19:1. “The
burden of Egypt, Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come
into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the
heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.”
The “burden” is the
prophecy of the judgment that was to come upon Egypt, but as has been
discussed already, the literal judgments that fell upon the OT nations
foreshadow those that will devastate the earth in the swiftly approaching
Great Tribulation. It has been discussed also that Egypt represents the
world of business and pleasure living in defiant independence of God, so
that only the spiritually blind will fail to see in it a type of today’s
world which is of similar mutinous character. (Incidentally, as Egypt was
watered by its two-part river, the Blue and the Green Nile, speaking of the
world’s business and pleasure, so also was Babylon (symbol of the world’s
false religious systems) dependent on its two great rivers, the Tigris and
the Euphrates, which are symbolic of the world’s religions and pleasure).
In the OT a cloud was
symbolic of God’s presence leading Israel through the wilderness in the
daytime, as a pillar of fire was indicative of His presence with them during
the night. Here the cloud bespeaks His coming to execute judgment upon
Egypt, the moving of whose idols means that they would tremble, stagger,
melt, i.e., they would be destroyed. That past destruction foreshadows
God’s annihilation of idolatry at the close of the Great Tribulation. The
”melting” of Egypt’s heart is also rendered tremble, stagger, quail,
quake, that trepidation pointing also to what is yet future as described
in Revelation 6:12-17.
19:2. “And I
will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one
his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.”
This adds yet another
typological brush stroke to the canvas of the Tribulation age world as
recorded in Matthew 24:7 and Mark 13:8, “For nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and
pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
19:3. “And the
spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the
counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and
to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.”
“... spirit” in the
present context means courage; and “counsel” refers to their worldly
wisdom and planning. God would bring it all to nothing; and as it was with
ancient Egypt so will it be also with the Tribulation age earth. The
occupation with idols, charmers, familiar spirits and wizards points to the
fact that in the Great Tribulation there will be a phenomenal preoccupation
with the occult, the signs of that engrossment being all too apparent even
now, and that will culminate in the worship of the Beast.
19:4. “And the
Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord: and a fierce king
shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.”
This threat was fulfilled
in 671 BC, when Assyria’s king Esarhaddon conquered Egypt, his harsh
dominion being God’s repayment of Egypt’s earlier brutal treatment of the
Israelites, see Exodus 1:11;
3:7;
5:6,
10-14, and Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not
deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Beyond the literal
statement relative to Egypt however, is the far more important spiritual
lesson that those who refuse Christ’s benevolent rule here on earth, will
suffer the wrath of God eternally in the lake of fire.
19:5. “And
waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.”
The “sea” here is the
Nile, other translations of this verse being, “The waters will ebb from the
Nile, the river bed be parched and dry,” The Jerusalem Bible; “The
waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields; the ditches will
be parched and dry,” Taylor.
There is no known record
of any past occurrence of this, so there is every reason to conclude that
the prophecy will be fulfilled literally, or much more likely
metaphorically, in the Great Tribulation, for it is necessary to remember
that the Nile represents the great river of wealth that “waters” the world’s
commerce, and it is impossible to grasp the magnitude of the global chaos
that would follow the drying up of that “river,” though the ripple effects
of the crash of the Stock Market in the early 1930's afford a dramatic
preview of what would result from such an event.
19:6. “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.”
This is also translated
“And rivers shall stink, the canals of Egypt be shallow and waste, reed and
rush be withered,” Rotherham; “... its canals will become foul, and
the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will
rot away,” RSV; “Their channels fouled with rotting reeds,” Taylor.
The literal condition thus described may be also symbolic of the misery that
will be concomitant with the collapse of the world’s financial institutions
in the Great Tribulation.
19:7. “The
paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown
by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.”
The literal ruin resulting
from the drying up of the Nile continues to be described here; but as in the
preceding verse, the wider application is to the devastation that will
attend the collapse of the world’s commercial and financial enterprises in
the Great Tribulation.
19:8. “The
fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle (fish hook) into the
brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall
languish.”
In Scripture the fisherman
is a type of those who fish for souls, i.e., who try to win others to
Christ, see Matthew 4:19, “And He said unto them, Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men,” so that the mourning fishermen here may represent the
Tribulation age believers who will lament the paucity of response to their
preaching of the gospel. This present day, and the coming Tribulation age,
are the counterparts of what is here declared symbolically: few will listen
to the gospel.
19:9.
“Moreover they that work in fine flax (white linen), and they that weave
networks, shall be confounded,”
All whose work was
connected with flax - one of the principal crops cultivated along the Nile -
would be reduced to hopeless despair. Such workers represent those of this
Christian era, and of the coming Tribulation period, involved in the spread
of the gospel, and in the instruction and upbuilding of believers. They
are, and will continue to be frustrated and discouraged as they battle
against the rising tide of worldliness, and antagonism to the gospel.
19:10. “And
they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and
ponds for fish.”
“... the purposes
(pillars) thereof” were the pillars of society, i.e., the political,
religious, and business leaders; those who made sluices and ponds being the
ordinary working people. Every strata of society would be brought to ruin;
and as discussed already, since there is no historical record of such a past
disaster, the obvious truth is that all of this awaits, not just local, but
world-wide fulfillment in the now imminent Great Tribulation.
19:11. “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?”
Zoan, meaning removal,
was the capital of ancient Egypt, but since Egypt is a type of the world of
business and pleasure living in defiance of God, this city typifies the
governments of the nations at any time and place; and the meaning removal
is particularly apropos of all of them, for each one, having enjoyed its
brief day of glory, has passed away, giving place to an equally transient
successor. As God called the princes of Zoan fools, so does the
appellation describe all governors of the nations, for apart from a formal
token acknowledgement of God by some, they all rule according to the
dictates of their own corrupt minds.
Other translations render
the latter half of this verse “... the wisest of Pharaoh’s advisers give
stupid counsel,” NAB; “... the princes of Zoan are utterly witless,
Pharaoh’s wisest planners make the silliest plans,” PHILLIPS; “Fools that
you are, you princes of Zoan! Wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors you may be,
but stupid counselors you are,” NEB; “... how can you say to Pharaoh, “I am
a disciple of the sages, a disciple of bygone kings”?
19:12. “Where
are they? Where are thy wise men? And let them tell thee now, and let them
know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed for Egypt.”
Here God, knowing that not
one of them could foresee Egypt’s coming destruction, challenged Pharaoh’s
so-called wise men to foretell the nation’s future, their unjustified
optimism precluding even the thought of its glory ever coming to an end.
And so is it today relative to the world. Only the few instructed by God’s
Word realize that following the now imminent rapture of the Church, the
earth will be devastated by the terrible Tribulation judgments that will
leave it a virtual ruin.
In their roseate dreams
men envision a Utopia from which ignorance, war, want, and disease will have
been banished by man’s ingenuity in eradicating these scourges. It will be
God, not man, Who will first purge the world in the Great Tribulation, and
then inaugurate the Millennium that will bring this present earth’s history
to a glorious close, after which there will be a new heavens and a new
earth, see Revelation 21:1, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the
first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more
sea.”
19:13. “The
princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph (Memphis) are
deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the
tribes thereof.”
Zoan and Noph (Memphis)
were principal cities of Egypt, and the rulers of them had misled the people
into believing that the nation would continue for ever; but it is
instructive to note that Zoan means removal; Noph presentability;
and Memphis, being made fair, blamable, encompassed, meanings
which include the thought of beauty, but also of instability, guilt, and
ultimate destruction. The same is true of today’s world, which, as noted
already, will be reduced to ruin by the coming Tribulation judgments.
19:14. “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.”
“Perverse” means
confusion, giddiness, warped judgment. The complacency and pride
produced by their imagined wisdom and superiority was unwarranted, for in
God’s sight they were as foolish and filthy as a drunken man wallowing in
his own vomit.
This is a dramatic and
accurate picture of today’s world, for the government and business of our
vaunted western society are conducted in the midst of a moral cesspool that
is not only offensive to God, but to so-called “heathen” nations which have
far higher moral standards. And that those responsible for the production
of the western world’s so-called entertainment are well aware of its filthy
content is announced in the polite euphemism which precedes presentation,
“Viewer discretion is advised,” or “For adult audiences.”
19:15.
“Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch
or rush, may do.”
Some understand this to
mean that unemployment will be rampant; others, that no one will be able to
do anything to alleviate the misery. There is a measure of truth in both,
but the former seems the more probable. “Head or tail” is generally
understood to be symbolic of government or business management, “the head”
being the highest rank, and “tail” being the lowest.
19:16. “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.”
Taylor’s rendering of this
verse is, “In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women, cowering in
fear beneath the upraised fist of God.” This foretold experience of Egypt
languishing under Assyrian oppression is but the miniature of what will be
world-wide as a result of the terrible judgments that will ravish the whole
earth in the Great Tribulation.
19:17. “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 it.”
In time past Judah has had
supremacy over Egypt, but the ultimate application is to the Millennium when
Israel will be supreme among the nations.
19:18. “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.”
Five
is the Biblical number of responsibility, and it seems likely that “five
cities” is to be understood here as representing the whole land of Egypt;
and that their speaking the “language of Canaan” means, not that all the
Egyptians will speak Hebrew, but that they will abandon idolatry, and
worship Jehovah only, some of that worship being rendered by genuine
believers, and some by mere professors. It seems that this will be
fulfilled in the Tribulation, the terrible judgments of that era bringing
many Egyptians to repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and some to mere
professed faith.
Heliopolis is the city
which in the KJ translation is given as “The city of destruction,” but many
competent scholars reject this rendering, preferring the alternative “City
of the Sun,” which seems to accord better with the context.
19:19. “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.”
This seems to take us
forward to the millennial age, and continues to emphasize that in that era
Egypt will be a believing people, the altar speaking of her worship; and the
pillar, of her testimony. That pattern remains the same for us: we too are
to be a worshiping people, bearing a clear testimony to those around us, not
only by our obedient lives, but by our activity in spreading the gospel.
19:20. “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.”
It is difficult to
understand this verse, for there will be no oppression in the Millennium, so
it seems that it is simply a retrospective glance at the conditions that
will lead to Egypt’s conversion in the Great Tribulation.
19:21. “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.”
This verse reiterates the
fact of Egypt’s conversion and her continuing obedience.
19:22. “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.”
Egypt has been smitten in
the past, God using other nations such as the Assyrians as His instruments,
but clearly this smiting will be in the Tribulation, for the repentance and
conversion mentioned here have not yet occurred. It is to be noted also
that this is invariably God’s method relative to conversion; every convert
is first convicted of his guilt, and then led to put his trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ as Savior, see e.g., the record of Paul’s conversion in Acts
9:4-6, and that of the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:29-30.
19:23. “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.”
“... that day” is the
Millennium, and this foretold intercourse between these former bitter rivals
is an example of the universal peace that will prevail in that glorious era.
The Egyptians serving with
the Assyrians means that they will worship Jehovah, as will all the nations,
in the Millennium.
19:24. “In
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a
blessing in the midst of the land:”
Israel’s being “the third”
doesn’t mean that she will occupy an inferior place with Egypt and Assyria,
but that the three of them will be a triumvirate worshiping Jehovah.
19:25. “Whom
the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and
Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.”
This continues to
reiterate the truth that in the Millennium, not only will there be peace and
harmony among these three, but that all the nations will enjoy the same
blessing.
