TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY IN BIBLE PROPHECY
Lesson 4: A review of Isaiah's description of the first event
to look for in the fulfillment of the drying up of the
Nile--"the idols of Egypt shall be moved."
I Isa. 19:1 opens with an overview of the major points of the
prophecy.
1 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 (Isa. 19:1).
A The narrative begins with the first event to look for in
the prophecy's fulfillment--"the idols of Egypt shall be
moved at [God's] presence."
1 In the early 1960s 23 major temples and their gods
were moved from the path of 310 mile long Lake Nasser
that would eventually form behind the 364 foot high
Aswan High Dam upon its completion.
2 What is the meaning of the expression "at his
presence?"
- It is equivalent to saying the idols will be moved,
according to the prophetic Word of God.
B The prophecy's introduction ends with an important
warning to twentieth century Egyptians: "and the heart
of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."
1 The "heart of Egypt" refers to the delta and the
tillable land that runs along the Nile river.
a This is the fertile green lifeline that the nation
depends on for its food.
b According to Isaiah's prophecy, Egypt's heartland
will melt, that is, it will completely erode away in
the days following the moving of the nation's idols.
2 Why should we suspect, at this point in the prophecy,
that the construction of the High Dam might play
some role in the destruction of Egypt's farmland?
- Since the construction of the High Dam prompted the
fulfillment of Egypt's idols being moved, it
follows that the blocking of the river by the Dam
might contribute, in some way, to the prophesied
destruction of the Nile valley.
II Isa. 19:2-4 explains how the environmental collapse of
Egypt will lead to civil strife, political discord, and in
time anarchy that will usher in a brutal dictatorship.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they
will fight, every man against his brother and every man
against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against
kingdom (Isa. 19:2, RSV).
3 "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized
within them; And I will confound their strategy, So that
they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, and to
mediums and spiritists (Isa. 19:3, NASB).
4 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. 19:4).
A The growing hardships from the adverse environmental
effects of the High Dam have precipitated a number of
outbreaks of civil unrest in recent years.
B Eventually, relentless famine from the collapse of
Egypt's entire agricultural system will lead to a state
of anarchy and a brutal dictatorship.
C The famine-driven anarchy that engulfed Somalia in the
summer of 1992 provides a preview of what will befall
the Egyptians at the time of the prophecy's fulfillment.
D Today, Egypt's Islamic fundamentalists are leading a
religious revival that seeks to displace the secular
government with a religious solution.
1 In 1992 they targeted Egypt's $3 billion-a-year
tourism industry with a rash of molotov cocktail attacks
and shot one tourist in October.
2 Between April of 1992 and October of 1993, over 400
people died in terrorist attacks in Egypt.
3 By March 26, 1993 Egypt's tourist industry had declined
by $700,000,000 a year, by October 1993 tourism had
plummeted by 1.2 billion.
4 The Middle East June 1994 magazine reported that "the
extremists have effectively decimated Egypt's tourist
industry."
E Whether or not fanatical mullahs play a role in ushering
in the "cruel lord" spoken of here remains to be seen.
III Isa. 19:5-10 provides a full explanation of how "the heart
of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river
shall be wasted and dried up (Isa. 19:5).
A "And the waters shall fail from the sea" is named as the
first event that will begin the systematic destruction
of Egypt's heartland.
1 What is the meaning of this statement?
- Since "the sea" is what the Egyptians called the
river at the time of overflow, because it resembled
a sea, the prophecy warns that once the Nile
"fails," or ceases to overflow in its accustomed
manner, the consequence will be severe injury to
the land and river.
2 What marked the arrival of the first thing to look for in the prophecy's fulfillment?
- When the High Dam began storing water in 1964,
"the waters failed from the sea," effectively
ending the Nile's history of fluctuating floods.
B When will the Nile become completely "wasted and dried
up?"
1 The initial stages of the Nile drying up are already
in progress.
2 According to Isaiah 11 and 12, the river will
completely dry up before Christ Returns.
3 (A later lesson will establish that the majority of
the people on the planet today will live to see the
Nile dry up in their time.)
C The Holy Scriptures, printed in 1917 by the Jewish
Publication Society of America, rendered the last part of
verse 5: "And the river shall be drained dry."
1 Whether or not this translation is better, or less
accurate, than the King James version, will be left
for others to debate.
2 Seven dams south of Egypt drain water from the Nile for
ever expanding agricultural irrigation systems.
3 Also note that 15 billion cubic meters of water have been
drained from the Nile yearly since the completion of the
Aswan High Dam in 1964, and present plans call for more
water to be drained away in the near future.
4 The following historical footnotes document how these
enormous volumes of water are being drained from the
Nile each year.
a Directly under the Aswan High Dam the Nile channel
cuts across a water-bearing bed of sandstone
(nearly half a mile deep), which is part of a
million-square-kilometer aquifer underlying the
Libyan Desert.
b Before dams were built in the Aswan area about
three billion cubic meters of water flowed into the
Nile from the Libyan aquifer annually.
c But after the first Aswan Dam was built in 1902,
pressure from its reservoir pushed all this water the
other way and as much besides.
d Six billion cubic meters of Nile waters were lost
through this flow reversal before the High dam even
got started.
e In 1964 the far larger Aswan High Dam increased
the amount of water escaping under the river.
f Moreover, the entire 310 mile western bank of Lake
Nasser is composed of porus Nubian sandstone that
is also part of the Libyan aquifer.
g As Lake Nasser began filling, its western sandstone bank began absorbing endless quantities of water.
h Water losses from the water-bearing bed and the
sandstone banks comes to fifteen billion cubic
meters--18% of the Nile's 84 billion cubic meter
flow in a year of normal rainfall.
i Irrigation wells, drilled in the western Egyptian
desert for land reclamation, help drain the river
further, since they draw water from the Libyan
aquifer which is connected to the Nile.
j Libya's Great Man-Made River (GMR) project will
become yet another drain on Nile waters in the
near future.
k Upon completion of the project's first phase, two
million cubic meters of water (pumped from 270 wells
drilled in Libya's southeastern desert), will be
piped 560 miles north to the coastal town of Agedabia.
l Later phases of the GMR will extend the twin four
meter in diameter pipes to other parts of the
country.
m The finished integrated water grid will eventually
carry 6 million cubic meters of water per year from
beneath the southern deserts for use in industry,
agriculture, and homes along the coast.
6 And its canals will become foul, and the branches of
Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes
will rot away (Isa. 19:6, RSV).
7 The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And
all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven
away, and be no more (Isa. 19:7, NASB).
A Horsley translated "and its canals will become foul" as,
"and waters from the sea shall be drunk." In other words
the river-water shall eventually be reduced to sea water.
B The sharp increase in the salinity of the Nile's waters
since 1964, can be traced directly to the side effects
from the blocking of the river by the High Dam.
1 The loss of 350 billion cubic feet of water annually
through evaporation makes Lake Nasser's waters more salty.
2 Salts washed out of previously unirrigated lands
increase the salinity of the water as they are
carried downstream.
C Isaiah stated further that the effects of dry winds will
"diminish" and eventually "dry up" the "branches of
Egypt's Nile."
- (The "branches" refer to the network of canals and ditches
that make up the country's irrigation system.)
D The combination of God's "mighty wind over the river"
and the negative effects of the High Dam will eventually
reduce Egypt's entire agricultural system to the desolate
description reported in Isaiah's prophecy: "The
bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all
the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven
away, and be no more" (Isa. 19:7, NASB).
8 The fishers also shall lament, And all they that cast angle
into the Nile shall mourn, And they that spread nets upon the
waters shall languish (Isa. 19:8, THS).
A The loss of silt from the annual flood translated into
sharply reduced plankton and organic carbons and, in
turn, loss of fish.
B By 1973 the sardine harvest around the mouth of the Nile
had dropped from about 300,000 tons each year to under
100,000 tons.
C The famous Nile shrimp completely disappeared.
D By 1981 Environment magazine reported that damming the
river had effectively killed off the seasonal sardine
industry.
E The fish harvest from nearly 2,000-square-mile Lake
Nasser was expected to reach fifty-to-a-hundred-thousand
tons each year.
1 Six years after the lake began filling with water, less
than five thousand tons were coming out of its waters.
2 Few fishermen dared venture in their flimsy boats into
the filling lake for fear of the wolves, scorpions, and
crocodiles swarming to the lake's islands and shores in
their flight from the encroaching waters.
3 The May 1981 issue of Environment magazine reported:
"Egypt hopes to build up the Lake Nasser fishing
industry into an economically important resource, but
this is still in the early stages."
4 After 17 years, where are the fish?
9 The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the
weavers of white cotton (Isa. 19:9, RSV).
- Workers in the cotton industry will become unemployed
when the cotton crop withers and dies along with all the
other vegetation in the Nile Valley.
10 And her foundations shall be crushed, All they that make
dams shall be grieved in soul (Isa. 19:10, THS).
A Since 1964 Egypt's foundations have been crushed by a
number of new forces.
1 Following the High Dam's completion, silt-free water
began flowing downstream much faster, carrying off
not just fringes of the Nile's banks, but a quantity
of the riverbed.
2 By 1971 this scouring process was undermining the
foundations of three old barrier dams and 550 bridges
built since 1952.
3 Lack of silt and lower Nile water levels exposed the
Delta's coastline to severe erosion by the sea's
powerful currents.
4 The higher water table created by the High Dam causes
water to migrate to the surface of the sandstone of
the Karnak temple foundations located 100+ miles
downstream.
a The water evaporates, but the salts are left. They
crystallize, blistering the surface and crumbling the
stone.
b (The higher water table is also suspected as the
cause of the 1992 Cairo earthquake.)
5 The Sept. 21, 1992 issue of U.S. News & World Report
printed the following update on the negative effects
from Egypt's High Dam.
a Pressure on Cairo's inadequate sewage system from
nearly doubling its population to 17 million in the
past decade, have left the city's ancient churches
and mosques knee-deep in raw sewage, and they
topple one by one.
b In January 1991, for the first time in 5,000 years
of recorded history, an 18-hour rain saturated
Luxor--an area with near-zero annual rainfall. A
second downpour followed two months later.
c A dramatic increase in humidity produced by the
High Dam's presence, coupled by accelerating
climatic changes, apparently triggered the
downpours.
d The Karnak temple at Luxor and other temples in
Egypt are built of sandstone or limestone,
sedimentary rock formed in ancient oceans and
heavily impregnated with salts from the sea.
e Within water-saturated stone, the dissolved salts
weaken chemical bonds, causing the stone to revert
to sand.
f And along fault lines, salt crystals, like frost in
asphalt, crack the stone open.
g The result is columns visibly askew, twisting apart
the pediment.
h "The stone has reached saturation point," says a
Luxor archaeologist. "The temple is going to fall
down."
B The destruction of Egypt's land, river, and buildings
are bringing to pass Isaiah's pronouncement, "And her
foundations shall be crushed, All they that make dams
shall be grieved in soul."
IV What evidence demonstrates that Isaiah's description of the
physical collapse of Egypt can only be a reference to the
side effects caused from blocking the natural flow of the
Nile by the Aswan High Dam and not some other dam?
A The idols of Egypt were moved during the construction of
the High Dam.
B The temple of the goddess Isis, for example, was not
moved when the old Aswan Dam was built in 1902.
1 Located on the island of Philae, it only emerged from
the Nile when the summer dry season reached its peak.
2 The rest of the year it remained almost entirely
covered by the waters behind the old Aswan Dam.
C The first proposal to save Philae's temples called for
constructing 3 dikes to protect the monuments.
D Instead, the 40,000 original blocks of the temple of Isis
were located on loftier Agilkia Island at a cost of
30-million, in keeping with the letter of the prophecy,
"the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence."