Isaiah 19:3
3 And the spirit [ruwach] of Egypt [Mitsrayim] shall
fail [baqaq] in the midst [qereb] thereof; and I will destroy [bala`] the counsel [`etsah]
thereof: and they shall seek [darash] to the
idols ['eliyl], and to the charmers ['at], and to them that have familiar spirits ['owb], and to the wizards [yidda`oniy]. KJV-Interlinear
3 "Then the spirit of the
Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confound their strategy, So
that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, And to mediums and
spiritists. NASB
The result, of pursuing
a life that excludes a daily study of bible doctrine, and therefore ignoring
that which God mandates of us all, is a demoralized and delusional and empty life. The quintessence of this attitude will manifest
itself in Egypt in those fateful and final days of human history.
No doctrine in the soul
means no truth in the soul. No truth in
the soul means no understanding of life.
And when you really do not understand life, then you get things all
mixed up and totally wrong. That leads
to confusion, frustration and when that is hammered over and over, again and
again with major difficulties in life, then frustrations lead to disheartenment
and discouragement and finally the questioning of ones own beliefs.
But instead of turning
to God and doctrine, what and who will those Egyptians turn to? Even more worthless counsel.
When you disregard
truth for a long time, your soul begins to cover over with scar tissue. When we get to the study of Ephesians, we will
study the soul and its functions in great detail. But for now, the soul needs to breathe in
order to function correctly. Bible
doctrine is the nourishment that maintains a healthy and functioning soul.
But when doctrine is
ignored, then scar tissue develops and continues to develop until the soul is
virtually blacked out. A darkened soul,
cannot see truth if it hits it in the face.
Pharaoh was rigid and
hardened his own heart (soul), by rejecting the demands of Moses and by ignoring
God. And then, on the seventh plague, it
was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart for those final four plagues. Pharaoh should have been dead after those
first six plagues, but God kept him alive in order to teach us all the
principle of hardening of ones heart.
Which simply means that you reject or resist doctrine, which is Gods
word.
And so even since those
days, so many, many centuries ago, every person, every generation, has had the
opportunity to avoid the mistakes that Pharaoh made. But far too many people repeat those same
mistakes, and in the final generation at the end of human history, the entire
world, even Egypt where this example and lesson began long ago, will still not
learn from the past, and will still turn to false and ridiculous counsel. Counsel that has never worked in history and
will never work ever.
That false counsel is
human viewpoint, the views of the world.
Views that are so popular, even today, but are views that lead to
failure in life, and failure in society.
Idols, charmers,
familiar spirits, and wizards, are all terms that refer, not to black magic,
but to false human viewpoint.
Idols, ‘elyil,’ means
something that is good for nothing, vain, empty, no value, and therefore the
counsel that is derived from idols, regardless of what that idol is, is
worthless and of no value. Idols can be
things that when you talk to them, is nothing more than talking to
yourself. Whether made of stone or wood,
whether looked upon like the moon or sun or a star or a bird or animal or fish
or even dead ancestors, or even ones secular views in life for getting ahead,
for hustling, for beating the next guy, or whatever. All of those thing are of this world and of
no value, because they are not wisdom and certainly not permanent.
Charmers, ‘at,’ means
to mutter, to make gentle noise, to chant.
And this is exactly what it is, just muttering.
Familiar spirits, ‘owb,’
means those who speak from the ground. The ground represents the earth, dust,
the dead, or that which has no life, and therefore no wisdom.
Wizards, ‘yiddaoniy,’
means ventriloquist, fake science, bait and switch, fake, not real. And this represents anyone who speaks in
deceit to fool others. Pretended wisdom,
which is not wisdom. Pretended
expertise, which is not expertise. Government and politicians, even professors
and scientists are loaded with this.
But then even common
folks, who repeat ‘Amen! Amen!’ and haven’t even a clue as to what life is all
about, are guilty of being fools.
In this day and age
when doctrine is so easy to obtain, then how can it be that people still do not
learn? How can this error be avoided?
