A Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, 12 Nov. 2006
The burden of Egypt.
Look, Jehovah is riding on a swift cloud and He will go to Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
(2) And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and they will fight,
each against another
and each against his neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom;
(3) and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound their counsel;
and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,
and the mediums and the wizards;
(4) and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master,
and a fierce king will rule over them, declares Jehovah GOD of hosts.
(5) And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
and the river will be desolate and dry,
(6) and streams will stink,
and the canals of Lower Egypt will diminish and dry up,
reeds and rushes will rot away.
(7) There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile
will be parched,
will be driven away,
and will be no more.
(8) Then fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile;
and they will languish who spread nets on the water.
(9) The workers in combed flax will be in despair,
and the weavers of white cotton.
(10) Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,
and all who work for pay will be grieved.
(11) The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;
the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
"I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
(12) Where then are your wise men?
Let them tell you that they might know
what Jehovah of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
(13) The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have made Egypt stagger.
(14) Jehovah has mingled within her a spirit of confusions,
and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,
as a drunk staggers in his vomit.
(15) And there will not be for Egypt a move which can be made
by head or tail, palm branch or reed.
(16) In that day Egypt will be like women,
and they will tremble and fear before the hand that Jehovah of hosts shakes over them.
(17) And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt.
Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear
because of the purpose that Jehovah of hosts has purposed against them.
(18) In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt
that speak the language of Canaan
and swear allegiance to Jehovah of hosts.
One of these will be called the City of the Sun.
(19) In that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt,
and a pillar to Jehovah at its border.
(20) It will be for a sign and for a witness to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt.
When they cry to Jehovah because of oppressors,
He will send to them a Savior and Defender,
and He will deliver them.
(21) And Jehovah will make himself known to the Egyptians,
and the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day
and worship with sacrifice and offering,
and they will make vows to Jehovah and perform them.
(22) And Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking and healing,
and they will return to Jehovah,
and He will listen to their pleas for mercy
and heal them.
(23) In that day a highway will exist from Egypt to Assyria,
and Assyria will go into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria,
and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
(24) In that day Israel will be third to Egypt and Assyria,
a blessing in the midst of the earth,
(25) whom Jehovah of hosts has blessed, saying,
"Blessed be my people Egypt,
and Assyria the work of my hands,
and Israel my inheritance."
Theories relating to bloodletting and the human body's "natural balance" can be traced back more than 2,000 years, prior to the teachings of the famous Greek physician Galan (130-201 AD), who contended that good health relied on maintaining or reestablishing proper proportions of four fluids or humors in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
"Bad" or excess blood was medically accepted here and elsewhere as the cause of a host of illnesses. Doctors and untrained practitioners used leeches (parasitic worms) or special cutters called fleams to drain patients of blood, often in considerable quantities, to purge the body of "impurities" or to reset a patient's internal "natural balance."
At times in North Carolina and elsewhere, excessive bloodletting killed patients or accelerated their physical decline. Accounts of George Washington's death on December 14, 1799, indicate that he died principally from "over-bleeding." In treating the 67-year old former president for a throat infection, two attending physicians bled him four times in two days, draining Washington of five pints of blood, nearly half of an adult's complete supply. (Source: http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ssgh/blood.html )
Today, we can look back upon those barbaric medical practices and ask ourselves, “How could learned men fall for such goofy explanations for sickness?” But it happens all the time. Smart men who do not look to God for wisdom can come up with all sorts of kooky ideas, and most people will believe anything they hear from someone they respect. This is what was going on in Egypt during the time of Isaiah, and it still goes on in our world today.
God takes 3 actions against Egypt when He comes to visit them in judgment:
v.2 Stir up (they fight)
v.3 confound (they seek idols)
v.4 give over (they have a hard master and a dry Nile – judgment on the two main sorces of Egypt’s glory, it’s leadership and the Nile)
Egypt’s civil war in v.2 and “hard ruler” of v.4
· Some think early Assyrian Sargon (Knobel), late Assyrian Essarhaddon (who conquered Egypt in 670BC) or later Persian Cambyses (Luzzatto) who also conquered Egypt and was hated for his cruelty. Young thinks that all of these are generally in view rather than one specific ruler.
· I think that Delitzsch’s application is best: In 695 BC, Egyptians revolted and overthrew the Ethiopian dynasty that I mentioned last week. They organized themselves into 12 small kingdoms that had constant civil war between them for 25 years, then in the year 670, Psammetichus conquered the 12 kingdoms at the battle at Momemphis with the help of mercenary troops from Greece, and became king of all Egypt. The Egyptian nation very soon came to feel how oppressive this new dynasty was, when Necho (616-597), the son and successor of Psammetichus, renewed the project of Ramses-Miamun, to construct a Suez canal, and tore away 120,000 of the natives of the land from their homes, sending them to wear out their lives in forced labour of the most wearisome kind.
v.6 Delitzsch: “Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor, inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros i.e., Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa-het, the low land, and sa-res, the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim.”
Impact on the removal of Egypt’s leaders and River upon all the professions:
v.7 Farming Delitzsch: bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i.e., meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side
v.8 Fishing
v.9 Textile industry Delitzsch: The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh, pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim, 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây, lit., white cloth (singularet. with the old termination ay), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there
Graphic: Flax processing in Egypt http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/egypt/photos/beniHassan/pt/khnum05.jpg
Google map of Egypt – the only green is along the Nile and the Sea!
v.12 “Where are your wise men?”
1Co 1:19-24 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." (20) Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (21) For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (22) For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, (23) but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, (24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
v.15 “head, tail, branch, reed” - every level of society affected
v.16-19 Three results of God’s judgment on Egypt
v.18 “Five cities” Five is a Biblical number for a small amount: Lev. 26:8 “Five of you will chase a hundred” and I Cor 14:19 “in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding than 10,000 in a foreign tongue.” (Young). Five cities are very few for Egypt, which was completely covered with cities; but this is simply a fragmentary commencement of Egypt's future and complete conversion. The description given of them, as beginning to speak the language of Canaan, i.e., the sacred language of the worship of Jehovah…
One of these five will be called ‛Ir ha-Heres. (Delitzsch)
· Targum: “Heliopolis, whose future fate will be destruction.”
· Septuagint: πόλις ἀσεδέκ equivalent to ‛Ir hazzedek (city of righteousness)
· Delitzsch: evidently intended for a proper name. Heres cannot have any other meaning in Hebrew than that of “destruction.” But as this appears unsuitable, it is more natural to read ‛Ir ha-cheres “city of the sun” (which is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and some other Hebrew codices in opposition to the Masoritic text, as well as in several ancient translations of the Old Testament, including the Syriac, Latin Vulgate, Aramaic Targums, Arabic, the Greek Sinaiticus). “Sun-city” was the name of one of the most celebrated of the old Egyptian cities, viz., Heliopolis, the city of the sun-god Ra, which was situated to the north-east of Memphis, and is called On in other passages of the Old Testament. (Oni, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, signifies the eye as an emblem of the sun) to Ir-hahares is simply used with a play upon the name Ir-hacheres. The name points to destruction, not to restoration. Moreover, Heliopolis never has been restored since the time of its destruction, which Strabo dates as far back as the Persian invasion. There is nothing left standing now out of all its monuments but one granite obelisk: they are all either destroyed, or carried away, like the so-called “Cleopatra's Needle,” or sunk in the soil of the Nile… the meaning of the prophecy may be, that the city which had hitherto been ‛Ir-ha-cheres, the chief city of the sun-worship, would become the city of the destruction of idolatry, as Jeremiah prophesies in Isa_43:13, “Jehovah will break in pieces the obelisks of the sun-temple in the land of Egypt.”
· Other scholars appeal to the Arabic word spelled the same was as this Hebrew word and render it “city of protection” (Rosenmüller, Ewald, Knobel, and Meier) or “city of the lion” (Young, Duhm, Marti), the latter of which could relate to Leontopolis, where a temple was indeed built in 100BC for the worship of Jehovah (see below)
v.19 Delitzsch: This is the passage of Isaiah (not v. 18) to which Onias IV appealed, when he sought permission of Ptolemaeus Philometor to build a temple of Jehovah in Egypt. He built such a temple in the nomos of Heliopolis, 180 stadia (22 1/2 miles) to the north-east of Memphis (Josephus, Bell. vii. 10, 3), and on the foundation and soil of the ὀχύρωμα in Leontopolis… This temple, which was altogether unlike the temple of Jerusalem in its outward appearance, being built in the form of a castle, and which stood for more than two hundred years (from 160 b.c. to a.d. 71, when it was closed by command of Vespasian) There were also many obelisks built in worship to Jehovah around Egypt indicating the presence of God in Egypt, just as Jacob erected a stone at Bethel where he saw God.
The account of the temple built by Onias, as given by Josephus (13:3) But then the son of Onias the high priest, who was of the same name with his father, and who fled to king Ptolemy, who was called Philometor, lived now at Alexandria, as we have said already. When this Onias saw that Judea was oppressed by the Macedonians and their kings, out of a desire to purchase to himself a memorial and eternal fame he resolved to send to king Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra, to ask leave of them that he might build a temple in Egypt like to that at Jerusalem, and might ordain Levites and priests out of their own stock. The chief reason why he was desirous so to do, was, that he relied upon the prophet Isaiah, who lived above six hundred years before, and foretold that there certainly was to be a temple built to Almighty God in Egypt by a man that was a Jew. Onias was elevated with this prediction, and wrote the following epistle to Ptolemy and Cleopatra: "Having done many and great things for you in the affairs of the war, by the assistance of God, and that in Celesyria and Phoenicia, I came at length with the Jews to Leontopolis, and to other places of your nation, where I found that the greatest part of your people had temples in an improper manner, and that on this account they bare ill-will one against another, which happens to the Egyptians by reason of the multitude of their temples, and the difference of opinions about Divine worship. Now I found a very fit place in a castle that hath its name from the country Diana; this place is full of materials of several sorts, and replenished with sacred animals; I desire therefore that you will grant me leave to purge this holy place, which belongs to no master, and is fallen down, and to build there a temple to Almighty God, after the pattern of that in Jerusalem, and of the same dimensions, that may be for the benefit of thyself, and thy wife and children, that those Jews which dwell in Egypt may have a place whither they may come and meet together in mutual harmony one with another, and he subservient to thy advantages; for the prophet Isaiah foretold that "there should be an altar in Egypt to the Lord God; (5) and many other such things did he prophesy relating to that place."
2. And this was what Onias wrote to king Ptolemy. Now any one may observe his piety, and that of his sister and wife Cleopatra, by that epistle which they wrote in answer to it; for they laid the blame and the transgression of the law upon the head of Onias. And this was their reply: "King Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra to Onias, send greeting. We have read thy petition, wherein thou desirest leave to be given thee to purge that temple which is fallen down at Leontopolis, in the Nomus of Heliopolis, and which is named from the country Bubastis; on which account we cannot but wonder that it should be pleasing to God to have a temple erected in a place so unclean, and so full of sacred animals. But since thou sayest that Isaiah the prophet foretold this long ago, we give thee leave to do it, if it may be done according to your law, and so that we may not appear to have at all offended God herein." So Onias took the place, and built a temple, and an altar to God, like indeed to that in Jerusalem, but smaller and poorer.
v.20 The 3 results of fear, identity, and worship all hinge on this verse “they will cry to Jehovah” as they go to the proper source of wisdom. Pro 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Now God performs three acts of restoration in v.20-22
v.21 Isaiah was speaking to Old Testament Jews, who knew no other way to worship God except through sacrifices, so it is natural, that although Isaiah was speaking of a time in with God would be worshiped in spirit and in truth through the blood of Jesus without the blood of animals, he nevertheless represents that in the convention of animal sacrifice.
Delitzsch: “This worship is represented by the prophet, just as we should expect according to the Old Testament view, as consisting in the offering of bleeding and bloodless, or legal and free-will offerings”
Young: The worship of the Egyptians is so sincere that they even take upon themselves voluntary vows which nothing required them to take, yet they take them and fulfill them completely because they are so sincere!
v.22 Striking and healing – Egypt becomes a son of God, subject to the nurture and admonition of sons, for whom the Lord loves He disciplines! Persecution has indeed come in the Christian age of Egypt.
The chapter closes with three more occurrences of the phrase “in that day”
v.23 There was already a literal highway from Assyria to Egypt through Israel; Isaiah is rather emphasizing SPIRITUAL fellowship among these countries and a departure from their military animosities. It is interesting to note that the area of these three countries is where the Gospel first grew – around the Mediterannean coast and up the Nile River.
v.24 Fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) that they and their seed would be a “blessing” to the nations!
When did God speak of blessing on other nations besides Israel?
· Gen 39:5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field.
· Hos 2:23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"
· 1Pe 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Delitzsch: “It was a victory on the part of the religion of Jehovah, that Egypt was covered with Jewish synagogues even in the age before Christ. And Alexandra was the place where the law of Jehovah was translated into Greek, and thus made accessible to the heathen world”
1. 30-100 AD: Apostle Mark & many other Jews form Hellenistic Christian hub in Alexandria.
2. 101-200 AD: North Africa - esp. Tunis and Algeria - has thriving Latin churches. Tertullian wrote “We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you - cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum…” (Apologeticus 37) Tertullian also relates the Story of the martyrdom of Perpetua in Carthage at the turn of the century: “…we were suddenly taken away to be heard, and we arrived at the town-hall. At once the rumour spread through the neighbourhood of the public place, and an immense number of people were gathered together. We mount the platform. The rest were interrogated, and confessed. Then they came to me, and my father immediately appeared with my boy, and withdrew me from the step, and said in a supplicating tone, ‘Have pity on your babe.’ And Hilarianus the procurator, who had just received the power of life and death in the place of the proconsul Minucius Timinianus, who was deceased, said, ‘Spare the grey hairs of your father, spare the infancy of your boy, offer sacrifice for the well-being of the emperors.’ And I replied, ‘I will not do so.’ Hilarianus said, ‘Are you a Christian?’ And I replied, ‘I am a Christian.’ And as my father stood there to cast me down from the faith, he was ordered by Hilarianus to be thrown down, and was beaten with rods. And my father’s misfortune grieved me as if I myself had been beaten, I so grieved for his wretched old age.15 The procurator then delivers judgment on all of us, and condemns us to the wild beasts, and we went down cheerfully to the dungeon… The day of their victory shone forth, and they proceeded from the prison into the amphitheatre, as if to an assembly, joyous and of brilliant countenances; if prechance shrinking, it was with joy, and not with fear. Perpetua followed with placid look, and with step and gait as a matron of Christ, beloved of God; casting down the luster of her eyes from the gaze of all… And when the populace called for them into the midst, that as the sword penetrated into their body they might make their eyes partners in the murder, they rose up of their own accord, and transferred themselves whither the people wished; but they first kissed one another, that they might consummate their martyrdom with the kiss of peace. The rest indeed, immoveable and in silence, received the sword-thrust; much more Saturus, who also had first ascended the ladder, and first gave up his spirit, for he also was waiting for Perpetua. But Perpetua, that she might taste some pain, being pierced between the ribs, cried out loudly, and she herself placed the wavering right hand of the youthful gladiator to her throat.37
3. 201-300 AD: Abyssinia/ Ethiopia embraces Gospel., Cyprian leads Latin church in Carthage.
4. 301-400: Frumentius from Syria appointed first Bishop of Axum. Egyptian Coptic Church begins; not Hellenistic, but made of common people who spoke Egyptian Coptic. They more readily embraced the otherworldly emphasis of Gnosticism, but were persecuted severely - many fled to the desert. One church father wrote, “If the Tiber flooded or if the Nile failed to flood, there was a cry of ‘Christians to the lion!’” (Tertullian, Apologeticus 40) - over 700,000 Coptic Christians martyred. But the importance of Alexandria and of the monasticism and asceticism of the peninsula of Sinai and also of Egypt, in connection with the history of the spread of Christianity, is very well known.
5. 401-500 AD: Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Arian Vandals invade N. Africa, persecute Catholics & Donatists, overthrown later by Byzantines. 9 Syrian miss. to Ethiopia, found monasteries, translate Ge’ez Bible.
6. 501-600 AD: Byzantine missionaries (incl. Julian & Longinus) evangelize Nubia - churches in each village.
7. 601-700: Muslims begin conquering N. Africa with help of Berbers. They leave sub-Sahara Africa un-Islamicised to facilitate their slave trade.
Jesus told a story about a wise man who built his house upon a rock. That rock is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom as we are told in Col 2:3. We must build our lives upon God’s wisdom, not man’s wisdom. We do that by studying God’s word and allowing His Holy Spirit to understand that wisdom:
· Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom
· 2Ti 3:15 you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
· Eph 1:17 [I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
It is so important to orient our lives toward Jesus and the Bible because that is the only place where true wisdom can be found. Otherwise we will experience the removal of the things we trust in as God’s judgment just as He promised judgment upon the Egyptians at the beginning of this chapter. And like the Egyptians cried out to God for deliverance in v.20, God will save all who ask Him to, and He will make Himself known to you through the Bible.
And yet we are tempted to look in other places for wisdom, aren’t we?
1. We talked this past Wednesday night about the tension between faith healing and the secular approach to treating sickness. The world would say you’re wasting your time to pray in an emergency –There are physical problems to be addressed, so start treating them already. But a Christian believes that God acts upon the minds of people to give them wisdom about how to treat problems. A Christian prays while he’s looking for the phone to call 911 rather than forgetting the source of his wisdom.
2. Think about politics: Are we using the wisdom of the world that says the way to create social change to start campaigns to pass laws to change people’s behaviour, or are we discipling people into an understanding of God’s ways and praying for God to apply the wisdom from His word to the hearts of people to change them? The world’s way certainly feels more like you’re doing something, more powerful, more sensational, and it seems to go against all popular sentiment and common sense to do the slow, quiet work of discipleship away from the media spotlight, but the wisdom of God is like that.
3. Our modern-day wise men tell us that humans are basically good and that if we could just get rid of the guns and the alcohol and the bad influences – especially those violent, archaic, radical religious impulses – and teach our children how to be polite and unprejudiced and nice to each other, we can achieve the peace we’re all hoping for. But God says that’s a bunch of hogwash. We are corrupted by sin and no amount of schooling, no amount of time in a penitentiary, no amount of lawmaking will ever change that. Only Jesus can change our hearts and give us peace.
4. The world’s wisdom tells us that life is all about getting things for ourselves, so they say to go into as much debt as possible in order to get things for yourself now, they say to limit your family size so that you can have more time and money to yourself, and to focus your investing on providing more wealth and comfort for yourself in retirement. While God encourages saving and meeting our needs, His wisdom is antithetical to the world’s. God says that life is about blessing others (Gen 12:3) and that the more generous we are and the more children we have the more blessed we will be and the happier we will be.
There are of course a million other ways in which we are tempted to follow the wisdom of the world instead of the wisdom of God’s word, and you will have to think through those things and apply them in your own life. The wonderful thing is that if you fail to chose God’s wisdom, He will be sure to bring you back around through His discipline process “striking and healing” which is a very gracious process to bring us to faith in this life before it is too late and we spend eternity in hell. Which way of wisdom will you pursue?
