The first of our chapters gives “the burden of Egypt,” and is followed, in the second, by a personal sign enjoined on the prophet, as a token of the degradation soon to befall Egypt and Ethiopia. The general drift is so clear as to render prolonged remarks altogether needless.
“Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt.” The prophet thus boldly and with the fullest moral truth sets forth that sure overthrow of the great realm of the old world's prudence, and debasing idolatry, and abundant natural riches. What availed their boasted bulwarks and their watery barriers, if Jehovah, who “rideth upon a swift cloud,” dooms Egypt to humiliation and decay? Worse than idle their appeal to their false gods: for their idols should be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt melt in its midst. Intestine division and civil war (ver. 2) should be added to the overwhelming assaults from without; and the downfall be consummated by infatuated counsels as well as the wasting away of all national spirit; for on their recourse in their distress to their old haunts of superstition and sorcery, God would shut them up to the hard bondage of cruel lords and a fierce king. (Ver. 1-4.)
But the hand of the Lord should be not only upon the defenses of the country, but upon its internal supports, and this in all that was their glory and their confidence. For is not this Ezekiel's “great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself?” Surely it is the same, of whom Isaiah here predicts, “the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.” (Ver. 5-10.)
The prophet next (ver. 11) proceeds to taunt this haughty power in that for which, most of all, it stood high in its own conceit and the reputation of men. For who has not heard of “the wisdom of the Egyptians?” Who does not know of their science and civilization while the most renowned lands of the west which earliest aspired to the sovereignty of the world, had not yet emerged from their condition of wild, untutored barbarism? “Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?” “Where are they? where are thy wise men?” is the piercing challenge of the prophet; “and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.”
Alas! how many now are wrapped up in the same carnal security. How many in our day, like the wise counselors of Egypt, are caught in their own craftiness, too wise to heed the sure and solemn words of divine prophecy; not wise enough to guard themselves from foolish superstition, or still more foolish incredulity! Is it not a maxim among the sages of Christendom, that prophecy cannot be known till the event accomplishes it and fixes its interpretation Than which notion, I dare to say, none can be produced less reasonable in itself or more flatly contrary to the word of God. Not a believer in the Old Testament but protests against the sinful error; for not a soul then was justified who did not look onward, trusting his soul and spiritual all on that which was as yet necessarily in the womb of the future, the coming of the woman's seed, the Messiah. And are believers of the New Testament called of God to be less trustful, less realizing what is coming, with incomparably more light of revelation? What! we, to whom God has revealed by the Spirit, that which, the brightest of old was compelled to say, “eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into man's heart to consider?” And even on grounds of reason, of which some are so vainglorious, what can be more opposed to it seeing that God has beyond controversy given His people prophetic revelation? Is this alone, of all Scripture, to be put under human ban? Even on grounds of personal danger, the suicidal folly of such skepticism as this is most apparent; for as the great central point of prophecy is the nearness of the Day of the Lord, which is to judge all the pride, and irreligion, and idolatry, and rebellion against God found then on earth, and specially in Christendom, it will be too late for men, before they believe, to await that event which will prove the truth of the prophecies in their own destruction. In short, in every point of view, the maxim is as false as it is perilous. It really amounts to blotting out all direct use of prophecy whatsoever; for it refuses to hear its warning till its voice is wholly changed. Prophecy accomplished becomes in effect history, rather than prophecy; no small value of which is the silencing of God's enemies, rather than, like prophecy, the admonition and comfort of His people.
But to return. “The princes of Zoan [the ancient royal city of Egypt, named Tanis in profane authors] are become fools, the princes of Noph [Moph, or Memphis, Hos. 9:66For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. (Hosea 9:6)] are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.” They are judicially confounded of God in their policy.
Now, I am not disposed to deny a measure of accomplishment in the time of the prophet. Only let not this be allowed to exclude the complete fulfillment which yet remains to be made good. This germinant, inclusive style we have seen, is the habit of Isaiah, as indeed of the prophets. Enough was then accomplished for a stay to the faithful; but it was no more than a testimony to that full and punctual payment which God will yet render, in honor both of His own words, and of the Lord Jesus, when His manifested glory dawns and His world-kingdom comes. (Rev. 11) “In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which He shaketh over it. And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against them.” Egypt has its part to play in the tremendous convulsions which precede the Lord's appearing; and to this our chapter looks onward, with which compare Dan. 11:40-4340And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. (Daniel 11:40‑43). Out of that land shall He gather some of His outcast people, (Isa. 11,) and in the process, as we know, destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and with His mighty wind shake His hand over the river, smiting it in its seven streams.
But mercy shall rejoice over judgment; and at the very time when Egypt shall be as women trembling at the shaking of Jehovah's hand, and the very mention of the land of Judah shall strike terror, “In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.” Thus evidently shall the Lord then deliver and revive Egypt.
The efforts of interpreters to explain these verses are as manifold as they are vain: and justly are they doomed to darkness who see not the link with Christ, and with Christ the glory of His people Israel then, if they despise Him now. Origen, Eusebius, Sze., interpreted it of the flight into Egypt (Matt. 2) and of the overthrow of idolatry and spread of Christianity there also; Jerome embraces along with this an application to the wasting of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. Moderns generally apply it in substance as Jerome did (partly historically, of the disasters under Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Psaminetichus, or the Romans; and partly mystically, of the triumphant spread of the gospel past, present, or future). These speculations do not seem to call for refutation: to state them is to condemn them sufficiently. The true reference to the future crisis on the earth is yet more confirmed by the blessed intimations of the closing verses. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” It is not a heavenly scene, but earthly. It is not the present Church condition, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, and Christ is all and in all, but a future state of large yet graduated blessing of nations. It is not this dispensation, where tares are mingled with the wheat, but the coming age when all scandals are removed from the scene where the Great King reigns in righteousness. That nation, so proud of its natural wisdom, the old oppressor and frequent snare of Israel, shall be humbled to the dust and out of the dust cry to the Lord God of Israel, who shall send them a mighty deliverer, and they shall know Him and worship Him acceptably, who smote them but will heal them with a great salvation. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, Jehovah's name will be great among the gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto it and a pure offering; for His name shall be great among the heathen. No wonder therefore that there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord—a sign and a witness unto Jehovah of hosts in that land.
And what of that later oppressor of Israel? Has the Lord but one blessing for the stranger foe? Has He not reserved a blessing for the Assyrian? Yes, for the Assyrian also. The haughty rival of the north and east shall be brought into the rich blessing of the Lord. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria.” Old jealousy and long-lasting animosity shall flee apace and forever; intimacy and generous trust and mutual love shall cement the alliance that is founded on the Lord truly known. “And the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.” Happy, though none then be despised and poor! “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria.” That is, Israel shall form one of the trio here specified and stamped with singular favor in the millennial day. For indeed the Lord shall bless them, “Saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” Thus again is Abraham's blessing verified and manifested. “I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” But even here, it appears to me, the due place of Israel is maintained, and the rank of the others nicely distinguished in God's wisdom, however large His goodness to the rest; for Israel has the glorious title of Jehovah's inheritance, if Egypt be called and Assyria created for His praise.
From chapter 20 we learn that the Assyrian ravaged Egypt (with the Ethiopians), leading his captives in shame. History, I believe, is silent; but not so prophecy, which declares that the land of Egypt shall not escape the king of the north, or last Assyrian, at the time of the end.