About five days or so ago now, I began to review some in the book of Isaiah on the passages that speak to the end of days prophecies. Chapters 14-19 have a series of condemnations against the countries in the Middle-East surrounding and including Israel. Many are famfiliar with hearing of the prophecy in Isaiah 17:1, which foretells the destruction of Damascus, which many feel will be fulfilled in the next major Israeli war, especially since Damascus is headquarters for a number of terrorist organizations.
But chapter 19 is particularly interesting, especially concerning recent events. It appears as if Chapter 19 is speaking directly to Egypts current crisis. The chapter speaks of the LORD (Yahweh) coming to Egypt, and turning brother against brother, Egyptian angainst Egyptian (Is. 19:2) and this is what we see plastered on our TV screens!
2"So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.
3"Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead
And to mediums and spiritists.
According to scripture, though it go against the teachings of Islam, the people will begin turning to supernatural forces for help and guidadnce in this terrible time of turmoil. The second half of chapter nineteen speaks of the LORD's healing of Egypt, when they turn back to Him, and worship the LORD God of Israel, along with Assyria (Syria) and Israel, and it is said they become a blessing in the land (Is. 19:23-24).
Right now, in the news, a big concern is who is going to take over the government that Hosni Mubarak has ran for 30 years? We know that he has just now appointed his first vice-president, and promised to appoint a new parliament, which are mostly his people anyway. Isaiah also speaks to this, as to who will come to power.
4"Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,
And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
Now it could be argued that this mighty king and cruel master are already in power and have been for 30 years. The Holman Chrisitan translation renders the hebrew as "harsh
masters." This could refer to the parliment that Mubarak has appointed, all the people over Egypt for the past thirty years who have run it into the ground. But I think it makes more sense to view it as speaking sequentially here, and referring to the leader that will arise out of this situation.
America essentially appointed Mubarak, and since we give them 2 billion in aid annually, Mubarak has remained a key ally of the U.S. If an extremist (i.e. orthodox) Muslim regime gains control, we can count this as the end of our democratic ally in Egypt, and an escalation to a Mid-East war, likely forcing Israel's hand to move more quickly in the Middle-East.
As to conditions that are going to affect the country, Isaiah goes on to predict the drying up of the Nile, and as a consequence, the end of all employment provided by the Nile and its products. It will be interesting to watch developments in and around Egypt. Southern Sudan recently gained the votes they needed to break off from Muslim controlled Northern Sudan, to gain their own independence. This leaves the Northern part of Sudan without natural resources, while the Southern part has control of water and minerals. I know that there has been contestation on how to use the waters of the Nile river. It occurred to me that once Southern Sudan has gained independence from the North, that damming up their water sources, could effectively drain the Nile river, causing its canals to dry up and leave a stench from the ancient river bed and the death of all the animal life, as well as the death of inhabitants who live along the river and depend on its fullness to live.
5The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
6The canals will emit a stench,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.
7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
8And the fishermen will lament,
And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.
9Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.
10And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.
11The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
"I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
You can hear this refrain among the people of Egypt, asking the same question. But for the LORD, it serves a different purpose, to point to His
sovereign rule over the affairs of men.
12Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the LORD of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly,
The princes of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.
14The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do
The final half of the chapter (Is. 19:16-24) speaks of the LORD's healing of the nation of Egypt, after they have gone through this national crisis and seen once again that their gods and spirits that they pray too can not help them (Ex. 5-11).
Not only are national forecasters speaking of the rising oil prices, which will effect essentially everything we do, but this can lead much qucker to the collapse of the Egyptian economy, as well as througout the Middle-East, and around the globe. As Mubarak has not stepped down, and the people are not satisfied, I think that things will continue to get much worse until a government is set up and control is seized, and so the prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled.
This event is very siginificant, and will most likely drastically change the way we live our lives in America, as well as lead to the collapse of the "global-economy," resulting in people crying out for a stable monetary one-world currency. Could this be the event that finally pushes us to that point?
scriptures copied from
http://www.biblegateway.com/
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