Paul the Poke

Isaiah 19:23-25 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 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.”

There will come a time when there will be a public road that connects Africa to the Middle East. The road will go through Israel. There will be a peaceful flow of travel between ancient Assyria to modern day Egypt. Even more amazing, the Egyptians and the Assyrians will worship the God of Israel.

So where is Assyria? Ancient Assyria was at the height of its power during the time of Isaiah. It was the world superpower of the time. The most fertile and densely populated part of Assyria lay east of the central river Tigris which is near modern day Baghdad, Iraq. Most of the population lived in country towns.

Geographical boundaries were as follows. The Assyrian empire stretched from Egypt on the west to Persia (modern day Iran) on the east and from the Persian Gulf on the south to Anatolia (modern day western Turkey) on the north. This is essentially the Middle East as we know it today (May 2019). Information is noted from New Unger’s Bible Dictionary and Logos Bible Atlas.

During the time of Isaiah (approximately 700 years before Christ), these two countries (Egypt and Assyria) had caused nothing but angst for Israel. The countries flank Israel on the east and the west. Israel was stuck in the middle.

Notice what the text says regarding Israel. They are blessing in the middle of the earth or “erets”. The Hebrew word for earth is erets. It could mean the land in this context or the totality of the earth.

This would have been an incredible prophecy to the Jewish people of the day (incredible for today as well in May 2019). From the perspective of Israel, two major ancient enemies are going to get along with them in peace. And they are going to worship the God of Israel with them.

Finally, real peace on earth.

This entry was posted on May 19, 2019 at 7:50 AM and is filed under #PaulthePoke, Egypt/Nile River, Isaiah with tags Assyrian Empire, God, Israel, Middle East, Tigris River. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.