For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 19:1-4      

1 A prophecy against Egypt:

See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud
    and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
    and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

2 ‘I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian –
    brother will fight against brother,
    neighbour against neighbour,
    city against city,
    kingdom against kingdom.
3 The Egyptians will lose heart,
    and I will bring their plans to nothing;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
    the mediums and the spiritists.
4 I will hand the Egyptians over
    to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,’
    declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

A. Find Out:

1. To where is the Lord coming? v.1
2. What is He going to do? v.2
3. What effect will that have? v.3a
4. So what will they do? v.3b
5. What will the Lord then do? v.4

B. Think:

1. What indications are there of Egypt ‘s spiritual state?
2. What two forms of judgement is the Lord bringing on them?

C. Comment:

We sometimes have a limited view of the form of judgment that comes from the Lord. Normally we tend to think of the Lord’s judgments coming as supernatural acts of destruction, but in this prophecy we see something quite different.

First of all let’s consider the cause of the Lord’s action. If you knew nothing of the Bible and you came to this passage you may see no indication of why the Lord is coming with judgement. However if you know anything of the Lord’s dealings with mankind, you will know He is against all forms of unreal or occult worship. The moment we say that, this passage instantly reveals the causes of the Lord’s activity.

In verse 1 we find reference to idols that they worship as also in verse 3. He is against false worship. But then in verse 3 there is also mention of mediums and spiritists who consult the dead, and He is against all such occult activity that looks for answers without referring to God Himself by the use of ‘hidden powers’ (for that is what occult means).

The judgement that the Lord is going to bring on Egypt is twofold. First he is going to sow discord (v.2) so that there will be civil war. How does the Lord do such a thing? He simply steps back and lets the powers of darkness that are being referred to by the spiritists, have their way. The second judgement is that out of this will come a harsh ruler (v.4) who will deal severely with them. Note that in one sense all these things are a natural progression of unrestrained sin.

D. Application:

1. God sometimes steps back and lets our sin loose upon us.
2. God often uses man’s own sin to bring judgement.

Passage: Isaiah 19:5-15 

5 The waters of the river will dry up,
    and the river bed will be parched and dry.
6 The canals will stink;
    the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.
The reeds and rushes will wither,
7     also the plants along the Nile,
    at the mouth of the river.
Every sown field along the Nile
    will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
8 The fishermen will groan and lament,
    all who cast hooks into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
    will pine away.
9 Those who work with combed flax will despair,
    the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.
10 The workers in cloth will be dejected,
    and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;
    the wise counsellors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    ‘I am one of the wise men,
    a disciple of the ancient kings’?

12 Where are your wise men now?
    Let them show you and make known
what the Lord Almighty
    has planned against Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoan have become fools,
    the leaders of Memphis are deceived;
the cornerstones of her peoples
    have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has poured into them
    a spirit of dizziness;
they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
15 There is nothing Egypt can do –
    head or tail, palm branch or reed.

A. Find Out:

1. What will happen to the waterways of Egypt? v.5-7
2. Whose jobs will be at risk? v.8-10
3. Who are ridiculed? v.11
4. What are they challenged to do? v.12
5. What has happened to the leaders in Egypt? v.13,14
6. So what is their state? v.15

B. Think:

1. What is going to happen naturally in Egypt?
2. How is that going to affect the economy?
3. Why will Egypt’s wise men be helpless?

C. Comment:

We saw in the previous study how the Lord was bringing two forms of judgement on Egypt – civil war and an oppressive ruler. Now we see a third form of judgement which, again, an unbeliever might scoff at and say, “Oh, that’s just nature!” but we know it is the specific purpose of God being worked out!

The Nile is going to dry up, together with all its tributaries. As the water levels fall, the banks will begin to smell as the plant life dies and rots. Included in the plant life are the reeds that were used for a variety of purposes. As the water levels fall so the fish numbers diminish and the fishermen go out of business. As the water levels fall so the fields are not able to be irrigated and flax dies off, the flax for which Egypt was famous. Gradually whole parts of the economy die off.

As the leaders of Egypt look on they feel utterly powerless. There is nothing that they can do. They all make different suggestions as to how they should handle the crisis but no one has an answer that works. The wisdom for which Egypt was known (see 1 Kings 4:30) comes to nothing. The wise men have allowed the nation to worship ‘gods’ that are no God so their wisdom was really no wisdom. Now in the face of this national emergency all of their combined wisdom is shown for what it is: helpless before the Lord!

D. Application:

1. True wisdom leads to the One True God.
2. When God brings judgement even clever people are humbled!

Passage: Isaiah 19:16-20

16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them. 17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.

18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun. 19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a saviour and defender, and he will rescue them.

A. Find Out:

1. Who will act how, and why? v.16
2. How will they act at the name of Judah? v.17
3. And what will come about in Egypt? v.18
4. What will be there in the midst of Egypt? v.19
5. What will it be doing there? v.20a
6. What will the Lord do for them? v.20b

B. Think:

1. How is there first ‘bad news’ for Egypt?
2. How then, is there ‘good news’ for them?
3. What is the result of that?

C. Comment:

These verses are laden with information so we must not rush them. The earlier verses have been telling how the Lord will bring to nothing all the wisdom of Egypt and will bring judgements of civil war, an oppressive king, and then drought causing economic collapse. The result of all this will be a weakening of the people of Egypt as they realise this is God’s hand on them (v.16). So weakened will they be that even mention of Judah (v.17) will cause fear.

Next comes something that really shakes us. There is going to come a transformation of Egypt that is quite remarkable. Five cities of Egypt will speak the Hebrew language and will declare themselves for the Lord (v.18). Even more there will be a place of worship of the Lord right at the heart of Egypt (v.19). This place of worship will be a sign to the world that Egypt belongs to the Lord (v.20a).

How is this going to come about? Well the oppressor that the Lord is giving them as a judgement, will be so bad that the people will cry out to the Lord and when they do the Lord will answer and bring someone new to them who will come and save them from this oppressive regime (v.20b). Thus God will bring judgement AND He will bring a deliverer from that judgement and the people, having cried out to the Lord and been delivered, will know the Lord and worship Him.

D. Application:

1. God’s judgements are sometimes to destroy.
2. God’s judgements are sometimes to drive people back to God.

Passage: Isaiah 19:21-25

 21 So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’

A. Find Out:

1. So how is the future summarised? v.21
2. What two things will the Lord do to Egypt? v.22a
3. Yet what will happen between the two things? v.22b
4. What road link will there be from where to where? v.23a
5. With what result? v.23b
6. So what will that make a worshipping trio? v.24
7. How are they each described? v.25

B. Think:

1. What additionally will be the Lord’s means of humbling Egypt?
2. What will be the end result of that?
3. What is the final amazing end result in this prophecy?

C. Comment:

The Lord has been saying how He will turn the heart of Egypt so that in the heart of Egypt there will be worship of the Lord. Earlier He had spoken of three forms of judgement – civil war, a despot, and a drought – and now in this passage He adds a fourth judgement which might be naturally seen as following on from the drought and everything around the rivers going rotten – a plague.

Acknowledging the Lord and worshipping Him (v.21) is the end product which will be brought about when the Lord first brings this plague on Egypt and then heals them (v.22), but the healing will only come after Egypt have cried out to the Lord, that is the middle part of this exercise and a critical part. The objective is to bring Egypt to rely upon the Lord and to realise that he alone is all-powerful and worthy of their worship.

But there is something even more amazing that ends this chapter, the description of a road that joins Egypt in the south with Assyria in the north (v.23), that links the two nations that God will have dealt with so that there is an interchange of worshippers between them, with Israel in between. Whether this happened then or with the advent of the Gospel is unclear to us. Possibly both, certainly in the latter time.

D. Application:

1. God can turn the most hard of people or nations.
2. His objective is always to draw people to know Him.