Egypt Judgment

Dear Mr. Froese,Quite recently, I was stunned at the implications of Ezekiel 29:11… Even having read the Bible through several times verse by verse, the real significance of a 40 year utter devastation of Egypt, along with the destruction of the Tower of Syene, had never registered with me.I was taken aback on hearing that Israeli scientists/engineers have already spoken, publicly, that: should they ever need to go to war with Egypt, the way to defeat them catastrophically would be to demolish the Aswan Dam, thereby flooding the inhabited Nile Valley (all the way to the Mediterranean delta) with trillions and trillions of debris-laden, radioactive water… radioactive, because Israeli scientists believe that they would have to employ several small nuclear explosives, since ordinary ordnance could not “take down” the 2000+ft-thick concrete dam walls.Talking with several of my Christian friends, I heard many disclaimers: that the prophecy had been fulfilled in Ezekiel’s time; the “40 yrs.” is not to be taken literally: it merely indicates a long time; the reference to the Tower of Syene probably refers to some structure in the Jewish settlement that was there… and so on. All of which do not at all seem to hold water upon further thought. I’m so surprised, by the way, how many believers feel perfectly free to take literally dates/periods in one section of Scripture (viz., the 40 years of the Israelites’ desert wanderings) and discard literalness for other texts!My take, by the way, among other points is: the Tower of Syene did not exist at the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy… A group of us would be most grateful to “hear” your take on this astounding verse.-P. Hanson, CA