A New King in Egypt

On Friday, President Obama said, “United States will continue to be a friend and partner for Egypt.” Somehow I doubt it. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that finally the “Satanic” influence of the West is banished from Egypt. And I think his is the more realistic vision of the future: an Egypt estranged from the United States; an Egypt increasingly hostile to the West.

Daniel chapter 11 pictures a great deal of history spanning millennia—from the time of the fall of the Persian Empire and the rise of the Greek Empire in the fourth century BC to the present. Early portions of that chapter depict events that took place in the clash between two of the smaller kingdoms which rose up from the ruins of the Greek Empire after the death of Alexander. The are described as “the King of the North”, the Seleucids and “the King of the South”, the Ptolemies. The Seleucids came to be identified with the area of Syria; the Ptolemies with Egypt. As the prophecies of Daniel 11 move further down the corridor of history, past the times of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, the prophecy continues to refer to then future events in an ongoing conflict between successive, opposed powers using the labels, “King of the North” and “King of the South” as a literary device. By the final verses of Daniel 11, a dramatic turn of events is predicted which results in the “King of the South” losing control of, in part, the land of Egypt.

"40 "At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through.  41 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites.  42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.  43 He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train."  (Dan 11:40-43 ESV)

The trillion-dollar questions are, “Who is the King of the South?” and, “Who is the King of the North?” who gains control over Egypt, and influence over the Libyans and Cushites shortly before the final events predicted? It seems like a good place to start is to watch to see what nation, power or entity, near the end, sweeps through countries, passing through them, but from which the nations in Daniel’s time called, “Edom, Moab and the main part of the Ammonites”, escape?  " 41 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites." (Dan 11:41 ESV) Below are two maps, a map of the ancient region of Canaan showing the locations of the ancestral tribal territories of the three people groups identified in Daniel 11:41, Edom, Moab and the Ammonites (left); and a map of the same area today, identifying the country of Jordan and its capital, Amman (right).

The thing to notice is that Edom, Moab and Ammon, today, are all part of the Kingdom of Jordan, Israel’s neighbour to the East. In fact, the capital city, “Amman”, inherits its name from the ancient tribe of the Ammonites. So what should we make of this? Well here’s my suggestion: be alert to see what nation, power or entity (by “entity” I mean something fairly vague and hard-to-pin down like “Radical Islam”) gains leverage over Egypt—leverage and influence until this week enjoyed by the United States for the past several decades. Watch also to see if that nation, power or entity also has a lot of influence over the regions of Libya and “Cush” (possibly referring to modern Iraq, but more likely to modern Sudan and/or Ethiopia). There are at least three things that are hard to mistake about the verses following Daniel 11:40:

1. The events predicted in Daniel 11:40ff refer to “the time of the end”;
2. The events predicted involve a dramatic turn-over of control/influence over the nation of Egypt, from the “King of the South” to the “King of the North”;
3. The events predicted show that most, if not all, of Jordan will not come under the control of the “King of the North”.

The area known in the Bible as “Libya” also includes what is today Tunisia. And the “eMaggedon”-wave of popular uprising, organized by masses of youth using Twitter and FaceBook to organize, toppled first, Tunisia, then Egypt, and now threaten other Islamic regimes in the Middle East and Africa. The passage in Daniel 11 mentions Libya, along with Sudan (Cush) and Egypt, and a political overthrow connected with “the time of the end”. It’s worth watching to see if a radical form of Islam, such as the “Islamic Brotherhood” in Egypt, sweep into power throughout the region in the void left by the corrupt dictators of the past few decades. If, in addition, Jordan turns out to be one of the few countries to not succumb to such a tidal wave of populist Islamic extremism, then sit up and pay attention. It would not be too surprising if this hardline, Israel-hating, extremist Islamic movement turns out to be “the King of the North”. I used to think the “King of the North” was almost certainly the same nation called, “Gog” in Ezekiel 38—in other words, Russia. But it’s hard to envision Russia picking up the slack in the Middle East and replacing the USA as the Superpower of Choice, the favoured political sponsor and funder of all things military. USA has for years now wielded an almost elder-brother influence over countries like Egypt and Jordan. I think Obama is wrong. I think the USA’s role as powerbroker in the Middle East is at an end. Probably to be replaced by radical, political, Islam.