Isaiah 17-19
Dear RTB’ers,
Today, oracles against Damascus (Aram/Syria), Cush (Ethiopia), and Egypt. There’s a lot of history involved here, mainly aggression by Assyria that helps to explain the judgments against these nations. If you’ve been reading John’s “See also…” links, you see that the Chronological Bible has much of Isaiah interspersed with readings (and links) from history (especially II Kings) and from other prophets (especially Jeremiah, but also Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, and Micah).
Another six “in that day” references in chapter 19, this one a day when Egypt, Israel, and Assyria all come together: In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth… (vv. 19:23-24a). Has that day come or are we still waiting for the End Times? I recall the Camp David Accords in 1978 when Jimmy Carter brought Egypt and Israel to the peace table, a treaty that still holds today in spite of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. But the rest of the Arab world still seems to be united against Israel. So, still to come…?
One other verse struck me: And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and He will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. (v. 19:22) I think it is often the case that the Lord tests us and then “heals” us so that we can return more faithfully to Him. He is a good God and we often simply don’t know what we don’t know.
Blessings!
Fred