The Book Of Isaiah. Day 80, A Prophecy Against Egypt, Part Four

Isaiah has been predicting collapse for ancient Egypt. This is going to take place in the form of governmental failings, drought that will affect agriculture and the fishing industry and the trading of goods, civil unrest within the nation, and invasion and subjugation by other empires.

Now he says: "In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them. And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them." (Isaiah 19:16-17)

The interpretation of verses 16-17 is unclear. Judah itself would be conquered in a little over one hundred years after Isaiah gave this message and it is difficult to see how, during Isaiah's time or afterwards, the Egyptians would have shuddered in fear at the mention of the name of Judah. Most scholars appear to believe these verses predict a time that has not yet come to pass and I tend to agree with that assessment. 

Whenever the Bible uses the term "in that day" it is often a reference to the end times or to the eternal kingdom of the Messiah. We can see that verse 16 may have been fulfilled in antiquity, when the Lord allowed great disasters to befall Egypt, but verse 16 seems so closely connected to verse 17 (including the use of the word "and" between the two verses) that this may indicate a future event. The "fear" and the "terror" Egypt will experience at that time may indicate a reverent fear of Judah's God and a widescale turning to Him.

In our own day only about ten percent of Egyptians are Christian and there are so few Jews that a percentage cannot even really be calculated, so it seems clear that Isaiah's prediction has not yet fully come true. This next segment may have been partially fulfilled in antiquity but most of it remains to be fulfilled as well.

"In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border." (Isaiah 19:18-19) What does Isaiah mean when he says five cities of Egypt will speak the language of the land of Canaan? Does he mean they will speak the language of the descendants of Jacob, to whom the Lord gave the land of Canaan? Scholars are divided in their opinion of this prophecy and some scholars don't offer an opinion on it at all.

An altar to the Lord was indeed built during the time when the Greeks were Pharaohs of Egypt. A Jewish high priest named Onias built a temple, including an altar, in Alexandria when Ptolemy VI was king of Egypt. During that time there were a number of converts to Christianity in Egypt. However, there is reason to believe that Isaiah's prediction will be fulfilled in bigger ways in times to come. 

When we continue our study of this chapter in our next session, we will discuss how some of Isaiah's prophecy in Chapter 19 may have been partially fulfilled in the time of Alexander the Great and thereafter. But we will also discuss the fact that not all of Isaiah's prophecy fits into history, leading us to believe that much of it regards a time still to come.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 79, A Prophecy Against Egypt, Part Three

Isaiah is predicting the downfall of ancient Egypt. As we learned in our last study session, invaders will come, drought will come, the fishing industry will fail, and the crops will fail.

Ancient Egypt has already been on the decline for some time by Isaiah's day, which is why the nation was taken over by the Cushites. The pharaohs of Egypt in Isaiah's lifetime are Cushites, not Egyptians. But even though these people were able to subjugate the Egyptians, their leaders will not be able to defend Egypt against Assyria or against Babylon after that or against Persia after that. Their leaders won't be able to prevent civil unrest or the civil wars that will come not long after Isaiah's lifetime. Their leaders won't be able to do anything about the lack of rain, the lack of crops, the lack of fish, and the lack of flax and other materials that will be affected by the drought.

The prophet says: "The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, 'I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings?'" (Isaiah 19:11) 

The central government will break down in the face of adversity. There will be disagreements over what to do and over whose advice to follow. None of the advice will be good since none of it comes from the Lord. The "wise men" of the cultures surrounding Judah and Israel were men who sought counsel by various means of pagan divination. They called upon idols, upon the dead, and upon unseen spiritual forces of wickedness. They practiced the occult and at times could perform signs and wonders through demonic influences, such as the magicians of Pharaoh did in the days of Moses. Nothing told to these "wise men" by fallen angels (demons) will be of any use. Neither will any interpretations from any fortune-telling methods they may use. At best, such things are nothing but fraudulent charades; at worst, they are messages from Satan and his minions. Either way, no one can thwart the plans of God, and whatever He purposes is what is going to happen.

Satan and the fallen angels who rebelled against God along with him cannot read the mind of God or of man. They don't know exactly when or how the Lord is going to bring things to pass. They can't predict with one hundred percent accuracy what man is going to do either. Even if the forces of darkness want to help the land of Egypt, their knowledge and power are limited. Satan is not the Lord's counterpart, for he is a created entity, and he cannot know the mind of the Lord and he is not powerful like the Lord. "Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the Lord Almighty has planned against Egypt." (Isaiah 19:12)

"The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray. The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit. There is nothing Egypt can do---head or tail, palm branch or reed." (Isaiah 19:13-15) Zoan and Memphis were the capitals of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. These cities were where a person would go when seeking the most learned and wise of counselors. But no one will be found who can avert the coming disaster. In fact, not only was their ungodly advice bad to begin with, but the Lord will frustrate their advice further so that it's even worse than it normally is.

The Lord is not forcing the leaders or the citizens of Egypt to be ignorant and confused. He's simply not doing anything to prevent them from making poor decisions. He's not protecting them from making poor decisions from the sinful desires of their hearts or from the foolishness of fortune-tellers. They strayed from the truth long ago and preferred to serve idols rather than the living God. He is going to let them have their way and do their own thing---and the result of that will be the dissolution of their government and the fall of their nation.

It is the Lord who gives wise counsel. It is the Lord who directs our steps along the right paths. When we follow our carnal human heart or when we follow the foolish counsel of ungodly men and women, we are bound to make mistakes and we will have to face the consequences of those mistakes. I'm not saying it's possible to lose our salvation but that when we make ungodly decisions we make life unpleasant for ourselves and for our loved ones. Some mistakes can have far-ranging consequences, not only for ourselves but for our descendants. While it's true that we cannot live completely sinless lives as long as we live in the flesh in this fallen world, it's also true that we can certainly avoid some very costly mistakes if we will submit all of our plans to the Lord, pray for His guidance, and obey whatever He tells us.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 78, A Prophecy Against Egypt, Part Two

Isaiah has a word from the Lord against the idolatrous land of Egypt. In yesterday's study we learned that several nations were going to subjugate the land of Egypt and that there would be civil unrest within the nation, causing it to break apart into a number of factions. Today's text begins with words about a natural disaster that's coming: drought.

"The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry." (Isaiah 19:5) The reference to "the river" can only be a reference to the Nile River, upon which Egypt was utterly dependent. The farming communities along the Nile could not raise their crops without the annual flooding of the Nile and without being able to irrigate their fields from the Nile.

Subsidiary waterways will run low too and many of the animals that live in the water will perish and decay. "The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more. The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away." (Isaiah 19:6-8)

This is a disaster for the farming industry and for the fishing industry. It's a disaster for the trade industry too. Not only will there be no crops or fish to eat or sell or trade, but the people will lack the materials to make some of the fine goods they normally sold for money to buy necessities. "Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart." (Isaiah 19:9-10)

Egypt has been on the decline for quite some time by Isaiah's day. It has problems within and without---and those problems are going to get worse, as Isaiah predicts. Not one of Egypt's pantheon of gods will be of any help. Neither will any of Egypt's sorcerers, wise men, or leaders. In our next study session we will see how futile is the help of idols or man. The only way Egypt would have been helped is if its people had forsaken their idols and turned to the Lord.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 77, A Prophecy Against Egypt, Part One

I'm sorry for not having a Bible study post on Wednesday. I normally do a post Sunday through Friday but several things happened yesterday that threw my whole day's schedule off course and I ran out of time to properly work on the study and to give it the attention it deserves.

Today we are beginning Chapter 19 which is titled "A Prophecy Against Egypt". Egypt was perhaps the most idolatrous nation on the earth during Old Testament times---or at least the Egyptians had the largest pantheon of false gods---and Egypt was an ancient enemy of the descendants of Jacob. There are times in the Old Testament when we will see the people of Judah and Israel being on friendly terms with Egypt but there were certainly times they were persecuted by Egypt. The Lord is going to judge ancient Egypt for its idolatry and cruelty. 

"A prophecy against Egypt: See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear." (Isaiah 19:1) No idol can stand against the living God. The Lord is the only God and all idols (and the false deities they represent) are useless. The Egyptians can bow to their idols as often as they want but the idols cannot do a thing. 

Not only will there be troubles from outside the nation, such as the growing threat of the Assyrian Empire which will in time subjugate Egypt, but Egypt itself is on the decline in Isaiah's day. There are many troubles inside the nation and these troubles will turn people against each other.

The Lord says, "I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian---brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom." (Isaiah 19:2) Civil unrest and civil war ensued within Egypt not long after Isaiah's lifetime and the kingdom of Egypt split into many factions.

In Isaiah's day the people of Egypt were concerned about Assyria, and rightly so. But Assyria wasn't the only nation to subdue them in Old Testament times; they ended up under the authority of Babylon and Persia as well. When the Lord speaks of placing them under a "cruel master" in our final segment for today, He is likely not speaking of only one master (nation/regime) but of several masters in a row who subdued the nation. 

"The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists. I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,' declares the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 19:3-4)

The ancient Egyptians preferred to bow their knees to anyone other than the Lord. If they had honored Him and allowed Him to be their master, they would never have been mastered by anyone on earth. The same can be said of ancient Israel and ancient Judah; if they had made the Lord the King of their hearts, no other king would ever have ruled over them. 

The same can be said for us as well. If we make God the Lord of our lives and the King of our hearts, sin won't have mastery over us. We won't live perfect lives as long as we inhabit mortal bodies in this fallen world but no child of God needs to live a defeated life. No child of God needs to live a hopeless life. No child of God needs to live a joyless life. If we are in the bondage of defeat and hopelessness and joylessness, this is not God's will for us and He did not shackle us with such chains---we have placed ourselves in such shackles.

Believe me, I've been guilty of this time and time again. Our text applies to me as much as it applies to anyone. I've needlessly trapped myself over and over in cycles of bad thinking. The Lord wants to set us free from such things. Living in negativity shouldn't be the constant state of the child of God. His children have the right to walk in the freedom of His love and care, just as a small child goes through his day without cares because he knows his loving parents are watching over him. A small child shouldn't have to worry about anything because that is his parents' job; in this same way it is the Lord's job to look after us. I am trying to hand my cares over to the Lord because I am weary of carrying them. This is what He wants all of us to do, for His beautiful promise to us is that we can cast all of our cares on Him because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7)

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 76, A Prophecy Regarding Cush, Part Three

The Cushite king of Egypt will want to make an alliance with King Hezekiah of Judah against the growing threat of the Assyrian Empire. But time and time again in the book of Isaiah we will find the prophet warning Hezekiah to trust no one but the Lord. As long as the people of Judah look to the Lord for help and are faithful to Him, no nation can conquer them. The Lord promised the children of Israel, before He brought them into the land of Canaan and gave it to them, that no nation would ever be able to stand before them if they would remain faithful to Him.

Not only should the people of Judah not make alliances with heathen nations or pay "protection money" to other nations, but someday other nations will bring their gifts to the land of the descendants of Jacob. "At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers---the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 18:7)

Previously in our chapter we found the Cushite people (Ethiopians/Nubians) referred to as "tall" and "smooth-skinned". They were taller and longer-limbed, generally speaking, than the Jewish people. They shaved their faces, unlike the Jewish people. Also they were "feared far and wide" because they were a very powerful nation in Isaiah's day. They were not able to keep Assyria from conquering Egypt but Assyria did not, according to anything I can find, decide to invade and conquer Cush. 

Whenever the Bible says something like "at that time" or "in that day" it is often a reference to the end times or to the church age. We can clearly see when we arrive at the New Testament that Isaiah's prophecy regarding the Ethiopians began coming true in the book of Acts when an Ethiopian convert to Judaism became a believer in Christ after speaking with the Apostle Philip. This convert went back to Ethiopia with his testimony of how the Lord Jesus Christ saved him.

The prophecy regarding Ethiopia has continued to come true as the primary religion of Ethiopia has become Christianity. I believe the prophecy will continue to come true in the end times as more and more people of that land (and of many other nations) turn to Christ in the church age and in the last days. And certainly, in the eternal kingdom of Christ when He sits on the throne of David at Jerusalem and reigns over the world from there, all the people of all the nations of the earth will bring gifts to Mount Zion, thus completely fulfilling the words of Isaiah which we have studied today.

This concludes Chapter 18, which was a prophecy about Cush rather than a prophecy against Cush. In contrast to what Isaiah said about Cush, Chapter 19 will involve a prophecy against Egypt and its idolatry. However, there will be a future message of hope for Egypt when the hearts of its people turn to the Lord.

The Book Of Isaiah, Day 75, A Prophecy Regarding Cush, Part Two

Chapter 18 deals with a prophecy regarding Cush (rendered as Kush in most extra-Biblical sources), which is in control of Egypt in Isaiah's day. Unlike some of the other prophecies we've already studied, this one isn't exactly a prophecy against a nation; rather, it's a warning for Judah not to ally itself with Cush against the Assyrian Empire. The Lord is going to deliver Judah from Assyria and He won't need anyone's help to do it.

The Cushite king will attempt to come to Judah's aid, and there's no doubt he provides a distraction when Sennacherib of Assyria has to pause his intended assault on Judah when he hears that the Cushite over Egypt, King Tirhakah, was marching out with his forces to fight against him. But it is the Lord who provides a miraculous deliverance for Jerusalem when Sennacherib returns with his army intending to lay siege to Jerusalem. 

During the lifetime of the prophet Isaiah and of King Hezekiah, who will feature largely in the book of Isaiah, the 25th Dynasty of Egypt is ruled by Cushite pharaohs, not by Egyptian pharaohs. Egypt had subjugated the region of Cush long ago, a region which corresponds partly to Ethiopia today but which encompassed a much larger swath of territory, but Egypt went on the decline after the Bronze Age. There was much internal disintegration and unrest in Egypt, causing Cush to be able to rebel against being subject to Egypt and to be able to launch a successful invasion of Egypt, after which a long succession of Cushite kings sat on the throne. But by Isaiah's day the Assyrian Empire was out to conquer everything around it, including Egypt, Judah, Israel, and many others in the region.

It makes sense that Egypt would want to ally itself with Judah against Assyria; the king of Egypt's forces were not great enough to face the Assyrian army. It also makes sense that Judah would want to accept a proposed alliance from the Cushite king of Egypt, especially after the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria's forces. But Judah is to be still and know that God is God, to quote from Psalm 46. Judah's deliverance is from the Lord, not from man.

The Lord will act on Judah's behalf at the right time and in the right way. With this in mind, we begin today's text. "All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it." (Isaiah 18:3) The Assyrians will march out with their flags held high and with the sound of their war trumpets but the people of Judah are not to panic. The Lord isn't in a panic! We find Him calm, cool, collected, and in control in this next segment.

Isaiah says of his message from the Lord: "This is what the Lord says to me: 'I will remain quiet and I will look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'" (Isaiah 18:4) There is a sense of waiting stillness in this verse, like the humid and insect-buzzing stillness of a hot day in late summer. It may appear as if nothing is happening, but the Lord is poised to strike the enemy at just the right moment. 

"For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter." (Isaiah 18:5-6) When the enemy is literally at the gates of Jerusalem, and when it appears all hope is lost and there is no escape, the Lord will come through for the kingdom of Judah in such a way that no one can claim that anyone but the Lord wrought deliverance. In 2 Kings 19 we find Him striking down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers encamped outside Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem didn't have to lift a finger against the enemy; when they arose the next morning all these Assyrian soldiers were lying dead in the fields, which fulfills the prophecy from our verses above which says, "They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals". The thousands of dead bodies of the Assyrian soldiers are what the birds and animals of prey will feed on. 

What happens next? "Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword." (2 Kings 19:36-37a) The nation of Judah outlasted the nation of Israel by approximately 130 years and was never conquered by Assyria. If the spiritual revival which occurred during the reign of King Hezekiah had persisted, Judah never would have fallen, but nevertheless we see the Lord's divine deliverance from the most fearsome nation in the world in that era. The people of Judah did not need the help of Cush/Egypt or anyone else. All they needed was the Lord, who set the stage for Jerusalem's deliverance in such a way that no one could claim Jerusalem was saved by anyone except Him, which led to the people's increased faith in the Lord.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 74, A Prophecy Regarding Cush, Part One

In some translations of the Bible, including the NIV which we use for our study, Chapter 18 is titled "A Prophecy Against Cush". But the chapter isn't really issuing words of judgment against Cush; rather, it is instructing the Lord's people not to make an alliance with Cush against Assyria.

Ancient Cush corresponds to modern-day Ethiopia, although the territory belonging to ancient Cush encompassed much more land than that which currently makes up the country of Ethiopia. In Isaiah's day the nation was one of the most powerful and advanced in the world and it had taken control of Egypt. Egypt's king at the time was not an Egyptian but an Ethiopian, or Cushite as they were referred to in the Bible. 

At this time Assyria is on the rise and is becoming enough of a major world power to threaten all the nations around it. It would have made sense, from a human point of view, for the people of Judah to ally themselves with the people of Cush against the Assyrian Empire. But Judah is to place all of her trust in the Lord. The people of Judah are not to even consider an alliance with the Cushite king of Egypt, for Egypt will be conquered by Assyria. Cush itself will not fall to Assyria, from what I was able to gather from my background study, but since Cush could not protect Egypt (which it occupied), it could not help Judah either.

"Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water." (Isaiah 18:1-2a) King Piankhi, the Ethiopian who was reigning over Egypt during Isaiah's lifetime when King Hezekiah was on the throne of Judah, sent an envoy to the king of Judah to propose an alliance with him against Assyria. But as we will see as we move on through the book of Isaiah, Isaiah will warn Hezekiah against making alliances with other nations.

"Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers." (Isaiah 18:2b) This text is interpreted by many well-respected scholars to be the Lord's instructions to King Hezekiah to quickly send word back to the Cushite king that he must turn down the offer of an alliance. 

The people "tall and smooth-skinned" of "strange (foreign) speech" is a description of how the Ethiopians and also the Egyptians. There was a custom in Egypt where the men (or at least men of prominence) would shave their faces and even their entire bodies; they did not wear beards like the Israelites. The Cushite king over Egypt may have adopted Egyptian customs, deciding to make himself "smooth-skinned". You may recall from our study of Genesis that Joseph, the son of Jacob, shaved himself before going to meet with Pharaoh and I believe he continued to keep himself clean shaven during the remainder of his life as a top official in Egypt. When his family traveled to Egypt during the famine they did not recognize Joseph because his appearance was like that of an Egyptian. I believe the Cushite king would have made himself look like an Egyptian pharaoh to show respect for the people's customs and to aid their acceptance of him. 

Chapter 18 is not a long chapter but is somewhat complicated and detailed from a historical point of view. We are going to need to break it down into two or three separate sessions. But as we continue on in our next study segment, there is no doubt that the Lord is warning the people of Judah not to enter an alliance with the Cushites, no matter how attractive this option may appear, especially after Assyria invades and conquers the northern kingdom of Israel.