Egyptian civilization goes so far back into time, it's hard to be sure just when it began. The various ruling regimes were quite proud of this, and considered themselves the most ancient of kingdoms. They were also one of the most degradingly pagan cultures, and their vast pantheon of deities still confuses us today. A critical part of understanding the Ten Plagues of the Exodus is wrapped in noting which major deities were embarrassed by the natural disasters off the scale of anything recorded in the Egyptian annals.
These were all powerless against the God of Israel, and this was precisely the point. God steers the major events of history to suit His purposes. While hardly every detail is revealed, there are times when the prophetic word clarifies some event as revealing something about God Himself, and this is the crux of all biblical revelation. Isaiah records his prophecy regarding events in Egypt; not the whole history, but those events to which God speaks.
The details are rather fuzzy, but Egypt was ruled by a quick succession of regime changes. Not only were the noble families of old fighting amongst themselves, but Ethiopia and Libya took their turns on the throne, as well. This quick series of turnovers left Egypt mortally weak in the face of the invading Assyrians. These in turn gave way to an invasion from Babylon, which handed off Egypt to the Medo-Persian Empire. This last was particularly oppressive, and the conquest of Alexander the Great came as some relief. While the hinterlands were seldom any less pagan, changing only the deities they adhered to, the various cities, and particularly the Nile Delta region, saw the rise of a powerful Hellenizing influence.
Into this mix we find a truly large portion of Jews had migrated to Egypt, more or less in flight from the Babylonians. Thus, it was Babylon which caused the bulk of Jewish population to split between those they carried to Mesopotamia and those who fled to the Nile Valley. All of this figures into Isaiah's prophecy in this and the next chapter.
Isaiah opens with a renewal of the primary sins of Egypt: their idolatry. Because so much of it was a mere reflection of politics, the religious scene there was quite confused. It seemed every new ruler had his or her own favorite deities, promoted officially over the others. The internal fighting between noble houses and between various shrines became so partisan, the Nile nation was ripe for the picking. All their ancient wisdom would be drowned in the confusion. While Assyria did a lot of damage, it was Babylon who plundered all Egypt's oldest treasuries and temples, and Medo-Persia taxed them without mercy. Egypt would be laid low, just as before in the Exodus.
They would be further weakened by a long and intense drought. The whole reason Egypt existed was to exploit the annual flooding in the Nile Valley. Without that, the nation had no economy. All the ancient families in their traditional capital cities -- Zoan in the lower Delta, Memphis (Noph) at the head of Delta region -- would all appear foolish. With all their ancient libraries and academies, they would not be able to muster the wisdom to bring stability. The Lord would send them an intoxicating spirit of folly.
The rather plain narrative tone starting in verse 16 reflects the flight from Judah of the rebels against Babylon, leaving their homeland nearly empty of any remaining Jews. Their arrival in Egypt was simply the herald of the pursuing Babylonian army. Thus, any mention of Jews and their homeland would be bad news. After the storm had passed, the Jews would build a new home in Egypt. Five cities became so dominated by Jewish culture their language (quite similar to the old Canaanite) was the primary tongue heard. Referring to the "City of Destruction" is a typical Hebrew pun, as the Hebrew word for "sun" (shemmesh) sounds similar to the word for "destruction" (heh'res); making light of "City of the Sun" (Heliopolis), home of the Temple of Ra. In place of this sort of ancient pagan shrine would be monuments to Jehovah, even a copy of the Temple in Jerusalem.
These Jewish influences would presage the coming of Christianity some centuries later. It requires a symbolic logic to grasp how the prophecy here refers to Alexander, who delivered Egypt from Persia, and built a city after his own name, a new center of Hellenistic culture. But an even greater Savior would come later. He will be known in Egypt, and it would be much remembered He had dwelt there as a child, when His parents fled Herod. That all of this is implied can be quite confusing to a Western rationalist mind, yet is common as dirt in Hebrew prophetic writing.
Eventually, under Alexander and his successors, the high level of Jewish traffic between the rather young and fresh Alexandrian community and the dusty old blue-bloods who remained in Babylon made Jerusalem as much a stop on the way as it was a destination in itself. This prefigures the glories of the Messianic Age when the world would be cleansed of sin and sinners, and only His people will be left. All nations would then dissolve into one in Him. To an extant, this is already true in the Spiritual Kingdom of Light, but would be more literally so in the end.
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By Ed Hurst
02 October 2008
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