, many Christians have long suspected the location in the land called Sinai is not the historic Mount Sinai.

Using Satellite imagery, several intrepid researchers have located a route that they believe is consistent with the Scriptural description, but vested interests continue to resist further efforts. It turns out that at the Southern tip of the Red Sea (which the Bible says was miraculously parted in order for the Israelites to escape from the pursuing Egyptians), there is a substantial land reef that is 500 yards wide, which partially connects to the land mass that is now Saudi Arabia.

At the end of this reef which crosses a portion of the Red Sea over to Saudi Arabia, is a mountainous location which fits the Biblical description of Mount Sinai. In front of the mountain is a large plain that show indications it was once occupied by a vast number of people.

"For they… were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount" (Exodus 19:2).

The mountain itself is blackened, as though it was once burned:

"And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking" (Exodus 19:18; 20:18).

Several unsanctioned (and dangerous) excursions have been made to study the mountain, known as Jabal al-Lawz, and more than one Christian explorer has found themselves under arrest for entering into the reclusive kingdom of Saudi Arabia without permission. The Saudis keep the site strictly off limits, and have threatened death to violators.

The fact that the mainstream religious community has long established a counterfeit location in Egypt for the mountain of Moses, masks an even more subtle agenda than a simple error in geography. This is a classic device of the Devil, as the evil one suppresses aspects of the truth, so that when the hidden reality finally emerges, he can leaven that truth with another lie, which that wicked Spirit wishes to put forth.

"For we are not ignorant of [Satan's] devices" (II Corinthians 2:11).

The Arabian location Jabal al-Laws is indeed the Biblical Mount Sinai, and it is in Arabia just as the trustworthy Word of God states. However, as that fact becomes known by more and more people, the adjacent fraud that the Children of Israel simply walked across a massive coral reef to arrive at that location is now positioned to leaven the realization of the truth of the genuine location.  

As just noted, the Scriptures have told us from the beginning that Mount Sinai, where Moses met with the LORD, is not in Egypt at all.

In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul is reasoning with the Galatian Christians, who had erroneously become convinced they should also emulate the Jews, by keeping the commandments of Moses in the Old Testament.

Comparing physical Jerusalem with New Jerusalem in the heavens (which is identified in Revelation 21:2), Paul noted that Abraham, who is the father of both Israel and the Arabs, had two sons – one chosen and one not chosen. In chapter I, we mentioned the chosen son was promised by God to be born to Abraham's elderly wife Sarah; but Sarah doubted she could still bear children, so she gave Abraham her Egyptian servant girl, so the patriarch could have a son.

When Sarah did indeed have a son, the Apostle Paul compares the promise to Sara with the promise of freedom to all those in JESUS CHRIST, who will eternally inhabit the Jerusalem which is in heaven – while those who seek earthly standing with the unbelieving Jews are likened to those who are ensnared in the bondage of the letter of the law seen in the laws of Moses.

"Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is [H]agar. For this [slave girl] Hagar is [like unto] mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free" (Galatians 4:24).

The point Paul was making is that it is foolish for Christians, as born again Spiritual Israelites, to seek to be bound by the many arcane laws of the Old Covenant, when the New Covenant consists of freedom, in which Christ internally leads us through the Spirit of the LORD.

Under the Old Testament law, an Israelite was required to bring a sacrificial animal to the earthly temple in Jerusalem every year, as an act of substitutionary atonement. This is the "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage." This requirement of the law was mandatory, so that the justice of God would be satisfied. God could then forgive the sins of the individual, as those sins were symbolically placed on the innocent sacrifice.

In the New Testament, God has placed all the sins of mankind on His only begotten Son, in a supreme sacrifice for all of our sins – and this is a one-time act which lasts forever. Further, the faith exhibited by the individual that this is the LORD's plan for redemption, is His justification for giving us the free gift of salvation – a redemption which we can never earn.

Thus, Paul is telling the Galatians the New Covenant made by Jesus Christ is clearly superior to the Old Covenant which the Galatians thought they needed.

"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did…But now [Jesus] hath obtained a more excellent ministry [than the high priest administering the Old Covenant sacrifice], by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (Hebrews 7:19; 8:6).

The idea that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea over a vast coral reef that was barely submerged sharply diminishes the miraculous nature of the Exodus. The Scriptures vividly detail how the LORD performed an astonishing feat as He empowered Moses to part the very deep Red Sea with his staff.

Further, a conveniently located reef is hardly a viable explanation for how the Pharaoh and his chariots were able to follow Israel on "dry land" (Exodus 14:29) – which set up the disaster that occurred, as the massive walls of water collapsed down upon the Egyptians who were in hot pursuit of Moses and the escaping Israelites. But that aspect of the Escape From Planet Egypt will have to wait for our next Communique. 

-- James Lloyd

To Be Continued