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Isaiah 19

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Verses 1-10, “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. 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, And everything sown by the River, Will wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen also will mourn; All those will lament who cast hooks into the River, And they will languish who spread nets on the waters. Moreover those who work in fine flax And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed; And its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul.”

Egypt was a great nation that was known for its worship of many gods. But when the one true God shows up, these idols will not be able to stand. For instance, when God sent the ten plagues to Egypt in Moses' day, each plague was directed at a false god, demonstrating that He was the One actually in control. He tore down their false gods one at a time. But rather than conceding to the God of the universe, Pharoah continued to harden his heart. Actually, God hardened his heart as well, giving him exactly what he wanted. This is not unlike what can happen when we turn toward our idols and away from God. Even though He shows us that He is the real God, we can resist Him and cling to our idols. Not only can God further harden our stubborn hearts, but He can eventually cut us off for good.

God will also remove His presence and His counsel from a nation and its rulers. Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”  In the absence of wise counsel, Egypt turned to the mediums, sorcerers, and their idols all the more. God also removed the prophets from Saul, and he basically did the same thing, instead of turning to God. I Samuel 28:5‭-‬7, When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.”  Even though Saul had once put all the mediums out of the land, he would not be remembered for this and was held accountable for his faithless actions. God killed him and gave away his kingdom to one after his own heart, David.  I Chronicles 10:13‭-‬14, “So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance. But he did not inquire of the Lord; therefore He killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.”

Once sound counsel has been removed from a nation, God can give them over to oppressors as judgement. This is exactly what happened to Egypt. When we reject the loving King's rule, God can give us over to the oppressor as well. This path is a certain way that leads to death. You may think you are free to do as please and have escaped restrictions, but you make yourselves a slave to sin and Satan. With God's Spirit removed (our sin separates us from God so that He hides His face and will not hear us), we cannot stand against Satan on our own. Besides, God's yoke is easy compared to what a life of sin will demand and take from you. When you resist God and His rule, you play right into Satan's plan to devour the believers.  I Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Ephesians 6:11‭-‬13, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Comments

  1. SusanJune 21, 2017 at 8:54 AM

    “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. The waters will fail from the sea, And the river will be wasted and dried up.” Isaiah 19:1-5

    This is a prophecy of the the destruction of Egypt. Egypt was for the most part very evil. They worshiped many false gods and at times were enemies Israel. Just as the Lord set plaques on Egypt once, He will do it again. Not only is this prophecy of their destruction, but it is also of their salvation. After Egypt is split into twelve, some of the Egyptians cited out to the Lord. They end up worshiping the Lord.

    Sometimes people will cry out to the Lord when their life is so bad and they can't take it anymore. They have be taken so low before they will come to Christ, but when they do they turn to God and repent. If we are in sin, we need to repent of our sin. We need to come to an end of ourselves. It is up to us how bad it needs to get. Will we be hard and need to be extremely humble or will we surrender to the Lord easily? The more that we will not come to repentance , the worse it will have to get be will will surrender.

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