Salvation or not, we know, is up to them and most won't. And I'll quote that verse later, but let's move forward verse. Now we're in chapter 19 of Isaiah and this proclamation moves from Ethiopia to Egypt. He'll come back to Ethiopia a little bit too and he'll stay with Egypt to the end. This 19th chapter of Isaiah contains the most important prophetic utterances concerning Egypt in the Bible. I think when Isaiah was finished with this section, before we get to chapter 36, I think he was pretty impressed with himself. I think his audience was impressed, but over two, I don't know, what do we have, almost 3,000 years later, it's not too late. It's not working out so well. Anyway, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Iraq.
That's who we're considering now. Assyria, modern-day Iraq. So I just brought it to life with that. I think that these prophecies reach to all of the continent of Africa because, of course, Ethiopia and Egypt are the northern part of Africa. But they spill out in the end time scenario, the mercy and grace of God.
And while these two are singled out, I think the notice to humanity is God, he keeps the record and he knows what he's doing and what he does in the end is right. When the voice from heaven came to Nebuchadnezzar, it says, you know you're going to be driven from men until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men. I know this is a continuation, a little bit of last session, not so much end time stuff, which is very appealing to us as Christians. But all of Isaiah's words to the surviving nations, because some of the nations he preached about did not survive. The Philistines are gone.
We'll get them at the end sometime in chapter 20. But to the surviving ones, such as Egypt and Ethiopia and Iraq, everything he says to these countries in this section has an end time element to it. And you've got to pay attention and say, okay, he's switching gears.
But even when you don't, you say, but still in the end, it just works out. So let's now look at verse 1, woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, which sends ambassadors by sea even in vessels, verse 2, of vessels of reed on the waters, saying, go swift messengers to a nation tall and smooth of skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down whose land the rivers divide. I think Isaiah is really enjoying writing at this point. He's just very colorful in his language. I don't think he's flowery, where it's unnecessary.
To us, maybe looking at it, yeah, it's a little bit much. But in those days, I think it was very well received. He's a very intelligent man, very knowledgeable about surroundings and nature. He's a very well-educated man.
And not only well-educated, he's exposed, he's experienced. It comes out in his writings. Anyway, this proclamation against Ethiopia, the woe at verse 1 is more of a, hey, listen up, than troubles on the way, although trouble is on the way for them. But not in the end, they will survive. And what is going on in this section is what's been going on throughout Isaiah's ministry. Assyria, that the world power in that region right now, they're the threat, they're the nemesis of the region. Well, somebody's got to be, because if somebody's not, then somebody else will be.
It's just you hope that the one that is calling the shots is not vicious. Well, Assyria was. And Ethiopia, called Cush, some Bibles translated Cush, that's, it's Ethiopia. The Septuagint, when the Jews living in Egypt decided, hey, we need a Bible, our Hebrew Bible in the Greek language, they chose to interpret Cush as Ethiopia. Nothing is lost in that.
The original Cush, you know, you got to go look it up in a reference book if you're not familiar with it. But Ethiopia, we know that. Anyway, Ethiopia was the southernmost part of Isaiah's world concerning Africa, and in those days Sudan was part of Egypt. The Ethiopian, you know, they put a ruler on the throne in Egypt, and so they were sort of incorporated together for a while there. Also, in Isaiah's day, one king called Piankai was an Ethiopian who ruled in Egypt, and so all of this to us, we have to research this. Isaiah didn't have to research, he lived it. So, as you go through your Old Testament, you say, man, this is really hard.
My devotions, why is it so hard? Well, understand, because there are real events, real people in their day that have survived, and there are lessons within the difficult stories. And so what is happening here is, Assyria is going to conquer Egypt, they've got their eyes on Egypt and everybody, and Ethiopia. And that whole region is in panic, because they've already seen what this Egyptian, this Assyrian killing machine can do, their armies.
And so they're sending messengers to all the people that live on the Nile, and all the tributaries going to the Nile. The tall people spoken of here, you know, the Dinka tribes that exist today are known to be tall. I think the smooth skin is a reference to, they weren't hairy, and compared, you know, the Jews, all the men had beards, and you know. So, you look at, even today, you look at some people from that region, and they're, by contrast, not, their skins are smooth, in contrast, in that sense.
And I think that's what he's talking about, either way, they would have known who he was referring to. So, there was a group in Jerusalem that said, this alliance would be good for us. If we can get the armies of Egypt and Ethiopia, and all these little tribes on our side, we can fight the Assyrians. Well, God didn't like that plan, and that's what the prophecies are about. The prophets come in and say, God doesn't like this, he's going to deal with Egypt, he's going to deal with Ethiopia, he's going to deal with everybody. And he wants his people trusting him, not Egypt, which they kept doing, and it never benefited them. And so, when he says, a land shadowed with buzzing wings here in verse 2, not only because of the insect infestation in Africa, but also, sort of, portraying this frantic diplomatic activity to garner support from these other peoples. If you know the story of Lawrence of Arabia, part of his effort to fight the Turks that were in Israel and that region of the world during the war, the First World War, his mission was to get the tribes to unite to fight this common enemy.
Well, that's what's happening here. The Ethiopians are saying, we're going to send messengers out, we're going to get the support, we're going to fight the Assyrians. Well, that's fine for the world, but that's not fine for Egypt, for Israel, and yet, that prophet from Israel, he sees it all. Sort of like you and me when we say, yeah, Antichrist is going to be in power, the society is going to do this, this nation is going to line up with that nation, that part of the world, instead of talking nations, we don't have to talk nations, we can say regions. We can say a region from, you know, modern day Russia and Saudi Arabia, all these countries are going to get together against Israel.
And the world, of course, looks at us like we're crazy, or, you know, racist or something. Well, that's what Isaiah is doing. He's saying, eh, that's not going to happen like that, this is what's going to happen. Verse 3, all the inhabitants of the world and dwellers of the earth, when he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it.
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it. So here Isaiah is saying, God's making his message known, you're not going to miss this, unless you want to, verse 4. For so Yahweh said to me, and here's the messenger, not the messenger of the Ethiopians in verses 1 and 2, but God's messenger, I will take my rest and I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
And so there he's being a little, you know, creative writing and, you know, his childhood mentors would be proud of him. Well said, the harvesting really got me, I got hungry when I thought about that. Anyway, verse 8, for before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.
A little different from, say, love never fails. You read the New Testament, you understand what you're reading. You come here and you go, huh, sprigs, pruning hooks, what's he talking about?
So here's that frantic activity of men to settle business in their own strength, in contrast to the calmness of God saying, I'm going to take my time and when I'm good and ready, I'm going to prune in God's timing and it will be God's pruning. And Assyria here is pictured as this ripening vine that's not going to survive because God's going to judge them. And so when I come out and I say, we're going to talk about Ethiopia, Egypt and Iraq, it's because Assyria is gone. There is no Assyrian empire anymore. That area has been taken over by the people, the descendants and other peoples known to us today as Iraqis. And they're made up of different people because Saddam Hussein went out of his way to torture them. You weren't part of his tribe in Iraq. You were subject to harm on a horrific level. Well, yeah, so when you if you see videos of Saddam Hussein coming out of a hole and you feel sorry for him, understand that man was a monster. You know, the Russians said, yeah, he's a monster, but he stabilizes the region.
Yeah, well, that's because you really don't respect life. You think everybody still exists for the state. The Soviet Union is gone in name only.
Well, they picked up some other liberties, but it still ends up supporting. All right, I'll just get back to this. So where on earth are we? Verse six. They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey and for the beast of the earth. The birds of prey will summer on them and all the beast of the earth will winter on them.
Well, that's pretty. This is grotesque. He's describing the Feast of Scavengers on the dead bodies from the conflict. Well, when we get to Chapter 37, we're going to read about 185,000 Assyrian troops killed in one night.
They never came into Israel again. We get this in the tribulation pictures. The scale of bloodshed that will take place in the Great Tribulation in Revelation 14 and again in Revelation 19. When I think the blood coming up to the bridle of the horses is figurative language. Some of them, no, no, it's real.
Well, you know, you're entitled to think that way. But remember, Jesus says right out the beginning, he's speaking in symbols and signs that make the point. That's why he does it.
He's not trying to hide the truth so much as he's trying to tell you. These symbols are long lasting. And if you look at them, you get the picture. When I mention a dragon, you know, that can't be good.
If you're walking to your car and a real dragon shows up, that's not good. And so those kind of things are just all over the prophecies of the Bible. This imagery, it is a superior way of communicating to all the generations. And, you know, folks that complain, well, mine says them and not they.
You don't understand how the language moves and the task of translators. Anyway, verse 7, in that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin and from a people terrible from their beginnings onward, a nation powerful and treading down, whose land the rivers divide and to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts to Mount Zion. Well, this is messianic.
This is Kingdom Age stuff. You see what I meant when the prophets, they move in and out and you got to keep up with them? At what point are these people around the Nile going to come to Jerusalem and start worshipping? Well, you do have some of that today with those who say they're descendants of Haile Selassie and coming into Jerusalem, but this is much broader than that. They're coming to Jerusalem to worship Jesus Christ the Lord and bringing gifts to him. Isaiah picks this up again in chapter 60 about the Gentiles, the nations coming. All the prophets were on this. Zechariah talks about it in detail. You know, you pay tribute to the ruling king. You don't pay to the king you defeated. And there, the language he speaks in verse 7 is the language of his day of a people that are coming to a king in total submission.
They weren't doing this in this time. They were calling to Judah for help, to help their alliance. Well, Isaiah breaks off and he says, well, let me tell you what's going to happen in the end. You people that I've been, and you know who you are, even if we don't know, these little tribes, they're going to worship Yahweh in Jerusalem. Although, of course, we know Messiah moves. Jesus, he moves from, let me put it this way, the son of God moves from Messiah to the Christ. He becomes not only the Jewish savior, but the savior of the world. As John says right out in his letter, he is the savior of the world.
Now, whether the world receives that salvation or not, we know is up to them, and most won't. And I'll quote that verse later, but let's move forward. Now we're in chapter 19 of Isaiah, and this proclamation moves from Ethiopia to Egypt. He'll come back to Ethiopia a little bit too, and he'll stay with Egypt to the end. This 19th chapter of Isaiah contains the most important prophetic utterances concerning Egypt in the Bible, in the Old Testament. And if you were an Egyptian, I remember years ago, I worked with an Egyptian, and I would think, I never got a chance to talk about it with him, but I would think, well, you know, he's in the Bible, his people are in the Bible, but he's never got a chance.
Well, even I, I don't know his name, but I can see his face. I'll wave to him if he gets to heaven. Anyway, this is a remarkable prophecy, because Isaiah is going to declare that these peoples, especially the Iraqis, Assyria, and Egypt, they're going to be worshipping Christ in all their glory in the end times. In his day, there's no chance. Assyria's got, the Iraqis are coming to conquer Egypt.
That's what they're going to do. But Isaiah looks beyond current events, and he speaks again to the end time, what's going to happen in that region of the world. We lose sight of just how many people live in this, just this part of the world.
Maybe if you, I have a, I have a YouTube passport. I go anywhere in the world from my living room, and I'd go to these places, you know, I go, I want to see a fairy crossing some unknown, you know, river, and you see how many people are there. These are souls. God knows all of them. He knows all their thoughts before they do.
He's like he's electronically plugged into everybody. And so it is remarkable that he declares these enemies are going to be worshipping Isaiah's God. And Isaiah does not yet understand fully the meaning of Jesus Christ. He understands more than most, especially that 53rd chapter. And so they'll all be united, worshipping the Lord and sharing his blessings.
In this section, he brings up, he uses this phrase six times in that day. He's talking about end times. So we come to that now to verse one, the burden against Egypt. Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud and will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. Well, as I mentioned, there were those in Judah that wanted Egypt and what she had to offer as far as protection. God, through the prophets, said it's not going to happen.
And he brings the protection to the angel of the Lord in that one night. And we're about 715 years before the coming of Christ. So in another 45 years or so, the Assyrians will conquer Egypt. And Isaiah will probably be dead at that time. But these prophets, you know, they spoke with such assurance. This is going to happen. I'm going to go die now.
But this is going to happen. They all did this. I mean, Elijah says, you know what, if you ask a hard thing, you're a double portion. Greedy.
No, it wasn't. And he said, well, if you see me go up, how does he know that? That is remarkable. So the message to us is when God wants you to know what's going on, he had no problem telling you. What happens is we begin to insert our voice into God. We become a ventriloquist.
I say I'm going to bless you. No weapon formed will prosper. Well, tell that to the martyrs. Physically, they did prosper. Spiritually, they did not.
They didn't take their faith. So, you know, the sobriety that the Bible brings to us in these lessons that are bound from the pages, but they're hard to get. Well, what good thing comes? You know, if you get something good, aren't you suspicious? If somebody walks up to you and says, hey, I'm just going to wash your car because I know I never met you. I just want to wash your car. You be suspicious. You're not touching my car.
I don't know about you. Where I'm from, if you're walking down the street and a stranger says hi, you're on guard. Why is he being friendly?
He's trying to, I'm serious. This is a good way to be. Anyway, it's not paranoia. It's just street savvy in that context. But then you go to other places and people say hi and you say, what are you looking at me for?
And they're like, what's wrong with you? Anyway, when in Rome, do as the Romans. I've not been to Rome. And if I get there, I don't know if I'm going to do like they do.
I just needed that little break mentally. OK, coming back to this, this Assyrian conquest, as I mentioned, proved a failure. And their mediums, their wizards, they were unable to give them the council. Egypt was known for her wise men. In fact, in one point, Solomon is said to have been wiser than the wise men of Egypt. And God is saying, well, they're wise with each other, but they're not. Do you think when you get to heaven, God is going to say to refer to anyone as doctor? Dr. Gaston, how are you? It won't even be, hi, pastor. It will be, hey, I've given you a new name and you'll be so happy with that name. I can't wait. I've got a list that I've submitted. Tiger.
What's your name, Tiger? And of course, anyway, these mediums, these wizards, and all in between, which would be the mediums. I mean, anyone here wear medium?
Do you ever think about that when you go buy it? Hmm, I don't want to be a medium. God deals with mediums. OK, that's hysterical, you know it. All right, someone said, be serious. We're talking about Isaiah here.
You haven't read him as many times as I've read him today. Anyway, this image of Yahweh riding on the clouds. We sing songs like that, you know, riding on the clouds at the trumpet's call. Well, some of this may be ridicule to the pagan gods like Baal. There are ancient writings that talk about their gods on the clouds.
But Moses way back when did this, Deuteronomy 33. There is no one like the god of Jeshurun, that's a term of affection, who rides the heavens to help you and in his excellency on the clouds. Well, that's a term of affection, Jeshurun. Later on he says, Jeshurun has grown fat and he's all messed up now because he's just, he's just filled with things that have taken him away from me.
Bloated would be the idea. Anyway, so that's interesting. You know, you've got to just pay attention to these things. But in the New Testament we read, then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. I wonder if he's going to take information that's in the, you know, the cyber clouds and just put in there every knee shall bow.
You go to look up your account and it says every knee shall bow. I don't think he's going to do that. But if he consulted me and is serious, he would, but he's not. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence. And that's again, he's masterful at playing on words. We wouldn't get through Isaiah if we stopped it every time he plays on words. But here he's talking about an idol that is man-made and set up and totters over.
And so he uses that. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence. And all the gods of Egypt were defeated by Yahweh in Moses' day. Well, they're going to be defeated again.
Idolatry is making up God, making up things about God. It would be the same, what if map makers just made it up? What if they just said, no, we're going to put the ocean, we're going to put the Pacific Ocean in Nebraska on the map? I mean, it just would be crazy. What if air traffic controllers said, yeah, you're sure you're clear? When they had no clue. Well, this is what people are doing with God. It's that same rationale or irrational.
By that illogic, gods are formed. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
