Isaiah chapter 19, and we're
going to read from verse one. 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 Egyptians, and they shall fight
every one against his brother, and every one 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 waters
shall fail from the sea, And the river shall be wasted and
dried up, 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. 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, and 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
flanks and they that weave networks shall be confounded, and they
shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices
and ponds for fish. 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? 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. The princes of Zoanar become
fools, the princes of Noph are deceived, and they have also
seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. And 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. Neither shall there be any work
for Egypt which the head or tail, branch or rush may do. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. In that day shall there be a
highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come
into Egypt, and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians
shall serve with the Assyrians. 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. Amen. May the Lord
bless this reading from his word. Some of these chapters are rather
longer. Some of them are very short.
We take them as we find them. It's always our purpose to discover
the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever passage of scripture we have
the privilege of reading at any particular time. And we may be
sure the Lord is present wherever we read, either directly or in
picture and type or by implication. And once again, We shall not
be disappointed in seeking Christ in our reading today. Here we
are told how Egypt, a wicked, idolatrous nation who frequently
pitied itself against Jehovah and his people, despite all the
good done for it by Joseph in its history, that that people,
Egypt, would in the day of the Lord cry out to the Lord for
help and he would hear them. We discover in this chapter the
goodwill of our God towards the Egyptians. The goodwill of God
who delights in mercy. to hear and to bless this people. Joel was another of the prophets
that were sent to Israel, to the children of Israel. He was
another of the prophets and perhaps he drew upon Isaiah's writings
when he could write in Joel chapter 2 verse 32, Joel wrote that over
2,000 years ago, about 2,500 years ago. It shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And
that verse was quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. And
it was written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Rome. Whosoever, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a great promise
that is for guilty sinners. What a great promise for a people
who feel a need of the Lord's help. That call upon the name
of the Lord for help, whosoever they may be. What do we find in Isaiah's prophecy
concerning Egypt here in this chapter 19? He tells us, Egypt
shall cry unto the Lord because of oppressors. What did Joel
say? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord and Egypt did. And Isaiah goes on to tell us,
and he, that is the Lord, shall send them a saviour and a great
one. The Lord would send Egypt a great
saviour who brings a great salvation. The apostle tells us, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? But here is the salvation
that is great, given by a great saviour, who we are told by Isaiah,
shall deliver the Egyptians. So brothers and sisters, let
us make no mistake about it. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ
being foretold in the context of Egypt's salvation and deliverance. And more than that, Assyria itself
is being blessed in doing the same. Assyria, who at this very
time of Isaiah's writing was persecuting Judah and Israel
and whose army would be destroyed in a single night, much as Egypt's
had been at the Red Sea. How the Lord's remnant people
in Judah must have shaken their heads and wondered as they read
and shared and meditated upon Isaiah's words. Can this be true? they must have said to one another.
Can this be true that the Lord will deliver these heathen Assyrians
who have done all this damage against our nation and our people
and our king and grieved us so? Will the Lord do such unto these
people? You know, it's lovely to remember
the testimonies of the Lord's people in Scripture. Do you remember
Saul of Tarsus? Do you remember Saul who could
call himself the chief of sinners because of all the damage he
had done to believers and to the young church? and yet Paul
found grace in the sight of God. The Apostle Paul was confronted
by the Lord Jesus Christ and commissioned to be his servant
and to be his preacher. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Brothers and sisters, those who
are hearing these words today, let this enter our consciousness. Let it enter our hearts. As we feel in need of the Lord,
let us call upon him and he has promised that he will hear and
he will bless and he will deliver. Now we've mentioned before that
Isaiah's prophecy is full of striking prose and powerful images
as the prophet describes the moving, working and accomplishments
of the Lord. And once again, this chapter
is no exception. Here we find Isaiah depicting
the Lord as riding upon a swift cloud and again he draws our
attention with a behold. It's one of Isaiah's look, look
moments. And he's showing us how swift
and how unexpected and how unstoppable the Lord's coming in judgment
will be upon Egypt. And Isaiah's burden is a heavy
burden for Egypt. It's both shocking and devastating. The writer to the Hebrews tells
us it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. And once before, God had brought
great hardship and sorrow upon Egypt. And now, once again, no
aspect of Egyptian life and culture is to be left untouched. Rulers
and commoners alike will suffer. Farming, fishing, weaving, commerce
on land and sea, their false religion and their worship practices. their superstition would all
be exposed, their foolish advisors would be shamed and the country
would be ruined and consumed by civil war. Cruel masters would
be brought over them who had no care for the people and this
would combine with natural calamity to bring Egypt to its knees literally. And here again, Isaiah shows
his literary genius with a powerful, if not somewhat disgusting image. He says 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. as a drunken man staggers in
his vomit. Could there be anything more
repulsive than such a picture, such a vision? It shows full
depravity, it shows a senselessness of need and yet the staggering
and the slipping and the falling and the stinkiness of that whole
picture shows the complete and abject poverty of the nation
at this time. It's a picture of mankind in
its sin and in its awfulness and in its inability. The power of Egypt, the pride
of Egypt, its wealth, its wisdom, its military strength is broken
and gone. And verse 15 tells us that at
that time there is nothing that anyone in Egypt can do. This is the total inability of
sin. This is the effects of depravity
in the soul and in the life of the natural man. This is proof
of inability and it tells us that when God comes in judgment
there is nothing that anyone can do either to dodge it or
to mitigate it or to turn it aside. And if that were the end of the
chapter If that were the end of the chapter, as it has been
in many respects the end of chapters that we have been reading concerning
these burdens in the past few weeks, we might all just nod
knowingly and assume it to be the wages of sin and the price
of rebellion and despising God. And in many ways we would be
right. But Isaiah has more to say to
us today, as he had more to say to the people of his own age
and all who have read his prophecy ever since. And here the faithful
prophet draws back the curtain on an unexpected scene. He tells
his readers that this judgment is not the end for Egypt. There
is forgiveness with God. There is mercy and there is grace. And he tells us three things
that the Lord will do in the gospel age, in that day, which
is Isaiah's favourite phrase, in that day, speaking about the
coming of the Messiah, speaking about the establishment of the
kingdom, speaking about the gospel age. He says, in that day, the
Lord will send a saviour. The Lord will smite and heal. The Lord will gather a people
to himself from the nations of the world. And I'm going to take those headings,
those three headings, and just share a few thoughts on them
for us today. So the first one is this, Isaiah
tells us that in that day that the Lord shall send a saviour. Now in a sense, this has been
Isaiah's message all along. From the beginning of this amazing
book, the prophet has had a wide view of God's grace and a keen
eye to discover how the Lord would accomplish his purpose
of victory and glory. Isaiah has spoken to us of a
child who would be born and of a son who would be given. He
has spoken to us of the virgin birth. He has spoken of the glorious
branch. He has even given us the name
Emmanuel. But now, for the first time in
his book, here in chapter 19, Though by no means the last time,
Isaiah refers to a saviour and a great one who shall deliver
his people. And not only so, but a saviour,
a great one who shall deliver the people of Egypt. Now, it is true that The remnant
people of Israel knew of the Saviour. Jacob, way back in the
book of Genesis, spoke of salvation. Moses spoke of Israel's salvation
at the Red Sea, when he said, the Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God. David sung a hymn
of praise to his Saviour, saying, The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, the God of my rock, in Him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation. my high tower, my refuge, my
saviour. So the children of Israel had
long been familiar with this concept of a coming saviour. This is the whole point of Isaiah's
prophecy. He is encouraging, he is comforting
the remnant people through all of their persecutions and trials. as the nation seemingly becomes
overthrown by these more powerful enemies, that they must not give
up hope. That saviour is still coming. But the dimension that Isaiah
is adding here is that there is a direct reference to God
sending a saviour not only to Israel, but also to Egypt and
by implication to Assyria. Now what did these nations know
of God's love and divine mercy and saving grace? Not much. But God knew them. And that's what makes the difference. God had his elect people among
them from the foundation of the world. He had ordained some amongst
the Egyptians and the Assyrians to salvation before the foundation
of the world. And both they and the Jews would
discover that in the person of Jesus Christ, God would redeem
and gather his chosen people from every nation under heaven. Which is the song of the redeemed
in glory as it is sung to the Lamb. Thou art worthy, they say. thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, and people,
and nation. So in heaven, that group of redeemed
believers will recognise that they have been redeemed out of
every nation. Kindred, tongue, people, nation.
When we get to heaven, by the grace of God, and join that glorious
choir, there will be Egyptians and Assyrians singing the bass
and the descant in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't worry about being unable
to understand their languages. They won't be singing in ancient
Egyptian or ancient Assyrian. They will be singing in the language
of Canaan because that's what Isaiah tells us here, not Hebrew. but the heavenly language of
the promised land, the language of Zion, the language of Christian
converts all the world over, the language that says salvation
is of the Lord, the language that says Christ is all and in
all, the language that says by grace we are saved. Through faith
and that not of ourselves, It is the gift of God, nor of works,
lest we should have any ground for boasting. That's the language
of heaven. That's the language of the kingdom
of God. The language that exalts Christ
and rejoices in sovereign grace and mercy. So that's the first
thing that Isaiah tells us here about this time, that the Lord
God will send a saviour. And he tells us also that he
will smite and he will heal. so that this too is seen as a
work of God. He will send a saviour but he
will smite and he will heal. Now we may consider first that
God smites and heals by substitutionary atonement. And I want us all,
every single one of us here today who's listening, who's watching,
who's sharing in this and who may watch it subsequently, I
want us all to know the phrase substitutionary atonement. It lies at the heart of covenant
grace. It lies at the heart of our salvation. It is God's way of forgiveness
and bringing his people into that state of deliverance and
freedom. Substitutionary atonement. Someone might say to me, well,
is that a Bible phrase? Is that a scriptural term? Not in so many words. But let
me tell you what Isaiah says in chapter 53 verse 4. He, he's speaking about the Saviour,
surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. and with his stripes we are healed. That is substitutionary atonement. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
substituting himself in our place, carrying our punishment and setting
us free. Or maybe you want to hear what
the New Testament says. John tells us that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself testified, I am the good shepherd, and know my
sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. Listen, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. Substituting his own life for
our deliverance. Zechariah, back in the Old Testament,
chapter 13, has God himself speaking. The Lord God, awake, O sword
against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd. smiting and healing. Let me say
it as simple as it gets. Christ died for our sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ was smitten
and atoned for our sins by dying in our place as our substitute. And if your gospel has no substitutionary
atonement, it is no gospel at all. He was smitten that we might
be healed. He was made guilty that we might
be set free. He died that we might live. He hath made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. But there's another sense in
which the Lord smites and heals. conviction and conversion. And believers all know something
to a greater or lesser extent of this work of God the Holy
Spirit. It is the Spirit's quickening
work. Spiritual conviction of sin is
a divine work that brings a sense of guilt and fear and self-condemnation
and humbleness before God. Now I do not say we all feel
this in the same way or to the same degree. For some people
it is not a great burden and for others it is an exacting
and a prolonged experience. But every sinner who is healed
is first smitten by the Holy Ghost with a sense of need and
inability. On the day of Pentecost, where
Peter stood up to preach his sermon, we're told that his audience
was pricked in their heart. And it is from such a sense,
an awareness of wanted holiness, that the publican in the temple
cried, God be merciful to me a sinner. But notice this, every sinner
so smitten will be healed. And I say this to you perhaps
today who are even yet under a degree of guilt and self-recrimination
and questioning as to whether or not these things are evidences
of God's grace in your soul. The Lord smiteth and he heals. He shall smite and he shall heal
those whom he smites. And let me just bring another
slant to this work of God in the souls of his people. The
Lord smites and heals his people when he chastens, then comforts
us. according to our need. And this is the growth of an
individual believer in the ways and workings of the Lord in our
lives individually. No one can have a copy of this. This is the Lord's work in our
lives as individuals. He chastens and comforts, He
smites and He heals in the lives of believers. He does it purposefully
and He does it constructively to hedge in our paths, to lead
us in the way everlasting. And we must as believers distinguish
between judgment and discipline. Christ died for our sins and
he has taken them away. We shall never be judged for
them. They are gone and they are forgotten. They will never be remembered
against us again. not in this life, not in the
judgment. Even the ones that we have not
yet committed are already forgotten. And yet the Lord does not leave
us aimless and rudderless in this life. He teaches His children
not to touch the fire, by showing how it burns. He leads us through
the valleys of shadows that we might press the more close to
him. He withdraws himself for a time
so that we might realise more sweetly his coming to us and
the comforts of his presence. And if you have tasted the bitter
waters of this life, and endured trial of your faith, or known
something of the stirrings of a guilty conscience for sin,
then these are not punishments, but they are openings for the
light of grace to shine into your life once again. Christ makes the bitter waters
of Mara sweet. When we go to Christ, when we
see him, as it were, chopped down, when we see his blood,
when we see his life taken and slain, then we find that there
is a sweetness for us personally, even in the midst of our own
tribulations. Our trials, our troubles, our
weaknesses, even our sin is space in which the Lord works to draw
us closer to himself and teach us of his love. And we do not
sin that grace may abound, but when we do, we are grateful that
it does. And finally, The Lord not only
says through Isaiah that to Egypt he will send a saviour, the Lord
does not only promise through Isaiah that to Egypt he will
smite and heal, but the Lord says he shall call his redeemed
my people. He shall call them the work of
my hands, he shall call them my inheritance. And these closing
verses of Isaiah chapter 19 give a wonderful sense of the union
and fellowship that we have with our Lord by grace. What a humbling but joyful experience
to discover that we are the Lord's elect people. how the Egyptians who were saved
in those early days of apostolic preaching must have rejoiced
to think that they were inheritors of this forgiveness and deliverance
and salvation of soul despite all the history of their nation's
wickedness and the plagues and the judgments that had fallen
upon them. How the Egyptians who were saved
in those early days of apostolic preaching must have rejoiced.
How the inhabitants of Damascus, a city of Assyria, must have
rejoiced to hear God's word preached amongst them. From who? From Saul of Tarsus. who was
converted and baptised there in that city and testified among
them. Certainly God created all people,
but there is a people known of God in everlasting love and foreknown
in God's elective decree. This is the gospel. A people
predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. Predestinated
in the eternal counsels of God to be conformed to the image
of Christ. That's scripture's teaching.
Talk about your free will all you like. That's what the Word
of God declares. These, the Lord says, are the
work of my hands, because he made them vessels of mercy, set
apart for his glory. They are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And true it is that we are heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. But wonder of wonders,
so too we are the inheritance of God. and of Jesus Christ himself. He calls us his peculiar people,
his holy, pure, blameless, and sanctified possession. That's what God calls us. And he delights in us. And soon
the Lord Jesus Christ will come again to take us to himself. And maybe for you it will be
very soon. Maybe for you it will be very soon. Perhaps it will
be some night as you sleep. Perhaps It will be an illness
that will take you into the presence of the Lord or some accident
or just that you drift away in your sleep. Maybe we'll all be gathered at
once. Maybe the Lord will come back
and that trumpet will sound and the whole of the church will
be gathered at once into his presence. Then says the Lord,
they shall be mine, my people, my workmanship, my inheritance. Malachi chapter 3 verse 17. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will
spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. And this, brothers and sisters,
brings us full circle, brings us right back to where we began
today, thinking of how the Lord delights in mercy. Micah chapter
7, verse 18 says, Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. Mercy to Judah and Israel. Mercy to Egypt and Assyria. Mercy to Asia and Europe. Mercy to the Americas and to
all the world. This is a God who delighteth
in mercy. What a saviour and a great one. Amen.