Isaiah 19:18 - Meaning and Application

Out of the dark and threatening clouds of the earlier prophecy, the sun of comfort now breaks through, and it is the sun of righteousness. God still keeps mercy in store for Egypt, and he will show it, not mainly by reviving their trade or filling their river again, but by bringing true religion among them. He will call them to the worship of the one living and true God, and accept them in it. These blessings of grace were far better than all the natural riches with which Egypt had once been blessed.

We do not know of any event, short of Egypt’s conversion to the faith of Christ, that fully fits this prophecy. That conversion seems to have come through the preaching of Mark the Evangelist, who is commonly thought to have carried the gospel there and founded many Christian churches. Those churches flourished for many centuries. Many prophecies in this book point to the days of the Messiah, so why should this one not do the same? It is also common for the prophets to describe gospel blessings and practices using the language of the Old Testament. In these prophecies, the words “in that day” may point not only to what comes right before, but also to that long-awaited day when the sunrise from heaven would visit this dark world.

Still, some think this prophecy was partly fulfilled earlier, when the Jews who fled to Egypt during Sennacherib’s invasion brought their religion with them. Sennacherib was the Assyrian king who invaded Judah, and those refugees, shaken by their troubles, openly and earnestly practiced their faith in Egypt. They may have led many Egyptians to embrace it as well. That would have been an early sign and sample of the much greater harvest of souls that would later be gathered to God through the preaching of Christ’s gospel.

Josephus says that Onias, son of the high priest Onias, living as an outlaw in Alexandria, asked Ptolemy Philometer, then king, and Cleopatra his queen, for permission to build a temple to the God of Israel in Egypt, at Bubastis. He claimed Isaiah’s words gave him authority for it, especially the statement that there would be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt. Josephus says worship continued there for about 333 years, until Paulinus shut it down soon after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. But devout Jews always regarded that temple as a serious irregularity and as an insult to the temple in Jerusalem. So we cannot think that this prophecy was fulfilled there.

Notice how the conversion of Egypt is described. They shall speak the language of Canaan, the holy language, the language of Scripture. They will not only understand it, but also use it (Isaiah 19:18). They will bring that language into their daily life and speak freely with God’s people, no longer needing an interpreter, as Joseph’s brothers once did in Egypt (Genesis 42:23). Converting grace changes the heart, and when the heart changes, the language changes too, because the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

Five cities in Egypt shall speak this language. This may mean that many Jews would settle there, multiply, and soon fill five cities, one of them being Heliopolis, also called the city of Heres, or the city of the sun, where sun worship had been especially shameful. Even there there would be a great change, and they would speak the language of Canaan. Or it may mean that out of every five cities that embrace true religion, one city, a sixth part of Egypt’s cities, will refuse it and be called a city of destruction, because it rejects the way of salvation.

They shall swear to the Lord of hosts. That means more than simply swearing by his name, as people once appealed to the gods they worshipped. It means they will solemnly devote themselves to his honor and bind themselves to his service. They will pledge to cleave to him with a sincere heart, and they will worship him not just now and then, but continually. They will swear loyalty to him as their King, and to Christ, to whom all judgment has been given.

They shall also set up the public worship of God in their land (Isaiah 19:19). There shall be an altar to the Lord in the middle of Egypt, an altar where sacrifice and offering will be made (Isaiah 19:21), so this must be understood in a spiritual sense. Christ is the great altar, the one who makes every gift holy, and he will be honored there. The gospel sacrifices of prayer and praise will be offered up. Under Moses’ law, there could be no altar for sacrifice except the one in Jerusalem. But in Christ Jesus, the difference between nations is removed. A spiritual altar, a gospel church, in the middle of Egypt is as pleasing to God as one in the middle of Israel. Spiritual sacrifices of faith, love, and a broken heart please the Lord more than oxen or bulls.

There will also be an open appearance of religion in the nation, visible to all who enter it. Not only in the center of the country, but even on its borders, there will be a pillar, or pillars, marked “To the Lord,” just as there had once been pillars honoring false gods. A stranger entering Egypt would be able to see at once whom they worshipped. Those who serve God must not be ashamed to confess him. They should be ready to do anything that serves as a sign and witness to the Lord of hosts. Even in Egypt, he would have faithful worshippers who proudly owned their relation to him and made his name their strong tower and defense on the borders of the land.

When they are in trouble, they will seek God, and he will be found by them. This will stand as a sign and witness for the Lord of hosts that he is a God who hears prayer from all who come to him (Isaiah 19:20; Psalm 65:2). When they cry out to God because of their oppressors, the cruel rulers over them (Isaiah 19:4), he will answer them (Isaiah 19:22). By contrast, he had told Israel, who had chosen a king for themselves, that when they cried out because of their king, he would not hear them (1 Samuel 8:18).

They shall also have an interest in the great Redeemer. When they were under the oppression of cruel rulers, God may sometimes have raised up mighty deliverers for them, as he did for Israel in the days of the judges. Through those deliverers, though he had struck the land, he healed it again. When they turned back to God in duty, he returned to them in mercy and repaired the breaks in their weak and tottering state. Repentant Egyptians would find the same favor with God that repentant Ninevites found. Yet all these deliverances, like those given to Israel, were only figures of the salvation of the gospel.

Jesus Christ is surely the Savior and the great one spoken of here. God will send good news about him to the Egyptians, and through him he will deliver them from their enemies, so they may serve him without fear (Luke 1:74-75). Jesus Christ freed the Gentile nations from the service of silent idols, and he both won their liberty and proclaimed it to captives.

The knowledge of God will spread among them (Isaiah 19:21). First, they will have the means to know him. For many ages, God was known only in Judah, because only there were the living words of God found. But now the Lord, his name, and his will will be known in Egypt. This may partly point to the Greek translation of the Old Testament, made in Alexandria in Egypt by order of Ptolemy, king of Egypt. It was the first time the Scriptures were translated into another language. Through that work, and with the Greek language already in that land, the Lord became known in Egypt, and this was a hopeful sign and means of making him known further.

Second, they will have grace to make good use of that knowledge. It is promised not only that the Lord will be known in Egypt, but that the Egyptians will know the Lord. They will receive the light given to them and submit to its power. The Lord is known in our nation, yet many in our nation still do not know the Lord. But the promise of the new covenant is that all will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, and this promise is sure to all his people. The result of this knowledge of God is that they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. Anyone does not know God rightly if they are unwilling to bind themselves to the Lord or fail to keep the promises they make to him.

They will also come into the fellowship of the saints. When they are joined to the Lord, they will be added to the church and joined with all believers. All hostilities will end. Egypt and Assyria had long been mortal enemies and often made war on each other, but now there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria (Isaiah 19:23). This means there will be a happy peace between the two nations. They will trade with one another, and everything between them will be friendly. The Egyptians will serve, that is, worship the true God, with the Assyrians. So the Assyrians will come into Egypt, and the Egyptians into Assyria.

Those who have fellowship with the same God, through the same Mediator, should keep peace with one another. When we think about meeting at the same throne of grace and serving together in the same work of religion, that should end our heat and anger toward each other and bind our hearts together in holy love.

The Gentile nations will not only unite with one another in the gospel fold under Christ, the great shepherd, but they will also be united with the Jews. When Egypt and Assyria join together in serving God, Israel will be the third with them (Isaiah 19:24). They will become a threefold cord that is not easily broken. The ceremonial law, which had long been the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles, will be taken down, and then they will become one flock under one shepherd. United in this way, they will be a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts will bless (Isaiah 19:24-25).

Israel will be a blessing to them all, because from Israel, as to his human nature, Christ came. Israel was the natural branch of the good olive tree, and to Israel belonged the root and richness at first, while the Gentiles were only grafted in among them (Romans 11:17). Israel lay between Egypt and Assyria, and was a blessing to both by bringing them together in the word of the Lord that went out from Jerusalem, and in that church first set up in the land of Israel. As the saying goes, those who meet in a third thing meet with each other. Israel is that third in which Egypt and Assyria agree, and so Israel is a blessing, because those are real and great blessings to their generation who help unite people who have been at odds.

They will all be a blessing to the world. So the Christian church is, made up of Jews and Gentiles. It is the beauty, wealth, and support of the world. They will also all be blessed by the Lord. He will own them all as his. Even though Egypt had once been a house of bondage to God’s people, and Assyria had been their unjust enemy, all of that will now be forgiven and forgotten. They will be as welcome to God as Israel. They are all equally his people, whom he takes under his protection. He formed them, because they are the work of his hands, not only as a people, but as his people. He formed them for himself, because they are his inheritance, precious in his sight and dear to him, and from them he receives the honor due to him in this lower world.

He will own them together as his own, joined in one blessing. Those who are united in God’s love and blessing should, for that reason, be united to each other in love.