16 In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. 17 The land of Judah will become a [s]terror to Egypt; everyone [t]to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He is purposing against them.
18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of [u]Destruction.
19 In that day 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. 20 It will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a [v]Champion, and He will deliver them. 21 Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to them and will heal them.
23 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.
24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
God just cannot keep His heart from showing through. Even in the middle of judgment, things that “will become a terror to Egypt”, and “everyone who hears it will be in dread”, God brings hope and compassion. He doesn’t strike Egypt for pure spite, or to blot them out upon the earth. Rather, we see in this passage God’s vision for the future of Egypt, and really for all of us.
In v. 20, “He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them”, which Jesus was and is. In v. 22, “striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord…and He will heal them.” And though we get stuck on Israel being “His people”, God calls Egypt his people, and Assyria the work of His hands. For so they are, and so are we.
That is, we cannot help but be the work of His hands, since he “knit us together in our mother’s womb”. But the choice is ours whether we will be “His people”. He will strike and discipline us when we err and need correction, and it won’t be fun or enjoyable. Yet it is necessary, for us to have any hope of healing and redemption.
Just as God told Israel way back when Solomon first built the temple, “If you turn from your wicked ways, and seek My face… I will hear from heaven and heal your land…” The picture God painted then was: if they had rejected God, and if He had judged them and sent them into captivity. This was now the impending reality in Isaiah’s day, and so it was for Egypt, among (many) others.
God is not content to leave us alone, or even to make us “good enough”. He made us to be His people, and that’s a high calling and a high standard, of which we are not capable of attaining. Not on our own, and so God uses whatever means necessary to purify us, to refine us, and to make us His once more. We may go through the fire, but it is the fire of His compassion that burns away the chaff and the refuse to make us clean before our Father, Creator, and Savior. Keep walking forward, the other side will be all the more beautiful, much like the picture in vv. 23-25.