Egypt may not be the World Cup's stand out football nation but for a Christian blogger going through the World Cup nations Egypt is unquestioningly the Biblical centrepiece. After Israel and (arguably) the predecessors of Iraq, Egypt is the next most mentioned nation in the Scriptures. One of the Bible's greatest stories - the Exodus - began there; another, the story of Joseph, is almost entirely set there. Abraham visited there, Jacob retired there, Moses was born there, Kings David and Solomon had dealings there (no, they were not Egyptian as some speculators have suggested) and we could go on.
In the New Testament, Egypt is mentioned only a couple of dozen times and nearly always with reference to the Exodus or quoting Psalms about those days.
Except twice. On the Day of Pentecost people from Egypt were among those present at the outset of the Christian church's missionary story - long before Croatia that we looked at a blog or two ago. But the other New Testament occurrence of Egypt is what sets it apart from all other the nations at this World Cup - God walked there.
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’
There are timing issues with this toddlerdom of Jesus. The truth may be somewhat greater than that God walked in Egypt. It could be - it is likely to be - that Egypt was where God learned to walk.
Whatever Egypt achieves in this World Cup we may be sure that it is not going to be the most mind-boggling thing to think about when we think about Egypt.
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