The LORD Is Riding A Swift Cloud

The Word of the LORD came to Isaiah concerning the land of Egypt. They had persecuted the children of Israel since the day when Jacob went there during a famine. God had dealt with the gods of Egypt individually in the Ten Plagues before He led Israel out of Egypt, drying up the Red Sea before them and drowning the army of Egypt behind them. Despite the pagan worship that has been commonplace in Egypt since their first Pharaoh not long after the Flood, God is not yet done with them. He has plans for the future of Egypt that even they may not be aware of. 

The LORD would be riding a swift cloud to Egypt soon. He was a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day for Israel as they left Egypt the first time. He will return there on a swift cloud and judge them once again. Their idols will tremble, the people in the land will melt with fear. Egyptians will fight each other city against city and kingdom again kingdom. Their spirits will be demoralized as God confounds their strategies against Him. They will turn to idols, ghosts of the dead, and mediums and wizards as God delivers them into the hand of a cruel master - perhaps referring to the future Antichrist who would rule over them before Jesus returns.

God would then dry up the waters of the Nile. The waters for the Mediterranean would dry up in Egypt. The reeds and bulrushes would rot away and the fishermen would lament that they cannot catch fish anymore. The once plentiful and lush cotton fields would be no more and the manufacturers of linen would be utterly dejected. The pillars of Egypt would be crushed and the work would be gone. 

The LORD declares that the princes and advisors of Egypt will no longer be able to state that they are ‘son of ancient kings’, referring to their lineage to Pharaohs of old. Wise men would cease from that land. God would send on them a distorted leadership that would lead them astray as He destroys their gods and their leaders and their land. The Egyptians would become like women, trembling in fear and dread as He waves His hand of judgment over them. They would even fear the land of Judah, they would be so weak where they were once so strong. All of this because of the purposes of God against them.

Five Egyptian cities would be speaking the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD. There are only five Egyptian cities mentioned in the Bible - On, Hanes, No, Noph, and Zoan, alternatively known as Thebes, Herakleopolis, Memphis, Heliopolis, and Tania. One of them will be called the ‘City of Destruction,’ a play on words for Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, which is modern Cairo.

An altar to the LORD would be built in Egypt, and a pillar near its borders. Two functioning Jewish Temples were actually built in Egypt. The Elephantine Temple was built by exiles from Israel in the 6th century BC. Animal sacrifices were offered there. It was destroyed and rebuilt. A second Temple was built by High Priest Onias IV when he was deposed from Jerusalem in 160 BC. It functioned until Rome destroyed it in 70 AD. Both of them served as testimonies to the LORD along the Nile River. This prophecy may refer to those, or to a future Altar and Pillar to the LORD. 

That will be a sign and a witness to the LORD in the land of Egypt. The Egyptians will see it and cry to the LORD because of their oppressors, much as Israel cried to the LORD while enslaved to Egypt. Their cry will be answered - The LORD will send a Champion and Savior, He Himself will deliver them. The LORD will make Himself known in Egypt and the Egyptians will know the LORD and worship Him in that Day. They will make vows and offerings to Him as well.

The LORD will strike Egypt. The intention is not total destruction, but healing. They will return to the LORD. He will respond to them and heal them. Which means that once, long ago, Egypt actually knew the LORD and worshiped Him, though they quickly turned to their many false gods. God Himself will deliver them from those false gods and to the Truth of Who He Is. 

A highway will run from Egypt to Assyria, both nations which have afflicted the children of Israel for millennia. Both the Egyptians and Assyrians will worship the LORD together, along with Israel. All three nations will be a blessing to the entire world. God will call all three by His Name, blessing them. ‘Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel my inheritance.’ God’s plan for Egypt is not total annihilation, but salvation. Truly, every nation will one day bow before Jesus as He reigns and everyone will know the LORD.