Day 198 (Isaiah 18-22) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, we continue with more oracles to the pagan nations in the areas surrounding Judah, and some very surprising stuff happens in today's prophecies.

We start out with a mystery nation that is beyond the rivers of Cush. Cush is another name for ancient Ethiopia, though it's a bit further south now than it was in ancient times, so it's possible that this points to the location of modern Ethiopia. They're sending for help to avoid disaster, and then Isaiah calls for all the people of the world to do the same thing. He prophesies that eventually the Gentile nations will bring tribute to Yahweh and acknowledge his supremacy.

Next, we move on to Egypt. Just a quick refresher. Egypt enslaved the people of Israel for 400 years and only let them go after God brought a string of plagues and death their way. They're racist toward the Israelites, they're renowned for their knowledge, and they're a major world power. So what does God have to say to this long-standing, powerful enemy of his people?

He's going to confuse their wisdom, he's going to oppress them the way they've oppressed others, and he's even going to turn them against each other. Good riddance, right? You'd think. But Yahweh often has grace tucked up his sleeve. We start to see it in 1918. It says, What?

It gets better. Verse 21 says, And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. But that's not all. Verse 23 says, In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. Assyria and Egypt, two of the most powerful enemies of God's people, will worship him.

In verse 25, he calls them Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, right alongside Israel, my inheritance. This is stunning and really reveals God's heart of love for a multinational family. He continues to show us the beautiful diversity of his family.

And as you're picturing this, try to remember that none of these people are white. Don't worry, we'll join this family eventually, white people, but we're still a few hundred years off. I know we're in all the paintings, but those are paintings, not pictures.

In chapter 20, the oracles are interrupted by a section where Isaiah performs a prophetic sign that pertains to some present-day activity. You know how prophets like to demonstrate things with a little bit of theater to really drive the point home? That's what's happening here. Isaiah is dressed in sackcloth, the standard sign for someone who's mourning. Then the people of Ashdod, which is a Philistine city, are attacked by Assyria. Assyria is really taking over the whole neighborhood, and Ashdod is just a few blocks over from Judah.

It seems that the people of Ashdod sought help from Egypt and Cush, but then Assyria took them captive too, humiliating everyone, basically. And the way Isaiah demonstrated this was to go from a state of mourning with his sackcloth on to a state of humiliation via nudity. The description sounds a lot like a prisoner of war who's being led away barefoot and naked and ashamed. And apparently Isaiah did this for three years, either constantly or intermittently.

Either way, prophets do not have an easy calling, that's for sure. And we have more evidence of that in chapter 1, where Isaiah has a vision that really disturbs him. He has a vision of two cities in Persia that are about to destroy Babylon, which they did conquer about 200 years later. Isaiah's grief over the destruction of such a wicked city shows us how tender-hearted he can be. And his compassion really mirrors what we saw yesterday where God mourned over Moab.

Isaiah has a series of short oracles for other nations, all of which amount to destruction. They want to know how long it will last, and his reply is basically, dawn is breaking, but it will be followed by night. Yikes. Today we wrapped up with an oracle for Jerusalem. We've dealt with a lot of the neighboring nations, but as always, God's people are held to an even higher standard. So what does Isaiah have to say to Judah? He's crushed by what is going to happen to them. Devastated.

Jerusalem will be attacked and destroyed. They'll try to fortify the city and prepare it for an attack, even digging water tunnels that you can still walk through if you visit Jerusalem today, but none of it will save them from the attack because God has planned it. And when Judah realizes destruction is imminent, they don't repent. Instead, they decide to spend their final moments in self-indulgence, and their hearts are revealed in that process.

Isaiah also has harsh words for Shebna, the king's servant, whose pride is really making him look foolish in the face of everything that's happening. Shebna has made elaborate provisions for his own death, but God is going to put a stop to it. It's not often, if ever, that you hear God promise to, quote, whirl you around and around and throw you like a ball into a wide land. But that's what he says to Shebna in 2218. Then God will replace Shebna with a new chief of staff, Eliakim.

I continue to be amazed at the extent of God's power. My God shot today came from the part where God is talking to Egypt, his future people. In 19.3, he says, I will confound their counsel. And in 19.14, he says, The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds.

The thought of God being sovereign over thoughts and words, it's a little humbling. It's a lot humbling. But if you think about it, it's also super encouraging. If God couldn't do that, how else would God the Spirit guide me into all truth like Jesus promised in John 16, 13? Or remind me of what Jesus said like he promised in John 14, 26?

To be clear, we definitely know that not every thought we think is him speaking to us per se. Isaiah 55.8 makes it clear that his mind works differently than ours does. But I'm grateful that he's willing and able to whisper his thoughts and his word to us when we need to know them. His thoughts fascinate me, and I want more of them all the time. He is where the joy is. ♪

You've heard me talk about DGroup's five core values over the past few weeks, so I just want to do a recap of those since we're big into recapping around here. Number one, scripture as roots. We focus on knowing and living out God's word. Number two, community as fruit. We believe community happens best as a byproduct of being on mission together to know God.

Number three, bring your wins and losses. We don't expect you to be perfect or know everything. We know we set the expectations bar high, but we set the grace bar higher. Number four, lead with your junk. We don't want the perfect version of you. We want the real version of you.

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