EGYPT and AMERICA - ISRAEL’S WEAK AND FALTERING ‘FRIENDS’?
Egypt is mentioned in the Bible an amazing 674 times. Why? Its strategic historical and geographical locations make it like no other country in the world. As we watch increasing violence and bloodshed on television feeds from Cairo, we have to wonder where this all fits in prophetic scripture. First, though, let’s look at how Egypt was used by the Lord in the history and formation of Israel.
In Israel’s early history the nation decided that instead of leaning on God for its protection, it would make peace treaties with other nations, including Egypt,, even though He told them not to do so. Isaiah and Ezekiel recounted God’s view of Egypt at that time:
“Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.” (Isaiah 36:6)
“Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the LORD. You have been a staff of reed for the people of Israel. When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and you tore open their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.” (Ezekiel 29:6 and 7)
Media interviews this week with Israeli officials, some on background, revealed what is becoming increasingly obvious – that Israel’s 32 year reliance on its Camp David Peace Treaty with Egypt may soon come to an end. One Egyptian protestor was quoted as saying “Camp David made Egypt a slave to Israel”, revealing the smoldering resentment in Egypt over its Israeli non-aggression stance for the last three plus decades. Jihadists hate Israel and want it destroyed. The best way to strike at Israel? Work to remove Egypt’s pro-western leader and exert ‘street pressure’ so that Egypt’s new leaders will be men who are willing to abrogate the 1979 Camp David accords, and re-position Egypt as an active enemy of Israel.
Will Egypt, Israel’s peace treaty partner, prove to be a staff of reed? A walking pole that is actually a thin, breakable reed? The chance that a new Egyptian leader who comes to power as a result of street protests and who is in political league with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized alternate political power, upholding the Camp David Peace Treaty is negligible, to say the least. Israel will soon be forced to re-deploy its armed might to also cover its southern flank, which for three decades it could ignore. Ominous times indeed for Israel.
What is even more frightening, though, is how Israel’s other partner in the Camp David Peace Treaty, the United States of America, has behaved in the last few days, as Egypt captured the World’s attention. The President of the United States took less than a week to declare that the leader of America’s best friend in the Arab world had to leave office and give up power “NOW”. The former Israeli Ambassador to the United States in an interview with Fox News asked “If the US President treats Egypt like this, what can Israel expect in the days ahead?”
Indeed. Prophecy tells that a rich, powerful and influential end times country, the Daughter of Babylon (a/k/a Babylon the Great) will some day “betray” Israel, and will not come to its defense when it is invaded by Iran (Persia) and Russia (Gog of Magog) and other nations that are now all Muslim, though these prophecies were all given long before Muhammad was born. (See Ezekiel 38 and 39 for details of the invasion). Before the betrayal by the Daughter of Babylon, Israel must live in peace. Fresh from seeing its valued Camp David Peace Treaty abrogated, expect to see Israel willingly embrace a new US brokered peace treaty. Israel, Ezekiel tells us, will dwell in safety and peace, that is until Gog and Iran and Libya, et al, come sweeping down from Israel’s north to kill, plunder and seize Israel. At that point, Israel will again learn, as it has in the past, that when it leans on any man or nation, instead of on the Lord, their ‘backs will be wrenched’. Pray that Egypt will uphold the Camp David Peace Treaty. That now seems unlikely, but nothing is impossible with God.