I had read a book on him, filled with several magnificent photos of his belongings, found in his tomb. My parents planned for us to see his things. It was 1977. We were going to Chicago, to the Field Museum. We were going to stand in line at four in the morning to get tickets to see the wondrous objects found in the tomb of the Pharaoh, King Tutankhamun, better known as "King Tut."
I also knew, back then, of the rumors about Tut's death -- that experts had found a hole in his skull -- that perhaps Tut had been murdered due to a severe religious crisis brought on by his older brother (or father), the first royal to believe in only ONE God, King Akhenaton. As I looked at the most famous (and most beautiful) of all the items in Chicago -- Tut's famous golden funerary mask -- I stood in wonder. How could people who lived so long ago make something so exquisite, so perfect, so well-made? Was this an accurate depiction of Tut? Was he this handsome? And how ironic that the mask possibly hid proof of his murder!
But now in the latest National Geographic, we find that advances in science can finally answer questions about Tut and his past. First of all, a few years ago it was found that he died not from a murder but from an infection from a badly broken left leg (I can relate a little to that!). Now the latest thing was DNA evidence. Recovery of this evidence from deep in the bones of several mummies, the DNA of Tut and his royal friends and relatives has finally put all the pieces together. Tut was indeed the son of the rebel king Akhenaton, but Tut's mother was...Akhenaton's sister! Experts now know Tut's mother is one of the five sisters of Akhenaton, Tut's father, but don't know which one. Incest! Yuk!
Yet incest was very common among some of the most powerful royal dynasties of the distant past...and even more recently among Hawaiian royals of the 1800s. So many royals intermarried (as 1st cousins) in Europe in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s that Queen Victoria of England passed along to many of her descendants -- rulers of several European nations -- something hidden in her genes -- hemophilia, the inability for spouting blood to clot correctly. Her great-grandson, Alexei of Russia, had this condition, and his mother Queen Alexandra sought Rasputin's help to "cure" her son. Rasputin's evil influence in turn brought Russia down during World War One, leading to the Communists taking over the country.
Tut, too, may have inherited "bad genes" due to incest. He had a cleft palate, a club foot, and part of that foot was literally dying due to malformation. Tut is shown in his tomb's heiroglyphics as either walking with a cane or sitting. He also had malaria a lot. Perhaps he was weakened by all of these things when, at age 19, infection in a broken leg caused his early death. How ironic, then, that trying to "keep" and "control" all the royal power among themselves -- the leading reason why royal incest was encouraged down through the centuries -- led, instead, to genetic anomolies, weakness, and death. "Keeping the power in the family" led, inevitably, to wasting that very power away.
When it comes to sin, "seeking to control" is often at the root of it. We either seek to control our feelings by indulging in various addictions, or we seek to control our environment and get power by controlling others around us. We also seek to control our lives by not getting involved in the lives of others -- others who may need our help. We may lie, cheat, or steal -- or even kill -- to get and control what we want. Yes, we can point to the folly of the Egyptian royal family, shake our heads at their incest, and say "Tsk, tsk, tsk...tut, tut, tut." And certainly it's wrong. But may he who is without sin, as Jesus once said, cast the first stone. We have our own controlling nature to take care of first.
How do we stop seeking control? Well, we can give that urge over to God; He knows how to take care of us, of our destinies, far better than we can. When St. Paul was frustrated with God after praying that some problem to go away -- and it didn't, it finally dawned on him that God knew best. God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in [your] weakness." Paul then wrote that he would therefore "boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me...for whenever I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) Bowing to reality, and looking to God to develop our destinies is nothing other than obeying the very first of the Ten Commandments, namely, "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before Me."
David Hewitt
