WWUTT 1924 The Oracle Concerning Egypt (Isaiah 19:1-25)

As we've been going through Isaiah, we've seen oracles against Assyria, against Babylon, against Israel. But it's not like God is issuing judgments against one people and ignoring another. He's working all things out for His plan, when we understand the text.

Program Introduction and the Sovereignty of God in Judgment

This is When We Understand the Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Isaiah, we are up to chapter 19. If you want to open a Bible and turn with me there, or I will read it for you, this is the oracle, or the burden, concerning Egypt.

And I'm going to read verses 1 through 15, and then we'll come back and consider what we've read. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will shake at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom.

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them, and I will confuse their counsel, so that they will seek idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists. Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, and a strong king will rule over them, declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

The waters from the sea will dry up, and the river will be parched and dry. The rivers will emit a stench, the streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up, the reeds and rushes will rot away. The bull rushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile, and all the sown fields by the Nile will become dry, be driven away and be no more.

And the fishermen will lament, and all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn. And those who spread nets on the waters will languish. Moreover, the manufacturers of linen, made from combed flax and the weavers of white cloth, will be ashamed, and the pillars of Egypt will be crushed.

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul. The princes of Zohan are merely ignorant fools. The counsels of Pharaoh's wisest counselors have become senseless. How can you men say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old?

Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, and let them understand what Yahweh of hosts has counseled against Egypt. The princes of Zohan have acted as ignorant fools. The princes of Memphis are deluded.

Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes have led Egypt astray. Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion. They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, as a drunken man strays into his vomit.

There will be no work for Egypt, which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush may do. And then we'll have something further to be said about Egypt, Assyria and Israel in the rest of chapter 19, which we'll get to here in just a moment.

Egypt Under the Burden of God's Judgment

So to kind of recap the setting or the vision, really, of what's about to happen, what is going to transpire that God is speaking about prophetically through Isaiah. Judgment is going to come upon Israel.

It's going to be the Assyrians that will bring that judgment. So the nation of Assyria, the Assyrian army, is going to be the tool that God will use to bring punishment upon the people of Israel because they worshiped false gods instead of the true God.

But there are certain things that are going to come against Assyria as well. And there are neighboring lands, Moab, Egypt, Ethiopia, some of these others that we have read about, who are also going to be affected by this movement of people, this conquest that is going to happen in this part of the world at this particular time.

And it's interesting to consider all of that, that God is not just using the Assyrians against the Israelites, but there's all kinds of judgment and punishment that is going to happen in the world at God's hand.

He is not just moving one group of people and disregarding another, but all of these pieces are moving with one sovereign goal in mind. And who could be able to organize all of these things to be able to happen in a certain way except God?

Nobody has a view of the world or its happenings enough to be able to move all these pieces and have these kinds of things happen in the way that they're going to take place, only the Lord. And so all of this to see that God is still sovereign over all of this.

He is doing something and He is accomplishing something. Lest any of this happen and the people go, well, where is God? Where's God in the midst of all of this? How can all of this be happening and there still be a God who sits above the heavens looking out for all of us?

Well, we've seen it prophesied by one of His own prophets so that when you see it and when it happens, you may know that it is the Lord. Again, one nation is not being disregarded. All of them are being considered as all of these oracles are going out to these different peoples.

This oracle is to Egypt or as we would also understand it a burden because that's the literal translation of that word oracle. The burden concerning Egypt as this is going to be a judgment that comes upon Egypt.

It's more than merely a statement. Here's what's going to happen to you, but this is the burden of Egypt. And when it happens, you may know that it was the Lord that did it. These things were not mysterious.

They weren't unspoken. God said it was going to happen and spoke through His prophet that it would take place. So here's what's being said of Egypt. First of all, behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt.

So the might of the kings of Egypt was in their armies and Pharaoh rode in that army in a great chariot. He had the best horses and the best chariot. So here we have the statement of Yahweh riding on a swift cloud.

So when He comes to Egypt, He will be far more fearsome than even the king of Egypt, even Pharaoh. The idols of Egypt will shake at His presence, it says, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

Certainly not the first time, is it? God has brought judgment on Egypt before. So when Yahweh turns His attention back toward Egypt, when they see Him turn their way, they will tremble because they will remember what had happened centuries before when God had rescued His own people out of slavery in Egypt, and here He comes back to us again.

What terror will be brought on us this next time? So verse 2, I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom.

So we have this prophecy concerning a civil war that is going to happen in Egypt, and indeed this did take place. It was preceding the time of Alexander the Great, who would take advantage of the fact that Egypt was so splintered and war-torn because they had been oppressed by fierce rulers.

I'll get to that here in just a moment. It's actually remarkable the way that Alexander was able to conquer Egypt with such efficiency. The city, the province there in Egypt, that would be known as Alexandria.

That's named after Alexander the Great. When Jesus and Mary and Joseph fled Bethlehem because Herod was seeking to kill the Christ child when Jesus was about two years old, this was after the Magi came and visited, when they fled Bethlehem and went to Egypt, it would have been the Jewish settlement at Alexandria that they stayed in.

See, all these pieces that God is moving about, and even these things that are happening here in the days of Isaiah are ultimately going to play a role in the coming of the Messiah. So as Egypt becomes splintered in this way, and that makes it an easy conquest for Alexander the Great.

He founds this city, Alexandria, that will become the place where Jews will settle and have a settlement there, and that's where Mary and Joseph and Jesus will flee to, to escape the wrath of King Herod.

And then, of course, it's out of Egypt. God calls his son, the fulfillment of Hosea 11. All of these things happening by God's hand. It's mind-blowing to really think about. So going on in verse 3,. Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them, and I will confuse their counsel, so that they will seek idols and ghosts of the dead, and to mediums and spiritists.

They will not be able to find clarity in the midst of what's happening. They won't be able to gather themselves and be of one mind again. They're going after the dead. They're going after spirits that don't exist or cannot speak to them to tell them what to do.

They're just going to be thrown into mass confusion, and there will never be unity in the Egyptians for a long time. Verse 4, Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, and a strong king will rule over them, declares the Lord Yahweh of hosts.

Now, it's uncertain as to which cruel king this is referring to, although various theories have been put forward. Some have assumed that it was Nebuchadnezzar because of the Babylonians. Some have said Alexander the Great.

I doubt it's in reference to him, though, because Egypt was in such turmoil by the time that Alexander the Great came in. He may have been a welcome reprieve. It may have been like, finally, somebody is going to come in here and help us clean up all this mess.

So Alexander may not be the cruel lord that was being referred to, but rather a succession of cruel Egyptian lords. That includes Sargon, also Pharaoh Necho that's mentioned in 2 Kings 23, and these men were tyrants even to their own people.

So this is part of the judgment of God that is being brought upon the Egyptians because they once again opposed God's people. Verse 5 is where we begin the effects of this particular judgment. The waters from the sea will dry up, and the river will be parched and dry.

Now, that's a parallelism, meaning that you have the same statement made twice. It's a common literature device used in Hebrew poetry. But in this case, we may be talking about, in the first line, the Mediterranean Sea, and in the second line, it would be the Nile River.

There was quite a relationship between the Mediterranean and the Nile because the Nile drained into the Mediterranean. Now, remember, the Nile is the longest river in the world, but it's also one of the most unusual in the sense that it flows from south to north rather than from north to south.

So the river is flowing toward the Mediterranean and draining into the Mediterranean. It supplies the Mediterranean. Now, of course, the Mediterranean Sea is also supplied by the Atlantic Ocean in the far west.

But if the Nile is not draining into the Mediterranean, then that coastal area will recede. It will pull back to the north. So, likely, the effects of this particular judgment includes that the Nile dries up.

It's not providing as much water. It's not flowing toward the Mediterranean. So that Mediterranean coastal line begins to recede back to the north, and you have really kind of a muddy, marshy area that's not good for anything.

You can't draw water from it, but you also can't plant in it or do anything. And so there's a drought that takes place. Crops are drying up because they're not being supplied by the Nile or the Mediterranean since the Mediterranean has pulled so far back from the Egyptian coastline.

So that appears to be what's tied into this particular judgment. The waters from the sea dry up, meaning that the coast of the Mediterranean has withdrawn to the north, and the river will be parched and dry because the Nile is not draining into the Mediterranean.

Then that place where the Nile and the Mediterranean meet dries up. The rivers will emit a stench because the fish are dying. All the wildlife there is dying. It smells like a stinky marsh. The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up all the other streams that were being fed by the Nile.

The reeds and brushes will rot away. The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile, and all the sown fields by the Nile will become dry and driven away and no more. Egypt we typically think of as a desert, right?

Because the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx and all the ruins that you see pictures of, they just seem to be surrounded by sand. Egyptian was an incredibly fertile region. That's the reason why it was so populated and so powerful in these particular days.

But here you've got rivers drying up, and then Egypt does kind of become a desert. Things become sandy, and even those great relics that have been built in Egypt's past become buried by the sands that result from this particular drought.

Verse 8, the fishermen will lament, and all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. Their very livelihoods will dry up and become as nothing because they don't have the Nile to supply for them.

Now, they believe, the Egyptians believe, that there was a god of the Nile that was supplying all this for them. So remember earlier, they're going to turn to their gods, they're going to seek their idols, the ghosts and the dead, the mediums and the spiritists, and what's their response going to be?

Nothing but silence because they're not really there. Notice again that when the Lord comes to Egypt, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud. He comes in judgment over all of their false gods who can't provide anything for them.

And so the people that had depended upon the blessings of these false gods in order to live and survive and thrive, they're not going to have anything. Their very livelihoods will waste away, and they will be wondering, where are our gods in the midst of this?

Why aren't they listening to us? Verse 9, moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax and the weavers of white cloth will be ashamed. All of that coming from the agriculture of Egypt and the pillars of Egypt will be crushed and the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

The princes of Zoan are merely ignorant fools. So the people are going to turn to their rulers, and the rulers are not going to have any answers for them. Remember that when a great famine had struck Egypt at the end of the book of Genesis, God gave them a wise man to help store up food.

That, of course, was Joseph. So that not only Egypt would be saved, but even surrounding people in surrounding lands would come to Egypt looking for food because God's wisdom was upon Joseph. But here the people are looking to their rulers, and they've got nothing.

Nothing to provide for them. They're ignorant fools. The counsel of Pharaoh's wisest counselors has become senseless. How can you men say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old?

You've got no answers. Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you and let them understand what Yahweh of hosts has counseled against Egypt. Where would Egypt have heard this word? They would have heard it from a prophet of God.

But they're not listening to prophets of God. They're listening to their own wise men who can tell them nothing. The princes of Zoan have acted as ignorant fools. The princes of Memphis are deluded. Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion. Why is it that no one can seem to make sense in the midst of chaos? Why is there not one wise person that is able to stand up and say, I know the way that we should go?

Because God has caused them to be in confusion. They have led Egypt astray and all that it does as a drunken man strays into his vomit, which is pretty disgusting. But that is how thrown into confusion Egypt has become because the Lord of hosts has done this.

There will be no work for Egypt, which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush may do. And that reference to head and tail is a reference to serpent because that's the emblem that's on Pharaoh's crown, a serpent.

That was supposed to be a sign of royalty, even the mark of a god. But the man whom you consider to be your God over Egypt is not going to have any answers for you. Verses 16 to 25, we'll go through this a little more quickly.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel United in Christ

Here is the blessing then that comes upon Egypt to Syria and Israel. In that day, the Egyptians will become like women and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which is going to wave over them.

They'll tremble with fear. There will not be a strong warrior among them. That's what it means that they'll become as women. Verse 17, and the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the counsel of Yahweh of hosts, which he is counseling against them.

In that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts. One will be called the city of destruction. In that day, there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to Yahweh near its border.

And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt, for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a champion, and he will deliver them.

Thus, Yahweh will make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering. They will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it, and Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but healing, so that they will return to Yahweh, and he will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day, Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed is Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance.

What is all of that in reference to? All of that is in reference to this, that Christ has come, so that even Egyptians may know him and have the favor of Yahweh. Even Assyrians may know him and have fellowship with God of hosts.

The God of the Hebrews becomes the God of Jew and Gentile, and all may know him and all may worship him. A highway from Egypt to Assyria. Now, that may be in reference to the fact that that was Jesus' ministry, you know, all the way down to Egypt, when Mary and Joseph and Jesus fled to Egypt, and then all the way up to Assyria, because the Assyrians came into the northern portion of the kingdom of Israel, and that's where Jesus would settle when he became a Galilean.

He was in that northern portion that the Assyrians had taken over. So that could be the reference to the highway. That's the ministry of Jesus Christ during his lifetime. But it could also just merely be to say that those who had previously been against God and those whom God had been against from Egypt to Assyria will be united under one name, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any tribe, tongue, and nation on earth may know God and be in fellowship with him because Christ has brought Jew and Gentile into his kingdom. So because of this particular oracle, Egypt and Assyria are the representation of the fact that the whole world may come to know God through Jesus Christ.

And we see all the symbolism that is added there, an altar that'll be raised up in Egypt. Now, certainly the Jews had settled there. You had the Jewish settlement there, but it's not their altar. That's not the reference.

The altar is in the temple that's in Jerusalem. So this reference to an altar is the fact that all may worship God anywhere. Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. I tell you, a day is coming and is now here when you will worship neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain.

But the worshipers that God is seeking will worship him in spirit and truth. We will worship him anywhere. You can worship in Egypt or in Assyria because the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you. You have become that temple of the living God in whom he dwells.

And so we may worship the Lord wherever we are. We come into his presence because Christ has become our Mount Zion. He is the very place where we meet with God in fellowship, not just the Jew, but also to the Greek, also to the Gentile.

Anyone may know the Lord through Jesus Christ and have his favor. Remember what we've been reading about going through the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the lowly. Blessed are those who mourn.

Remember that word blessed means approval. God approves of them. Whether you are descended from Egypt or Assyria or Israel or anywhere else, you have the approval of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Let not your heart be troubled.

The Lord is at hand. Heavenly Father, as we wrap up this particular lesson, I pray that is a good reminder for all of us that you are in control. You are sovereign. All the things that are happening in the world right now, you are assembling by your hand.

You are making things come together and work for our good and for your glory. Nothing is happening outside of God's control. May we trust in you. May we believe what you have said according to your word as you have done it in the past so you are doing in the present.

Draw us to you through Jesus Christ. And may we be bold to proclaim the testimony of Christ, the gospel to the nations, for it is only by faith in Christ that anyone can come into fellowship with Yahweh.

The only way that people will be saved from the judgment that is to come is to believe in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. May we proclaim that gospel until his return. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

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