{"id":72127,"date":"2025-03-13T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/?p=72127"},"modified":"2025-03-13T10:43:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:43:37","slug":"a-pronouncement-against-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/a-pronouncement-against-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pronouncement Against Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 20:1-6, Isaiah 21:1-17, Romans 9:14-18<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My extroverted friends have told me that when they walk into a room full of strangers they start buzzing with energy at the thought of all the new people they\u2019re about to meet. But me? Not so much. My favorite part of any gathering is the delight of seeing an unexpected, yet familiar, face walk into the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the heels of prophecies about Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, and Cush, turning the page to Egypt felt a little bit like that for me. If this was a real-life party, I\u2019d be looking at Egypt asking, \u201cWait, what are you doing here?\u201d \u201cHow do you know Judah?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often have to remind myself that though these oracles were proclaimed against other nations, they were actually spoken for Judah. So why might Egypt\u2019s future matter to them? Let\u2019s start with a thematic refresher to pull us out of the weeds of prophetic poetry for a minute. The book of Isaiah details the prophesied judgment against Judah for their ongoing disobedience. This judgment would be expressed, in part, through other nations taking them captive and removing them from their land. And Egypt was a nearby nation that Judah would have been tempted to form an alliance with in hopes of maintaining their independence from one of their potential captors, Assyria. Isaiah 19 provides the framework for why the Lord would later condemn this alliance in Isaiah 20 and 30: the nation of Egypt could not be Judah\u2019s hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to read Isaiah 19 without first being reminded of Egypt\u2019s history with God\u2019s people. In Exodus, God\u2019s people were rescued from slavery in Egypt through miraculous events\u2014works that displayed God\u2019s power and superiority. Isaiah affirmed what God\u2019s people had already experienced: the gods that Egypt put their hope in were \u201cworthless\u201d (Isaiah 19:1). Why turn to the nation that trusted in a worthless idol?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it wasn\u2019t just their past that affirmed why Egypt couldn\u2019t be Judah\u2019s hope. Though we don\u2019t know the exact timing of the prophesied events of chapters 19 and 20, we see that Egypt\u2019s destruction was inevitable. The Lord ensured that \u201cNo head or tail, palm or reed, will be able to do anything for Egypt\u201d (v.15). And it\u2019s the Lord Himself who appears as the one who \u201cwill strike Egypt, striking and healing\u201d (v.22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s destruction of Egypt was a part of His sovereign plan to bring them in as His own people too. There was an unexpected end on the horizon, and it\u2019s not just for the people of Judah. \u201cThe LORD of armies will bless them saying, \u2018Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance are blessed\u2019\u201d (v.25). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt would fall. And Egypt would rise. Egypt and Assyria were both headed toward the place that the people of Judah already found themselves in\u2014sitting underneath the revealed rule and reign of God. Isaiah was calling Judah to trust in the God every other nation would eventually turn to and worship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this prophecy is our hope too. Our hope, trust, and security can\u2019t be found in any nation; our hope is in the One who already rules over them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Hannah Little<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 20:1-6, Isaiah 21:1-17, Romans 9:14-18 My extroverted friends have told me that when they walk into a room full of strangers they start buzzing with energy at the thought of all the new people they\u2019re about to meet. But me? Not so much. My favorite part of any gathering is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":72104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent2025"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71943],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"A PRONOUNCEMENT AGAINST EGYPT<\/b>

\r\nby Hannah Little<\/i>

\r\n

My extroverted friends have told me that when they walk into a room full of strangers they start buzzing with energy at the thought of all the new people they\u2019re about to meet. But me? Not so much. My favorite part of any gathering is the delight of seeing an unexpected, yet familiar, face walk into the room.<\/p>
\r\n

On the heels of prophecies about Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, and Cush, turning the page to Egypt felt a little bit like that for me. If this was a real-life party, I\u2019d be looking at Egypt asking, \u201cWait, what are you doing here?\u201d \u201cHow do you know Judah?\u201d<\/p>
\r\n

I often have to remind myself that though these oracles were proclaimed against other nations, they were actually spoken for Judah. So why might Egypt\u2019s future matter to them? Let\u2019s start with a thematic refresher to pull us out of the weeds of prophetic poetry for a minute. The book of Isaiah details the prophesied judgment against Judah for their ongoing disobedience. This judgment would be expressed, in part, through other nations taking them captive and removing them from their land. And Egypt was a nearby nation that Judah would have been tempted to form an alliance with in hopes of maintaining their independence from one of their potential captors, Assyria. Isaiah 19 provides the framework for why the Lord would later condemn this alliance in Isaiah 20 and 30: the nation of Egypt could not be Judah\u2019s hope.<\/p>
\r\n

It\u2019s hard to read Isaiah 19 without first being reminded of Egypt\u2019s history with God\u2019s people. In Exodus, God\u2019s people were rescued from slavery in Egypt through miraculous events\u2014works that displayed God\u2019s power and superiority. Isaiah affirmed what God\u2019s people had already experienced: the gods that Egypt put their hope in were \u201cworthless\u201d (Isaiah 19:1). Why turn to the nation that trusted in a worthless idol?<\/p>
\r\n

But it wasn\u2019t just their past that affirmed why Egypt couldn\u2019t be Judah\u2019s hope. Though we don\u2019t know the exact timing of the prophesied events of chapters 19 and 20, we see that Egypt\u2019s destruction was inevitable. The Lord ensured that \u201cNo head or tail, palm or reed, will be able to do anything for Egypt\u201d (v.15). And it\u2019s the Lord Himself who appears as the one who \u201cwill strike Egypt, striking and healing\u201d (v.22).<\/p>
\r\n

God\u2019s destruction of Egypt was a part of His sovereign plan to bring them in as His own people too. There was an unexpected end on the horizon, and it\u2019s not just for the people of Judah. \u201cThe LORD of armies will bless them saying, \u2018Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance are blessed\u2019\u201d (v.25).<\/p>
\r\n

Egypt would fall. And Egypt would rise. Egypt and Assyria were both headed toward the place that the people of Judah already found themselves in\u2014sitting underneath the revealed rule and reign of God. Isaiah was calling Judah to trust in the God every other nation would eventually turn to and worship.<\/p>
\r\n

And this prophecy is our hope too. Our hope, trust, and security can\u2019t be found in any nation; our hope is in the One who already rules over them all.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"11","scripture":"Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 20:1-6, Isaiah 21:1-17, Romans 9:14-18","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}