Pray for Egypt

Matthew 2:14: So he got up, took the child and His mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt. (HCSB)

The Holy Family’s escape to Egypt was a drastic measure directed by God to save the Child Jesus from Herod’s murderous wrath. But such escapes to Egypt were not uncommon among the Jews of that time, according to William Barclay. Many Jews, for a variety of reasons, were forced to flee Judea, with Egypt being the most logical refuge. So when the Holy Family arrived, a sizable Jewish community was there for them to join. Most important, this fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, “… out of Egypt I called my son.” (v. 15 and Hosea 11:1, ESV)

With such an important part Egypt played in protecting the Messiah (and with that land’s important role in church history), these verses should spur us to pray for the nation of Egypt, that revival would come to that land, and for God’s protection over our brothers and sisters in the persecuted Coptic Church (and other Christians in the nation). Just the disturbing pictures coming out this week of the government’s brutality against protesters, and the blind eye the soon-to-be-Sharia dictatorship is turning to the oppression of Coptic Christians by radical Islamists, should be more than enough cause for us to intercede for the land that watched over our Lord Jesus in his early years as a child.