Isaiah 19, are you ready for this? This is the word of God. I hope as we go through this Isaiah that your love for God is growing deeper as you start seeing all that God has done for decades and centuries, and yet God is still faithful to love people like you and me here. It's just an amazing thing. It is hard to read through, and I wanna make it easy as I can for you, so today will be one of those days that we'll have many points, but just hang in there with me. I hope you'll get the point, all right? So 19 and 20, all right, so let's begin reading. An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt, and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence. and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another, and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom, and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel. and they will inquire of the idols, the sorcerers, and the mediums, and the necromancers, and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord of Hosts. And the waters of the sea will be dried up. The river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up. Reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched. It will be driven away, and will be no more. The fishermen will mourn and lament all who cast a hook in the Nile, and they will languish who spread nets on the water. The workers in combed flax will be in despair and the weavers of white cotton. Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed and all who work for pay will be grieved. The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings? Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded. Those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have made Egypt stagger. The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion. And they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. And there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed may do. And in that day, The Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand of the Lord of Hosts shakes over them. And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of Hosts has proposed against them. And in that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, a pillar to the Lord at its borders. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When we cry to the Lord because of the pressers, He will send them a savior and defender and deliver them. And the Lord will make himself known to Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and they will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. And 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. In that day will be a third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance. In chapter 20, in the year that the commander-in-chief who was sent by Saragon, the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it, at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah, son of Ammon, saying, go and loose the sackcloth from your waist, take off your sandals from your feet, and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush, their hope. and of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how shall we escape? Thus ends the reading of God's word. So I am nearsighted. Been so since I was six years old. Being nearsighted, or what the doctors will tell you is myopia, means having difficulty seeing things that are far away while close-up objects remain clear. Now, in a literal sense, Ophthalmologists will tell you it's an eye condition where distant objects appear blurry because the eye focuses image in front of the retina instead of on the retina. But figuratively, in life, to be myopic is to be short-sighted, which means lacking foresight or long-term planning, focusing only on immediate benefits or concerns while ignoring future consequences. Short-sightedness may bring instant rewards, but can cost you far more in the long run. There's real wisdom in trying to understand the dangers of myopia in real life. In fact, the Apostle John says it this way, the world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God abides forever. Judah was severely myopic. King Ahaz sought instant reward and failed. King Hezekiah after him was no different. But so were all the nations of the world at that particular time. The history, the story of history itself is one king after the next, selfishly wielding his own power for his own glory and ultimately for his own demise. And this particular chapter is the heart of God's oracle to Egypt that really began in chapter 18 and it ends in chapter 20. And in many ways, it's the same song, second verse. But there's a special sense, I think, that this particular one is a bit more personal with God. It's possible that more is said about Egypt in the Bible than any other nation except for Israel. I mean, Egypt was Israel's first ancient enemy, and the first to enslave God's people. So Egypt was for so long the most powerful nation on the earth, and God's people were constantly tempted to, when they needed something, to go back to Egypt and to seek to get it. From Abraham to Judeans in Jeremiah's day, when things got bad, Go to Egypt. And no ancient kingdom had a more prolonged period of dominance over two millennia of almost unbroken national glory. Egypt was known for its glory. Egypt owned the most feared armies on earth, owned the very strongest and most stable economy for so long, the greatest food supply around. Their pyramids were the engineering marvel of the world for centuries, the height of human technological achievement. Everyone stood in awe of Egypt, but now, They're just reminders of a splendor of the distant past. I mean, no one really is impressed with Egypt anymore. Well, why is this? It is because of what God says, really, right here in this text. Here, God gives the long view for Egypt by answering two questions. What does a nation look like under God's judgment and What does a nation look like under God's blessing? That's chapter 19. Then God gives a very stark, no pun intended, warning. You'll see what I mean in chapter 20, verses one through six. So let's get into this, all right? Are you ready for this? Notice first of all, what does a nation under God's judgment look like? Now, before we get into this, I just wanna remind you that what we're dealing with here, okay, is the word of God to Judah. We're not dealing with the word of God to the United States. Although, as we walk through this, your heart will wanna go there, all right? It's fine to go there, but understand what's being said, and make good applications on your own, all right? Can we just ask you to do that? But this is very, very interesting, and we see this in verses one through 15. Egypt, like so many other nations, thought more highly of themselves than they should have, and they paid a dear price for it. The thought, They thought very highly of things like their own civilization. They loved their striking history. They loved to talk about it. They loved their power and they loved their influence. They were very proud of every part of their society. They were very confident that by their own supposed national unity, by their own economy, by their own power and wisdom, they could rise to every challenge and solve every problem without any need of the creator God. And so here, God takes away all that they boasted in. Isaiah identifies three critical judgments of God on Egypt. And I want you to see this. Notice first of all, God will bring them social collapse. We see this in verses one through four. Social collapse. And as you look at this, you're just going like, whoa. An oracle concerning Egypt, behold the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence. The heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. God is at work here. And God goes right to work, and he brings this social collapse, and we'll see this in verses one through four. While Egypt may have looked powerful, Very impressive on the outside. They were no match, though, to God's power and might. And this is the picture that Isaiah begins with in verse one, and he draws attention to the sudden, overwhelming appearance of God himself, the God of Israel. And he says, behold, now you remember, we've talked about this a lot, every time God uses the word behold, it really should yank our attention to right here. Look at this. The Lord is riding on a swift cloud and he comes to Egypt. He is the Lord of his creation, right? And as he proved in Egypt over and over and over again in the plagues, he sent those plagues upon the nation of Exodus so that they would know he's the creator God. And he was powerful. But Egypt was confident of its national security. I mean, they thought no one could actually conquer them because of their own secure location, surrounded by desert, only one way in and only one way out. I mean, like, that's pretty secure. But Israel's God is not bound like the gods of Egypt. God is all places. God is all powerful. He's not stationary. He's exalted above the heavens and he can easily come down in judgment upon them and no border, no fort, no wall can stop him. God uses an easy thing such as a cloud to ride on. like a chariot to descend from heaven, to ride over their defenses, to execute their direct judgment upon them. And because he rules the skies, the idea always is, he rules everything else in between. He rules their world. Every nation, every event on earth, he rules over, and he has complete mastery and control over all his creation. There's nothing that doesn't belong to God And one by one, God moves in to bring destruction, and notice how judiciously works a complete collapse of this nation. Notice, first of all, God shakes their idols. Did you catch that in verse one? He says, and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence. This is something that ought to grab our hearts and awaken us up a little bit. God goes after the gods of Egypt. He strikes fear in them and causes them to tremble, and that word literally means to quiver. With God, there is never really any kind of fight with gods that aren't really gods. This was really no fight at all. They can't stand under the power and the might of God himself. And so, obviously, the Egyptians' heart melt. I think all of us in here today know how that works, don't we? We've all experienced, if you have any life at all that you're trying to live in a godly way, you will remember those times when God touches an idol in your own heart, an idol that you reach for in order to find joy, security, and identity. And God touches that and says, that's an idol. And what happens? Our hearts melt. Our lives wilt and our mental health collapses. We know what that's like. God did this for me when I was a junior in high school. One weekend, my life collapsed. I was playing in a piano contest that I had won the year before. I was supposed to be able to win it hands down. And I played and I was having this difficulty with this young lady that I thought I was in love with at the time. And all on that same weekend, I never even made it out of the first session of playing the piece. I never got to play my big, I had a Franz Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody piece. Thought I would win, hands down, no problem. I didn't even get out of the first piece, because I forgot a whole section of it. And at that same night, my girlfriend broke up with me. I mean, I, I literally, I don't tell many people this, but I was a kid, I wept for six weeks. I would go home to my bed, quietly put my bed, and I would cry for six weeks. And looking back now, God knew exactly what he was doing. I needed that humbling. I had two idols. One was piano, and one was my girlfriend. I idolized both of those things. And I'll never forget this, because God shook me. And it was a good thing for me to have my idols taken away like that. And God just basically said, I don't need you to play the piano for me. I thought he did. You know, I was like, I can play the piano. I can play the piano for whatever you need, I can do that. And God goes like, no, I don't need that. And it's true, he doesn't. What he wanted was my heart. And so God will shake their idols. But notice, secondly, God shakes their national unity. And this is incredible. God stirs up Egyptians against Egyptians. I mean, suddenly there's this inner turmoil where, man, these are my friends, these are my buddies, but there's this inner turmoil fighting between each other and against each neighbor, neighbor against neighbor, and then city against city, and then kingdom against kingdom. So it kind of was like contagious. It was like this bad contagion that went all the way through, and they're fighting each other. Their national religions, their gods had failed them. But because a nation that worships a multitude of different gods cannot be united, this was very effective. A nation that is not united with no true unity cannot endure for long. One of the things that I think has kept our nation a little bit unified is that there was a basic understanding of Christianity And now, man, we have lost all understanding of that. And guess what we're seeing? We're seeing similar stuff. God says this is his personal action against them. I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians. This is God at work, and God is the one causing this societal division that eventually descends into anarchy and civil war. They disdain each other. People are just mean to each other. I mean, they're being nasty, and they just can't share a country because of all the animosity of their sinful hearts. But that's not the highest cause of this division. Understand this. This civil war that sets Egypt against Egypt is a direct judgment of God upon their entire nation. I will stir them up. My friend, when we see this kind of disunity, look for God at work. Just look and see God's at work behind that. God does this to release our grip on the things that we hold more important than himself. and then notice they confound their wisdom. You kind of laugh at this. The verses three and four, God will frustrate and swallow up all their counsel. Do you see that in verse three? And the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out and I'll confound their counsel. I mean, they inquire of idols and sorcerers and mediums and the necromancers. I don't know if you were with us in chapter eight, but Israel did the same thing in chapter eight, verse 19. They go and they go to these other gods, these other religions, as it were, to check them out, to see what they have to say, because they just weren't confident in their creator. And this is the way it works again. I mean, this is what people do when political solutions fail. So what happens when you are scrambling for all your worth to grab some sort of wise counsel that someone's gotta fix this, what happens? Well, notice verse four. And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord of Hosts. Wow, they lose their freedom. God brings tyrannical and toxic rulers who will fiercely rule over them. Things that make you say, hmm. Socially, Egypt collapses, crumbles. socially. But then notice, if you would, that God brings economic collapse. And these are all tied together. You see this in verses 5 through 10. And the waters of the sea will be dried up and the river will be dry and parched. What's he talking about here? He's talking about the Nile River. The Nile River for Egypt is like Wall Street of our day. Egypt's economy and national prosperity was almost entirely dependent upon the Nile River. Have you ever been around a country like that where there's this strong dependency on something naturally like the river? If there was a drought and the Nile was low or hardly flowing, it would prove very disastrous for the nation. Look at verse five. And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul. And there's this domino's effect that starts falling over. The waters of the Nile were spoken of like an endless supply of life-giving water. And when Isaiah announces that its water will be dried up in verse five, it means their national economy will wither away. And so this dominoes begins falling in verse seven, Egypt's grain will die out because the river that is now dry. Verse eight, fishermen will mourn and lament all who cast a hook in the Nile and they will languish who spreads nets on the water. This could be a very serious matter because of course, fish were an important part of the diet of Israel and those nations around them. And then the weaving and manufacturing industry is also devastated. Verse 10, the pillars of the land. These are the business owners, those who try to provide an economic stability as provide work for others will be in complete dismay and even grieved because of the economy. Why? Because this is not at all what they were used to. They had their own gods, they were holding on to their own ideas, and God just kinda just pulls the rug out from underneath them, very slyly, by not giving them rain, and cutting off the waters. God doesn't need much to throw us off. You think about this. What if God just somehow flipped our electrical switches off? Buddy, we're in a heap of trouble. But the economic collapse was very real. And it will be very real, and it was for them. And then notice verses 11 through 15, God will bring on a political collapse. Political collapse is inevitable. You start being messed with social problems, you start being messed with economic problems, and guess what? What are we gonna look to? The politicians. What do you need in a national crisis, folks? You need leadership, right? I mean, times of great turmoil call for great leadership, at least competent leadership. So how will Egypt's leaders respond to this dire social crisis and economic collapse? Will any of their politicians and public intellectuals have any ideas about how to deal with any of this? I mean, because after all, they were renowned in the ancient world as the center of learning, a culture and civilization of education and knowledge, of wisdom and philosophy. They were the proponents of everything. We could say that they were the home of the major research universities. So surely they would be able to figure things out and forge a path ahead for their people. But I love this. God even rules over their politicians. You can't help but think that there's just a little grin on God's face. These people trying so hard to be wise. So he talks about the princes of Zoan. This is the economic capital of Egypt because of its location. I mean, those in the capital are foolish and give stupid counsel. I won't make any comments, but all you have to do is look at what's going on now, and you're just going, why did they do that? Why are they doing this? Verse 12 speaks to why they're foolish, because they're not listening to what the Lord of Hosts says. Do you see that in verse 12? Where are you wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the Lord of Hosts has purposed against Egypt. Let them tell you. Try to get that out of them. They have no idea. I mean, they've put such power in their own ideas and in their own words, they have no time for God, and so they had no answers. Like duh, of course that's the way it's going to be, right? And so they go to another group, go to Memphis. That's another city. It was the religious capital of Egypt. Even these centers of political and religious leadership aren't able to avert the destruction coming after their nation, why? Because they are incompetent. They are deluded and deceived by all kinds of falsehood, so they can't provide any wise or decisive leadership for the people because they have no answers. So the Egyptians might respond if they're hearing about these leaders, well, let's just change our government and get new leaders. That would be a superficial solution to a deeper problem because the problem isn't the leadership completely's own counsel. The problem is is they don't run to the God who can give them the answers. And so notice verse 14. You see that? The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds. The Lord is mingled, that is, he is mixed. He is concocted, as it were, a drink that messed Israel's mind up, or excuse me, Egypt's mind up. God brings a spirit of confusion, a mental dizziness, an emotional bewilderment, and they're lost. So it looks like, on the surface, like human failure to just think rightly, to have common sense. They don't even have that. And this is God's sovereign action then to impede, to hinder their thinking and making them confused. And notice verse 14, how that confusion shows itself up in their world. It says these leaders will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds. Blunders. falling down on their faces, as it were, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit, so as a nation they will have lost control of their senses. They have no sense of direction. They aren't fully aware of their surroundings. I mean, this is a graphic picture, but Egypt is vomiting all over themselves. They slip on it to their own downfall. It is a state of confusion and chaos, and no one knows what to do. It's God's judgment. That's what it looks like, friends, a nation that God is judging. But then there's this change that takes place between verse 15 and verse 16. It's like if you like music like I do, There's just this powerful storm that's playing like this and all of a sudden it gets quiet. And you hear in the background just one little violin just begins to play. And it settles your heart. And now you would think that if any people on this earth should hear that violin and get the message that you don't mess with Israel's God, it would be the Egyptians, right? I mean the Red Sea episode should have taught them a great deal. but just as Israel had not learned its lesson to depend on God, so Egypt has not learned its lesson either. And God judges Egypt severely, but God also has other plans for his glory. And so this is nothing new that God says here, and we find in verses 16 through 25 that there's this bright future ahead of this foreign nation as we were reading these verses together. Did you pick up on it? I love this, I love this. In Romans 15, Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing your name. Again, it says, oh, rejoice, oh, Gentiles, his people. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Let all the people extol him. All right, here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna see the Gentiles praising God and worshiping God, but God does this. This is what God does under this blessing of God on these people who, guess what, didn't deserve it. People like you and me that don't deserve this kind of love. But notice what is said here. We find this bright future. This is one of the clearest prophecies in the entire Old Testament about God's plan to bring salvation to the Gentile nations, fulfilling his promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, three, that in Abraham's seed, in his offspring, all the nations of the earth would one day be blessed with his salvation. Whoa. This is a game changer because God has always been working toward the day when those from every tribe, every language, every tongue, every people, every nation would be gathered around him and around the throne to worship him and Egypt is one example of how God will bring this to pass. Some Gentile nation to be part of his people and heirs of his promise, Egypt. And so this is the long view. And five times in this section he says, in that day, in that day, in that day, in that day, in that day. In other words, don't be shortsighted. Don't live your life as today is the most important day. No, my friend, in that day, that's the important day. But notice what happens. This is what it looks like for a group of people who've been so changed by God, this is how they live their lives. First of all, in verse 16 and 17, they fear God. Do you see this? This ought to just make your heart jump. In that day, Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand of the Lord of Hosts shakes over them. and the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians, and everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them. They take and stand back and see all that God has planned and all that God is doing for them, and they see God and go, woe is me. I am undone. You see, fear involves a due respect. a humbling, a bending down, as it were, perhaps even prostrate before God. It is an inner acknowledgment that He is the Creator, we're the created. It's living with this constant idea that we left Him but he has pursued us. He is over us, he is big, we are small. His plan rules over our plan every day, all the time. And even when we screw it up, God uses that in a way that will dispense his glory. This is the amazing God. They see it for the first time, scripture says, and they fear. Notice secondly, verse 18, they're loyal to God. Boy, do we need this today. Loyalty is a long lost art. The right fear of God, the correct view of God brings them to a loyal allegiance to him. Look at verse 18. And in that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that will speak the language of Canaan. You know what that means? They're speaking Hebrew. In a Gentile world, the language of Israel, and they'll swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these cities is called the City of Destruction. Now we don't really know what exactly is being said here. Probably the City of Destruction is a place that at one time stood for the judgment of God. That's where you went for the judgment of God. And now that city, Five cities have turned from loving the gods of Egypt to fearing and they're loyal to the Old Testament Yahweh, God himself. My friend, this is a picture of genuine Old Testament Bible true repentance. It's what it looks like when Gentiles and pagans turn from their idols and turn from their sin to the living God. This is what it should look like in your heart when you are so profoundly overwhelmed that God saves a wretch like you and like me. You become loyal to this God. Your allegiance is to Him. They fear God, they're loyal to God, and then they love and worship God in verses 19 through 22. And we would say, of course they do, but look at how this happens. Look how this unravels. In that day, there will be an altar To Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt? What on earth? Not a sphinx? Not a statue of Pharaoh? An altar to sacrifice to the one true God. You see, what a beautiful thing, because that inner fear of God moves to that allegiance to the Lord, but it doesn't stay hidden. And in the backdrop of pure evil and darkness that Egypt always is a picture of, their lives begin to glisten with the character of God. And in the heart of Egypt, there's a place, there is placed a true altar to God and a pillar. a monument, as it were, signifying that the one true God is now the God of Egypt. Monuments like this is what Israel constantly did, like when they crossed the Red Sea, when they were brought out of Egypt, they set up monuments, they set up these stones to remember the things of God, and now the Egyptians are doing this. There's this earnest praying. Notice there's this crying out to God because of the oppressors. And God hears them and does what? He answers their prayers. There's this God and people, God and people relationship. And throughout all of this is going on, look at verse 21. Egypt will know their God. The Lord will strike Egypt and striking and healing they will return to the Lord. He will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. I mean this is amazing. Egypt will know their God. I mean, there's so much imagery and language from Exodus in this passage. The Lord made himself known to Israel's covenant people by saving them. In Exodus 6, he says, you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And now Egyptians are knowing the Lord their God. So the Lord will reveal to the Egyptians the true knowledge of who he is as the God of their salvation. And as in Exodus 7 verse 5, very similar to this, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, verse 22. They will worship God. just like Israel worshiped God. This, my friend, is profound rejoicing and reason to rejoice. And all of this is redemption language, but it's spoken to Egypt. You say, when is this gonna happen? In that day. I mean, what Isaiah's doing is just, he's grabbing the face of these people and going like, look, down the road, don't be shortsighted, and see it. They love and worship God, and then verse 23, they live in peace. This is beautiful. In that day, there it is again. There'll 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. I mean, who does this? These are arch enemies. Assyria's the big bully, the one that's been pushing everybody around for so long. These two nations at war and there was no travel between them at that time because at this time they were two dominant rival nations constantly contending for power and position and wealth, making the entire ancient Near East at that time such a volatile and war-torn region. And so, when these two opposing nations have a highway between them, what is this conveying? As roads connect people to one another, bringing them together to interreact, to be in constant contact, this is how life will be for former enemies. We sing about this all the time. Once your enemy, now seated at the table, and what do we say? Jesus, thank you. It's a picture of heaven. to come to great unity like this. My friend, this world knows nothing about this kind of unity. This world knows nothing about this kind of relationship. This is why, my friend, this kind of loving, caring relationship, if it's gonna be anywhere on earth, it ought to be in the church of God's people. There should be no roads of differences between us. All of that has been taken care of by Jesus, and our love for each other should grow, and there should be this genuine concern for each other that pours itself out to each other. And stop looking at people as your big enemy. as your deep, dark problem. No, they're not problems, they're great opportunities to express the unity in Christ. And so they do express this great unity, and this is the final point here in verse 24 through 25, in that last day. And here we see both Gentiles and Israel united as one people under one Lord, and in that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, not in third place, Okay, that's not what it's saying. But third, along with these other two, the idea is that all will be on level ground. That they're actually not strangers, but all one family. What is interesting is that Paul speaks of the great mystery of the gospel, and he calls us fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the same promise. But what I would tell you is that it's not that Gentiles would be saved, that's not the great mystery. What is the great mystery that's beginning to be revealed is that the change of their status with God and with each other has changed. That is profound mystery. Once we're enemies, and now we're brothers and sisters in Christ. What a fabulous, giant picture of family unity. How's that happen? In Christ. This is what he's setting us up for. And there's great joy. Now look, if you would, to chapter 20. A warning against the folly of trusting anyone but God. Chapters 18 and 19 are messages of the long view. Kept looking, look, look, look. Now in chapter 20, it's almost like he flipped a toggle switch and he goes like, now, let's come to this day, right now. It's a comeback to reality message. God would give Judah a sign that all of that which had just been said will really come to pass on that day. Take heed, don't be short-sighted. Be long sighted. The people of that day though will never see what God does in chapters 18 and 19. They'll never see that. So God designs a sign that they will see. And it will confirm that God's word for that day will also happen. Now let me give you a summary, okay, of this particular chapter. The Assyrians did come. And they mopped up. They raided and conquered this Philistine city called Ashdod. Ashdod is approximately 30 miles from Jerusalem. The city was trusting in Egypt to come to the raid and come to the fight and come to the aid of the Philistines, of Judah, because as a series, getting closer and closer to Jerusalem. But Egypt proved to be a worthless ally. They never showed up. Egypt was a completely ineffective and useless ally. And so to drive this lesson home, that you don't put your trust in something other than God himself. You can't afford to do that. He lets Isaiah become an object lesson. God gives this object lesson, and Isaiah himself is the object and the lesson. There are two lessons to be learned here that I want you to grasp, two powerful lessons that gives warning for them and for us even for days like today. First of all, God is making it very clear that the cost of devotion to God is high yet low. Stay with me, this is verses one through four. The Lord sometimes commands prophets to deliver his message by a visible sign, even a strange action, because the people were so spiritually dull, they needed to be shocked into hearing what their God was saying. This, my friend, is a little shocking. This object lesson demonstrates the power of God's word, both verbally spoken and visually portrayed. We can't miss it. In verse two, Isaiah does what God tells him to do. He simply obeyed promptly and without delay. I mean, this was obviously not an easy assignment because he was walking around naked and barefoot. Now whether he was completely naked in public throughout these three years or so, or only appeared at certain times, some say maybe it was at certain times of the week or certain times of the day, or whether he actually wore a loincloth or a linen garment the whole time, or just the back part of him was exposed, we're not sure. But the point is, Isaiah was willing to be humbled for the sake of obeying the Lord and it brought him low. This would have been very humbling to him but Isaiah was so gripped, go back to chapter 6, he was so gripped by the greatness of his king that he humbles himself and becomes obedient to God's plan. Does that sound faintly familiar? It was a high cost. He put his reputation on the line. Men didn't go around showing their nakedness. That's not how it worked. And you say, why would God do that? Because God is God. I don't know what the culture was like. I don't know what that would mean in that day, in that culture. We don't know that. It was just odd. from a human standpoint. But it wasn't odd to God, why? Because he was giving them an object lesson. This is the only way you can come to God. Completely naked and exposed. And to Egypt this was important. Because they had everything. All power, all glory was theirs. And God goes, nope, none of that is good. None of that is right. And so he humbled himself for them. For three years this went on. To fully and faithfully warn that you come to God with nothing. God is the great initiator for rebellious and godless people who are idolatrous, who are rebellious, and to expose them and humble them. Egypt is exposed, but so is Judah for conforming their own alliance with Egypt. Egypt would go through God's thorough judgment, so why would Judah seek their alliance? If Egypt was going to get the judgment of God, why would you align yourself up with those people who have turned their backs on God? Why would you do that? Why do you do that? Why do you run to the things of this life and this world to bring you comfort when you're down? Some of you go to all kinds of things. Some of you run to alcohol. Some of you will run to music. Some of you will run to study. Some of you run to your job. You do all kinds of things earthly in order to bypass the greatness of God because if you go to God, you've got to admit you're wrong, that you have nothing. No one likes to do that until you understand the gospel and how grace works. Grace is for the bottom feeders. Grace is for the filthy, dirty people who are sinners. Grace is not for the self-righteous. Grace is not for the ones that think they're powerful. And so this is God's plan. It was a high cost, but he came low and humbled himself for them. Egypt would go through that, so Isaiah would be the vision in their minds of being humbled, exposed, without anything wholly dependent upon God. This is a shadow of how Jesus eventually comes to earth. The cost of sin is high, it costs everything. Yet it means that you must humble yourself and be laid low to come to Jesus. And Christ humbled himself and became obedient. And Judah and Egypt needed to learn this powerful needed lesson. United States needs to learn this. Columbus, Ohio needs to learn this. Calvary Bible Church needs to learn this. But notice secondly, and don't miss this. Blessed is the man who trusts in God. Isaiah would not have been able to describe everything to the T, to Egypt, like what was really going to happen. These are big picture things. But Egypt and all the nations around could not save Judah. Only God could. So the very last question, do you see what he says here at the end? And we, how shall we escape? Let me ask you a question. How are you gonna escape your sin? Some of you battled pretty fiercely this week against that gut vomiting of your own sin. How did you fight that battle? In your own strength? That somehow you've got it right? You're pointing to your own self? And what does John say? The man who does the will of God abides forever. My friend, the only way you can do that is if Christ dwells within you and you by faith look away from yourself and trust in Christ alone. This is how we're saved. This is how we're brought into heaven finally. Will you pray with me and rejoice in God's loving kindness? Father, how prone we are to be just like Egypt. How prone we are to be just like Judah. We have God's word, we have God's promises, we have everything that we need, but instead we keep looking to Egypt. We keep looking to this world, we keep looking for satisfaction. If I just fill all my time in with stuff, I don't really have to deal with God. Father, forgive us for our idolatry. Forgive us for our care for our own ways, our own selves. God, thank you for giving us pictures like this today. Thank you that as preachers, we don't have to do what Isaiah did. Because Christ took it all for us. He hung fully exposed on the cross in order that we might be given righteousness. You know our nothingness, dear Father. Great Savior, you understand our weaknesses, that we are really just dust, that's all we are. And yet, you set your love on the likes of us. Oh God, cause there to be in our souls a profound amazement and trust and alliance and a loyalty and a fear of God. And may we live our lives day in and day out, throwing ourselves down at the mercy seat of Jesus and enjoying the great wealth, the bounty of his righteousness given to us. all so that the nations around us will see here's a group of people who love the one true God. Thank you God for being our God. We pray and ask these things in Christ's name, amen.