The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Egypt was the oldest and proudest civilization the Bible's world knew, with its ancient gods, its wise men, and the Nile that made it rich. Isaiah announces that the LORD Himself will "come into Egypt," riding "upon a swift cloud," and at His presence Egypt's whole world comes apart. The idols are "moved"; the courage of the nation melts. God stirs up civil war, "the Egyptians against the Egyptians... city against city, and kingdom against kingdom." Their wisdom fails, so they run to idols, charmers, mediums, and wizards. The very Nile, the source of all Egypt's life, is dried up, and with it the fishermen, the flax-workers, and the whole economy collapse.

Then Isaiah mocks the thing Egypt was most famous for, its wisdom. "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools... how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise?" The renowned counsellors are made foolish, for "the LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof," and the nation staggers "as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit." Everything Egypt trusted, its gods, its wisdom, its river, its strength, fails at once.

Gospel Focus

Two lessons stand out. First, idols cannot survive the presence of God. Egypt's "nothings" melt when the LORD draws near, and so does every false god and every idol of the heart. Whatever a person or a nation trusts in place of God is exposed as powerless the moment He appears. Second, human wisdom apart from God turns to folly. Egypt was the ancient world's university, and God made its scholars fools. Paul says the same of every age: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe?... hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Corinthians 1:20). When people refuse the knowledge of God, they do not become wiser; they turn to charmers and spirits and stagger like drunk men. The only sure ground is not Egypt's gods or Egypt's wisdom but the LORD who rides on the cloud. Do not build your life on any "nothing" that melts when He comes near.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now the chapter turns, and the repeated words "in that day" ring like a bell of hope. Egypt, humbled, begins to fear the LORD and to look to Judah. Then come the promises: "five cities in the land of Egypt" will "speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD"; "in that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt," with "a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD." When they are oppressed, "they shall cry unto the LORD... and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them." The result is stunning: "the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day," offering sacrifice, vowing vows, worshiping the true God.

Even the judgment is now seen as mercy in disguise: "the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them." The blows were meant to turn Egypt home.

Gospel Focus

This is one of the brightest gospel promises in the prophets. God says He will send Egypt "a saviour, and a great one." The word is moshia, the root of the name Jesus, and the promise reaches its fullness in Him, the Saviour God sent not for one nation but for the world. There is a beautiful providence here too: when Herod sought the child's life, God hid His own Son in Egypt, that the word might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Matthew 2:15), and in the centuries after, Egypt became one of the great homelands of the early church. See also how God deals with a people: "he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD." His chastening is never cruelty for its own sake; He wounds in order to heal, exactly as Hosea says, "he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1). If God's hand is heavy on you, do not read it as rejection; read it as a summons home. Cry to the LORD, and He will send you the Saviour, and a great one, and heal you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter ends where no one would have guessed it could go. "In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria," and the two great empires that had crushed Israel between them will travel it in peace, "and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians." Then Israel joins them, "the third with Egypt and with Assyria," and together the three become "a blessing in the midst of the land." And God speaks a blessing that would have stunned every Israelite who heard it: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." The names once reserved for Israel alone, God's people, the work of His hands, His inheritance, are now spread over the old enemies as well.

Gospel Focus

Nothing in the Old Testament reaches further toward the gospel than this. Egypt, the house of Israel's bondage, and Assyria, the destroyer of the northern kingdom, are the two most hated names an Israelite knew, and God calls them "my people" and "the work of my hands." He does not erase Israel; Israel remains "mine inheritance." But He widens the circle to take in the nations that were once outside. This is the mystery Paul would later preach: that in Christ God "hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition" (Ephesians 2:14), so that Jew and Gentile become one new people. The highway between Egypt and Assyria is the road every hostile nation now travels to God through the gospel, for in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek" but all are one. One God is the God of all these peoples, gathering former enemies into a single family. Let this enlarge your heart: there is no nation, no people, and no person God cannot claim as His own. If He can write "my people" over Egypt and Assyria, He can write it over anyone who comes to Him, and He has written it over all who are in Christ.