Isaiah 19:1-15

Readings  Deuteronomy 11, Matthew 25

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,

Today we go back to Isaiah for one week, the schedule is listed both under the Bulletin Board and on the home page.  I will place a link to this study on this email so that you can go directly to the discussion forum.

19:1-4  God is going to rain judgment upon Egypt.  In verse 1, the reference to the Lord riding on the clouds makes fun of the Canaanite god Baal, because, he was the god of rain and fertility.  Jehovah God let it be known that this false god had absolutely no power, and all the other idols of Egypt were just trinkets in His presence.  Along with the falsehood of these gods, the Egyptians themselves would tremble in the site of God.

Civil war would erupt, and in the process of this disruption, all their idols, ancestor worship, and spiritualist would have absolutely no power.  Assyria was soon to take over Egypt and rule her with an iron hand, as a cruel task master over them.  This is in contrast to what had happened to God's children in Egypt.  It seems that God returned the same judgment upon them that they placed upon the children of Israel.  God does not like to see His kids abused, and He will take vengeance.  Of course, the vengeance of the Lord was not just due to the slavery of Israel, it was also because the nation failed to consider Him as God.  In Isaiah's day, I am convinced that God was mopping up a lot of the false gods, purifying the world by wiping out the followers of these false gods.

19:5-10  God would cause the Nile to dry up.  This was because of two different things, first it was in reflection of the god Baal, and the god of then Nile, as well as their fertility god.  All these gods are demonstrated to be powerless.  There is a large number of other gods that the Egyptians worshipped which were related to the Nile, all these were shown to be mere hoaxes in the sight of God.  The second reason it happened was to put the country into a state of depression.  With the garment industry crippled, and the fishing industry crippled, all of Egypt was crippled and brought to her knees.  

19:11-15  God sent the message to them, "where is your wisdom now?"  God had ordered judgment against Egypt, and all the wisdom in the land became nothing but foolishness in the sight of God.  All the efforts of the wise men turned out to be nothing but vain babbling, foolish jabbering of ignorant men.  Where did the wisdom go?  It was proved to be foolishness by a Holy and Just God.  The wise men seemed like drunks in the way that they staggered around trying to make sense out of divine judgment.  In the end, all the wisdom of the land could not save the land from captivity, or from economic ruin.  All the wisdom and fantastic learning was judged and counted as nothing.  Today modern man looks back on Egypt and is still scratching his head over the mysteries of the pyramids, sphinx, and other Egyptian wonders.  Modern science does not understand how these structures were built, or who designed them.  These mysteries were lost, I believe as a judgment on a nation that went too deeply into alliance with the devil. 

Today we can take a lesson from Egypt.  God had allowed this nation to flourish, and become strong even with its propensity to follow the devil.  God made Himself known to Egypt in a very personal way with the ten plagues which He rained down upon it.  At that time, He sent a message to Egypt that her gods were weak and fake, He made it a point in each of the ten plagues to eliminate the possibility of strength or power in any of the Egyptian gods.  Yet Egypt did not listen, even after God wiped out the entire Egyptian army in a single blow with the red sea, Egypt still did not listen.  They could not see that they were following and worshiping false gods.  So they continued on the path that they had taken, ignoring the true God so that they could stick with their created gods.  The stubbornness of this land had eventually called for a final judgment by God.  They were thrown into turmoil once again by God to show them the futility of their thinking.  Yet did it work?  How many actually turned to Jehovah God and repented of their ways?  God wiped out the wisdom of the land by placing the Assyrians in command over them, then Israel took control later.  In the end, the wisdom was wiped out, and the gods of the land became mere fables which are remembered only as historical artifacts.

The lesson that we can take is simple.  God is not going to tolerate the foolishness of man forever.  He will rain judgment upon the nations that continue to reject Him.   We as a nation need to consider this warning, and restore God to His place of authority in our nation, in our churches and in our homes.  God demands to be worshipped, and I believe that we are living on borrowed time.  Our job is to influence those around us to return to the Lord God as Lord.  It is time for the sleeping Christians to wake up and take a stand for Jesus.  This is a wake-up call, it happened thousands of years ago, and God is the same today.  He never changes. 

Lord, as we consider the fate of the Egyptians, lead us closer to You.  I ask that each one of us will seek to walk in Your ways, following Your will.  Thank You Lord for Your life in ours.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Isaiah 19:16-25

Readings  Deuteronomy 12, Matthew 26

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday we studied about the doom of Egypt, how that God was going to dry the river up, and make fun of their gods.  And how that the Assyrians were going to take over the land.

19:16-17  The Lord cast judgment upon Egypt, and when Judah went to Egypt the attitude had changed from one of superiority to that of inferiority.  They trembled with fear as they thought of Judah. This could be referring to the havoc that the Assyrians were causing in the land of Judah.  How that God had seemingly delivered every nation that they came against into their hands.  They seemed to be undefeated, except for Jerusalem, and they were moving in the direction of Egypt. 

19:18-21  There was an immediate fulfillment of these verses.  Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, and brought with him many Jewish people.  He also brought with him the Greek translation of the Septuagint.  The people had Jewish teachers living in their land, and the available manuscripts to study the Word.  An altar was erected to the Lord at the border of Egypt.  As a nation, they began to recognize Jehovah God, and because of the Jewish influence, began to worship Him. In the short term, this had happened in Egypt's history.  A temple was erected since there was so many Jews living there in order to appease the Jews.  It was never considered to be anything more than a copy by the Jewish community.  But it was in place and functioning for 333 years according to Josephus.  An interesting thing about this temple is that it resembled a tower.  Ptolemy sought funds from Egypt to build the temple, using Isaiah's prophecy as a justification.  There was enough Jews which were banished there to make it worthwhile.  There was a change in the leadership of Egypt, and after 343 years the temple was closed permanently.  (Josephus Antiquities, Jewish War 420-436)  With the huge amount of Jews living in Egypt, for the first time, Jehovah was considered to be God.

Another interesting note on these verses.  The "city of destruction" was probably the "city of the sun".  It was a city that was dedicated to the sun god, and with a slight change in the way it was written in the Hebrew, it changed from "sun" to "destruction". 

19:22  The strike of judgment was quickly healed, the people returned to the Lord, God healed the land, and restored the people.  He did not restore the false gods, they had faded into the past.   

19:23-25  A unique situation had occurred, Egypt, Assyria and Israel all would join together to form an alliance.  This is evident when Jesus was born, because Joseph was free to travel to Egypt to escape the ones who wanted to kill Jesus.  Notice though, God took a change of heart toward Egypt, now He called them His people.  I am not sure if this was fulfilled in the Old Testament times, however, in the future when God gathers His people, it will be true.

On an overview there were five "in that day's" listed, and they were significant.  v. 16, Egypt recognized the Hand of God.  v. 18, the five cities would repent before the Lord.  v. 19, The Egyptians would worship the Lord in sincerity and truth, to the point of offering sacrifices, v. 23, The Egyptians would worship God and enjoy a peaceful relationship with the Jews, v. 24, God would put His stamp of approval on the Egyptians, making the part of the spiritual kingdom.  Parallels the gentiles, doesn't it?

The far prophecy concerning this chapter points to the day when God causes His people, the Jews, to return to Him.  At that time, the middle east will come to know the Lord, and turn from the false gods that they are now following.  One day we will see peace  in the middle east, and a nation wide revival, where the people will turn to the Lord God.  When God wakes His people up from their slumber, we will see the Jews as a blessing to all the earth.  They will no longer be the brunt of jokes, but rather hold a respected place in the world.  For so many years God has promised to return to His people, the Jews, to be their God.  It is still going to happen, and in this passage, we have a prophecy concerning the final gathering of Israel.  Look for instance to Ezekiel 37:1-10, look especially to verse 9, God calls them from the four winds, where they were scattered.  Ezekiel is not referring to the gentile nations coming back to the Lord, but rather talking about a nation that is as good as dead spiritually, coming to the realization that their Messiah has indeed come for them.  They will wake up, come back to life and follow Him. Look also at the explanation of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:11-14, 21-23, God will return to being their God, and they will be saved by the blood of Jesus, their Messiah.  They will be gathered from all the nations of the world, into one nation, which has already taken place.   Jerusalem will not be enough to hold all of them, and revival will spread through the middle east like wildfire.  The Messianic Jews are spreading the word, Christians are spreading the word, and God's chosen people are returning to Him. 

Looking at the prophecy concerning the gathering of the Jews and loosely applying it to the text that we studied, there is a possibility that this is what the passage refers too.  I can only speculate, and compare the scriptures.  An application for us, God will gather His people, and when people repent, God gladly opens the doors to them.  Egypt was the furthest thing from God, and they ended up being considered as His people.  I believe that we can turn our churches in the same manner, one person at a time, by encouraging everyone to get into the Bibles, and spend the time applying it to lives.  None of us are blind, we can all see the activity that goes on in the middle east, God is working out the prophecies, bringing them to completion, it won't be long until He comes again.  How long?  No one knows, we do know that all the signs are falling into place.

Lord, as we study Your word today, I ask that each one of us will be able to discern between truth and error.   That we will be able to take Your word and apply it to each of our daily lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.