EGYPT
Egypt is a figure of this world with its beauty, its secrets, its wealth, its glory and its mysticism. How do we biblically prove this? Simple. Pharaoh is a figure of the devil, for he is the great dragon, and the dragon is the devil (Rev. 12:9; Ezek. 29:3). The devil is the king of this world just as Pharaoh is the king of Egypt (Matt. 12:24-26). The splendor of Egypt lasted 2,700 years, or 27 centuries, and it was already flourishing when other tribes lived in shacks and caverns. Egypt was ancient for the ancients. They were very advanced in Medicine—more than the peoples who lived after them. The Egyptian architecture reveals knowledge in Astronomy and Mathematics, since the Pyramids were built in mathematical and astronomical alignments, and were edified in the period between 2,700 to 2,000 before Jesus Christ, for the history of the glory of the Egyptian empire developed in three phases, which are: the ancient empire, the medium empire, and the new empire. After 2,700 years the decline began. Cheops was built with enormous rectangular stones, none of them less than ten meters high. The Egyptians were so well equipped, that it was impossible to introduce a blade of jackknife between them. The pyramid forms a solar clock. The pyramid’s orientation is north and south, with scientific preciseness.
This was Egypt as a figure of this world. Jerusalem, in Revelations, is called Sodom, and Egypt, because of debauchery. Therefore, Sodom was also Egypt. Jerusalem was Egypt. Rio de Janeiro is Egypt. New York is Egypt. The entire world is Egypt, because the entire world is Sodom, for there is even a Satan’s Church. And the Bible reveals that there are Christian Churches that preach Christ, but the throne of Satan is inside, like the Church of Pergamum (Rev. 2:13; 11:8).
Let us recount the story of Egypt as a figure of this world, and the story of Israel as a figure of the people of God.
1. There was famine in the world of that time, and only Pharaoh, that is, the dragon, which is also Satan, had bread. The Bible text says: “All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth” (Gen. 41:57). The bread of Egypt is a figure of the abominable food of Satan. Can a man of God like Joseph serve the poisonous food of Satan? Of course he can. Many servants of God are serving the bread of the flesh these days, feeding the Christians with the things that Satan has to give (Luke 4:5-8). Jesus serves another bread (John 6:32-33).
2. Jacob, together with 66 souls, went down to Egypt in order to be fed with the grain of Pharaoh (Gen. 46:26). These 66 souls are a figure of the growing Church, which, pursued and hungry for freedom, gained the favor of the dragon when Constantine became converted and opened them the doors of the temporal power. The persecuted Church became a persecuting church, as Paul said: “But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now” (Gal. 4:29). “Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
3. In the beginning, while Joseph lived, the life of the Israelites was a bed of roses, but after the death of Joseph, two tragic things happened: Slavery with harsh bondage, and also the filthy bread of prostitution (Ex. 1:6-14; Ezek. 23:2-4; 23:2-4). This is true also today. The people of God, which is formed in the Church of the Lord Jesus, is forced to build palaces and factories for the dragon, that is, the devil, and is fed by the immoral soap operas on TV. They watch pornographic videos. All the channels of communications penetrate the homes with perverting news. This is the bread that feeds our children. It is the global contamination.
4. Just as Israel was captive in Egypt, and Pharaoh did not let them leave by the hand of Moses, so it happens today. There is a part of the church that does not accept the false values of this world. I say, a part, because the majority of it has yielded to the seduction of the riches, the material comfort, the big cars and palaces, the divorce, entertainments, contraceptives, etc. Those who do not accept the yoke of the flesh wish to leave, but do not succeed. They wait for the deliverance of God, crying as Lot, who spent his days in disgust about the dissolute lives of the Sodomites, afflicted every day by what he heard and saw of the unrighteous deeds of his time (2 Pet. 2:7-8). The people of God see evil penetrating the churches and the homes, oppose it, are considered fanatical, and are scoffed.
5. The captivity is a figure of a supernatural yoke, for Pharaoh is a figure of Satan, the dragon. No man can escape by his own strength. Jehovah, the god of the Hebrew, delivered his people through ten plagues. The Father delivers the Church of Christ, which is his people, buying it with the blood of Christ. They were two different operations (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Acts 20:28): Jehovah delivered his people through violence, and Jesus gave his life for his people as a gentle lamb. It seems that Moses was a double figure. He used violence when he obeyed Jehovah, but declared that this violence had not come from his heart (Num. 16:28-33). Also, he gave his life in imitation of Christ for the people whom he loved, saying, “Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, ‘Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written’” (Ex. 32:31-32). At the end of 40 years, Jehovah led Moses to the top of Mount Nebo and said to him, “Look, see with your own eyes the Promised Land, for you will not go in there,” as if he said, “Die for the people whom you loved so much!” (Deut. 34:1-5).
6. Moses, as a figure of Christ, destroyed the power of Pharaoh, just as Christ destroyed the power of Satan (1 John 3:8).
7. When they were free from Egypt, the people wandered in the desert for 40 years, and these 40 years are figures of 40 centuries, or 4,000 years, which began with the first Christian, that is, Abraham (Gal. 3:6-9). This world, for the Christian, becomes a desert of temptations, and the one to tempt is Jehovah (Deut. 8:2-3). God the Father does not tempt anyone (James 1:13).
8. The passage through the Red Sea marked the complete deliverance of Egypt and the entrance in the life of the desert. In this way, also, through baptism, the Christian exits this world and enters the desert, for the things of this world are prohibited to the Christians; therefore Paul said: “Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s” (1 John 2:15-16). “The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever” (1 John 2:17). It is as if John said: The outward appearance of the world changes, for this world is made of false mirages. Paul confirms this in 1 Cor. 7:31. During this long pilgrimage the people falls and dies in the desert.
Jesus said: “I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Another time, when they asked him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” Jesus answered: “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able” (Luke 13:23-24). When the Flood came over the world only eight people were saved, while billions of others were condemned. When the people of Israel left Egypt they were two million people, and only two people were saved. And how will it be today? If Jesus returns, how many will escape?
The advice of Jesus is the following: “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into” (Luke 12:39). The problem is that, as Israel was in the hands of Pharaoh, the Church is in the hands of the dragon (Rev. 2:13; Luke 4:5-8). It is, and it does not know that it is. All the nations form together the global village, that is, Christians, Atheists, sorcerers, macumbeiros, spiritists, and idolaters. The global village is that in which all sing the same music, all dress the same clothes, all watch the same films, all use the same speech, all have the same idols, that is, the soccer idols, the racing cars idols, and the vedettes. All of them have the same needs. The Church is not different in these and other aspects.
by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira