The following is a greatly abbreviated discussion of Egypt’s end-times role among the nations and her part in the fulfillment of prophecy. The report (now updated after the events of 01-11) was written 20 years ago and is a chapter in The Redemption Play which addresses Egypt’s immensely important role in latter day events. The full text of the chapter on Egypt with links to other end-times pages can be found on our website: The Redemption Play – Egypt King of the South.

Every United States citizen will be amazed when they discover the important and prominent role Egypt has to play in the days leading up to and throughout the Tribulation. From our arrogant perch as antichrist power, yet upstart on the stage of world power politics, gazing across the ancient sea of nations, we see Egypt as nothing more than an empty and powerless, even arcane pile of pyramids and crusty mummies with nothing of interest beyond a curiosity of mysteries and quaint fabled lore of pointy headed kings, eccentric people who worship cats and monkeys and crocodiles, whose neatest thing are men with hound heads graphically represented in a twelve year-old boy’s adventure story called “the Scorpion King”. Americans could not be more silly themselves, for we are the ones emotionally enslaved to fables we have told ourselves about being the saviors of the world, the bestowers of happiness, and the keepers of peace on earth good will toward men. But it is Egypt which has long been a major player in God’s Plan of the Ages, from before the time of the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and today her significance in prophetic history is being revived.

Sometimes Egypt has been used by God for good purposes, sometimes for a harsher judgment. Only God’s Word can clue us into her preordained purpose and destiny in the great drama of redemption called: end-times. It is primarily through the understanding which may be acquired in those two giants of end-times prophecy, the books of Daniel and Revelation (along with smatterings of prophecies woven throughout the other Hebrew prophets) that the student of Bible prophecy can zero in on Egypt’s amazing and prominent position in prophistory. It takes painstaking study and prayer, fighting like a man wrestling his way out of a straight jacket, for the American to shed the prejudices of national pride so he may discover Egypt’s place vis a-vis the Antichrist in the end-times. Egypt has long been destined to be one of three main players in the events surrounding the fateful judgment of all the nations of the earth in the last hours before the Second Coming of Christ. Egypt will be the main opponent of the Antichrist in those days. We who have a familiarity with the Bible and God’s Plan of the Ages should not be dismayed that the three characters taking center stage for the political military events of the end would be: the Antichrist Kingdom (and the Ten Kings foundation upon which his power is secured: see Daniel and Revelation), Israel and Egypt. Jesus said, when you see the fig tree budding (Israel) and all the trees (ancient powers) then his return would be extremely close. With the events of 01-11 the buds on the revived tree of Egypt have not only blossomed they are flowering. We now wait only to see if it will take some further earth-shaking events to get her into perfect position for the end.

Egypt’s position in the world and her destiny as foe of Antichrist cannot be understood without a thorough knowledge of end-times prophecy concerning the biblical character identified in Daniel as the King of the South (see: Daniel chapter 11). The Kings of the East (China and Japan probably, and possibly India and Pakistan) are not deeply involved in the day to day intrigues, or the threefold seven tiered judgments of the Tribulation, or events which lead up to them, unless the East nations somehow are incorporated into the conglomeration of governments and nations which will comprise the makeup of the Biblical Ten Kings. The so-called King of the South, however, as it has throughout this age, will play a major, major role. This can only be Egypt and whatsoever subsidiary nations that may go with her, like Ethiopia and Libya, or North and South Sudan, for example (Dan 11:40-45).

  “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
   He shall enter also into the glorious land [Israel], and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.
   He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
   But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
   But tidings out of the east and out of the north [Syria and Persia and/or Saudi Arabia?] shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
   And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” Daniel 11:40-45

The Southern Kingdom, as a powerful force, must rear up to meet and challenge the Antichrist (North) which will be in league with the leaders of Israel who will betray the ancient covenant God has with them by letting the Antichrist set himself up in the newly built Jewish temple as god of this world. The challenge from the south, though likely comprised of a conglomerate of some of the revived African and Middle East nations, will certainly be spearheaded by Egypt, and likely personally lead by some charismatic leader of its own. Look to see if the events of 01-11, either swiftly or eventually, pave the way for a leader to take the reins of the Egyptian government free from the control of the United States or any other Western power. Daniel 11 names Egypt by name as the foil to the King of the North. It is implied that Egypt is the unchallenged head of the league of nations which challenges Antichrist throughout the Tribulation right up until the time that the battle of Armageddon takes place.

Spiritually, Egypt had been revived, but in spite of Nassar’s bold leadership and bravado, it languished as a second rate military power; that is, until 1979. As a sign of the end, Egypt began its rise to first rate military status not by war, but by peace. Anwar Sadat’s peace with Israel instantly increased Egypt’s military might. The primary cost for the Israeli-Egyptian peace accord, negotiated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter was billions of dollars of United States military aid for Egypt. Through the Camp David Accords the crafty Sadat had done what wars in 1967 and 1973 had been unable to accomplish; he had transformed his nation into a world power. Egyptian power was greatly advanced with the dismissal of Iraq as the leading Middle East power after its disastrous defeat in the Persian Gulf War. Her rising military might will be used against the Antichrist Kingdom when the final rivalry emerges during the “70th Week of Daniel”. The problem now looms for Egypt: How will it keep its might and even increase it if military aid from the U.S. is diminished or stopped altogether. Even if Antichrist interests continue to support her building her military might that does not mean she will not turn it on her benefactor without notice. All diplomatic agreements are like rules; they are made to be broken.

 “And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.
   Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: many shall fall down slain.
   And both these kings’ hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.” Dan 11:25-27

Of one thing we may be certain: the King of the South and the King of the North will permit each other the courtesy to engage in the art of diplomacy with one another: i.e. to lie to each other. With the power of another northern power (probably a loose Russian lead alliance of rouge states) out of the way owing to the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38‑39, the only power standing between the Antichrist and his plans for ruling the world from his throne in Jerusalem will be the King of the South.

Three confrontations are scheduled to take place between the North and the South during the final seven year tribulation period, only the final one will be a decisive victory in favor of the Antichrist, but he and his global empire will not be able to exploit it because he will have internal troubles erupt within his own empire that will demand all the forces he can muster leading to the final confrontation with God and Christ at Armageddon. (I must make mention here that Armageddon is not the conflict that the world and even most Christians assume that it is rumored to be. It is the world, East and West, coming together to make war against God and the Lamb of God, and not the nations fighting one another for control of the earth.) (See chapter on Armageddon in The Redemption Play.)

After jockeying back and forth, after one sound defeat of the South, some peace negotiations and some threats, the Antichrist will finally defeat the King of the South, but his victory celebration will be cut short by the call to Armageddon. Certainly some of the other Arab nations, maybe including Syria, will be involved in these confrontations and wars. Ezekiel 38 alludes to Sheba and Dedan being complicit in the sneak attack purely for profit, this is the ancient name for the land of the Arabs (Saudi Arabia and such), but just as Gog is led by Russia, the South will be led by Egypt. Just as the Roman Empire has gone full circle, so the Southern Kingdom must return to its roots, Pharaoh’s Egypt.

We may not be able to tell who will join the alliance, but it is certain that the South will be at great odds with the Antichrist throughout the 70th week of Daniel (the Tribulation). It is too early to tell how the revolt against the Mubarak regime will affect the relationship between Antichrist (North) and Egypt. It is impossible to see how this will enhance the military power of Egypt let alone its leadership strength. It may be it will not give her power over the Arab League, an alliance which she was largely responsible for creating. She is, after all, not truly Arab, she is Egyptian through and through, an Hamitic people and the ancient ruler of Africa where her roots go deep into the banks of the greatest river in the world, the Nile. The Arabs are primarily the offspring of Ishmael and they own a separate destiny. In this way their roots and destiny precede Islam and the Arab born Muslim faith. Part of the revival of the Egyptian tree is the revival of the Egyptian people apart from Islam. We watch to see how far the Islamic brotherhood can make inroads, but we will not be surprised if the revival of Egypt means the revival of the Egyptian which was oppressed and has been repressed by the Antichrist (with some interims by the Arab Muslims) ever since Nebuchadnezzar’s Antichrist Babylon defeated Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish two and a half millennia ago.

Both the North and the South’s hearts “shall be to do mischief” during the seven year tribulation period: the Antichrist will seduce Israel and the Egyptians will hate him for his villainy. It is not exactly clear what Egypt and The South’s motives are, other than just to resist being placed under his domination. It could be religious, economic, or just plain old hatred.  As we witness the events of 01-11 it is with a sense of awareness that the common Egyptian is angered at the villainy and hypocrisy of the Antichrist power that is personified in the United States which, to the modern Egyptian, may be representative of the long history of oppression of colonial and repressive dictatorial tyrants their ancestors have had to suffer under. It is ironic, considering the hallowed history of their pharaohs and their relationship with the Jews in particular, that one of their poets claimed in the early moments of the uprising that the people no longer would stand for “being slaves, but wanted freedom”. Whether this is the moment that something will be done to shake off this repression only time will tell. But one thing’s certain the Egyptian cauldron has boiled over and reached a seething point and the heat now will not be turned down until it gains its place in prophecy, even if it takes more dramatic events and some more time. A popular term being exploited by talking heads is: the genii cannot be put back in the bottle, and no matter how one chooses to put it, this seems most certainly true.

After all is said and done, it will be the age old battle: North vs. South, each vying for control of Israel. Surely the South will be lusting for the worship and power that the Antichrist will ultimately enjoy for a short time when he defeats the South, but God may have another more “righteous” purpose for the South’s posture against the Antichrist. As usual the flash point for this final North‑South clash will be over Israel and, in particular, the Antichrist’s confirmation of the Holy Covenant with her. The Antichrist will seem to champion Israel’s cause. He will “confirm the Holy Covenant with many” which probably means he will be instrumental in building, or at least setting up the worship in the Temple and reestablishing Jewish Religion and Law as a functioning, approved institution. The day is coming that he will use the temple and its restoration of Jewish religion as a platform for setting his own religion of which he will be the central god. He will “destroy many by peace” and “confirm the Holy Covenant”. Not only will the Antichrist seem to champion the revival of Orthodox Judaism as it was practiced by the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, this ‘evil one’ will be Judaism’s peacemaker and eventually sit as its deity replacing Yahweh. He will also replace Christ for he will claim to be the Messiah that Israel has long waited for. He will come as the King, ready to establish God’s Kingdom on earth; he will be Israel’s deliverer; he will be the one the mob chased to crown king but instead found Jesus who turned them away in disappointment telling them that they did not understand the kingdom of God, nor was it yet time for him to take his throne. But once they have found this man it will not take long before many in Israel learn that the Antichrist is just that: an Anti‑Christ. After three and a half years of the Covenant with Israel, faithful Jews will flee in terror from this madman who pollutes the Promised Land, and as before, the Jew in trouble will probably turn to Egypt.

   “Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.” Isa 36:6

The Jews have always turned to Egypt in time of trouble. The fathers did it. Abraham went to Egypt twice during famines. Isaac had to return to Egypt during a famine, and Jacob and the twelve patriarchs ended up in Egypt for the same reason. Jacob even died there. When Sennacherib the Assyrian stormed Israel they allied themselves with Necho and when Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed Jerusalem much of the Jewish population went to Egypt to hide. But a prophecy of Moses quoted in Deuteronomy indicates that many Jews would return to Egypt under duress in the last days only to be enslaved once again under their heavy hand.

“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
   And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
   And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
   In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
   And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” Deut 28:64-68

So they will probably turn to the land of the Pharaohs again for refuge, not to be received as friends however, but as refugees of the final persecution, this time of the last Antichrist, only to be sold as slaves, though no one will want to buy them or touch them so fearful will be the whole world of retribution from the self-proclaimed god of the world who is killing anyone that will not worship him and his image. Jesus, remember, told those Jews who are not willing to take the ‘mark of the Beast’ that as soon as they saw the Antichrist enthrone himself in the Temple as God, to run for their lives. He said, don’t even take time to pack a suitcase or grab a toothbrush, just run. They will have no place to turn but Egypt, which has always been their chosen place of sanctuary from tribulation. With all the troubles prophesied by Moses and endured over the centuries by the wandering Jews, this moment at the end may be the low point of Hebraic history. The Israeli government will have allowed the Antichrist to enthrone himself as God in their Temple and the loyal few, who show allegiance to God will be incarcerated as slaves in Egypt. During the Roman occupation, not even the Emperor himself was allowed to enter the Temple, even though the Jewish religious hierarchy was in cahoots with the reigning Antichrist Empire to crucify the Lord. But now, in the last moments of the Antichrist Age the Israelis will go the one step further and cast off Jehovah entirely and for peace and safety, they suppose, will worship and serve the Antichrist as their God. It will behoove them to forsake all Jewish brethren who do not join them in their betrayal of God, chasing them away into Egypt.

We must keep in mind that Egypt does have a place in God’s future millennial kingdom, as does Syria, and most other nations of the world, but this prophecy of Moses also presupposes that the Egyptian people will not be taking the Jewish refugees in to help them, or out of compassion for their desperate plight. They will be placed in detention camps most likely to ride out the rest of the tribulation in a strange sort of sequestered safety.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if God saves the remnant of His people by making them slaves and hiding them away from the wrath of the Antichrist in a prison? Or perhaps they will pass into eternal salvation donning a martyr’s crown just as so many Christians have gloriously entered paradise over the last two thousand years of this time of the Gentiles. God may save them by making them slaves. They are useless in that no one wants them but God. How marvelous are His ways, past knowing. As the rest of the world perishes in rebellion at Armageddon the lowly faithful remnant of His chosen people could ride out the storm of total judgment on the world in protective custody because they were of no use at all to the world. But to God, the only one who counts, they are His precious children; the ones who turned to Him, rejecting all lies as personified in the despicable Antichrist and his satanically controlled kingdom.

As for Egypt they shall remain a thorn in Antichrist’s side, but they will still need to be ‘chastised’ by the Lord. They are not yet righteous in the eyes of God. Through the trials of the Age of Antichrist rule (600 B.C. – present) Egypt has been severely chastened and has suffered slavery and oppression under the yoke of a succession of oppressors: Greek, Roman, Islamic, Ottoman and Saracen and European Colonial dominance. For all of their brilliant heritage and legendary sage wisdom, they turn on one another and are foolish in handling of the business of life. All of this no doubt was fulfilled in the last 2,500 years of their history just as the prophet Isaiah had foretold.

  “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.
   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.” Isa. 19:s. 1-2

Not long after Isaiah prophesied of a civil war in Egypt it happened. In 670 B.C.E. the Assyrians under General Sennacherib advanced upon the kingdom and destroyed Egypt’s government in the ensuing years chaos reigned over the once proud order of the Pharaohs. It took seventeen years for chaos and civil war to end. finally the legendary leader Psammetichus united the throne and restored order under his supreme lordship. The famous king built the great capital, expanded upon by Ramesses II at Piramesse as a symbol of power and order. The Egyptians have rebuilt the city on its ancient site just north of modern Cairo, as a shrine dedicated to Egyptian national pride. But who cannot but think of the streets of Cairo that have witnessed Egyptian shedding the blood of his brother Egyptian in 2011 as a re-fulfillment of the civil war and chaos that disrupted Egypt in the 7th century B.C.E.

  “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.
   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.”Isa. 19: 3-4

Noted for the wisdom of their sages the Egyptians fell into superstitions void of the sage counsel of the ancient wisdom of the Pharaohs. Ultimately they fell into the hands of foreign and despotic rule. A few of the names under which they were repressed were Sargon (Assyria), Cambyses (Chaldee), Darius Ochus (Persia), Nebuchadnezzar (Neo-Babylon), and Caesar (Rome).  In general they were under the whip of successive Antichrist empires: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, Turkish, and British.

In modern times, after WWII, when Egypt finally managed to break away from foreign domination they deposed their monarch King Faruk but fell into the hands of a cruel lord of their own breeding, Gamal Abdal Nassar, who linked them to an alliance with the imperialistic Communist Soviet Union and once again returned the Egyptian people to subjection under the heavy yoke of a foreign power, re-fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that they would be swallowed up in ‘slavery’ to foreign rule.

“And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
   And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
   The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
   The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
   Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
   And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
   Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
   Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
   The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
   The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
   Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.” Isa. 19:5-15

Since Isaiah’s prophecy in the 8th century B.C.E. it is undeniable that fulfillment of the above scripture has come to pass, even if over the lengthy course of the Antichrist Age. The wealth of Egypt was robbed by outlandish and cruel masters. Her riches from commerce and industry were siphoned off by the powers that occupied their land and oppressed them without pity. World renown for cotton and linens, they were pilfered with compensation. She made no profit from her innovation and industry because she was effectively a colony of successive kingdoms who were greedy for her produce and manufactured goods. A once proud and immensely rich kingdom, with colonies of her own reaching into the heart of Africa and with caravans docking at every wealthy oasis of the Middle East as far as India and Cathay; the proud land of the Pharaohs was more often than not, reduced to being the mule carrying the food basket for imperialist armies, farmers for hungry cities around the Mediterranean and scrub women in the house of Sultans, Caliphs and Antichrist royalty. In the 8th Century B.C.E. this prophecy must have seemed unlikely, even absurdly impossible. That the greatest and most storied kingdom on earth would be cheapened and reduced to a carnival show was unimaginable. But in the days of Imperial Rome she had become a limp and helpless vassal state, good for nothing but supplying grain and slave labor. Entire Egypt from Lower to Upper Egypt was literally the personal plantation of the Caesars of Antichrist Rome. Augustus Caesar made all of Egypt his own personal property. He owned the entire province of Egypt for which he used its vast food produce to solidify his power and popularity with the masses by using it as a granary to daily feed and entertain, in an ancient welfare system, the rabble of the city of Rome with its ‘bread and circuses’, out of his own pocket. It was a system that flowed like the Nile itself, casting its dirt and mud upon the Egyptian people yearly without fail, imperialist and colonial governments traipsing and marauding over the fertile Nile Valley, shipping the resources of the enslaved people to a foreign land.

Now it has come full circle and seems to have a curious re-fulfillment, or last fulfillment in these days before the return of Christ. The world has seen the British, followed by the Soviet Union, and now the United States successfully prop up fierce lords who have oppressed and stolen from the Egyptian people. Nassar’s famed Aswan Dam was more of a boondoggle than a boon for the poor Egyptian people, diverting the world’s greatest river and drying up much of the natural silt and along with it the wealth of Egyptian agriculture and Egypt’s lifeblood of watery tongues and tributary rivers. Much of their national income now comes from tourism showing off its ancient glories, but even those revenues are being siphoned off by the current ‘fierce king’, Hosni Mubarak, puppet of the Antichrist, who reportedly has 70 billion dollars tucked away in offshore or Swiss bank accounts, while the Egyptian family man stands idle, hands in pocket, without work. Fulfilling the prophecy that “The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.” At the time of the 2011 uprising if someone had a job it was hardly lucrative and barely provided enough to buy bread and pay the rent and light bill, the mean yearly income of a young Egyptian being a meager 1,800 per annum. Just as the Jews are to come full circle back to Egypt returning as slaves, the above passage is now being fulfilled again in Egypt’s modern history. In this last stage of Egyptian history before the end, during the closing days of the Antichrist Age, the modern Egyptian state has undergone this repeat chastisement and judgment of God, almost point for point, judgment for judgment.

IN THAT DAY …
Isaiah’s prophecy moves into a deeper, ‘second’ phase of fulfillment when it begins to use the phrase ‘in that day’. The ‘In that day’ phrase is used five times, each time to introduce a significant end-times prophetic detail concerning the Jews and their uniquely special relationship with Egypt. God has used Egypt to chasten His people Israel, but in that day He will use the Jews to chasten, help and save Egypt. Because of the two disastrous wars in the second half of the last century, Egypt has been humbled as never before. Both times it was under the hand of tiny Israel and by the hand of their God, Jehovah. In that day, Egypt has been “like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it. And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.” (16 &17)

As part of this it may be that Israel’s return as slaves into Egypt during the second half of the Tribulation will be to establish them in something like a group of small cities that will extend into the time of the millennial reign of Christ. The fulfillment of their being a terror to Egypt, however, can be said to have already taken place in these last days when the Israeli armed forces completely destroyed the entire Egyptian army and air force not once but twice. In 1967 Egypt and their allies’ sneak attack was quashed in no less than six days. The war was over and Egypt had been soundly defeated sending shock waves of shame and fear throughout the Egyptian populace. Even if Israel was not yet a full terror to Egypt, she was soon to be. In 1973 another surprise attack from Syria, Jordan and Egypt resulted in yet another annihilation of their forces, even more devastating than the Six Day War. For days the fate of all Egypt lay in the hands of their enemy Israel. The Egyptian air force and all of its Russian MiGs had been destroyed on the runway without ever getting off the ground. The entire Egyptian army, infantry and armored divisions, were cut off in the Sinai Desert left to the mercy of the guns and high power missiles of the Israeli fighter pilots swooping unimpeded like hawks over a defenseless chicken coop. Thousands of defenseless Egyptian warriors waved white flags on the sweltering sands below, each one alone, standing erect like a miniature tombstone on the open sands below, with no place to hide.  They had two choices, sue for peace or be annihilated. Egypt capitulated and made a full surrender to the Israeli forces. The Egyptian people could not even keep up a good face. The land of Judah was a terror to them and they had been shamed and humbled before the whole earth. High ranking Egyptian military leaders to the man and woman on the street admitted that it was a supernatural victory, ‘everyone that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.’

 “In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.” Isa. 19:18

The original fulfillment of this notable prophecy could be traced to Jewish immigrant settlements like Migdol, Taphanes, Noph (Memphis), Pathros (Jeremiah 41:2), and, of course the celebrated metropolis of Alexandria; where the Jewish community numbered as much as a million during the golden days when the Septuagint and canon of Hebrew Scripture was formally put together under Philadephius Ptolemy around 287 B.C.E. These cities can be identified even today as speaking the language of [the former land of] Canaan, which can be reasonably assumed as meaning Hellenistic Greek. This was the first stage or first fulfillment but the fulfillment in that day is yet to appear and we can only project a possible fulfillment. It may be that the refugee Jews fleeing the Antichrist in the middle of the Tribulation will be given five camps or settlements and from there, for the rest of the Tribulation they will extol the virtues and salvation of the Lord as Antichrist terror descends upon Egypt and ultimately spreads to Sudan, Ethiopia and Libya as the end draws near. For it is warned in Daniel 11 that the Antichrist will finally overrun all of Egypt and stand at the steps of Libya and Ethiopia ready to devour the furthest reaches of Egyptian influence, only to be frustrated when he is called away for the final battle at Armageddon.

 “In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
   And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour,  and a great one,  and he shall deliver them.
   And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.” Isa.19:19-21

Egypt will have continued in their stubborn pride and not conceded their ways to the Lord even though they had been given the Gospel of Jesus Christ earlier than any other nation on earth (carried on by the Coptic Christians throughout the age). We may recall from Acts that It was the supernatural preaching of the apostle who stopped the Ethiopian in his chariot on the way home just after the death and resurrection of Christ who received the evangelist’s words about the Lordship of Jesus as Savior of all mankind and was baptized before returning to his homeland. The above three verses were quickly fulfilled after the Lord’s resurrection. Egypt is without excuse in having rejected the Gospel as a nation and they must repent, give homage to the Lord before their resistance to God and pride as a nation can be rectified and fully forgiven.

This means that their ultimate repentance will take place at Christ’s Second Coming when they will finally bow to Him in humble adoration. This will not transpire until judgment has been dealt out in full force through seven demoralizing years of war and death and by the ravages of the three separate and successive seven-fold judgments of fiery tribulation as foretold by the Book of Revelation. These will hit hard at Egypt and the rest of the world at the end and Israel will learn once and for all that Egypt cannot be and never has been their savior. Egypt will find its place among God’s kingdom after following its own crooked path and the Egyptian people will be more than saved they will be called, God’s people, just as the end of Isaiah’s prophecy announced more than two and a half millennia ago.

 “And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
   In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian in Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
   In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
   Who the Lord shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” Isa 19:22-25

And the king of the Jews, even Jesus, will be the blessing in the midst of the land.

Modern Syria Will Likely Be Allied With Egypt
It is interesting to note that Syria, the ancient rival of Israel and Egypt will be ultimately counted as ‘the work of God’s hands’. They, having Semitic roots like the Hebrew, will be special in God’s economy of things during the one thousand years of Christ’s rule called the Millennium. Once the Tribulation begins Syria will probably be found in league with Egypt aligned against the Antichrist nations and the so-called confederation of the ten kings. Daniel 11 speaks of the end of the Tribulation when the Antichrist will have finally overrun Egypt, but just as his victory is finally at hand news out of the ‘north’ will cause him to have to return to Israel and face the new threat. This threat out of the north could be from Russia (Rosh) or someone else but the fact that Syria is destined to have a special place in God’s kingdom during the Millennium is certain. It is very likely that Syria will remain aligned with Egypt as they have been many times during the Antichrist Age, as when they were under the Muslims and the Ottomans and in the modern post-colonial era of the second half of the 20th century.    

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Endnote 1: Prophistory is a term signifying that ‘all meaningful history is fulfilled Biblical prophecy and conversely all prophecy yet to be fulfilled is just a matter of history waiting to happen. History and Biblical prophecy are one and the same thing. It is only a matter of where we are situated on the timeline of God’s Plan of the Ages that determines whether something is called history past or prophecy yet to come.