Isaiah Chapter 19

PROPHECY AGAINST EGYPT

Thus far in Isaiah we’ve looked at a number of oracles directed to various nations. We’re going to see a number of others. I thought this would be a good time to give you a summary of the oracles of Isaiah so that you might be able to see a trend to the prophet’s message. So here they are:
THE ORACLES

Isaiah 13:1–14:23                                      Against Babylon
Isaiah 14:24–27                                            Against Assyria
Isaiah 14:28–32                                             Against Philistia
Isaiah 15–16                                                  Against Moab
Isaiah 17                                                        Against Damascus
Isaiah 18                                                        Against Cush (Ethiopia)
Isaiah 19                                                        Against Egypt
Isaiah 20                                                        Against Egypt & Cush
Isaiah 21:1–10                                               Against Babylon
Isaiah 21:11–12                                             Against Edom
Isaiah 21:13–17                                              Against Arabia
Isaiah 22                                                         Against Jerusalem
Isaiah 23                                                          About Tyre
Isaiah 24                                                          Portrait of judgments[fn]

let us continue now with the oracle against Egypt.

Isaiah 19:1-4 ESV:
1 An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers[fn];
4 and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord God of hosts.[fn]

Judgment was coming against Egypt from the Lord. God is pictured as riding on a swift cloud (Psalms 68:4, 33; 104:3). In Canaanite mythology this same idea is used of Baal, the god of rain and fertility. However, the Lord, not Baal, is the true Giver of rain and fertility. The gods of Egypt, of which there were many, would not be able to save their people from coming judgment. Their idols would tremble before God, which would cause the people to be disheartened and depressed. The coming judgment would cause internal divisions and despair among the people when they would realize that their gods, only mere idols, and their occult practices involving mediums and spiritists, could not save them. Now they would be overtaken by a cruel master and a fierce king, the Assyrian empire’s king. Egypt, who centuries before had been a cruel master over Israel (Exodus 1:11-14), would now be the object of cruelty. This Assyrian king was Esarhaddon, who conquered Egypt in 671 b.c. This judgment would come from the Lord, the Lord Almighty, Israel’s Master and covenant-keeping God.

Isaiah 19:5-10 ESV:
5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched,
6 and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched, will be driven away, and will be no more.
8 The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.
9 The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the weavers of white cotton.
10 Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed, and all who work for pay will be grieved.

To show that the judgment really would be from God, Isaiah said that the destruction would affect nature. A drought would ruin the economy and cause the people whose work depended on the Nile to be depressed. The Nile was Egypt’s lifeblood, the source of the nation’s agricultural growth. Without the Nile, Egypt could not have survived. The annual flooding of the Nile over the fields enriched the soil. With the drying up of the Nile (brought on by God, not by military conquest), papyrus reeds, plants, and every sown field would wilt. Fishermen using either hooks or nets would not be able to pursue their livelihood, and those who derived their income from working with flax, which depended on water for its growth, or linen made from flax, or other cloth, would not be able to practice their trade. The entire economy depended on the Nile River.[fn]

Isaiah 19:11-15 ESV:
11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?
12 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis[fn] are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have made Egypt stagger.
14 The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

Egypt was well known in the ancient world for its wisdom writings and its wise men. But Isaiah warned Egypt not to count on her wise men to save the nation from the coming destruction. The officials of Zoan, a city in Egypt’s Delta,[fn] the wise counselors of Pharaoh, and the leaders of Memphis[fn] thought their wisdom might save them from their coming judgment. But their wisdom was foolishness compared with the wisdom of the Lord Almighty who was planning the attack. No one in Egypt could do anything to avert the destruction; they were like staggering drunkards before the Lord. Neither the leaders (the head and the palm branch) nor the populace (the tail and the reed; Isaiah 9:15) could hold back God’s judgment. At one time Zoan was Egypt’s capital city (circa 2050-1800 B.C.). Memphis, on the Nile about 20 miles north of Cairo, was the first capital of united Egypt (circa 3200 b.c.) and one of the major cities during much of its long history.[fn]

Isaiah 19:16,17 ESV:
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them.
17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.

In contrast with Isaiah’s day when Judah was thinking about turning to Egypt for help, a time will come when Egypt will recognize Judah as the dominant force in the world. The Egyptians will be like women, that is, Egypt will fear Judah because they will see that Judah is blessed with all the power of the Lord Almighty. This will be a reversal of the situation in Isaiah’s time.

Isaiah 19:18 ESV:
18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.

The five cities in Egypt no doubt represented the rest of the nation. To speak the language of Canaan apparently does not mean that the Egyptians will stop speaking their own language. Rather, because they have now  sworn  allegiance to the Lord Almighty by offering sacrifices in Jerusalem, they will have to understand and speak enough Hebrew to get by (Zechariah 14:16-19). The meaning of the City of Destruction (heres) has caused much debate. It seems preferable to follow what was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Vulgate, namely, ”the City of the Sun“ (h?eres), meaning Heliopolis. Heliopolis, one of the major cities in the south end of Egypt’s Delta, was dedicated to worship of the sun god. Such a significant change, worshiping the Lord instead of the sun god, would prove to the world and to Israel that Egypt‘s conversion of faith is for real.[fn]

Isaiah 19:19-22 ESV:
19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
20 It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.
When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them.

In Egypt an altar will be built to the Lord along with a monument at Egypt’s border. Egypt will openly acknowledge that she is worshiping the God of Israel. This will be national policy, suggested by the monument,  and will also include private worship, suggested by the altar. At this time Egypt will enjoy the same status as Israel, God’s covenant people.

When the Egyptians ask God for help He will give it to them. God will heal them after they repent and ask for help. This situation was almost unbelievable for the people of Judah in Isaiah’s day. But it will occur. It will take place after the Messiah (Jesus) has returned and established His millennial kingdom.

This is a very revealing passage if we put together the corresponding passages in Zechariah and Malachi:

Zechariah 14:16-19 ESV:
16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.
17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

Malachi 1:11 ESV:
11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

These passages reveal that some Gentiles (unsaved people) will go into the millennial kingdom. How do I know that? If these people were saved they would have been redeemed and have received their new, perfect, and sinless bodies. As such those people would not need to be warned about the consequences of sin and not obeying God in verses 18 and 19. But those Gentiles who are converted during the millennial kingdom will make annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This celebration takes place as a time to remember the time when God “tabernacled” with Israel in the wilderness. This feast represents the last of the three major pilgrimage festivals (Leviticus 23:34-36), marked the final harvest of the year’s crops, and provided a time of rejoicing. All three of these feasts provided a symbolic anticipation of Christ’s future sacrifice at Calvary. During the Millennium it will celebrate Jesus’ presence dwelling among His people, the joyful restoration of Israel and the rest of the world. Those who refuse to go will experience drought and plague. Unfortunately as the thousand years nears its end, there will be many people from all over the world who will reject Christ as Savior, joining in a final war against Him, only to be destroyed and cast into Hell forever (Revelation 20:7-15).[fn]

“From the rising of the sun to its setting” in Malachi 1:11 is simply a way of referring to the whole earth.[fn]

Isaiah 19:23-25 ESV:
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

The situation described by Isaiah in verses 19-22 will not be limited to Egypt. Assyria and the rest of the earth will also be recipients of blessing in that day, the Millennium. People will travel on a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and people in those two nations (enemies in Isaiah’s day) will worship together. In Isaiah’s day Judah was hoping that Egypt would save her from the Assyrians.

But remarkably, in the Millennium these three powers, Assyria, Egypt, and Israel, will have a harmonious, peaceful relationship under God’s hand of blessing. All this of course will fulfill part of the promise to Abraham that ”all peoples on earth will be blessed through him” (Genesis. 12:3).

 

 

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