Prophecy Speaks (E.A.Rowell).pdf

“Nevertheless, at a time when all other men, judging by analogy, would have
predicted for her practically unending prosperity, Isaiah (chapter 19) and Ezekiel (chapters 29
and 30) foretold many amazing things concerning her, reaching more than two thousand
years beyond their death!
“When you get home, read these chapters carefully, as every verse is literally packed
with meaning. I shall not take time to quote more than a few of the more outstanding
statements.
“In a few words, Ezekiel foretold history that has taken twenty-five hundred years to
fulfil and would take several volumes to record. I quote Ezekiel 29:14, 15; 30:6, 7; 32:15;
30:12, 13.
“ ‘They shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither
shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no
more rule over the nations.’ ‘The pride of her power shall come down. . . .And they shall be
desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of
the cities that are wasted.’ ‘I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be
destitute of that whereof it was full.’ ‘I will . . . sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and
I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have
spoken it. . . . And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.’
“Every phase of the verses I have quoted is surcharged with meaning. The doom of
Edom and Chaldea and Babylon was utter extinction, but not so the fate of Egypt. The
inexorable decree was one of continual baseness and decline. It was to continue a nation, but
it was no longer to rule. On the contrary, it was to be ruled by cruel strangers.
“We have only to consider the condition of Egypt six hundred years later to see that
this prophecy could not have been the result of mere human foresight. In the time of Christ
there was nothing to indicate that the day of Egypt was past for ever. She was still very
powerful.
“Augustus, after the defeat of Antony, found so great wealth in Egypt that out of it he
paid all the arrears of his army and all the debts he had incurred during the war. Even after
he had spoiled Egypt at will, she still appeared to him so formidable that he was afraid to
entrust her rulership to any man of power, lest a rival to himself arise. So he gave the
government to Cornelius Gallus, a person of low extraction. He denied Alexandria a
municipal council and declared all Egyptians incapable of being admitted to the senate at
Rome.
“And for six hundred years more Alexandria continued the first city in the Roman
Empire in rank, commerce, and prosperity. Certainly the sceptic of that day might have read
the prophecy of Ezekiel with a mocking smile of derision.
“A hundred years later, Egypt was still so powerful that the Mohammedan hordes,
though arrogant with unchecked victory, hesitated to attack it. When Romulus and Remus
founded Rome, Egypt was then nearly two thousand years old. Rome waxed powerful,
conquered the world, including Egypt, and was in turn conquered by the barbarian hosts of
the north. But still Egypt continued powerful, rich, and populous. The Arabs finally decided
to attack her. The memorable siege of Alexandria lasted fourteen months, during which the
Arabs lost twenty-three thousand men. And then her capture was due to internal treachery.
The sight of the city’s magnificence and wealth filled the conquerors with amazement.
“The burning of the famous Alexandrian library was a world calamity. Its destruction
supplied the Arabs with fuel for six months. The wealth of Alexandria was an indication of
the riches and strength of the whole Egyptian nation. It would have been impossible for the
Arabs, despite their prowess as warriors, to take the land and to retain it had not the people,
groaning under the cruel oppression of their Greek masters, thrown themselves into the arms
of the invaders.
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