Notes from the Intro Egypt Video and How Big is Our God?

These are my notes from Ray Vanderlaan’s video series about Egypt
http://www.followtherabbi.com/

In the east, story is always an invitation to join in
– we are all invited to join in not as observers, but as participants

How Big is Our God?

Western question: How did they build the pyramids?
Eastern question: Why did they build the pyramids.

We are going to look at “The God Story” as it is rooted in Egypt

Now looking at Karnak Temple in city of Thebes
– easterners preferred to experience their stories through pictures

MY THOUGHT: WITH LESS ACCESS TO TEXTS, PICTURES AND SCULPTURES WERE MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE. ALSO, THEY ARE MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE WITH AN ILLITERATE POPULOUS.

Pharaoh’s job was to maintain order
– Mat means order
– if Pharaoh does his job, the gods were believed to do what they were expected to do: bring rains, floods, new life through birth, etc.

Shepherds crook and flail are always in Rameses hands in sculptures, shows his roles, authority and power

Now in Hypostyle Hall
134 columns, biggest over 70 feet high

Daily journey of the sun was a key part of the separation between order and chaos

Pharaoh mediated the gods for the ancient Egyptians

MY THOUGHT: I NEED TO GET A DESCRIPTION TO STEVE FOR THE FALL WEDNESDAY NIGHT CLASS I WANT TO LEAD: “DIGITAL WITNESSES FOR CHRIST”

Pharaoh did all the religious rituals in Egypt, to keep the gods happy
– there were thousands of temples in Egypt, so he couldn’t do all of them
– rituals are always carved in stone to represent Pharoah doing them

gold is called “the skin of the gods” in the Egyptian world
– they didn’t think the statue was the god, it was rather a marker to tell go where the god lived/lives
– this is similar to the Israelites who built The Temple in Jerusalem

Exodus Chapter 12: God says he will execute judgement on the gods of the Egyptians
– there was power here, it wasn’t all just story and myth

Deuteronomy 32

Don’t forget there is demonic power behind these rituals, sacrifices, beliefs Te Egyptian story has a price tag – they believed nature was/contained the gods
– that system glorifies and eventually deified the human
– morality is what the human says

That is the opposite of God’s Story

Our culture today has bought into the wrong story

Genesis tells us nature is NOT God

Hang on to the story!

Sent from my iPad

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