20150707 Tuesday, July 7 2015
Isaiah 19: Where Did Israel's Gestation Happen?

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance"

When the LORD (see The LORD God Our Saviour) changed Jacob's name to Israel (see The Origin Of Israel), his family went from being "Jacobites" (see A Biography Of Jacob: The Jacobites Of Syria) to "Israelites." But there was no country (sovereign territory) or nation (national population) of Israel in the lifetime of Jacob. Or in the lifetimes of the Israelite tribal patriarchs. Or of any Israelite for four centuries after they entered Egypt as a family of about 70 people seeking refuge from a great famine. But with their entry into Egypt was a "seed" promise made by the LORD, first to Abraham (see The LORD's Seed Covenants With The Two Men Of Iraq and A Biography Of Abraham: The Genealogy Of Abram), then to Abraham's grandson Jacob: "I will make of thee a great nation."

To Abraham (see A Biography Of Abraham: From Ur To Canaan):

"12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." (Genesis 12:1-5 KJV)

To Jacob / Israel (see A Biography Of Jacob: Israel In Egypt):

"46:2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob.

And he said, Here am I.

46:3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: 46:4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

46:5 And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 46:6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: 46:7 His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt." (Genesis 46:2-7 KJV)

The "seed" of Abraham and Jacob / Israel, that began in Syria (see The Syrian Connection), was sown, as a family of a few dozen people, in the fertile Nile Delta region of Egypt known as Goshen. There, over the next 4 centuries, "Israel" developed toward their birth as a nation - a national birthday that occurred on the day of the Exodus (see Israel In History and Prophecy: The Exodus and The First Sinai Census).

Like most nations (even most of those who claim to be Christian, with their Bible-ignoring and Bible-contradicting man-made fantasy "Christianity"; see Why Call Me, Lord, Lord, and Do Not The Things Which I Say?), Egypt, as a nation, has yet to reach the point where they will turn to the Messiah and claim the Salvation that is available to everyone who obeys the LORD. Isaiah's prophecies were Messianic to all nations, including Egypt. When all is done, "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

"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.

19:2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. 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. 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.

19:5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. 19:6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. 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. 19:8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. 19:9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. 19:10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.

19:11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient 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 upon Egypt. 19:13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. 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. 19:15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

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. 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.

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.

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. 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 saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. 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. 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 intreated of them, and shall heal them.

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. 19:24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 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." (Isaiah 19:1-25 KJV)

Fact Finder: Which two of the Israelite tribal patriarchs were born of an Egyptian mother and Jacob / Israel's son Joseph?
See The Adoption Of Ephraim and Manasseh