Egyptian gods were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples were traditionally believed to be outside the divine order . But in the New Kingdom , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun god 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and gods . Other gods were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet , who presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to gods influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's  heart  — the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well @-@ being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the gods judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . But in general , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the gods laid out . Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the god 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the gods could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . Egyptian texts take different views on whether the gods are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the gods were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other gods . But some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in the gods ' defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which the creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the gods as strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the gods ' power to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific gods who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the gods ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the gods ' will . fill in the blank  :Egyptian gods were involved in __________________ lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . 
Output:  human