Striking and Healing

Once again we are looking at Isaiah’s description of Jesus’ dealings with the nations. This time it’s Egypt. Here, we will see Jesus blessing the Egyptians. But what makes this chapter interesting is the route He takes to that destination. So, in the first half of the chapter we see Jesus taking Egypt apart. We will see what that looks like in several different areas. Then, what follows is Jesus putting Egypt back together. So, our text is about Jesus dismantling a culture and then restoring it to health. Our text is about the redemption of a nation, something that relates to how He redeems individuals also.

Listen as I read Isaiah 19.

Let’s start by taking a look at the big picture of the chapter. As I said, Jesus’ dismantling of Egypt affects several areas of her life. Let me list them for you. There is internal conflict. ‘And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom…’ The Egyptians will be subjected to tyranny. ‘I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the LORD God of hosts.’ Jesus’ actions will affect nature. ‘And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.’ This leads to other problems that the people will need to face. ‘The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.’ Egypt will suffer a lack of wisdom in places of authority. ‘The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.’ And all of this will result in utter hopelessness. ‘And there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.’ It’s as if Isaiah went down a checklist of the different aspects of the life of a culture and pointed out how Jesus will curse each one. Try to imagine what this would feel like. Put yourself in the picture. And then remember that this destruction is Jesus’ work.

Now, if our text ended here it would make sense. It would be just. The Egyptians are like everyone else. We all deserve Jesus to curse us. Bringing such destruction upon people as evil as we are would be good and right. It would be a proper expression of the holy character of God. But the text does not stop here. Something else is going on. This isn’t about punishment. Jesus has taken Egypt apart, but He has done this so that He can put Egypt together. And Isaiah describes that also.

Now we’re into the second half of the chapter and a second list, a list of blessings. The first item on this list is fear. ‘In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them.’ Remember the Proverb: ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.’ If this culture is going to be restored it must come to see Jesus as the Sovereign Lord before whom they are to bow in awe. And they will. Next item: allegiance to Jesus. ‘In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts.’ Seeing Jesus as He really is, the God whom they are to fear, they will pledge to follow Him. Then there’s worship. ‘And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.’ What follows that is unity with others who are also being restored. ‘In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.’ And finally, there’s this. ‘In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”’ This is all about the Egyptians being accepted by Jesus. But please note that they are not included as some second-class citizens. They are called ‘my people’ by Jesus. They are on a par with Israel itself. This acceptance is actually the basis of the rest.

This is a picture of Jesus dismantling a culture and then restoring it to health. It’s a picture of redemption. And note the phrase that we hear repeated in the second part of this chapter: ‘In that day…’ This is a phrase that pops up lots of times, especially in the prophets. Isaiah is pointing forward to the time when the Messiah would come. This renewing of cultures is the work that Jesus began when He was physically here, and it is the work that He is continuing right now by the Spirit. That’s the big picture of the chapter.

Now, there is one thought from this chapter that I would like to focus on. But before we do, let me mention one thing in passing. Let’s apply modern terms to Isaiah’s first list: internal conflict, tyranny, nature being disrupted, foolishness, hopelessness. These problems are sociological, political, environmental, economical and psychological in nature. The cause of these problems, however, is deeper than what any of these disciplines can discover. The cause is Jesus. This doesn’t mean that these disciplines are useless. But it does mean that, as they are now practiced by most, they are woefully incomplete. And that becomes important when we look at our own culture, and hope for and work toward its redemption. These disciplines these days are presenting only part of the truth. And part of the truth presented as the whole truth is a lie.

We’re going to spend the rest of our time on verse 22. ‘And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.’ Here, Isaiah describes how it is that Jesus will take this pagan people and change them into the people of God: ‘striking and healing’. And the way that Isaiah writes this, it’s clear that this is not a one shot deal. This is an ongoing method of bringing redemption to a people. It really is at the heart of the process. So, having looked at the big picture of this chapter, I’m now going to focus on this one part. And instead of looking at this in terms of the redemption of some nation as a group, let’s look at it in terms of the redemption of individuals who make up nations. I think that this will be more helpful for you.

Let’s start with this question. What does ‘striking’ look like when applied to an individual? Jesus has struck individual people. What did He do to them? First, an Old Testament example. Let’s talk about Joseph. Imagine a young man, betrayed by his brothers, ripped from his father’s love and threatened with death. He was spared that death but only because he was sold into slavery and taken to a distant land. There, life didn’t get any better. In fact, it was filled with things that should crush hope. And that went on year after year after year. Thirteen years of sorrow and injustice and the struggle to hold on to hope. Jesus’ was striking Joseph. Let’s consider Paul. I won’t go through the litany of things that happened to Paul during his travels. What I do want to focus on is that thorn in the flesh. It was torment that came from Satan himself. Paul prayed and prayed and prayed about this. ‘Lord Jesus, take it away.’ To which Jesus said, ‘No. It will be good for you to endure that torment. It will be good for you to experience that weakness. I’m not going to take it away.’ Jesus’ was striking Paul. And then, there’s Peter. After his denial of Jesus, Peter ‘wept bitterly’. That last word is so full of emotion and almost despair. Peter saw himself in a way that he never had before. He saw the dark evil of his own heart. And he just fell apart. Jesus was striking Peter.

Jesus’ striking might be something emotionally taxing. It might be physical pain. It might be the shock of seeing the evil within more vividly than ever. It could be anything. But whatever it is, it hurts. It hurt the Egyptians. It hurt these saints I’ve mentioned. It has hurt many. Jesus’ striking hurts. Jesus is not always gentle and comforting. He also does things that hurt.

But Jesus’ striking is not the end of the story – at least not for His saints. His striking leads to His healing. So, for Joseph, those years of striking were also years of change. They molded him so that he could serve Jesus in a way that he wouldn’t have guessed in a million years. Striking brought healing so that he could be the means of Israel’s salvation from the famine. Paul’s torment brought him to the point where he was able to say, with all honesty, ‘For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ Striking brought healing, and the Gospel spread throughout the empire through him. And Peter was also healed so that he could go on to lead the Church, preaching boldly to all that Jesus is the Christ who has come to save wicked sinners – something that he knew from his own experience. Striking brought healing.

It’s important that you see that Jesus is not calling us to something that He has not dealt with Himself. He knows about striking and healing. From Hebrews. ‘Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.’ Jesus was also struck. And this is a reminder to us that this striking is not about punishment. He was struck because that is the way that He – and we – learn.

And that leads to this. We have been taught that if we want to learn something, we need to read a book or listen to a lecture. But that kind of learning is so limited. Deep learning, the learning that changes a person’s life, is learning that goes beyond the mind and deals with the soul. Our souls have been twisted by sin and filled with perversions of the truth. They need to be taken apart and then put back together the right way. They need to be struck and then healed. They need to be redeemed. What Isaiah describes in our chapter, the striking and healing of Egypt, needs to happen to us. And it does. Listen to this from Hebrews. ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.’ Then a few verses later the author writes this. ‘For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’ This is just a New Testament writer saying the same thing that Isaiah wrote about: striking and healing, being scourged and bearing the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Being struck by Jesus is painful and not pleasant. And yet, when He heals you, your redemption takes another step forward.

One last thought. Jesus’ dealings with Egypt help us to see what He intends for us. When Jesus finally puts Egypt together there will be four qualities built into her life: fear, allegiance, worship and unity. And that’s what Jesus is restoring to your life. Fear is all about the fear of the Lord. You might want to go back and review the sermon I preached on that topic last year. But you’ll remember that I told you that ‘fear’ means fear. Allegiance is about following Jesus, and following Him wherever He leads. That might feel a little scary because you never know where He will lead next. But He is Lord, and you aren’t. Worship means giving yourself to Jesus wholeheartedly. It means making Jesus look good in every aspect of your existence. And that means getting rid of idols, which is hard and painful work. Unity is being bonded to people who, otherwise, you wouldn’t get along with. Remember that the promised unity was between Egypt, Assyria and Israel – nations that were enemies. These are at least some of the qualities that Jesus will build into your life – by striking and healing.

All of this means that the goal of your life is not for you to enjoy yourself while you do some good along the way. That really is a rather popular expectation of many. It’s not being totally self-absorbed, just mostly. But it misses the mark. So, watch out for it. The goal of your life is a redemption that reveals Jesus. And that means you being changed, by striking and healing, so that, Jesus can use you to change the rest of the world. This is your purpose. This is the route to real joy as well as happiness. Now, if you flip that around and see it from the other end, it is actually very encouraging. Jesus is at work redeeming you. He is at work putting your soul together in such a way that it will work the way that it was originally intended to work. And that means that one day you will see those four qualities in your life, functioning perfectly: fear, allegiance, worship, unity. And each day is another step toward that goal. Some days there is more striking and other days more healing. But together they are moving you to a goal that you will certainly reach.