Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 17-21.

Part of me would like to spend some time writing about Isaiah’s prophecy of doom on Egypt and Cush (more or less modern day Ethiopia), but I cannot quite get my head around what to write.  So, instead I want to look at what Isaiah says at the end of his prophecies against both countries.  He tells us that, after a devastating defeat, the remaining people in both lands will come to worship the Lord.  In fact, the Egyptians will partner with Assyria and Israel in an alliance which worships the Lord.  In addition to these prophecies against Egypt and Cush, there is a prophecy against Israel.  That prophecy also ends with God’s promise that the people will finally abandon their idols and turn to God.

I want to put some special attention to verse 14 in chapter 17:

In the evening, sudden terror!
    Before the morning, they are gone!

I think the New Catholic Bible translation makes this clearer:

In the evening terror has spread,
    but by the morning it has disappeared.

We should learn from this not to give in to terror.  God is in control.  No matter how bad things may seem, God will make things better for those who put their trust in Him.  I still remember a time a few years ago when I came across this passage just as my wife and I were facing a terrible financial crisis.  We had debts and bills that there seemed no way we would be able to meet.  The day I had published my blog on this passage, it all came together to seem like we would be out on the streets in a matter of weeks.  There was no conceivable way that we could find a way out.  Yet, God had provided me this message of hope.  My wife was initially skeptical that even God could solve our problems, but before we went to bed she had peace that God would rescue us.  I do not remember how that incident was resolved, except that the next day we were no longer in danger of being homeless.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.