Nile Nightmare

The nightmare jolted him awake. Pharaoh stood beside his beloved Nile as seven fat cows climbed out of the river and begin grazing along the bank. All was well until, ominously, seven scrawny cows came out of the same river, stalked the healthy cows and devoured them.

Cannibal cows! – a bad portent – something nasty was afoot on the banks of the sacred Nile.  Pharaoh woke with a start.

The Nile is the life-line of Egypt. Rising in the east African highlands it snakes its way northward 6,000 kilometres to the sea, picking up natural nutrients and minerals and carrying them downstream. By the time it reaches the Egyptian flood-plain, it is liquid fertilizer.

The annual flooding of the river refreshed and enriched the soil and washed away the salt residue of previous floods. Egypt became one of the breadbaskets of the world – and with it, one of the cradles of civilization.

On the whole, this natural process served Egypt well; cows and people ate well. But the dream river could also be a nightmare. Some years the flooding wiped out the entire harvest; drought could be equally devastating – like scrawny cows.

Joseph – of the technicolor dream-coat - interpreted Pharaoh’s dream as a forecast of climate change and called for decisive leadership to alleviate the impact of the impending catastrophe. His story is a case study for the ages about resource management and responsible stewardship.

This first river story in the Bible - Genesis 41 - reminds us that we have a very delicate relationship with our environment. Dreams can easily become nightmares with wide-ranging effects.

In the 1960’s, after millennia of the Nile’s erratic ebb and flow Egypt built the Aswan High Dam.

This development increased effective farmland by 500% and provides electricity for hundreds of Egyptian towns and villages. But it has also had adverse impact on Egyptian fisheries, soil fertility, erosion and other concerns.

Stewarding nature is a complicated privilege.
As an act of faith it requires courage and humility, initiative and patience, science and imagination, respect for creation and a sense of responsibility to fulfill its global purpose.

Pharaoh was very troubled by his mad cow dream. I wonder what he would find troubling in our world today? Let me ask ... what aspects of global development today do you find un-natural and night-marish ? If you were Joseph, what counsel would you give the king?