Isaiah Day 57 - Read Carefully

19:1 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.

2 

“I will set Egyptians against Egyptians;

Everyone will fight against his brother,

And everyone against his neighbor,

City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

In a few weeks I will be doing a seminar for my church on how to study the Bible. Today is a good place to learn that a surface reading is not sufficient. On the surface it appears that God is speaking about literal Egypt in North Africa only. A careful reading says that can't be so. The end of verse two says that within Egypt neighbour will turn against neighbour, city against city and kingdom against kingdom. At this point in Egyptian history the kingdom or empire is divided and trouble did come after this prophecy and the entire land of Egypt came under Nubian rule. So like the other prophecies we have covered so far there was a local and literal application applicable to the time of Isaiah and their immediate future. However this prophecy is much bigger than that as we shall see tomorrow.

3 

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.

We must remember history when we seek to understand anything the Bible says. Egypt was at one time a mighty empire, the strongest in the world. At her height (or actually on the downhill side of her height) a baby was born and put in a basket. That baby was Moses. Egypt was an empire built on rebellion against God. Egypt the person after whom the empire was named was a son of Ham also known as Mizraim.

Gen. 10:7 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim(Egypt), Put, and Canaan. 

Cush (the nation) was just south of Egypt and at various times part of it. You will recognize Canaan as well. Put is less clear where he went. Some historians believe Libya was founded by him. Others say his family was swallowed up within Egypt.

Either way Ham and his descendants were in rebellion against God from the start and tomorrow we'll see how this prophecy in Isaiah has a much broader application which is why it was passed down to us. We're it only for them at that time we would have no need of reading about it.

Now that we have some history covered and a foundation laid we will continue tomorrow. :)