Context No. 3084 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 19:1-10: in context

1The burden of Egypt. “Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it. 2I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. 3The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. 4I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. 5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. 6The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. 7The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. 8The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. 9Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. 10The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.

This is the burden of Egypt. The LORD rides on a swift cloud toward Egypt, and its idols tremble and its heart melts within it. He stirs Egyptians against Egyptians, city against city; their spirit fails, their famed counsel is confounded, and they turn to idols and mediums. Even the Nile itself dries up, and all who depend on it, the fishermen, the weavers, languish.

The judgment strikes at the very sources of Egypt's confidence. Its idols tremble, its celebrated wisdom fails, its people turn on one another, and even the Nile, the lifeblood of the whole land, dries up. Everything Egypt trusted, its gods, its sages, its river, is shown to be no security at all against the LORD. When God comes in judgment, the things a proud nation leaned on collapse from within. And yet this same chapter, in the verses to come, turns to astonishing mercy, Egypt healed and blessed. Even here, judgment is not God's final word.

What sources of confidence in my life, like Egypt's Nile and idols and wisdom, might God have to dry up so that I learn to trust him alone?

Sources

Isaiah 19:1: "Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence."
Isaiah 19:3: "The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel."
Psalm 20:7: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."