Xtreme History

Today, after putting together our clue comprised of scrabble letters, we went to the Egyptian National Museum.    In the van on the way over we read Bible verses from: Genesis 40-42, giving the story of Joseph and the cupbearer and baker as well as Pharaoh giving his ring to Joseph; Exodus 28, describing the Jewish Priestly garments; Exodus 32 which talks about Aaron making the golden calf; Psalm 110 which describes how the Lord will make his enemies subject to him.  At the museum, we saw rings and chariots and footstools with pictures of the Pharaoh’s enemies (so he could rest his feet on them, symbolizing control).  Seeing these items really helped those stories I’ve read a 1000 times come alive.  I was able to create visuals that helped me understand the Bible and the context it comes from.  For example, throughout the Bible God repeats over and over again that He is the living God.  Having seen the gods that the ancient Egyptian’s worshiped, we heard (and saw) how they gauged out their eyes if they didn’t want the gods to see or cut off their noses’ if they didn’t want them to breathe again, our belief in the living God is such a drastic contrast.  How could the Israelites ask Aaron to make them a statue when they had just witnessed miracles?

After looking at mummies, people whom Joseph and Moses could have interacted with, we left for lunch to meet with a man who works for Artists for Christ.  This ministry works with all different art forms, music -instrumental and vocal- painters, sculptures, photographers etc.  However, he didn’t show up for lunch.  I was disappointed this connection didn’t happen as I was interested in learning about how art is used to spread the gospel in a Muslim country.  Is art only sold to Christians?  Do they try and commission pieces for non Christians and then surprise them?  I suppose this is symbolic of how God works in our lives, we have plans created with good intentions, but God has something else in mind.  One of our team phrases is “that’s how I roll”, so our team rolled with it. We had a very nice lunch (I had stuffed vegetables, fried eggplant, mehiena, and of course baba ganough, all of which was very tasty) in a restaurant with a great atmosphere, enjoyed each other’s company, and saw the way meat is transported (sort of considered being a vegetarian until dinner when we had Egyptian pizza with a meat called pasterma). 

After a scavenger hunt, we found out we are leaving tomorrow!  We have no idea where we are headed or what we will do.  However, I have a feeling the trip is about to get challenging…  

 Editor's Note:  We were unable to take pictures inside the Egyptian National Museum.