Land of the Pharaohs

The sands still whisper. Hot breezes still blow. Dunes stretch endlessly beneath the broiling sun, the cloudless sky. And all the sound is whisper, gentle whisper, silent whisper as the sands sift themselves and stretch, forming and reforming hills and ripples.

Sometimes, from April to June, sporadic storms force dry southerly winds up from the heart of Africa. Then the dunes howl. Sand becomes flying glass, poking at eyes, tearing at clothing, numbing flesh on the bone.

Just as suddenly the howling fades. Then it is quiet, quiet all around.

The desert was here then. It is here now. It surrounds even the great pyramids, hushing them to silence. The desert is the last master, the final master, the silent master of the land.

Except where there is water.

Where there is water, there is life. Where there is water, the Nile slices through the desert like a great green knife. In the water are the creatures and the fishes. On the banks are the reeds and the palms. Near the water are the people and the cities.

Where there is water, the ibis flies, women sing, children splash as they bathe.

“Egypt,” said Herodotus, “is the gift of the Nile.” Without the river, the country would be wasteland. The river allows the people, the plants, the creatures to cling to the sinews of existence.

The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;

When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it (Abr. 1:23–24).

Egypt witnessed Old Testament history and New Testament history. Its language and some of its people and customs form threads in the Book of Mormon tapestry. It is the source behind much of the Pearl of Great Price. It is a land that has shaped empires and been shaped by them. And it is a land that God has used for his purposes throughout all earthly time.

This is the land to which Abraham traveled after the priest of Elkenah had sought his life in Ur of the Chaldees, the land where Abraham expounded revelations about the creation of the world.

This is the land where Joseph, sold to a passing caravan, came to Potiphar’s house. By virtue Joseph rose to power, and his brothers bowed before him when they came seeking relief from the seven-year famine. This is the land where Joseph’s father, Jacob, called Israel, became father of a great nation.

This is the land where pharaoh’s daughter sent her maidens to fetch a basket from among the reeds, and in it found a baby she raised as her own. But Moses was a Hebrew. He found the true God, the God who would set his people free.

It was to Egypt that Jeremiah fled during the Chaldean conquest.

And it was to Egypt that Mary and Joseph brought the young child Jesus, that he might be spared when Herod “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof” (Matt. 2:16).

And Pharoah said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all of Egypt.

… And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt (Gen. 41:44, 46).

Egypt today is much like Egypt of 2,000 years ago. It is still a land of backbreaking labor, where brown-skinned fellahin (countrymen) lift water with a shaduf (a lever with a weight at one end and a bucket at the other). Poverty is extreme despite some of the highest yields in the world of such crops as wheat, rice, corn, and cotton. Sixty-three percent of the population crowds the Nile’s delta and the remainder straggles upstream in villages and towns of mud huts. Only 3.6 percent of the land is habitable at all. The rest may receive no rain for years at a time.

But Egypt is also a land of industry. Dams have tapped water power, and electric lines now traverse empty stretches, carrying a new gift from the Nile. Nomads still wander from oasis to oasis, but so do highways and pickup trucks. Modern airports and ocean liners load and deliver passengers and manufactured goods. And the Egyptians remain a friendly and hard-working people.

Take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troublest the waters with thy feet. …

I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee. …

By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt (Ezek. 32:2, 10, 12).

A land that once thrived under rulers like Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, or Ramses II, is now struggling to regain prosperity. The tombs and temples of past glory, initiated as monuments to pharaohs who would live forever, are now museums and tourist stops, reminders of human vanity.

Those who stand beside them can see to one side prosperity and hope, to the other side only sand. This is the land of Egypt, the land so often mentioned in the scriptures. To look on it is to learn that man’s efforts remain meager over time, but that God will guide his people and his prophets forever.

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.

And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them. …

Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed by Egypt my people … (Isa. 19:21–22, 25).