The first 14 verses, and look
at verse 14 when we come to it, it's clear. It sets it forth
without apology. Isaiah 19, 1 through 14. 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. And I will set the Egyptians
against the Egyptian, and they shall fight everyone against
his brother, and everyone against his neighbor, city against city,
and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall
fail in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the council thereof,
and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them
that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. 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. And the water shall fail from
the sea, the river shall be wasted and dried up. and they shall
turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be
emptied and dried up, and the reeds and the flags shall wither. The paper reads by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also
shall mourn, all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament,
and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine
flax and they that weave networks shall be confounded. shall be
confounded, and they shall be broken in the purposes thereof,
and all that make sluices and ponds for fish. 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. Where are they? Where are the wise men? And let
them all tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts
hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become
fools, and the princes of Noth are deceived. They have also
seduced Egypt, even they that are of the stay of the tribes
thereof. 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. Here's an interesting passage
of scripture, and we want to find out how it relates to Israel
and to the people of God. The prophet here takes up the
Lord's quarrel against the mighty land of Egypt. And he foretells
against them a series of judgment that will be visited upon them,
that will put them in total disarray, ruin their economy, and make
a chaos out of the nation. They will be severe, such as
in the second verse, internal strife and civil war. In verse
three, as Matthew Henry suggested, there would be complete chaos
in their political structure and the ruling of the land. Again,
in the fourth verse, we notice God would raise up a cruel, cruel
king who would rule over them with great rigor and in tyranny. Egypt, you must remember, was
once a mighty nation, as seen in several particulars from their
history and from the scripture. Number one, once it was or had
a mighty standing army. One of the most powerful, numerous
in all of that time, in all of that history. But God, says the
prophet, is about to throw that into total disarray and make
the heart of Egypt melt in the midst thereof, stir up great
civil unrest, weaken their military might, and cause them to lose
their pride in it. Secondly, we've noticed a mention
here of the river. Egypt had the famous River Nile
that flowed through it. It greatly enriched their land
so that they had fertile land from the water that was available
unto them. But look at verse five of the
passage of scripture that we read, the river shall be wasted
and dried up. And you see that again in verse
six through verse eight. The third thing that we mentioned
about Egypt is they were famous for their classy linen and for
linen for clothes, which was a vital part of their economy. And it kept them going economically. We see that. Solomon imported
some of it from them when he was in the height of his riches
in 1st Kings chapter 10 and verse 28. And Egypt produced some of
the world's best flax. of that particular time, so their
economy would be affected. But God would blast that economy,
it's in verse 9, verse 10, that we read here, and sink their
profits and the workers would be confounded, in verse 9, and
there would be no work for the Egyptians and no way for them
to make the good living that they had in the past, that's
in verse 15. So it is time to consider the
question, Why the prophet announcing such great judgments upon Egypt? Were they not a wicked kingdom?
And had they not done wickedly under Israel in the past? So
why is God visiting great judgments upon them? Why had God taken
up such a quarrel with this people? Why would he shoot such fiery
dart and stingers at them in every aspect of their nation
and of their life? Now, expositors are almost unanimous
on this question, and the answer of it And that is that it is
in the view that God's judgments against Egypt were actually for
the sake of Israel. That it was for the sake or on
the cause of Israel that the great judgments of God were to
be coming upon the land of Egypt. And the reason for that is several
times the Jews are rebuked for resorting down to Egypt for help. for looking to Egypt to help
them out of their time of trouble and protection from them in danger
and in trouble. For instead of trusting in their
God, instead of praying and turning and repenting before God Almighty,
and staying themselves upon God, they had fled to Egypt to find
their strength, their need, and their help, and to hide under
the wing of the Egyptian from their enemy. And they made Egypt,
as Calvin put it, quote, a kind of refuge, unquote, in their
time of trouble. For when they came into trouble,
when they forsook God, and that was often, They look down to
the land of Egypt that they might find their help. For this they
are rebuked by God through the prophet as he speaks unto them. In Isaiah chapter 30 verse 1
through 3, we won't turn there and read it, but there is a particular
place that deals with the same subject and the same matter.
Jeremiah chapter 43 and verse 7 it said so they came into the
land of Egypt for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord thus
they came to Tallahassee and which they had taken up a seat
of a king." Isaiah 31 and 1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt
for help and trust in horses and in chariot because they are
many and because they are strong. But look not unto the Holy One
of Israel, neither do they seek the Lord." Now there is God's
quarrel against Egypt, against Israel, and the people thereof. So the Lord declares them, because
of that, that God would bring ruin upon the land of Egypt. He would destroy that which Israel
had looked unto for their help in time of trouble. He would
bring them into absolute confusion, therefore breaking, as it were,
Israel's crutch where they looked unto Egypt in time of trouble. And this in order that he might
break them of their habit of going to Egypt for trouble and
for help instead of turning unto the Lord. Now, actually, God's
quarrel with them is twofold. Usually was a when they trusted
in the might and the wealth of Egypt This will get us out of
trouble. We'll flee here. We'll find our
help here and on the other side be Doing that they fail to trust
in the Lord their God instead of looking unto God for their
help in time of trouble. So the question, how will God
destroy Egypt as a refuge for the Jews? What will he do unto
them that Israel will no longer be able to find a refuge there? How will God overthrow them? What method will he take? that
the Jews no longer will look to them as something to trust
in in time of trouble rather than in their God? Will it be
a flood as in the time of Noah's generation that destroyed every
living thing upon the earth? Would it be like fire and brimstone
that God rained down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
and God gave Jonah a gourd vine to shade him from the great heat
and then He sent a worm that it might chew down that board
pine and expose him, Jonah chapter 4 and verse 6, proving that God
is not restricted to any one way in punishing or to take away
the false assurance and comforts of the saints of God should they
trust in that which they ought not to. Now what method, therefore,
will he take with the land of Egypt and against Egypt? Will
he cure the Jews' trust in the land of Egypt, and how will he
do that? On what account? How will he
bring them down without any hope and take away that assurance
for Israel? Now we find the answer here summed
up in the 14th verse that we read, What a powerful verse is
that indeed. It is connected with verse 11
through verse 13. The leaders are fools and are
brutish. They are deceived. They are entwined. They are deceived. They are seduced
by the people and led their once powerful nation onto the brink
of ruin. The leaders, those that are in
charge and the chain of command, are in such disarray and confusion
and under such deception that they do things that bring their
nation down unto ruin. What is the explanation for Egypt's
leaders acting against the best interest of their own nation,
of themselves, and of the people? What is it that is behind their
destroying their army and their might and their economy and all
of that? The answer is in verse 14. The Lord hath mingled a perverse
spirit in the midst thereof, and they have caused Egypt to
err in every work thereof. My, isn't that a powerful one?
Many people would not think that God would do that. Many people
do not believe that God would do such a thing, but here it
is. Now to illustrate the degree
of their besotted judgment and their stupid stupors, the prophet
uses a metaphor and he likens them to an excessively intoxicated
man as we look at it. He's past any sobriety. He is
falling down, stinking drunk. as we used to say, one who reels
and wobbles and staggers and slips from side to side and falls
down in his very own vomit. So both his words and his steps
are unsteady as he is so inebriated. And what is the cause of such
shameful drunkenness? They have tarried long at the
wine. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse
30. One is the explanation here in
the text why the leaders would destroy their own country and
all pertaining unto it by their stupidity. Here it is. The Lord
hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof. Calvin
calls this a metaphorical expression of one who mixes strong wine
together in a cup. Quote, that the Lord thus intoxicates
the wise men in this world so that they are stunned and amazed
and can neither think nor act right." When God does that it
is an irresistible delusion upon his part brought upon them. So then that under this deception,
this irresistible delusion that God brings upon them, their senses
are so greatly dulled, their understanding is destroyed, their
reason is perverted, into wrong reason, sound judgment is blasted
away out of their heart and their mind, true and proper discernment
is lost and is no longer exercised, so that they cannot discern what's
good for them and what is not. and what is good and what is
evil. And so they choose the evil under
the strong delusion. Now, I agree with John Gill that
this is true in both religious and civil affairs, in both the
nation, the government, and also in the churches. So then, in
both areas, then, they bring upon themselves the judgment
of God by acting as they do. Thus, it is also true that both
religion and civil or political leaders partake of this cup of
deception and do that which is to their detriment and the people
that follow after them. Now, it may sound incredible to most in Christendom today
to say any such thing. To speak of God deceiving, why
that hardly fits their thoughts of God and of his grace. It sounds
harsh and unreasonable that the God they perceive to be all loving
and all kind and all gracious would deceive any to their hurt
or even unto their ruin. It seems so harsh to many today
to speak of God deceiving a person to their hurt and to their loss. Thus, let's bring forth a few
proof texts of Scripture to confirm the same, that God indeed declares
that He sends deception, even strong delusion, upon whom He
will. and that it is a part of the
fulfilling of the sovereign purpose of Almighty God, and that a part
of it is accomplished by God sending irresistible delusion
or deception. For example, Jeremiah chapter
4 verse 10, Then said I, Lord God surely thou has greatly deceived
the people and Jerusalem the prophet of God saying that Jeremiah
20 in verse 7 Oh Lord thou have deceived me, and I was deceived
I am in derision daily everyone mocks me The prophet making that
confession now this the prophet says when in prison that when
he is there in prison in that the prophet expected honor, being
a prophet of God, and instead he found great disrespect instead
of the honor that he might think of. Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse
9. If a prophet be deceived when
he has spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Now this concerns much such as
used idols in that particular day and rejected the counsel
of God and their just reward therefore is irresistible delusion. And so they went to inquire of
a prophet, and God deceived the prophet, therefore deceiving
them. The Lord said in verse 7 of that,
I, the Lord, will answer him by myself. How he did so was
by deceiving the prophet, who then deceived the people from
his own deception. Job 12 and verse 16, the deceived
and the deceiver are his. Think about that. The deceived
and the deceiver are here. Job is the speaker here, and
he declares God's absolute power over all in verse 13 through
25 of that chapter of the scripture. His power, his hand, his wisdom
and such like can be seen in all the great catastrophe that
befell the children of men. He breaks it down. in verse 14. He leads counselors away spoiled
in verse 17. He leads priests away spoiled
in verse 19. He removes the speeches of the
trustee in verse 20 and he pours contempt upon the princes verse 21 of that chapter of Job,
that's chapter 12, so that even the deceived and the deceiver
are his, that is, they're under his power, under his direction,
and such like. One of the great deceptions in
the Old Testament, if we want proof text for this, would be
that one found against the prophet Against the king Ahab by the
prophet of God and you'll find it in first Kings chapter 22
It's that great link. We won't try to read it because
as I said it is lengthy but God used deception to accomplish
the sentence of death against Ahab The prophet, under God's
authority, denounced and threatened Ahab with death, that God would
kill him. In verse 20, it was determined
by God that Ahab would go up onto Ramoth Gilead and fall there,
that is, that he would be killed. And the way that this was accomplished
is according to our subject and our study of the day. It was
by irresistible delusion. And if you look at verse 22 and
23, there in 1 Kings chapter 22, the Lord put a lying spirit
in the mouth of Ahab's false prophet. Many of them, hundreds
of them, so that they all agreed exactly alike But they were all
deceived. They spoke, as it said, with
one voice. All of them said the same thing.
All of them agreed. You get that many to agree, people
will think, oh, well, then this certainly must be the truth.
And they told Ahab what he wanted to hear. Ahab said, shall I go
up? Oh, go, master. Yeah, you'll
be victorious. The Lord is with you. Go. Go
accomplish it. You'll soon be back and be victorious. They lied to him. by a secret
impulse which persuaded Ahab. Verse 20, The margin hath it
deceived, and he died exactly as the prophet of God had predicted
that he would. And then in spite of Ahab's apprehension
of the words of Micaiah, the true prophet of God, and in spite
of Ahab disguising himself. Oh, he didn't go to battle dressed
in his kingly regalia. He dressed as a common, ordinary
soldier that he might hide himself and be camouflaged among them.
So he did not wear his kingly garments as he went forth into
battle. And there, by the providential
flight of an arrow struck or shot at a venture, he was wounded
unto death. Later he died first Kings chapter
22 and verse 34 a man shot an arrow at adventure and by the
providence of God guided between the joints of his harness Wounded
him margally and he died that evening and the dogs licked his
blood Exactly as the prophet of God had declared but the thing
that drove the matter was the lying spirits in the mouth of
all the prophets and that Ahab had asked counsel of. It was said to them in 1 Kings
22 and 13, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with
one mouth, that is, one voice. There were 400 of them, if you
can imagine, 1 Kings 22 And verse 6, and they all were in agreement. The ministerial alliance was
in agreement and gave the king advice that led unto his death. And no wonder, for the same evil
spirits did motivate them all, did fill their mouths with lies,
and did convert their tongues into that of a deadly viper by
their deception. There is no denying. Abraham's,
or rather, Ahab's destruction was affected by the means of
the deception that came by the prophets that he listened unto. But God's arrow found its mark
irregardless. Ahab believed their lies. He
met with an awful end. All will do so who believe a
lie instead of the truth. They promised him victory. He
came back mortally wounded and bleeding in his chariot and died
that evening. What mighty, mighty things have
been done by God in sending strong delusion, by mingling a perverse
spirit in the midst of people, by raising up myriads of lying
spirits in this place and in that. One of the strongest passages
in the New Testament now on the subject of delusion is that one
found from Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And if we might switch
our focus on this arresting passage of the scripture, a part of Paul's
words there in verse 7 through verse 14, and how stout they
are. This is a hard text, and that,
I believe, is seen by the different views that are held of it by
so many different expositors and commentaries. Early on, some
thought that Paul was speaking of the Roman emperor Nero, as
the Roman emperors, others take it to be speaking of the Antichrist,
other applied only unto the Jew, and so forth. But one thing does
seem beyond dispute in the beginning, in chapter 2 there, the apostle
addresses their concern about the coming of the Lord. and declares that false notions
of that, false teaching had been given unto them on that subject. And he uses two phrases there
in verse 1, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in verse
2, that the day of Christ is at hand. And to the first he
speaks of our gathering together unto him. Paul says, before that
occurs, whatever may be its meaning, Something must come in between
that and now. That being in verse 3 through
10 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, A, a great falling away, a
great falling away from the things of God, and B, the revelation
of the one that Paul calls that man of sin and the son of perdition. In verse 4, the one who exalts
himself as God to be worshipped. In verse 8, that wicked. In verse
9, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and sign and lying wonders. But coming to the matter of deception
such as love not the truth are easily deceived regarding truth
and error. And they will be deceived, and
vice versa. They that hold the truth will
be less likely to be deceived. And verse 12, they will be damned,
and as they will be condemned, they will be judged who believe
not and receive not the truth as it is in Christ. But now,
let's say most of our remaining time to spend on the 11th verse
and verse 12, the first part. And these words ought to be get
in any that read them and honest heart, with an honest heart,
a high and a reverent attitude with regard to what Paul is saying. When we look at them in verse
11 and in verse 12 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And I didn't turn
there yet. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. John Gill made the point. let
it concern whom it will, let it concern what period of time
it will, whether only Jews or whether all, whether in that
time or whether in all time, then as Gil said, it is certain
it respects such person who would be left of God to their, in their
infidelity and gives us the, gives over to the power of Satan
and to what he called judicial blindness of the mind, unquote. This is established something
which the Armenian deny vehemently and it makes them so angry that
God directly deceives any they will not believe. with awful
consequences. No, they will not believe that.
Not only so, but these in the very next verses here, as we
see, are contrasted with the Inalak. If you look at verse
13 and verse 14, where bound to give thanks for you, beloved
of the Lord, and so on. Now, the object of Paul's thanksgiving
were chosen from the beginning unto salvation in the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, and they were called effectually by and
through and with the gospel of our Lord. Now, notice Paul notes
the relation of each one unto the truth, first of all in verse
10. They who receive not the love
of the truth. Verse 12. They who believe the
truth. Now, the truth being the gospel,
the gospel of salvation, Christian truth, the truth as it is in
the Holy Scripture, the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. But secondly, While in verse
12, those chosen to salvation were so by the sanctifying of
the Holy Spirit of God and the belief of the truth, them are
connected together. And the words in verse 14, Where
unto? To which? Under which? Refer
to salvation. Those chosen by God he also calls
and that he calls into the truth as it is in Christ. Verse 11
speaks of a sobering thing. God shall send them strong delusion,
and they shall believe a lie. Some say it is in the present
tense. God is sending them. It is literally God sends them
an operation of error. The idea is that both of an irresistible
as well as an effectual delusion from God. And it is Gil calls
it an efficacy of error, unquote. strong delusion and efficacious
working of error for the word is strong in the word in Urgea
it is the word used in Ephesians 1 and verse 19 in Ephesians 3
and 7 in Ephesians 4 and 16 for a a power, a power too mighty to
be resisted. For the word means powerful.
It means operational, effectual, active, the result of the delusion. They believe a lie. They are
blind. They are insensitive under the
truth, but readily accepting of a lie when it is sounded their
ear and so that in their besotted state they're satisfied with
a lie when they hear it and they receive it as if it were a truth
because they are made incapable of discerning what is a lie and
what is a truth. Even as we have in Romans 1.
It is not as though they consciously seek out a lie, not that they
say my intent is to find the biggest lie I can and attach
unto it. But if God gives a reprobate
mind, Romans 1 28, then there is blindness and in their blindness
They fling themselves headlong into error without realizing
what they are doing. Now this might raise the question
in some mind, does God deceive all reprobates, all that are
non-elect? But the same question, does God
harden the heart of every reprobate, also might be raised. For he
certainly renews the heart of every elect, and he certainly
makes the truth of God effectual unto every elect at his appointed
time. Now, with all of that from our
Bible, do we see, is it evident, a perverse spirit today in our
society, world, life, country, whatever? Yes, in religion, when
God would deceive a heretic into thinking he had received new
and direct revelation from God above, And in addition to the
scripture, then openly declares that he's been caught up into
heaven and saw this and that. When God deceives millions in
Catholicism to believe that the Pope is infallible and is the
vicar of Christ and has the power upon earth to forgive their sin
and say, go in peace, thy sins are forgiven. And to make Mary,
the fourth member of the Godhead, and the masses who are infatuated
with the likes of these mega-churches in our day, and these preachers
with thousands upon thousands. And the reason that God mingled
a perverse spirit in the midst of the leaders of Egypt was to
break them as a crutch for Israel, so that he made their princes
fools, he mingled a perverse spirit among them, so that they
went not in the way that ordinary, common, sensible men might do. Now, what other reason can you
think of why any politician in any country is determined to
give their country away, to destroy it, and to ruin it? Ruining the
job market? Absolutely. Taxing people into
oblivion? Why does the world revere the
United Nations that's been in existence for all of these years,
which gives us nothing but godless, inept, corrupt, mob, money-eating
bureaucrat, famed into, formed into a modern Babylon of some
sort or other. That's about what we have today. And so we see that when leaders
are deceived, it has its bad effect upon the people. I long
fear that God would mingle a perverse spirit in the midst of people
who are important in our life, and then what an awful catastrophe
it would be. The religious world today is
certainly smitten with a perverse spirit. Lies are embraced as
if they were the truth. Truth is despised by so many
today. False religion pleases most true. Religion is held in contempt.
The Bible Christianity is hated while that liberal form is espoused
by so many. It is a work of God's sovereignty
to do so, and it is a work of divine grace. when God, on the
other hand, opens the heart to the truth of God as it is in
Christ Jesus, and He gives revelation in accordance with the Scripture
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ as He is proclaimed in the Gospel. A sound spiritual mind is the
work of Almighty God, so let none despise the work of God,
For God deceives whom he will, God enlightens whom he will,
according to his great sovereign purpose and election and reprobation. Yes, I've sent a perverse spirit
in their midst, says the prophet of God in the name of God. What
a sobering thought is that, to stagger under error, heresy,
and damning beliefs. What a situation is that.