Isaiah 19:20
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, He will send them a savior and defender to rescue them.
Sermons
A Great Saviour ProvidedJ. N. Norton.Isaiah 19:20
A Saviour and a Great OneSir E. Strachey, Bart.Isaiah 19:20
Alexander the GreatSir E. Strachey, Bart.Isaiah 19:20
The Messiah a Great SaviourR. Macculloch.Isaiah 19:20
Who was the Great Saviour Promised to EgyptJ. A. Alexander.Isaiah 19:20
Mingled Judgment and MercyE. Johnson Isaiah 19:16-25
Smiting and HealingW. Clarkson Isaiah 19:18-22














The erection of the altar and the pillar would be a sign of desire after God. "In Isaiah's time it must have seemed incredible that the firmly organized idolatrous system of Egypt should ever be broken up. Yet such a result was brought about by a series of movements - Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Greek - which commenced almost immediately after the date of the above prediction. In the district of Heliopolis, on the site of a ruined temple at Leontopolis (twenty miles north-east of Memphis), the high priest Onias IV. built his temple, under a special license from Ptolemy Philometor (about B.C. 150)." The chapter deals with the corrective judgments which were to come upon Egypt, and gives this prophecy as the assurance that they will in measure prove efficient; and Egypt in her distress will cry after the true God; and the presence of Jews in her midst would give direction to her cry. We only suggest the following topics for illustration: -

I. THE MISSION OF ALL NATIONAL DISTRESS IS CONVINCEMENT OF THE CLAIMS OF GOD.

II. THE PRESSURE OF NATIONAL DISTRESS IS A PERSUASION TO CALL UPON GOD. III. THE ARRANGEMENTS OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE ALWAYS HELP MEN'S DESIRE TO SEEK GOD. Illustrated in the fact that Jews were settled in Egypt, and witnessing for Jehovah, when the people's hearts were turning towards him. From this we may proceed to show how our establishing missions in various parts of heathendom proves to be providential help afforded to peoples who have begun to cry after God. Our "altar" and our "pillar" are thus for "a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts." - R.T.

He shall send them a Saviour and a great one.
The literal coincidences between the promise of a "saviour" and a "great one," and the titles of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy the Saviour are noticeable and interesting.

(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

delivered them from the grievous Persian yoke, and he and his successors greatly favoured the people and improved the country. He settled a great many Jews in Alexandria, giving them equal privileges with the Macedonians; and this Hebrew immigration was still further promoted by Ptolemy Soter, so that Philo reckoned that in his time there were a million Jews in the country. The temple of Onias, the LXX version of the Bible, the books of the Apocrypha, the philosophy and theology of Philo, indicate not only what these Jews were in themselves, but enable us to infer with certainty how great must have been their example and influence in humanising the Egyptians, and bringing them to the knowledge and worship of the true God. And still more were these results apparent, still more amply was this prophecy fulfilled, when Alexandria became one of the great centres of the Christian Church.

(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

? — Even if the language of this verse by itself might seem to point to a particular deliverer, the comprehensive language of the context would forbid its reference to any such exclusively. If the chapter is a prophecy not of a single went but of a great progressive change to be wrought in the condition of Egypt by the introduction of the true religion, the promise of the verse before us must be, that when they cried God would send them a deliverer, a promise verified not once but often, not by Ptolemy or Alexander only, but by others, and in the highest sense by Christ Himself.

(J. A. Alexander.)

I. GREAT IN HIS PERSON. "God over all, blessed forever: —

II. GREAT IN THE CHARACTER HE SUSTAINS.

III. GREAT IN THIS WORKS HE PERFORMS.

IV. GREAT IN THE SALVATION HE BESTOWS.

V. GREAT IN THE GLORY TO WHICH HE IS NOW EXALTED.

(R. Macculloch.)

An old Mexican monk, in his dingy cell, once painted an allegorical picture, representing a beautiful maiden standing on an island, with only room for her feet to rest upon, while all around dashed and surged a lake of fire. The angry flames almost touched her, and yet she smiled, all unconscious of danger. More dreadful still, on each billow's crest rides a malignant fiend, and they are closing around the seemingly defenceless girl, seeking to fasten chains about her limbs, that they may drag her into the burning lake. The maiden still smiles serenely, for she sees them not. A golden cord of grace, descending from above, is twined amidst her sunny hair, but death appears ready to cut the slender thread. A hand of help is reaching down to her, which she must take, or be lost in the fiery abyss. A company of attending angels anxiously await her decision, and this group completes the picture. This is no fancy sketch of the old painter's brain, but it is your condition unless you have laid hold on Christ Jesus to deliver you.

(J. N. Norton.)

People
Assyrians, Egyptians, Isaiah, Pharaoh
Places
Assyria, Canaan, City of Destruction, Egypt, Memphis, Nile River, Zoan
Topics
Almighty, Armies, Champion, Cruel, Cry, Crying, Defend, Defender, Deliver, Delivered, Egypt, Face, Free, Hosts, Masters, Oppressors, Rescue, Savior, Saviour, Sign, Strong, Testimony, Witness
Outline
1. The confusion of Egypt
11. The foolishness of their princes
18. The calling of Egypt into the church
23. The covenant of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 19:20

     5196   voice
     5292   defence, divine

Isaiah 19:19-20

     1450   signs, kinds of

Isaiah 19:19-24

     9155   millennium

Library
The Fruits of Grace
"In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it all be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour, and a great one, and he shall
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

'He Uttered his Voice, the Earth Melted'
'Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Exposition of the Moral Law.
1. The Law was committed to writing, in order that it might teach more fully and perfectly that knowledge, both of God and of ourselves, which the law of nature teaches meagrely and obscurely. Proof of this, from an enumeration of the principal parts of the Moral Law; and also from the dictate of natural law, written on the hearts of all, and, in a manner, effaced by sin. 2. Certain general maxims. 1. From the knowledge of God, furnished by the Law, we learn that God is our Father and Ruler. Righteousness
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet
We shall now, in conclusion, give a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet. After an introduction in vi. 1, 2, where the mountains serve only to give greater solemnity to the scene (in the fundamental passages Deut. xxxii. 1, and in Is. 1, 2, "heaven and earth" are mentioned for the same purposes, inasmuch as they are the most venerable parts of creation; "contend with the mountains" by taking them in and applying to [Pg 522] them as hearers), the prophet reminds the people of
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy.
The fact of Covenanting, under the Old Testament dispensations, being approved of God, gives a proof that it was proper then, which is accompanied by the voice of prophecy, affording evidence that even in periods then future it should no less be proper. The argument for the service that is afforded by prophecy is peculiar, and, though corresponding with evidence from other sources, is independent. Because that God willed to make known truth through his servants the prophets, we should receive it
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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