help, summary of Isaiah 19.
Answers
Explanation:
. God strikes Egypt.
1. (1-4) The LORD strikes Egypt by giving them over to civil war and submission to a cruel master.
The burden against Egypt.
Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.
“I will set Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will consult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
And the Egyptians I will give
Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
a. The LORD rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt: Egypt was one of the great powers of the ancient world, and being situated immediately to the south of Israel, it was an empire that Israel constantly had to reckon with. Many times, Egypt had been the enemy of Israel, at times Egypt had been a refuge for Israel, and sometimes Egypt offered a tempting but ungodly alliance to Israel. In this chapter, the LORD presents both a prophecy against and for Egypt.
b. The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence: Egypt was known for its worship of many, many different gods. Through His hand of judgment, the LORD will “knock over” these many different gods.
i. “In Isaiah’s day there was no other nation on earth that was so much in the grip of superstition and filthy idolatry as Egypt. Apes, cats, frogs, crocodiles, lizards – everything was venerated by them.” (Bultema)
ii. At the time of the Exodus, when the Pharaoh of Egypt would not release the children of Israel from their captivity, the LORD also made the idols of Egypt to totter at His presence. He directed each of the plagues against a particular idol of Egypt.
· He knocked over the god Khnum, the guardian of the Nile, the god Hapi, the spirit of the Nile, and the god Osiris (who had the Nile as his bloodstream), when the waters were turned to blood.
· He knocked over the goddess Heqt, the frog-goddess of fertility, with the plague of frogs.
· He knocked over the goddess Hathor, a cow-like mother goddess, with the plague on livestock.
· He knocked over the god Imhotep, the god of medicine, with the plague of boils.
· He knocked over the god Nut, the sky goddess, with the plague of hail.
· He knocked over the whole system of Egyptian worship of their gods with loathsome lice and swarms of insects.
· He knocked over the god Seth, thought to be the protector of crops, with the plague of locusts.
· He knocked over the god Ra, thought to be the sun god, with the plague of darkness.
· He knocked over Osiris, the Egyptian god thought to be the giver of life, and the supposed deity of Pharaoh himself, with the plague against the firstborn. God made all the idols of Egypt to totter at His presence before, and Isaiah tells us He will do it again.
c. I will set Egyptians against Egyptians: Isaiah prophesies a coming civil war in Egypt, which was indirectly the hand of God’s judgment against them. “Not many years after this time it was divided into twelve several kingdoms, between whom there were many and cruel wars, as is related by the historians of those times.” (Poole)
d. I will destroy their counsel, and they will consult the idols and the charmers: When a nation is under the judgment of God, He often seems to “remove” sound counsel and wisdom from their leaders, and they turn to vain, pagan things for wisdom instead (idols and the charmers).
i. “Egypt was renowned for her class of wise men (1 Kings 4:30), but they would not be able to cope with this judgment from the Lord.” (Wolf)
e. The Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them: God may judge a nation through their leadership in two ways. First, by removing competent leadership (I will destroy their counsel). Second, by giving them cruel and oppressive rulers. This is a curse and a judgment to any people!
2. (5-10) The LORD strikes Egypt by drying up the Nile, thus wrecking their economy.
The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
The papyrus reeds by the River, by the mouth of the River,