Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Egypt, Isaiah 19....and the Antichrist.

Before you read my post here, I suggest you go over to my friend Wickus's blog and read "JustASheep's" post about Egypt and Isaiah 19. I did not know about the Isaiah 19 connection until they wisely pointed it out. Some really good insights over there. Here is the link.

Continued Unrest in Egypt, Just As God Told Us Through the Prophet Isaiah

This post I am making here is not at all meant to take away from theirs, but simply to add some of my own thoughts.



Egypt: An End Time Prophecy in Isaiah 19

Here is the passage Isaiah 19:1-4:

A prophecy against Egypt:
See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud
    and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
    and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
“I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—
    brother will fight against brother,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city,
    kingdom against kingdom.
The Egyptians will lose heart,
    and I will bring their plans to nothing;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
    the mediums and the spiritists.
I will hand the Egyptians over
    to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,”
    declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

As you can see, the passage opens up with an end times scenario (God riding on a cloud coming to Egypt). If you read the rest of the whole chapter, it becomes undoubtedly a prophecy about Egypt in the end times. The prophecy starts off with a bad situation and gets progressively worse for Egypt until God rescues them. It is very hard to imagine any time in the past that would fulfill the conditions of this prophecy.



Egypt and the Antichrist
Nevertheless, I want to focus on the first four verses here. As I wrote about in a previous post, in my interpretation, Egypt and Syria both attack the Antichrist in the end times (who is based in the end times Roman empire in Europe). It appears the Antichrist is opportunistic and uses this invasion as a pretext to invade everyone else and conquer many nations of the world (see Daniel 11:40-41). He eventually subjugates Egypt and other north African nations as well.

Daniel also tells us that this time is a time of "great distress" (great tribulation). (Daniel 12:1) Furthermore, during this time the "abomination that causes desolation" is set up. (Daniel 12:11)

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Jesus and the Book of Daniel

When Jesus gives his primary discourse about the end times in Matthew 24, it seems He heavily references the book of Daniel, especially the part I just described. In Matthew 24, Jesus refers to the "great distress," the "abomination that causes desolation." He also cites widespread war, which could be an allusion to Daniel 11:40-45. Finally, he makes an allusion to Daniel 7 (a chapter that also talks about the Antichrist), where He describes himself as a "son of man coming" on "the clouds of heaven." Furthermore, Jesus specifically mentions Daniel in Matthew 24.



Does Jesus Quote Isaiah 19 in His End Time Discourse?

Clearly, Jesus knows the book of Daniel well! At the beginning of Matthew 24, Jesus says that "nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom." Like I noted above, considering the numerous Daniel allusions in Matthew 24, Jesus could have easily been thinking of Daniel 11:40-41 here. Furthermore, he says that the world war is the beginning of the "birth pains." This language also alludes back to the Old Testament references to the end times.

 Here's where it gets interesting though, and relates to Egypt: As we can see, Jesus is quite fond of referencing the Old Testament, especially in His end times speech in Matthew 24.

Interestingly enough, there is seems to be only one time in the whole Old Testament that sounds like "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom" in Matthew 24.

Can you guess where???

You guessed it! Isaiah 19:1-4!



Egypt and the End Times "Birth Pains"

Return to the Isaiah passages with me for a moment. Here is verse 2. 
“I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—
    brother will fight against brother,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city,
    kingdom against kingdom. 
 This whole passage basically says that the Egyptians will fight against each other, and the situation will sort of worsen into fighting "kingdom against kingdom." However, it goes on to say in verse 4 that:
I will hand the Egyptians over
    to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,”
    declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

A "Cruel Master"... The Antichrist?

This is perfectly consistent with what Jesus says and what Daniel says. We know that the Antichrist will subjugate Egypt in the end times after a period of war. (Daniel 11:40-45) Hence, we have a "cruel master" and "fierce king" who rules over them.

In my opinion, this makes more sense to me than the idea that the fierce king is the Egyptian military, or Mohammed Morsi, or anyone else. Isaiah 19 opens with an end times scenario where kingdom fights against kingdom, just like Jesus talks about. This is also consistent with Egypt's involvement in end time battles with the Antichrist. It only makes sense that they lose this war (as Daniel says) and are subjugated by a ruthless Antichrist.

Egypt and Syria

Egypt and Syria are both in end time prophecy. Isaiah 17 predicts the destruction of Damascus, while Isaiah 19 predicts a deteriorating end times situation in Egypt. Furthermore, it seems Egypt and Syria are the combatants in Daniel 11:40. It seems both these places have a role to play in the end times, especially as it relates to end time war. 



What Of Today?

Given all this information, what shall we make of today's world? Egypt and Syria are currently stressing out the EU and the US because of their conflict. Furthermore, due to Egypt's recent coup, many commentators fear that Egypt will descend into civil war. This is perfectly in line with Isaiah 19 which talks about "Egyptian against Egyptian, brother against brother." If this is in line with prophecy and my interpretation is correct, this civil strife in Egypt will spiral out of control into the rest of the world where "kingdom" fights against "kingdom" just like what Jesus said.

Furthermore, to provide background context, we have a revived Roman Empire present, the European Union, who is currently about to start another 7-year treaty with Israel (see Daniel 9:27). Furthermore, this present European Union follows the dissolution of a 10 nation military alliance in Europe (see Daniel 7:24).

What could possibly go wrong?

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Like I said at the beginning of this post, I suggest you go over to my friend Wickus's blog and read "JustASheep's" post about Egypt and Isaiah 19. I did not know about the Isaiah 19 connection until they wisely pointed it out. Really good insight over there. Here's the link:

Continued Unrest in Egypt, Just As God Told Us Through the Prophet Isaiah











7 comments:

  1. Awesome.... I read isaiah 19 googled it and feel you are right on the money.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the kind words. I hope you are right. Thanks for the encouragement. May the Lord Jesus come soon!

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    2. I was doing some research on Egypt and the antichrist due to a dream that I had about a month ago. I came upon your site while doing this research and thought you may want to hear the dream. Here it is- In the dream, I was in a mountainous area, there were 2 main mountains (with green trees everywhere) behind a statue. The statue was like an egyption statue, but it was large, like a building. I only saw the bottom part the the statue, the feet up to the knees. There were people around the statue, standing as though they were guards, and they were dressed in ancient egyption attire, wearing the egyption headdress, and also wearing white skirt type things. You couldn't see their faces due to the headdress they wore.

      There was a drawer type thing on the side of this statue building (I don't know what to call it due to I have never seen anything like it) and the 'guards' who were dressed like ancient egyptians took ropes that were attached to the drawer thing and they pulled it out of the side of the statue building. When they pulled this thing out, there were people standing in this drawer thing. The people were all dressed in white gowns and they were brought out and lined up. I thought they were a sacrifice.

      I was given the knowledge that part of the earth's population had been killed or had died, and part had been taken by GOD, so there wasn't a large population left on earth, and for this reason, the beast (anti-christ) was going to force those who were left, to worship him.

      The next thing that happened was, I heard the sound of a horn blow. The horn was like nothing I have heard before, it was not of this world, it was ancient. When the horn blew, a door opened in the front of the statue building, and the man, who is the beast, walked out of the door.

      That's all I remember from the dream.

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    3. Christa,

      Great to hear from you! I read your comment around the time you first posted it, but I didn't forget. Very intriguing dream! Reminiscent of Revelation 6, with the souls under the altar, and Revelation 7, where (raptured?) Christians stand before the throne.

      I think you are absolutely right. The Antichrist will seem like a big success while he is doing his thing. But after Christians have left and some martyred, he would have those survivors left to force to worship him. Furthermore, I heard once that the Antichrist will fail in his attempt to mark the whole world.

      Great to hear from you. Sorry for my belated reply!

      Praise be to the Lord Jesus. He always has victory in the end.




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  2. Amazing i hope gods coming back soon
    One question well the war be in australia to. How does australia fit into the end time i would love to know.

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    1. Good question. It his hard to say how much involvement Australia will have in the end times. The Bible does say all nations will gather against Jerusalem,(Zechariah 12) so this would include Australia at some point. Fortunately, Australia is not near the majority of the military activities prophesied in the end times, which is Mideast, Europe, and North Africa. One could speculate that it is safer there because of that? But this is speculation on my part.

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  3. In the Bible Egypt represents the world which is the case in Isaiah 19 the same way Passover represented the blood of Christ and redemption. God brought the Jews out of their bondage in Egypt which is the flesh. God brings us out of the bondage of sin in the Spirit. Verses Pharaoh represents Satan whom God destroyed as He will Satan in the judgment. I'm in total agreement that verse 4 is talking about the anti-christ. The different cities mentioned in verse 13 is talking about different nations. Isaiah 19 has fascinated me for the past 6 years and I prayed for wisdom almost on a daily bases and God has supplied. I never could understand the prophets but God opened my eyes and it blew me away because I hadn't heard 95% of what God revealed but always go online and get confirmation. The reason I never heard of most of it is because God had concealed and sealed these things since God told Danial to go his way until the last days.

    Bob G.

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