Let's hear God's word from the book of Isaiah chapter 19, beginning with verse one and reading down through verse 22. The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. I will set Egyptians against Egyptians. Everyone will fight against his brother and everyone against his neighbor. City against city, kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy their council and they will consult the idols and the charmers, the mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and dried up. The rivers will turn foul, the brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up. The reeds and rushes will wither, the papyrus reeds by the river, by the mouth of the river, and everything sown by the river will wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen also will mourn, All those will lament who cast hooks into the river, and they will languish who spread nets on the waters. Moreover, those who work in fine flax and those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed, and its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul. Surely the princes of Zoan are fools. Pharaoh's wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt. The princes of Zohan have become fools. The princes of Naph are deceived. They have also deluded Egypt, those who are the mainstay of its tribes. The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst, and they have caused Egypt to whirr in all her work as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Neither will there be any work for Egypt which the head or tail, palm branch, or bulrush may do. In that day, Egypt will be like women and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts which he waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts which he has determined against it. In that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts. One 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 and a pillar to the Lord at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors and he will send them a savior and a mighty one and he will deliver them. Then the Lord will be known to Egypt And the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and will make sacrifice and offering. Yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. And the Lord will strike Egypt. He will strike and heal it. They will return to the Lord and he will be entreated by them and heal them. Amen. We'll end our reading there in Isaiah 19, 22. Let's once again ask for God's help in prayer. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, We recognize our need of the Spirit's help. Even where our understanding is clear, we still need the illuminating help of the Holy Spirit to bring the truth home to our hearts, that the Word of God will not just be something sounding in the ear, but something embedded into our souls. We need this grace. And so we pray that from your word, we would hear the voice of Christ and we would be strengthened, comforted, encouraged, drawn back, and given greater zeal, greater boldness in our service to the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. If you had to guess, what would you say that this chapter was about? Well, we just read it, so it should be pretty straightforward. And it's right there in the very first line, if the kids want to take a look at that, the burden against Egypt. And Egypt gets referenced so often, not just explicitly by name, although that happens a lot, But then there's also specific mention of things that are unique to Egypt, like Zoan, which you might find on a map under the name of Tannis, or Naf, which you might find on a map under the name of Memphis. And of course, the whole thing about the river and the papyrus, that all screams Egypt to us. It's not a surprise that the Bible has Words to say concerning Egypt because there's probably no other nation with whom the history of Israel was so entangled as with Egypt. Abraham briefly took refuge in Egypt. Jacob and his family took refuge in Egypt and that turned into a longer stay than they had intended. Moses was born in Egypt but delivered the people from Egypt. And you can tell, one of the ways you can tell when Israel was the nation was at the height of their power, Solomon was able to marry a princess from Egypt. Most of the time Israel was not that important, but in their heyday, they were important enough that he could secure an Egyptian princess as his first of far too many wives. So Egypt is a big deal in Scripture, and readers of Scripture inevitably become somewhat familiar with Egypt. And so Chapter 19 and Chapter 20 are interesting for anybody who has paid attention to what the Bible has to say about Egypt. But when you're thinking about Egypt, obviously there's a long story there. Even the Lord Jesus, as a small child, went down to Egypt and was there for a while seeking refuge. There's some good things about Egypt, but the prevailing view of Egypt in the Bible is, well, they were the first oppressors of Israel. In a way, they were enslaved there and they never got over that Egyptian bondage. They never forgot about it. It was an essential part of their identity as a people that the Lord had called them out of Egypt. So from that perspective, when you hear judgment on Egypt, you might think, oh, they're gonna be happy about that. They're going to rejoice over judgment pronounced on Egypt. But remember the times in which Isaiah lives. The real threat to the house of David, to the kingdom of Judah at this time is not Egypt, it's Assyria. And so they keep on being tempted to look to Egypt for help, to consider Egypt a champion against Assyria, somebody who will help them in that ongoing struggle. And throughout these decades, there were frequent conflicts between Egypt and Assyria. Well, here's the Lord's perspective on all of that. He says that he is going to bring judgment on Egypt. He rides on a swift cloud. That's, in the Bible, riding on a cloud often means that the Lord is coming for judgment. Even when the Lord Jesus returns the second time, he'll come in the clouds. That's a biblical clue that when he comes again, he's coming in judgment. So on the clouds, the Lord will come into Egypt to judge it. And what happens? The idols of Egypt totter at his presence, and the heart of Egypt melts in its midst. When God brings judgment on Egypt, he overthrows the idols. Now that had already been true in the exodus, in the plagues, and so forth. But it is going to be true again. And so as we look at Egypt undermined, at Egypt destroyed and debilitated or ruined, and at Egypt demoralized or terrified, it's helpful if you can think about it from the standpoint of The Lord is showing the emptiness of their idolatry. He's bringing judgment on Egypt for idolatry, but part of doing that is exhibiting to them the worthlessness, the weakness, the helplessness of the things in which they trusted. And, of course, that is also how this burden against Egypt becomes very, very relevant to us. Now, Egypt was strong. Historically, Egypt has been strong repeatedly in spite of repeated disasters for a couple of reasons. One reason has been just the population, the unity, the cooperation, the ability to tackle enormous projects and see them through to completion. Well, how are they gonna do with their unity? What's going to happen with that? Well, Egyptians will fight Egyptians, everyone will fight against his brother, everyone against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. They won't be able to take good advice, they'll be looking everywhere, but They won't succeed. Their military might, their spirit of cooperation is ended and a fierce king will rule over them. The strength of the population is nothing when the Lord, as it says a little later on, waves his hand over Egypt. Another reason Egypt has historically been strong has been the Nile. Because the Nile is enormous, because it floods very reliably, there have been occasional failures, but those stand out because the Nile floods very reliably, agriculture has flourished. Without the Nile, Egypt would just be sand. But with the Nile, in the ancient world, they were the top producer of grain. They were very significant producers of flax and cotton. And for at least a long time, they were basically the only producers of papyrus, which is what you use for writing materials. So Egypt was an economic powerhouse. The Roman Empire could exist the way it did because Egypt could grow grain the way it could. What's going to happen with all of that? Well, the waters will fail. The river will be wasted and dried up. And when it says the river, that's the Nile. In this case, the river is not the Euphrates or something like that. It's absolutely the Nile. And of course, being prudent, being diligent, having sense about how to do these things, well, they had made ponds. They had made canals. They had channeled the river here and there. There was a lot of irrigation going on in Egypt. But what's going to happen? Well, the smaller channels will turn foul. The brooks, the canals that they have constructed where there's embankments and all the rest of that will be emptied and dried up. Well, then that's going to destroy the papyrus industry. The reeds and rushes will wither. Or what about this? Obviously, the Nile being an enormous river, they loved to fish. but not anymore. The fishermen also will mourn. Well, what about the crops? Those who work in fine flax will be ashamed. They won't have the material that they need, the flax that they need in order to make the linen fabrics. Egypt is going to be destroyed militarily and economically. Egypt is also going to be destroyed in terms of their morale, The princes of Zohan are fools. Pharaoh's wise counselors give foolish counsel. Those who were its mainstay can no longer provide support. The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst, and so Egypt is demoralized there, scared to death. Just the mention of the land of Judah is enough to make them quake and quail. What has happened with all of this? Well, what has happened is that God has judged their idols. He's judged them for their idolatry. You know, the Nile, the river, was considered to be a god, and Pharaoh was considered to be a god, and one of Pharaoh's main jobs was to make sure that the Nile did what it was supposed to do. That sounds ridiculous to us, doesn't it? If the Nile is a god, why do you have a second god to keep the first god in line? And what exactly does Pharaoh think he's accomplishing? If it doesn't rain in the Ethiopian highlands, is the Nile gonna flood? No, it's not. We're familiar with how that works. We have a similar situation. If you don't have the snow, you don't have the water that you need later on, right? That's how it works around here. They weren't so worried about the snow, but they need the rain further up in the mountains in Ethiopia to then come down, join the channels of the Nile, and for the Nile to flood. And that not only brought moisture, it also fertilized the soil there. So it's very, very important to them. Without the Nile, you can't have Egypt. So it's understandable, in a way, that they elevate that to such a place of importance. But, of course, the whole religious system sounds nuts to us. Well, those idols have been judged. We have seen their hollowness and their emptiness. But what about our idols? You know, we heard last week from Paul that covetousness is idolatry. And so it's clear that in our own time, we need to think of idolatry in spiritual and metaphorical terms. I mean, if any of you are burning incense to idols or bowing down in front of them or something like that, please stop. It's not okay. You've got to cut that out right now. But even if we're not doing that, which I suspect we're not, if we're not doing that, that doesn't mean we're free of idolatry. So what can we learn from the burden against Egypt? Well, where does our society locate its idols? I think to understand this, it's helpful to realize that there's an outside and an inside component to idolatry. There's something outside of you that you elevate, to which you give honor, that you trust in or call upon, invoke in one way or another. But there's something inside of you that's driving that. There's something you want, or there's something that you're afraid of and you want to avoid. There's something you're hoping for. Well, when you put those two things together, you start to get a sort of an organized idolatry. Now, what's on the inside, that inside component, that could be perfectly legitimate things. Like we pray, give us this day our daily bread. There's nothing wrong with looking to God for your daily bread. You should look to God for your daily bread. But that's a little illustration, right? Here's a need. We need to eat. And what do we do about it? Well, first of all, we invoke God. We call upon God. Now, if I have that need for bread and I look somewhere else, I call upon someone different, now that can be idolatry. Not because the desire for bread is bad, well, depending on your diet, right? But not because the desire for food is bad, but because you're aiming that desire in the wrong direction. You're looking to somebody who can't help, who probably doesn't exist, or who is some demonic substitute, right? Now, there's also desires that are inherently idolatrous. It's not that the desire is aimed in the wrong direction, it's that there's something wrong with the heart that wants those things. You know, when you want to be better than other people, when you want to be more important, when you want to be the special one, when you have what the kids these days call main character syndrome, right? Where like the whole world is a movie but you're the star, you're the protagonist. Okay, when you have main character syndrome, that's already idolatrous, even if you talk to God about helping you to live up to your main character potential, because the desire is off. Now, that kind of idolatry where our desires are wicked and we're going to God for them, but we're going to God in the wrong way. We're going to God with things that we should be asking him to mortify, and instead we're asking him to bless and prosper them. That will come up more in Sunday school from the pastoral epistles. That's not really our focus today. We're more interested in what are the things that our culture, that the society around us proposes to us as viable gods, as things we could worship, as where we look for our blessedness. Now in ancient Egypt, if you lived there, they would point you to the Nile, they would point you to the sun, and they would point you to the pharaoh. They'd point you to a million other things as well, but I think it's fair to say that the Nile, the sun, and the pharaoh very prominent, very important main ones. Now I don't think you're going to run into many people today who will tell you to worship a river or the sun or a person. Hopefully not. So where do we look? for our blessedness. What are the idols of our society? Well, you could think about politics. A lot of people expect that salvation and deliverance are going to arise from political accomplishments, whether it's a movement, whether it's a party, it's a position, whatever it may be. Politics is a big idol in American society today. Obviously, in terms of blessedness, you also have people directing you towards entertainment. I mean, it's a little revealing that the name of the show is American Idol, isn't it? Now, I'm not commenting on the individual beliefs or spirituality of anybody who's appeared on that show or watches that show or whatever, but it's just kind of a little hint. How do people think about this? Well, there are entertainers, and they might be in the world of music, they might be in the world of movies or TV shows, they might be in the world of sports, they might be in some other facet of entertainment, maybe a particularly likable Twitch streamer or something along those lines, and they are followed, they are listened to, they are adhered to. You will have podcasters who will come right out and tell you that their little podcast community is a cult of personality. There's idols all around us. Now, I hope you understand I'm not condemning the idea of podcasts as a whole. I'm not arguing. You know, the Nile was a good thing. The sun was a good thing. Pharaoh, well, we might have to and be careful about that one a little bit. But in general, the idea of having somebody in charge is not necessarily bad. Many of the pharaohs were not great. But there's these idols that are proposed to us. Now, you could be a godly person, live in Egypt, give thanks for the sun, give thanks for the Nile, but not give thanks to them, not worship them, not put them in the place of God. Well, does our society, will our society just step back and let God be God for you? Or will they try to deceive you or to bully you into letting one of their idols take over? Now we've mentioned politics, we've mentioned entertainment, those are big ones. And there's a whole worldview that goes along with those. You know, if the purpose of life is to have fun, then it makes sense to make entertainment your god. There are probably others that we could mention. I would love to hear your thoughts on what are the idols that we're actually concretely facing right now. Sometimes it's health. You know, people make an idol out of health and will sacrifice everything in order to maintain their health or extend their longevity. Sometimes it's beauty. People will do anything to look good or I assume they're hoping they'll feel good too, but looks are sometimes the main thing. Sometimes it's family. Now obviously I'm not criticizing the existence of families. We're very much in favor of more families existing and families being bigger. That's wonderful too. We love that. But Is it possible that the devil would use a natural, an appropriate, a proper love of family and try to nudge you into then making that your idol to where other things go out the window, other things that are important, other things that are valuable? Is that something that sometimes happens? I think you know the answer to that. The devil loves to take good things and ruin them by making them bad things, by turning them into idols. So we should learn from the judgment on Egypt to be wary of the idols that we face. I'm not tempted to worship the Nile. I'm not tempted to worship the sun. Sometimes I'm tempted to be a little mad at the sun in Bakersfield, but I'm not tempted to worship. But that doesn't mean I'm not tempted to idolatry. It just means I have to think about where that might be my concern, my problem, my issue. And once we start making a list, you know, it's gonna be individual to each person. So there's really no logical stopping point there. So let me just challenge you. Be very honest, be very direct, be very blunt with yourself. What are the things, probably two, three, or four things, probably not, you know, 49, but just a handful of things. What are the things in your life where it is absolutely realistic that you are being tempted to idolatry or being deceived by idolatry already? Well, think about the judgment that falls on the idols. Think about how their emptiness is exposed. Ask yourself, when you're dying, or in the day of judgment, or when the world has fallen apart. Are those idols gonna be there for you? Are they gonna be able to help you and get you through? If not, then what are you doing? Put them in their place. If you can't put them in their proper place, then knock them down altogether. But do not allow the Lord's reign in your heart to be challenged by empty vanities. But Isaiah goes on, and there are a series of five in-that-day statements beginning with verse 16 and running down through verse 24. We're going to need to come back to these in-that-day statements, but I want to draw your attention to just a couple today because the judgment on Egypt is not the whole story with Egypt. Egypt, the ancient The classic enemy of God's people, Egypt, the worst nation in some ways for idolatry. I mean, their idolatry ran to a level that even other pagan nations found disconcerting and disturbing. Egypt, who had oppressed the people of God, Egypt that becomes a byword for choosing the world over God. What is God's purpose with Egypt? Well, he says that They will start to speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts. In other words, they are going to turn to the Lord. He says that the Lord will be known to Egypt and not just in a way of judgment because it says, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will make sacrifice and offering. They will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. In other words, God judges Egypt. That's the message. That's the burden. But then Isaiah adds also that God judges Egypt with a purpose of grace. And verse 22, it's so striking here. The Lord will strike Egypt. He will strike and heal. You see that? The Lord does both of those things. Now, on the one hand, that ought to encourage us. God's purposes for the nations are purposes of mercy. God intends for the worship that belongs to him to go up from around the world. Now, we're not saying that Isaiah 19 says that specifically, but in choosing Egypt, in choosing one of the worst of the enemies of God's people, it kind of lets you know If it's going to happen to Egypt, well then, we can expect that it will happen other places as well. Because Egypt would be the one you'd think would maybe be excluded from God's purposes of mercy, but they're not. So that's encouraging. There's also the encouraging reality of God's grace. How deep, how great. How unexpected is God's grace that in Egypt, there will be an altar to the Lord and a pillar at its border. So in the heart of Egypt, the worship of God has been established. At its borders, you have this public proclamation, which of course, Egypt is famous for its monuments, right? If you don't know anything else about Egypt, you know that they love to make monuments. Well, at the border when you're entering into Egypt, there's this announcement that they belong to the Lord, that this is the Lord's land. What incredible grace that transforms terrible idolaters, oppressors of God's people into worshipers of the Lord. It shows you something about God, as well as showing you something about God's plan for the future. But it also then shows us something with regard to our own sufferings, with our own problems. When it says, he will strike and heal, the Lord does both. Does God bring hard times upon us? Does he wave his hand and take away our wisdom and our courage and confound our plans and leave us in tight circumstances with tremendous challenges? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Why? In order to heal. You see, what's wrong with us is so deep that sometimes it really does take being pushed to the limit. Sometimes we have to be wounded in order to really be healed afterwards. You can think about it this way. Say that you were wounded by shrapnel, something like that, and then it scabbed over and it's okay and you're doing okay, you're functional, et cetera. Well, in order to get that shrapnel out, the surgeon is gonna have to open you back up. They're gonna have to dig around. They're going to have to wound in order to heal. Well, with our sin, it's so deep, it's so pervasive, it's such a problem. Sometimes rooting that out requires surgical wounds to allow for subsequent healing. Well, the Lord says that's what he'll do to Egypt. Child of God, if the Lord will do that for Egypt, do you think he's not going to do that for you? And so, on the one hand, Expect some suffering. Expect some challenges. Expect to be pushed to the limit. Why? Because that's how sinful we are. We need that. But then on the other side of that, expect there to be healing. Expect there to be grace. Expect there to be mercy. You can expect the mercy. It's still going to be a surprise because it's going to be better than you know to expect. But you don't have to lose heart. You don't have to give up hope. You can continue to call upon the Lord. They will return to the Lord, it says. He will be entreated by them and heal them. As sufferings come, as problems arise, make sure that's your response. You turn to the Lord. and he heals you. He heals you from the thing that you think is the problem, but he heals you from the deeper problem as well. He heals you from the idolatry, the covetousness, the attitudes and outlooks of heart that could not be addressed with gentler measures, but that desperately need to be corrected. Oh, we can give thanks for the wounding grace of God this morning. Because without that, we really do not have hope of making progress in holiness.