Posted on 11/23/2013 4:33:00 AM PST by GiovannaNicoletta
In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance" (Isa 19:24-25).
The Setting
Important truths concerning the kingdom and the people of God are found in Isa 19:24-25. This passage reveals that in a coming day believing Gentile nations will be included in the people of God alongside the nation Israel who is also the people of God. [1] Believing Gentiles are not morphed into a redefined Israel but exist as God's people alongside believing Israel. While there is a partial fulfillment of this truth today as the gospel message goes to all nations, the complete fulfillment of this passage awaits the coming kingdom of Jesus the Messiah.
These verses (24-25) are within the section of Isa 19:1-20:6 which gives predictions concerning Egypt. The immediate historical situation is the soon-coming Assyrian march through the region.
Isaiah 19:1-15 reveals that some wanted to reach out to Egypt for help against the Assyrian threat. But Isaiah says this hope is futile since Egypt will be consumed by God's judgment. Then there is an important transition starting in verse 16. On five occasions Isaiah refers to a period called "in that day" (vv. 16, 18, 19, 21, 23). This describes a coming time when Judah is the power in the region and Egypt acknowledges and benefits from these conditions (16-17). This will occur in the kingdom.
What is striking is that the nation Egypt will worship the God of Israel (19-20). Verse 21 declares, "Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day." Egypt "will return to the LORD," and God "will respond to them and heal them" (22). Then Egypt and its enemy Assyria will worship God together (23). This has not occurred yet but it will.
People of God to Include Gentile Nations
This context sets the scene for the amazing declaration concerning Egypt, Assyria, and Israel in 19:24-25:
In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."
Alexander rightly notes that with this "we have one of the clearest and most striking predictions of the calling of the Gentiles that the word of God contains." [2] Observe the following from this section:
Theological Implications for the People of God
Next, there are two theological implications that we can draw from Isaiah 19. First, nations as national entities will be part of the kingdom of God. What is described is more than the Gospel message spreading to various nations in this present age. This tells of a time when nations as national entities are serving the Lord. Isaiah states that "there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border" (19:19). This is a national recognition of God.
Second, the people of God concept expands to include Gentiles alongside Israel who still exists as the people of God. This point must not be missed. Many think that passages which speak of Gentiles being blessed alongside Israel means that believing Gentiles are incorporated into Israel. But this is not the case. The text does not say that Egypt and Assyria become "Israel." It says these nations are the people of God alongside Israel. It is not true that "Israel" expands to include Gentiles; instead, the people of God expands to include Gentiles alongside Israel. Or put another way:
It is not:
Instead, it is:
Becoming the people of God does not mean loss of ethnicity or national affiliation. Nor does it mean that everyone becomes Israel. Jews and Gentiles participate together in the people of God but they don't morph into each other. Contrary to much popular thinking, the concept of "Israel" does not expand but the concept of the people of God does.
Isaiah 19—Today and the Future
Isaiah 19 relates both to our present age and the age to come. We live in an era where Israel's Messiah is now bringing blessings to people of all nations. This is taking place through Great Commission as the Gospel is offered to all people groups. We also live in a time where all peoples of all nationalities become the people of God if they have believed in Jesus the Messiah.
Yet there are no national entities that worship the Lord yet, not even Israel. According to Rom 11:11-12, Israel's present transgression has brought "salvation to the Gentiles," but Israel's "fulfillment" will bring even greater blessings to the world. A day is coming when "all Israel will be saved" (Rom 11:26) and full blessings to the world will occur. Jesus is coming again to rule literal nations (see Psalm 2; Rev 2:26-27) and when He does, exponential blessings to the world will take place. At that time the nations of the world will serve God along with saved Israel (see Amos 9:11-15).
Endnotes
[1] I affirm that one must believe in Jesus in order to be part of the people of God. Only believing Jews and Gentiles are rightly the people of God.
[2] Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on Isaiah (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1992), 364.
Ping!
The Judgment of the Nations takes place just after Christ returns from Heaven with His Saints to reinstitute the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth for 1,000 years. This Judgment is described in Matthew 25:31-46, and the results depend on how each national entity has treated His brethren, the Jews of Israel. The judging is not of individuals, it is of the nations then present.
One of Dispensationalism's strongest points is the doxological purpose of history in God's plan for all these entities.
Maranatha, Lord Jesus.
S’il vous plait, tell us the story of these images?
Very important points. Brings to mind a sermon Spurgeon gave on "The Glory of God." Bottom line it was a sermon to remind us that we are so focused on ourselves and our deliverance, we forget all Creation is for God's Glory. We were made to glorify Him.
In the end though, Heaven and Earth passes away and a new Heaven and Earth are formed....but the Word of God shall never pass away. The plans for Israel ultimately end in the blessings of all men through that nation.
All men however are all judged by God individually(Christians from before the Trib are said to have already gone thru the Judgment seat of Christ) and are saved or condemned individually at the great White throne. What ever God’s ultimate plans are and will be, each individual saved by Grace will have an individual stake in those plans. Remember in the OT prophecy where each person is given “a white stone with a name written on it, known only to God and that person”. God has promised that each of our own individual personalities, each one of us,our own separate “self that is self” as it were, will be preserved by him intact, and will be loved by God forever!
To the very blazes with MOKSHA, the Hindu and Buddhist dogmas of “Self”’s final “extinction”. Give me a Christ suffused self and give me life or give me nothing! :”And surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for-ever!” Psalm 23.
CS Lewis said in one of his books proposed that when God, being a master of time, past present and future, set his plan of salvation in motion first through Abraham, then thru a nation and lineage, that there were ripple effects in the work of the Spirit that could be detected in the myths and legends of other religions. Paul spoke of this when he spoke of men, before the coming of Christ, groping in the darkness in earnest for the truth and that
God “winked” at them, showing them love and patience. These pictures represent Christ like Gods(Egyptian and Hindu) battling and destroying Satanic “serpents and dragons”,the stories of which were the result of the back and forth “ripple effects” of the movement of the Spirit across time and dimension. Men of old had caught a distant vision of God’s plan but the visions were imperfect and distorted at times. The vision of course was that of God’s judgment upon the serpent in which the seed of a woman( Jesus born of a virgin) would crush its head with his heel though the serpent would bite the heel.
There were stories of “corn kings” who died for the sake of men but were resurrected as depicted by the planting of the dead seed and the joyful springing up of the grains in the spring time.
The various legends and myths of the Sumerians that seem to be early for- runners of the early stories of the Bible were actually stylized versions and distortions of the actual events kept alive by the Hebrew tribes and verified by Moses’ visit with God on Sinai.
I think the one on the horse was not Krishna but St George battling the dragon. Krishna was said to have had his own battles with a giant 100 headed snake!
You mean, like, the Epic of Gilgamesh? Or like the Egyptian image where it looks like maybe Seth battling a serpent, with Ra looking on? Hmmm . . .
Everyone assumes that the Epic of Gilgamesh was the source story for Noah because it was written down first..but the whole legend is blown up and stylized. The relative simplicity of the Genesis account argues more for it being the original story and the story was preserved by tribes and family traditions that don’t appear to be major Sumerian players. When Abraham’s Father moved from UR to Haran and then Abraham, called by God directly , moved from Haran to Canaan and the environs of present day Israel his tribe/family would have taken those early stories with them including the early genealogies!
Certainly details have been lost but Genesis does depict angelic beings coming down to a race already fallen form God’s grace and interfering with what the Spirit of God was doing with man. ( to coax our race back towards righteousness).(”My Spirit will not always strive with man”) Horrible offspring,lawlessness, violence, and every wicked imagining filling the earth were the results.
Well in the case of “proto Christ arch types”, the Egyptian one is a good example. The myths are much the same... a beloved one of the God’s comes down to help men out, but because of the blindness of men and by evil machinations of demons, the sent one is killed but is resurrected again and evil is vanquished.
The Norse myth of Baldur is a Christ arch type (who is beloved by all the Gods and by men as well) who is killed by Loki’s trickery but is slated to be resurrected again after the battle of the Gods. Upon this resurrection, he will arise to be the new head God and to rule a new race of men. Again, the Christian message is distorted, like looking at the world thru twisted glass but the message is there nevertheless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.