A prophecy for Egypt (Isaiah 19)
God describes himself
descending over Egypt like a swift cloud.
A well-used biblical tool (for example the letter to the seven churches), uses local
identifiers to illustrate the point being made.
The Khamsin or dust
storm is common to the region and so Isaiah likely used that to illustrate how
God would swoop in over Egypt to totter, shake or move the idols of Egypt.
They were a highly superstitious
and idolatrous nation in spite of their empty counsel and foolish wisdom. God judged
them before and in verse 3 he promised to judge them again.
For the record, those judgments
in the time of Moses, were:
- The god Khnum, guardian of the Nile.
- Hapi, the spirit of the Nile
- Osiris who had the Nile as his bloodstream, when the waters were turned to blood.
- Heqt, the frog-goddess of fertility, with the plague of frogs.
- Hathor, the cow-like mother goddess, with the plague on livestock.
- Imhotep, the god of medicine, with the plague of boils.
- Nut, the sky goddess, with the plague of hail.
- The system of pagan worship with lice and swarms of insects.
- Seth, thought to be the protector of crops, with the plague of locusts.
- Ra, the sun god, with the plague of darkness.
- Osiris, the Egyptian god thought to be the giver of life, and the supposed deity of Pharaoh himself, with the plague against the firstborn.
A civil war was prophesied
as Egyptian turned against Egyptian, resulting in a
cruel aristocracy of 12 princes, followed eventually by the long, oppressive
reign of Psammitichus.
In the process God
showed the points of judgment as being firstly the Nile: once again he strikes
to the heart of Egypt to devastate their economy.
It seems that something upstream, a diversion or drought, would lead
to a drying up of the river and the delta. However, it may also have a future perspective relating to the Grand Aswan Dam, which has diminished the delta, and the proposed Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The prophet mentioned
the paper or papyrus reeds in a way that implies a judgment on their writings. He also described the anglers or fishermen along the banks.
To that he added the further
judgment of their wise men, astrologers (vs 15, head and tail of the dragon) and pagan counselors, who led
the nation astray and became brutish (vs 11), resulting in bloody conflicts.
He foresaw a cruel Lord,
Nebuchadnezzar, who would come and lay a heavy yoke on the nation. That was followed by Cyrus
of Persia. The emancipation that Alexander brought, was welcomed.
The threat to Egypt
would come via Judah to the north and across the Sinai, firstly through the
Assyrians and then by Babylon and the Persians.
Yet from verse 18 a
different tone emerges and that was both fulfilled and is being fulfilled. God
speaks of an altar to Jehovah or a witness to him being raised in Egypt, quite
likely through the gospel or through a time of spiritual renewal.
Finally, he spoke of a
highway that would run from Egypt, along the sea, into the lands of Assyria,
resulting in a confederacy between Egypt, Israel and probably Syria, Lebanon
and others.
The threat of ISIS and
Gaza, has resulted in old enemies finding common ground in just that way, and through
it God has brought healing to that ancient land.
I personally view Assyria as a prophetic shadow of ISIS, a group known for its terrible barbarity. As such Isaiah 17 speaks much about what is now happening in that region.
The Egyptian exile (Isaiah 20)
Tartan, General of
Sargon or Sennacherib, is anticipated by Isaiah. B walking around with
little on, for probably three days, he showed that Egypt would fall to Assyria
within three years.
It came during the
reign of Hezekiah and, just as Isaiah had walked around bare foot and with
little clothing, a long line of desperate refugees emerged from Egypt and
Ethiopia, just as happened when ISIS asserted itself on Iraq and Syria, to flood the nations with a sea of refugees.
Truly the Assyrian
conquests were utterly ruthless and inhumane. God had to stop them.
The fall of Babylon (Isaiah 21)
The prophesy was
against the desert of the sea, which meant Babylon. It made Isaiah tremble. He
was overcome with the tragedy of Babylon’s fall.
It came at the time of
Balshazzar’s infamous feast (verse 5), where the hand of God wrote on the wall
saying, “mene, mene, techel upharsin” or “you are weighed in the balances and
found wanting”.
It was during that
feast that Cyrus chose to take the city, after which a cry went out that will
echo again in the climax of the ages of man, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen”.
Two riders on camels
and horseback are seen in Isaiah symbolic imagery, referring to Darius and
Cyrus, who came against Babylon in separate conquests.
The result was a
threshing, Jewish imagery for judgment.
Then a much used
expression arose, “Oh watchman, what of the night? The morning comes and also
the night”. It was a specific prophecy against Dumah, a city of Edom, where
they awaited a deliverance from the terrors of the night, that would come in the morning.
Yet, the context is
broader, speaking of the visions of that age and the vast change that was
shaking the known world as a great darkness fell over all the nations. The
terror of the Assyrians shook every nation to its core and the watchman waited
for their own time to come.
The rest of the chapter
spoke of the outpouring of Assyria, which would even touch the nomadic hermits
of Arabia. The Assyrians spared no one: much like Germany did in WW2.
The fall of Jerusalem (Isaiah 22)
The “valley of the vision”
refers to the valley between mounts Acra, Zion and Moriah, in Jerusalem, where
the prophetic rivers rose.
It was a prophecy
against Jerusalem: a city of rooftops, which was still the case in the time of
Jesus. The rooftop offered cool sanctuary from the midday heat. The prophet also offered respite.
It spoke of the siege
of the Assyrians and the resulting breaches in the walls, but also described
the gathering of water pools of the city, thanks to Hezekiah’s water tunnels.
The king’s defiance
was celebrated with the language later used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “let
us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”. The walls may have been
vulnerable, but Hezekiah's faith gave him a surer refuge, and so God delivered them.
To this day, Jews hit
the streets in song and dance every Saturday night, because they don’t know
when will be the last time.
As it happens, their
celebrations were also an act of defiance against Sennacherib, despite his
blasphemous provocations. The king was vindicated and Assyria fell overnight.
Then the prophesy
turned to Shebna, Hezekiah’s self-serving and ambitious treasurer, who even
afforded him a sepulcher of honor, normally reserved for kings.
In his place, God
would raise Hilkiah as a new treasurer, who would be like the nails in those
ancient homes, a place to hang things of honor - also referred to by Mohamed as the pole that holds up a tent. In him God reserved the key of
David.
It is intriguing that
the treasury is ordered by God in a time when compromise was often the order of
the day, as in the way kings bought peace from predating enemies by raiding
their treasuries or even the house of God, but in the siege of Jerusalem God
said no to any of that.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
