Isaiah 19:19The MessageOn that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe. See the chapter |
19 Cross References
Then Moses wrote it all down, everything God had said. He got up early the next morning and built an Altar at the foot of the mountain using twelve pillar-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed young Israelite men to offer Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrifice Peace-Offerings of bulls. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls; the other half he threw against the Altar.
The Message to Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt at the time it was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon while camped at Carchemish on the Euphrates River in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah: “‘Present arms! March to the front! Harness the horses! Up in the saddles! Battle formation! Helmets on, spears sharpened, armor in place!’ But what’s this I see? They’re scared out of their wits! They break ranks and run for cover. Their soldiers panic. They run this way and that, stampeding blindly. It’s total chaos, total confusion, danger everywhere!” God’s Decree.
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, confront Pharaoh king of Egypt. Preach against him and all the Egyptians. Tell him, ‘God, the Master, says: “‘Watch yourself, Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I’m dead set against you, You lumbering old dragon, lolling and flaccid in the Nile, Saying, “It’s my Nile. I made it. It’s mine.” I’ll set hooks in your jaw; I’ll make the fish of the Nile stick to your scales. I’ll pull you out of the Nile, with all the fish stuck to your scales. Then I’ll drag you out into the desert, you and all the Nile fish sticking to your scales. You’ll lie there in the open, rotting in the sun, meat to the wild animals and carrion birds. Everybody living in Egypt will realize that I am God.
God, the Master, spoke to me: “Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail: “‘Doomsday!’ Time’s up! God’s big day of judgment is near. Thick clouds are rolling in. It’s doomsday for the nations. Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished, And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya —all of Egypt’s old allies— killed right along with them.
In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat: “‘Who do you, astride the world, think you really are? Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar, beautiful limbs offering cool shade, Skyscraper high, piercing the clouds. The waters gave it drink, the primordial deep lifted it high, Gushing out rivers around the place where it was planted, And then branching out in streams to all the trees in the forest. It was immense, dwarfing all the trees in the forest— Thick boughs, long limbs, roots delving deep into earth’s waters. All the birds of the air nested in its boughs. All the wild animals gave birth under its branches. All the mighty nations lived in its shade. It was stunning in its majesty— the reach of its branches! the depth of its water-seeking roots! Not a cedar in God’s garden came close to it. No pine tree was anything like it. Mighty oaks looked like bushes growing alongside it. Not a tree in God’s garden was in the same class of beauty. I made it beautiful, a work of art in limbs and leaves, The envy of every tree in Eden, every last tree in God’s garden.’”
The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It’s the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God’s altar to cleanse his people.
“We built this altar as a witness between us and you and our children coming after us, a witness to the Altar where we worship God in his Sacred Dwelling with our Whole-Burnt-Offerings and our sacrifices and our Peace-Offerings. “This way, your children won’t be able to say to our children in the future, ‘You have no part in God.’
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