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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Isaiah 19: A Silver Lining in a Dark Cloud for Egypt
Can a nation once shrouded in turmoil find hope and redemption? Join us on a journey through Isaiah 19 as we unravel the profound themes of hope and divine salvation amidst Egypt's struggles. We'll take a discerning look at how the prophetic vision of internal conflict and economic devastation, symbolized by the drying Nile, transforms into a beacon of hope. Through God's promises, we see a future where Egypt turns towards Him, adopting Hebrew and embracing worship. Our conversation highlights the powerful reminder of God's unwavering presence and His call for Israel to remain steadfast, even when surrounded by adversity.
In a world often filled with unexpected challenges, discover the boundless reach of God's redemptive power and mercy. We share an inspiring analogy of a mountain climber finding help in the most unexpected places, reflecting the infinite ways God reaches and heals us. By trusting in His miraculous methods and letting go of our limitations, we find reassurance in scriptures like Isaiah 12:2, which remind us of God's strength and support. Together, we'll explore the unifying vision of peace between Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, urging us to embrace faith and trust in God's limitless ability to save, redeem, and restore, no matter how daunting our circumstances may appear.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Isaiah, chapter 19. Today's title is A Silver Lining in the Dark Cloud for Egypt A Silver Lining in the Dark Cloud for Egypt. We're going to get into all that in just a moment. But, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast. Make sure you're commenting on the videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1:I really enjoy interacting with you in different ways giving you resources, sometimes learning from you, and then also, as always, we all gather together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, where there's an amazing team of people doing daily devotions on there. Man, you really owe it to yourself to go there and read the devotions, because they're really helping us continue to open God's word because, as we always say, the more we dig, the more we find. If you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 19,. Just to kind of catch you up a little bit, because over the next several chapters we're going to continue to be hearing God talk about the different nations that surround Israel. So, to bring you up to speed. Remember that the point of the book of Isaiah is the idea of God is our salvation, the nation of Israel. At this point they're really struggling to return to God. They've been involved in all different types of paganistic worship and all these different things that's drawn them away from God, and now they're dealing with social, political, all these other kinds of up-evils, and they have all these alliances with these different nations that are turning south on them, and then they also have all these other enemy nations that are coming against them. It's just, it's really a bad day, you know, for them in a lot of ways. And so God is continually saying I've got this big idea for you, israel, but you've got to turn to me, me, and you need to turn to me, because judgment is coming to all these other nations. So return to me. And so what God is going to share with Israel through the prophet Isaiah is a lot of the bad things that's getting ready to come to these other nations, but yet, at the same time, god is continually calling back the nation of Israel. It's one of the things that I find really intriguing about this chapter is, even though on one end, god is saying that the Egyptians are going to experience all these bad things, there's still hope for Israel. I don't know about you, but that's been the case so many times in my life is. There's been all this difficulty, yet God's always up to something in the middle of it. So let's read this together and let's see what God's word will say to us. You ready?
Speaker 1:Isaiah, chapter 19, verse one says this this message came to me concerning Egypt. Look, the Lord is advancing against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud. The idols of Egypt tremble and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian with fear. I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, province against province. The Egyptians will lose heart and I will confuse their plans. They will plead with the idols for wisdom and call on spirits, mediums and those who consult with the spirits of the dead, but I will hand them over to hard, cruel masters. A fierce king will rule them, says the Lord, the Lord of heaven's armies. The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields. The riverbed will be parched and dry. The canals of the Nile that's hard to say will dry up and the streams of Egypt will stink the rotting reeds and rushes. That's hard to say heart. There will be no flax for the harvesters, no thread for the weavers. They will be in despair and all the workers will be sick at heart. Now pause and remember. The reason why this is such a big deal is because the Nile was the lifeblood of the whole area of Egypt, and so what God is saying is the very foundational thing of your economy is going to go away. That's devastating news for Egypt.
Speaker 1:Verse 11,. What fools are the officials of Zoan? Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong. Tell us, like it is, isaiah they will still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom, or will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom? Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors? Where are your wise counselors, pharaoh? Let them tell you what God plans, what the Lord of heaven's armies is going to do to Egypt. The officials of Zohan are fools and the officials of Memphis are deluded. The leaders of the people have led Egypt astray. The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so all their suggestions are wrong. They cause Egypt to stagger like a drunk in his vomit. There is nothing Egypt can do. They are helpless. The head and the tail, the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.
Speaker 1:In that day, the Egyptians will break or be as a weak woman. They will cower in fear beneath the upraised fist of the Lord of heaven's armies. Just to speak the name of Israel will terrorize them, for the Lord of heaven's armies has laid out his plans against them. In that day, five of Egypt's cities will follow the Lord of heaven's armies. They will even begin to speak Hebrew, the language of Canaan. One of these cities will be Hippophilus, the city of the sun.
Speaker 1:And that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt and there will be a monument to the Lord as its border. It will be a sign and a witness that the Lord of heaven's armies is worshipped in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a savior who will rescue them. The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. Yes, they will know the Lord and he will give their sacrifices and offerings to him. They will make a vow to the Lord and will keep it. The Lord will strike Egypt and then he will bring healing, for the Egyptians will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their pleas and heal them.
Speaker 1:In that day, egypt and Assyria will be connected by a highway, the Egyptians and the Assyrians will move freely between their lands and they will both worship God. And that day, israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for the Lord of heaven's armies will say Blessed be Egypt, my people, blessed be Assyria, the land I have made, and blessed be Israel, my special possession. Wow, wow. What this is teaching us is that there will be a time when even the enemies of God will bow their knee to him and will worship him. Well, the Bible says that all throughout the rest of Scripture, especially the book of Revelation, no matter how you define and how you interpret the book of Revelation which, by the way, we're going to be getting there really not that long from now, as we continue to go you know, new Testament, old Testament, new Testament we're going to get to the book of Revelation in just two or three months and no matter how you want to interpret it, it ends with God winning. And the Bible says in the New Testament that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And what is amazing about this chapter is it's God reminding us of his amazing redemptive power, that no matter how far a nation or an individual may fall, god can always reach them.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of this story of this guy who was trying to climb up a mountain and he got pretty close to the top and he just ran out of energy. He just couldn't do it anymore and he really couldn't figure out who in the world was going to be able to climb up there and help him, because he'd really come a long way. And he's just praying and asking God for help and he just doesn't know what to do and he's really at the point where he's starting to get really weak. He can barely hold on anymore. And as he is doing that, he's just praying as loudly as he can. Someone hears him and someone says hey, I'm going to help you. There's no way that you can help me. There's no way you can climb up here and get me. I can't even see you. Well, what he didn't realize was is there was actually somebody at the top who just happened to be going for a walk and going through it, and they heard him and they had a rope that could reach down and this guy was able to get up there again and he was just like. I never realized that I could have yelled up for help. I was only thinking it had to come from down there.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things a lot of times that we forget is we think that God can only help us in one way, god can only do things in one way, and never realize that God has got so many ways that he can deliver people, so many ways that he can help people. I've seen God do amazing things. When we really just stop trying to figure out how God's doing something and just say God, do it, I don't care how you do it, it doesn't have to be the way I thought or the way I expected, I just trust you to do it. And can I tell you, when it comes to God redeeming people, god healing people, god saving people, we sometimes can look at our friends and our relatives and we can say, god, I have no idea how you're going to reach that person. Well, the reality is we really don't, because God may use a set of circumstances we couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1:The one thing we do need to remember is that God can save. God can heal anyone, that's including anybody who is listening to this. Just the other day, someone commented on one of our videos and they said I really want to believe and trust in God, but I just don't know how I can. Well, there were some people who were reading that who were saying well, I guess God could never reach that person because they just simply won't listen to reason. Well, here's the amazing thing about God If he's got an infinite number of ways he can reach people. Some people he reaches them through their head. Some people he reaches them through their heart. Some people it's through other means.
Speaker 1:The main thing is to trust God. And here's the thing If you're a Christ follower and you're watching and listening to this, if you can trust God with your heart, you can trust him with anything else. So the bottom line today is no matter what dark cloud is in your life, god can do something amazing. He can still save, he can redeem, he can restore. Our job is to not define how God can do it. Our job is to simply trust that he can and when we trust him to do that, we may find that things we thought were too far gone, like the Egypts and the Assyrias in our life, really are just one heartbeat away from God doing a miracle if we will just trust him. Let's pray together right now, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you can turn any dark cloud into something beautiful.
Speaker 1:Lord, there are many things in our lives that we don't understand. We don't have a clue how you're going to do things. We don't know what you're doing, but, god, we just take the limits off. We just trust in your ability to save. For some of us, lord, we need salvation for our family. Some of us, we need it for ourself. We need healing, we need encouragement. God, whatever it is, we trust you. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Well, god's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse 2, god has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god, is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 20.
