Isaiah 19:5
5 And the waters [mayim] shall fail [nashath] from
the sea [yam], and the river [nahar] shall be wasted [charab]
and dried up [yabesh]. KJV-Interlinear
5 And the waters from the sea
will dry up, And the river will be parched and dry. NASB
A quick note from
yesterday’s study. The discord and
anarchy being described in these verses has not yet taken place, and still is
not yet in the cross hairs of history. Egypt has had its periods of stability
and instability, but these verses describe a level of chaos that will be
unprecedented in all of Egypt's history.
Reading this verse and
the next five verses, the descriptions of Egypt’s troubles get progressively
worse.
On the one hand, the
troubles of drought and famine can contribute to economic downturns and then to
civil unrest, but so too, civil unrest can contribute to economic
instabilities.
When society is
destabilized either by weather, disaster, or civil disorder, the economy always
suffers. History demonstrates this in
many nations in Africa, where the resources are vast, but civil unrest prevents
agriculture and manufacturing and any sort of normal economic function. So, the people to a great extent, are responsible
many times, for their own troubles. A
nation with civil order, is able to innovate and irrigate and come up with
economic solutions and produce. But not
so with Egypt in those final days of history.
And as we will
eventually study, this situation will not be unique to Egypt only, in those
future days. The entire planet will be
in a world of hurt for many reasons.
Remember from our Revelation study, literally half of the entire worlds
population will die in those first three-and-a-half years of the Tribulation
due to many different problems such as wars, crime, gangs, famine, disease,
starvation, natural disasters and on and on goes the list of problems.
This is just the
description of Egypt’s problems.
The river, or sea, is a
reference to the Nile, long seen as the life blood of the nation. The word for sea, ‘yam,’ refers to a large
river which is often times called a sea.
Back in those days, the Nile was huge.
And at flood stage, was really huge.
The Nile brings both
blessings and curses economically. When
its waters do not flood because of low rainfall from deeper in Africa, then it
does not bring the rejuvenating soils to the agriculture fields. When the rain fall is too much and the flood
waters do not recede in a timely fashion, then planting is delayed and growing
season as well as the harvests are smaller.
But in this verse, and in
the verses coming up, the description is not of too much water, but of far too
little rainfall.
The reference to a sea,
meaning a large body of water, will have so little water, that it will no
longer be a sea.
The reference to the
river, meaning the Nile, will be very low on water for its entire length. Many parts of it will be dried up. Agriculture, fishing, and even transportation
along the river will cease.
Production will drop
off, and unemployment will rise sharply, and the anarchy previously described
will be perpetuated until that strong king, the anti-christ, intervenes and
ceases control over the region.
Remember too, from our
study of the Armageddon campaign, that the anti-christ needs this region
stabilized to some extent, because he is going to unite the forces to the south
in order to have them initiate an invasion from the south, which is a
diversion, followed by the invasion from the north which will sweep through all
of Palestine, double cross the southern forces, annihilating them completely,
and all of this followed by the invasions from forces from the east and the
west, leaving rivers of blood as high as the horses bridle for hundreds of
miles.
And even prior to all
of that, the new temple in Jerusalem will be dedicated at the mid-point of the
Tribulation, meaning that there will be some semblance of peace, even though it
will be a false peace, which means that the region will be brought under
control during the first half of the Tribulation.
But all of that cannot
occur if the Middle East is totally unstable.
And remember too, that the whole Tribulation is all happening in the space
of just seven years, which is a very short time frame given the magnitude of
all that is going to happen worldwide during those seven years.
