Let Us Be Informed By History

I don't believe that history repeats in neat clean cycles, like reruns of a Shakespearian play, perhaps updated as to time and place, but otherwise presenting the same scenes and characters. But history has themes that can inform us to what might happen in our own time and situation. 

The history I want to focus on today starts approximately 2000 B.C. At that time, the Canaanites were the dominant people of the Eastern Mediterranean, including what is modern day Israel and Lebanon. It was in Canaan that the Lord brought Abraham (then known as Abram) to dwell, promising him that someday his descendants would possess the land. (See Genesis 13 and Genesis 15). (Interestingly, the Canaanites must have possessed some prophets and priests elected by God, because Abraham paid over his tithe to Melchizedek, a priest and king of Salem (later to be called Jerusalem), at that time one of the Canaanite cities). (Genesis 14:17-20). However, the Lord did not give Canaan to Abraham at that time, because "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (Genesis 15:16).

I've discussed before that the seven seals in Revelation represent approximate 1,000 year periods of history. The third seal is described thusly:

 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 

 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Rev. 6:5-6.  This passage is generally interpreted as representing great famines. And, in fact, as we read the relevant portions of the scriptures, we see the theme of famine arise again and again. In Genesis 12, Abraham is forced to leave Canaan and go to Egypt because of a famine. In Genesis 13, when Abraham returns to Canaan from Egypt, we read that the land could not support both Abraham's and Lot's households. The result is that Abraham and Lot split ways, with Lot settling near Sodom. And, of course, it is a couple generations later (in Genesis 42) that we read of Jacob sending his sons into Egypt to buy food because there was no food in Canaan.

By this point, you may be asking what does this have to do with our own time and situation. Well, it is this. Abraham and his descendants were not the only ones effected by these famines. And they weren't the only ones seeking to enter Egypt.

In his book, Exodus Lost, S.C. Compton writes:

Around 2,000 BC, in a massive effort to keep out the neighboring Canaanites, the Egyptians erected a tall border wall 100 miles long, lined it with a moat, and, for good measure, added crocodiles. Yet still the Canaanites came, often at the behest of ambivalent Egyptians who relied on their labor. Over time, northern Egypt [i.e., Lower Egypt, comprising the rich Delta region] became a cosmopolitan mix of Egyptian, Canaanite, and Nubian culture. Toward the end of the 13th Dynasty, as Egypt's central government weakened, an independent kingdom arose within this culturally distinct delta as Egypt's 14th Dynasty. These simultaneous 13th and 14th dynasties then fell to the Hyksos, invaders from Canaan who ruled northern Egypt for the next 108 years as Egypt's 15th Dynasty and reduced southern [i.e., Upper] Egypt to a tribute paying vassal state. 

According to the Egyptian priest and historian, Manetho, the Hyksos conquered Egypt "without striking a blow." The archaeological record, likewise, shows no evidence of a battle or large-scale looting. Yet Egypt was arguably the most powerful nation in the world and had never been conquered in their 1500 year history. How could they now fall without a fight?

The fall of Upper Egypt was approximately 1630 BC, correlating with physical evidence of a short period of intense vegetative growth in the Middle East (approximately 1650 BC) followed by a severe famine following the eruption of Thera in 1628 BC. Compton's thesis is that this period of feast and famine are the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine revealed to Joseph. (See Genesis 41). Moreover, it was Upper Egypt's willingness to sell their flocks, land, and, eventually, themselves to Pharaoh for food that represented how the Hyksos conquered them without a blow. (See Genesis 47).

My point here is that Egypt was invaded by Canaanites who arrived at the behest of Egyptians who relied on their labor, gradually transforming Lower Egypt into a different culture with different loyalties, eventually opening it up to invasion by the Hyksos--i.e., other Canaanites--forming a separate kingdom. Then, when disaster struck, the Hyksos (through Joseph) were able to parley this into real power over Upper Egypt: conquering without striking a blow.

Obviously, you can see the similarity here. Like Egypt, the United States is the most powerful country of its age. Yet we are being invaded by hordes of people from Latin America seeking the jobs and government handouts of America "often at the behest of ambivalent [Americans] who relied on their labor." Much of the culture of the United States has changed. Like the Egypt of old, the ties that bind are weakening. Like Egypt, our military and political fall may be at the hands of people that began to invade long before the armies arrive at our border.