Isaiah 19:1-4 – God is the sure bet in life's crisis

Trusting God and abandoning themselves to Him fully was something that Judah did not do for a long time. Because of His love and concern for them, God would deal harshly with them and seek means to drive them back to Himself. Whether it was through the threat from the Syria-Israel alliance, or later from Assyria, God’s purpose was to get them to return to Him. But they just would not trust God. So here, with the message Isaiah gave concerning Egypt, God was making another attempt to get them to trust Him. The message, though for Egypt, was a way of discouraging Judah from turning to them for assistance. God’s desire was for the people of Judah to align themselves with Him.

The message began with Isaiah highlighting God as riding swiftly on the cloud and about to come to Egypt. This fact underscores the sovereignty of God. Just as He was in control of Assyria, He was also in control of Egypt. Just as He used Assyria in His plan to deal with His people, God would also use Egypt to align His people. Like Assyria, Egypt was also an instrument in God’s hand.

 

Here God through Isaiah was describing what would be happening to Egypt. God was seen here coming to Egypt to deal with them. As He did, both her people and their deities were petrified. That resulted in chaos in the nation that brought about internal strife and civil upheaval. Egypt was seen here as a country divided where the people fought each other, city against city and kingdom against kingdom. The Egyptians would be so demoralized as God brought confusion among them till they were driven to seek the help of the departed spirits of the dead through mediums and spiritism. God would also deliver them into a cruel master. They were scheduled to fall under the control of another king.

 

Nowhere can be more secure than to be in God. When we encounter hard times, who do we usually run to for solutions? Foolishly, there are people who would turn to mediums and spiritism seeking for a solution. Remember that God is our safest bet to a sure solution. It would be foolhardy to run helter-skelter seeking for an answer when God is ever ready to come to our rescue. If we repent and return to Him, be sure that He, like the loving father in the parable of the prodigal son, is ever waiting with open arms for us to come to Him.