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06 the Forerunner Message in Isaiah 18-19
Mike Bickle

Mike Bickle (1955 - ). American evangelical pastor, author, and founder of the International House of Prayer (IHOPKC), born in Kansas City, Missouri. Converted at 15 after hearing Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach at a 1970 Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference, he pastored several St. Louis churches before founding Kansas City Fellowship in 1982, later Metro Christian Fellowship. In 1999, he launched IHOPKC, pioneering 24/7 prayer and worship, growing to 2,500 staff and including a Bible college until its closure in 2024. Bickle authored books like Passion for Jesus (1994), emphasizing intimacy with God, eschatology, and Israel’s spiritual role. Associated with the Kansas City Prophets in the 1980s, he briefly aligned with John Wimber’s Vineyard movement until 1996. Married to Diane since 1973, they have two sons. His teachings, broadcast globally, focused on prayer and prophecy but faced criticism for controversial prophetic claims. In 2023, Bickle was dismissed from IHOPKC following allegations of misconduct, leading to his withdrawal from public ministry. His influence persists through archived sermons despite ongoing debates about his legacy
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Sermon Summary
Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of Isaiah chapters 18 and 19 as pivotal revelations about God's end-time plans, particularly focusing on the transformation of Egypt and Ethiopia. He explains that despite the Antichrist's oppression, God will use this turmoil to awaken these nations, leading to their eventual redemption and worship of Jesus. Bickle highlights the prophetic nature of these chapters, illustrating how God will strike and then heal Egypt, ultimately establishing a highway of peace between Egypt, Assyria, and Israel. The sermon serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty and redemptive power, encouraging believers to trust in His plans for nations and individuals alike.
Sermon Transcription
Tip off, Isaiah chapter 19, which we'll get to in just a moment, is one of the most dramatic and important chapters on the end times in the whole Bible. That's just a little FYI. Out of the 150 chapters, this is clearly in the top 10. And that might be new information to some of you, so just note to self, oh, okay, Isaiah 19, this is must know, Isaiah 19. Now, we're not gonna cover it very deep tonight, but I want you tipped off. This isn't one of just the 150. This is one of the primary, most dramatic revelations of what God's gonna do in miracle power in the generation the Lord returns. Well, we're looking at chapter 18 first, and we'll look at it ever so briefly, and then spend most of our time on chapter 19. Well, the context of chapter 18 and 19, you've gotta go to Daniel chapter 11. Daniel gives us insight that makes Isaiah 18 and 19 more understandable. Daniel chapter 11, verse 42 and 43. The Antichrist is gonna stretch out his hand against Egypt. Now, Egypt's right below Israel, obviously, and the Antichrist is based, his palace, it says, is in Israel. And so, Egypt is just a moment down the road, and he's going to invade and torment and trouble Egypt. Egypt's gonna resist him, but he's gonna go after Egypt with vengeance. And the Lord's gonna use the rage of the Antichrist to wake up Egypt. And Egypt is going to have such a glorious reversal. I mean, this Islamic nation will be a radical nation for Jesus, and one of the leading nations in the earth, in the millennial kingdom, in the thousand-year kingdom, starting when Jesus returns. Well, in Daniel 11, the Antichrist will stretch out his hand against Egypt. And we're gonna find out when we get to Isaiah 19, Egypt is at her weakest point here, when he, they're very, she's very, very vulnerable, and then the Antichrist attacks and overpowers. Verse 43, he'll have power over all the money. He's gonna gain power over the economics and the resources, which therefore gives him functional power over everything in society. But notice what it says, the next phrase or two, the Ethiopians, that's Isaiah 18, what we're starting with, they shall follow at his heels. In other words, the Ethiopians, which is next to Egypt, real close to Egypt, for those of you that aren't up to date on your geography, it's just right under Israel as well. The Ethiopians will follow at his heels. They will be in step with the Antichrist. In other words, they will be cooperating. That doesn't mean they like him, but he has gained the upper hand and the control over them, and they are at least cooperating with them in a certain way, which the message of Isaiah, excuse me, chapter 18, is that after Jesus defeats the Antichrist armies, he redeems Ethiopia, Isaiah 18, and then he redeems Egypt. He cleanses them and saves them and sets them on the map. That's kind of the bigger overlying story of what's going on. Paragraph B, Isaiah chapter 18, this is the message to Ethiopia. Again, it's right next to Egypt, just under Israel. Most of you know that. A quick outline, verses 1 to 3, Isaiah gives a message. He gives an exhortation to the ambassadors that are going to Ethiopia and leaving from Ethiopia. There's a two-way coming and going of messengers, envoys, and they're ambassadors talking to other nations and other nations talking to them because everyone's in fear of the Assyrian Empire. We've talked about that the last few weeks. The great global empire is the Assyrian, or the great world, the most powerful nation in the world at that time was the Assyrians, which is the whole Middle East area. Then, chapter 18, verse 4 to 6, the Lord has a very clear message for Ethiopia and the nations. Basically, He says, I'm going to call war on the nations and I'm going to wake the nations up. I want everybody alert. A great war is coming. And then in chapter 7, we find the Ethiopians are saved, redeemed. Jesus breaks in and helps them, and they're so grateful for their deliverance because they were in step with the Antichrist. They were fraternizing with him. I'm sure they didn't really want to, but Jesus showed them mercy and delivered them, and they were so grateful. In chapter 18, the Ethiopians are presenting themselves to the Lord in the spirit of devotion. Paragraph D, let's go on down to verse 1. What He describes here, I'm not going to spend much time on this. This is just for those of you that want to look at it a little bit more. There's ambassadors being sent to Ethiopia and from Ethiopia. They're going back and forth to Jerusalem or to the foreign courts like Moab, Edom, Philistia, those courts, those nations right around Israel. And the big subject is they're wanting to seek a military alliance, these little nations to withstand Assyria, the big bad evil empire, the big power bait, the superpower of the Middle East. They're all talking back and forth. How can we work together to keep this global or this superpower from dominating us? Then verse 3, Isaiah says, well, let me tell you, messengers, as you come and go, there's a bigger message than the political messages you're bringing back and forth one to another. This is a message, verse 3, that all the inhabitants of the earth and all the dwellers on the earth need to pay attention to. There's a message that's going to go forth. This messenger is going to lift up a banner on the mountains. He's going to blow a trumpet and everyone is going to hear it. In other words, verse 3, Isaiah is saying, the Lord Himself is giving a call to war in the nations. Whenever you see this phrase, lift up a banner on the mountains or blow a trumpet, typically it describes the Lord's activity, getting the attention of all the nations, say, I'm going to do something you're not really going to appreciate, but the end of it is going to be good. I'm going to cause the nations to come against each other, and in doing that, they're going to lose their confidence in their own strength and safety, then they're going to turn to me, then I'm going to save them, but I'm going to use the war narrative, the war plan, I'm going to call the nations to war against one another. And that's His plan to establish peace in the nations. You know, you think, well, if you're the prince of peace and you want peace, He says, first I have to get the nations to lose confidence in their own abilities and their own safety and their own protection and their own agendas, and look to me, and they won't do that until they're weakened, so I'm going to cause them to weaken one another. So verse 3, Isaiah is telling them, he says, you envoys that are going back and forth, know this, there's a bigger story. Lift up the banner, hear the trumpet, everyone's going to hear it. The Lord's about something bigger than what you understand. Let's go to the top of page 2. Then in verse 4 to 6, I'll skip this, but Isaiah is describing God pruning the nations. He's using agricultural metaphors. He's using agricultural pictures that were very common to the people of Israel. He says, basically, God is going to break in and He's going to prune the nations and He's going to cause there to be a whole lot, verse 6, there's all that He prunes is going to be left lying on the ground. Now what He's talking about, at the end of this war, there's going to be dead bodies and corpses. In other words, it's going to be tragic. It's going to shift the very balance of power and the balance of the whole narrative of the Middle East in that time. Of course, what He's really talking about, Isaiah, is the great war at the end of the age that leads to the second coming of Christ. And I got a little bit on that. Again, that's not my real point to break down all the details of that, but just to give you kind of the overview of what's happening. There's a call to war. The war's going to bring judgment. The judgment is God pruning the nations. The pruning of the nations is going to leave many people dead and it's going to create a whole different dialogue in the nations and the Lord is going to reveal His mercy in that context. That's what Isaiah, chapter 18, is talking about with a focus on Ethiopia, saying, Ethiopia, you're going to be troubled, but I'm going to be there to help you. Then in paragraph D, in that time, verse 7, and the time is the, in that time is referring to verse 4, 5, and 6, which I didn't read the passage, but I described it, in the time where God is pruning nations, in the time where many are left lying on the ground, in that time, He says what's going to happen, there's going to be a radical transformation in Ethiopia, a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts from the people of tall and smooth skin, that's the Ethiopians, and they're going to bring a gift, a present, to the place of the name of the Lord, to Mount Zion. Now this is radical, because Ethiopia in Isaiah's time was a very powerful nation. It wasn't of the level of the Assyrian superpower, but they were a powerful nation, and what Isaiah says, you're going to get troubled, and there's going to be a war, and you're going to lose your way in it, but the Lord's going to deliver you in it, but it's really a picture of the end of the age, because in verse 7, he says, in that time, he says you're going to be converted, there's going to be a national conversion, Ethiopia is going to go to Jerusalem, and offer gifts to the king, now that's obviously talking about the second coming of Christ, Ethiopia has never done that, as a nation went to Israel to offer gifts to Jesus, and so he describes that, and they're going to do it in Mount Zion, which is in Jerusalem. Now paragraph E, just for fun, 300 years before Isaiah 18 was written, 300 years before Isaiah saw this drama of these envoys, and messengers, and ambassadors going back and forth from Ethiopia, David told the story 300 years earlier in Psalm 68, so really Isaiah was adding to what David said 300 years earlier, it's the same language, and it's talking about the generation the Lord returns, when Ethiopia and Egypt, that's Isaiah 18 and Isaiah 19, how they are going to respond to the Lord, now these are radical Islamic nations that are really against Jesus right now, but the Lord says, I've already got it in the script, the future is already determined, a war is going to wake you up, my mercy is going to prevail, and even you Ethiopia, and Egypt even more intense as Egypt, I'm going to bring salvation and deliver you, let's look at the top of page 3. So I wanted to kind of run through Isaiah 18 pretty fast, but it is powerful that it's not a small message, it's just that we only have limited time, and Isaiah 19 is such a dramatic passage of scripture, so what's going to happen here is that in Isaiah chapter and top of page 3, Roman numeral 3, the theme is God is going to strike, and then He's going to heal Egypt, remember the Antichrist is going to go attack Egypt and Ethiopia, we just read that in Daniel 11, so that's the context, that's the overarching story, Egypt is being troubled by a great oppressor, now what surprises me, is I would think Egypt being an Islamic nation, being against Israel and against Jesus, they would be more acclimated to the Antichrist global agenda, because the Antichrist is going to show himself as a man of peace at first, but somewhere in this, Egypt doesn't buy it, which is surprising to me, this is kind of quite remarkable, because they say no, no we're not going with you, and then when the Antichrist pulls off his mask, and the man of peace is shown to be a fraud, he is actually a man of war, then he goes after Egypt and attacks them, but it's just interesting that this dark Islamic nation, with a dark spirit in them, I mean so much of what happens is, there's corruption and darkness in so many ways, but they don't yield to the Antichrist, they stay adversarial to him throughout the years leading up to the coming of the Lord, now in Isaiah chapter 19, this is one of the great messages of hope, I mean this is a great hope chapter, because the idea is, paragraph 8, the principle, is that what the Lord does in striking and healing Egypt, here's the key, it's the model of what he will do with all the other nations of the world as well, or not all, but this is his model, I mean there's going to be some exceptions, in other words, Egypt is adversarial towards the Lord, adversarial towards Israel, adversarial towards Jesus, they're not for any of it, and yet God is going to say, I'm going to, in kindness, I'm going to do the impossible, the nation that could never turn to Jesus, is going to turn to Jesus, well matter of fact, Israel has got the same storyline, and they are going to be leading the nations in radical devotion to the Lord, but again, paragraph 8, the principle is, what the Lord does here, in striking Egypt, it seems so terrifying when he does it, like as we look through this, which we'll do it quite briefly, but it's terrifying what he does, but the Lord is saying, it's not just the Egypt story, this is my leadership, I'm going to do this around the world, but Egypt is just my most graphic example of doing this, I'm going to strike them, and you find that in verse 22, but I'm going to heal them, I'm going to strike them, then I'm going to heal them, and I want you to study this, because this is what I will do in other nations, and if you think your nation is out of reach, read Isaiah 19, if I can reach them, I can reach your nation, if God can reach Egypt, he can reach any hostile city in the earth, if God can reach Egypt, he can reach any man, any family, he can reconcile any situation if he can do it, in this hostile environment towards him, in the land of Egypt, and that's really the message that's being portrayed here. Paragraph B, let's get a quick outline, a quick outline, first is chapter 19, verse 1 to 15, this is the real negative part of the chapter, this is where the Lord is striking Egypt, he's going to use the Antichrist as one of his tools, but he's even going to cause Egypt to turn on Egypt, basically what the Lord is about, he is about causing Egypt to lose its confidence in its own agenda, its own abilities, its own sense of protection to give up and to cry out for help, that's what this is all about, of course that's what the Lord's agenda is in all the nations, but nations resist and resist and resist, but that's the same storyline with individuals, that's the same storyline with families and businesses and all kinds of different corporate groups, so we can see a little microcosm of many other groups of people right here in this chapter, so chapter 19, verse 1 to 5, he's going to confront the darkness in Egypt, he's going to prevail over the false gods of Egypt, he's going to turn the whole thing around, then the second half, chapter 19, verse 16 to 25, he's going to save Egypt, and he's not only going to save them, deliver them from the Antichrist, he's going to deliver them from their own darkness, he's going to forgive them of their sin, and they're going to be radical worshippers of Jesus, the nation of Egypt, I mean Egypt is 80 million people right now, and the vast majority, I mean way up high 90's, I don't know the exact number, are Muslims and they're not interested in Jesus, but the Lord says, but I'm interested in you Egypt, now paragraph C, this is a point of review here, I've said this probably every session so far, when interpreting end time prophecy, we understand that many of the prophecies as we read them, they have a partial fulfillment in history, but when you read the details, only part of the details are fulfilled in history, and they have an ultimate fulfillment at the end of the age, so as we look here in the events of Isaiah 19 verse 1 to 15, I should say 1 to 15, many of the events have not occurred yet in fullness, they've occurred partially a little here, a little there, there's been minor partial expressions of this prophecy, but not the intensity of what is described in verse 1 to 15, and not with the result of Egypt getting saved and becoming a land known for its devotion to the Lord, so that's the context, there's an intensity of chapter 1 to 15 that hasn't happened in history yet, a negative intensity, Egypt's had its hard times, but nothing like described here in verse 1 to 15 of that level, nor the fruitfulness of verse 16 to 25, so we know the whole chapter has an end time application, that's the point I'm making, okay, let's look at paragraph E, I'm going to give you a summary, so that the verse 1 to 15, so we don't really have to go through it very fast, I just want to give you the snapshot of it, so when you read it on your own time, you think, hey, I got to feel for where this chapter's going, okay, it makes sense, what happened, what's going on, paragraph E, the Lord says to Isaiah, I'm going to confront the idols of Egypt, I'm going to confront them head on, and Egypt's going to get delivered from her false gods, that's agenda number 1, I'm going to confront the darkness in this land of Egypt, then I'm going to turn the hearts of the Egyptians to Myself, the Lord is saying, He's going to turn the heart of the Egyptians to Himself, but His mysterious plan, this is a little unnerving, because you look at, when I look at our own nation and the nations of the earth, the Lord says to Isaiah, but here's My plan, I am going to confront the darkness, and I'm going to turn them to Me, but it's not going to be an easy journey, but it's the best journey, I'm going to use My wisdom and power, and I know what I'm doing, so you have to trust My leadership, first thing He's going to do, or one of the things He's going to do, I don't know that there's a chronological order to it, He's going to stir the Egyptians one against another, there's going to be tremendous civil strife and discord even civil war, city against city, kingdom against kingdom within the nation of Egypt, neighborhood against neighborhood, and He's going to cause that strife again to cause the whole nation to look for another answer outside of themselves, and to look for another agenda and another way forward in life. I mean that's a, when the Lord allows a nation within itself to have strife and turmoil of this intensity, the Lord is saying I'm after that nation, I want them to turn to Me, but it's the Lord that's going to cause this to happen, yes the devil has his hand in it, but the Lord says no, I know what I'm doing, I've got a master plan, and the devil and the sin of men are involved in it, but I'm going to actually stir them up against each other, like where's that in the Bible, Isaiah chapter 19, this is going to lead them to turn to their idols, they're going to get in trouble, they're going to turn to their sorcery and their idols, and they're going to seek help, but they're going to find their false gods and their religion gave them no answers at all, so the Lord is like check, your religion didn't help you or it didn't work, so He's going to move on, it's going to be so ineffective the nation will be in great despair, and the Lord describes them and says their heart is melting away, the whole nation is going to be in great despair, but again remember this isn't just a story about Egypt, this is a story about how the Lord is going to wake up nations, we see I mean beginnings of this even in our own nation, I look at this and I go I don't like this part of the story, I like that we love Jesus at the end of the story, well this great despair and this great vulnerability, this weakening of the nation's unity and its social infrastructures are going to implode, it's going to open the way for a fierce king to gain power, and that fierce king there's been a few versions of that fierce king through history, but the fierce king is the antichrist at the end of the age, so in a weakened state some Egyptians are going to cry out give us a leader, but other Egyptians are going to be too much in turmoil to resist the antichrist when he wants to come, and then to really exasperate things, things are really troubled, the antichrist he's called a fierce king, he's a cruel leader, he comes in, he gains a foothold of power, and then to intensify everything, unprecedented, God dries up the Nile River, it says in verse 5, I will dry up the river, it's never happened in Egypt's history, you know some commentators say well it's poetic, it means you know there was a drought, no the Lord says I'm going to dry the river up and cause havoc and economic chaos because the Nile River is the primary source of economics to the whole nation, I'm going to have a natural disaster to disrupt the whole economy of the nation to get them to look for a solution outside of themselves, Lord do you really do this stuff, the drying up of the Nile River will be almost as dramatic as dividing the Red Sea, splitting the Red Sea in the days of Moses, I mean this is, the Nile River drying up, are you kidding, this is an impossible situation, the Lord says I'm going to do it, and it's going to get the attention of the whole world because I've got it written in the book ahead of time, and it's remarkable that this, this God drying up the Nile and he's going to do the same thing to the Euphrates River in Iraq, he's going to dry up those two rivers, it's mentioned several times in the prophetic scriptures and it's going to create tremendous implications and repercussions in Iraq and the Middle East and in Egypt when God shows his mighty hand and dries the river, many, many implications are involved in that, we could spend a half hour talking of probably 15 different implications of what would happen, economics being one. Okay, paragraph F, just a quick glance at these first 15 verses, the Lord says verse one, he goes, I'm going to ride in on a swift cloud, he's, what he's saying in my, I'm going to be actively present and involved with my hand, setting things into place, I'm going to be controlling situations that's going to cause Egypt to cry out to me, so I'm going to move in in power, that's the, the picture over there, I'm going to come into Egypt. Verse one, my goal is to cause the idols, the false gods of Egypt to fall in my presence, I'm going to cause Egypt to break their alliance with their false gods and with their false religion, that's my goal, that's, well his goal is to heal the land and to save them, but he's going to first show their religion is bankrupt, he says in the midst of this, the heart of Egypt will melt, in other words, there will be so much despair in the culture, they will have, they will be desperately looking for another solution because the despair will be so great as this is happening. Verse two, one of the primary things he's going to do, the Lord says, I'm going to do this, I'm going to set Egyptians against Egyptians, I'm going to set everyone against his brother, I'm going to do it because I'm going to disrupt the equilibrium of the culture so they have to look outside of themselves for a solution. Matter of fact, I'm going to set city against city. Again, if this wasn't in the Bible, I would say, where's that in the Bible that God does that? God actually does this, but it's a temporary, severe mercy so he can wake a nation up to bring them a radical transformation and salvation, but the key is, he wants his people in the process, I've shared this with Egyptians, I have a lot of Egyptian believer friends, it's like, don't draw back on his leadership as he does this, but again, this isn't just an Egyptian story, Egyptian's probably one of the most intense versions of it, but I would say this to all the nations of the earth, because the Lord, what he does in Egypt, this is part of his strategy of waking nations up. Now, the Lord would never be voted into office because nobody would ever vote into office a leader who did this, but the Lord knows what he's doing, and this is the agenda that he's going to have, but he doesn't want his people who love him, I'm talking about the people, believers in Jesus, to be offended or to be fearful, he's saying it's temporary, it's severe mercy, trust my leadership, I know what I'm doing, it has a great ending, the story does, trust me and don't draw back, don't let go, don't give in, keep your eyes on me, because it's going to be troublesome for a short period of time. Okay, paragraph G, so he's going to go on, he says, verse 3, the spirit of Egypt will fail, that means again, despair in the culture, despair and negativity everywhere, Jesus talked about this in Luke 21, verse 26, he said, men's hearts will fail for fear, this is globally, but this is happening in Egypt, but this is just one example, God is going to do things that cause people to look up, and if they don't know his leadership, and they don't have a relationship, they're not going to have a way of peace, that's why it's so important to know the story line, the biblical story line, so as these things happen, we're not in confusion saying, what's happening, we know what's happening, God is going to make these things happen, he really is, but it's unto redemption, that's the glorious part. Verse 3, he goes, I'm going to cause the spirit of Egypt to fail, I'm going to cause their self confidence, and their self sense of, we can pull it off together, and I'm going to cause them to see that's a lie, and that's the very attitude keeping them from saying yes to me, I will destroy their counsel, and then they will consult sorcerers, they will consult all their false gods, but they won't work, the Lord says, I actually want to betray them, so they give up on them and move on, and conclude that their false religion doesn't get them anywhere. Verse 4, but things will really get exasperated, because the Egyptians will be weakened in this state of, this national political military vulnerability, this economic troubling, the Egyptians, verse 4, then I will give into their hand a cruel master. We know from Daniel 11, the passage we started with, that the antichrist is going to invade Egypt, but the Lord is saying here, I'm going to actually let that happen, but it's only going to be a very short, it's going to be a very temporary disciplining, he's a fierce king, he's a cruel one. Now there's been a few kings that could fulfill this description in a small way through history, I've read quite a few scholars and commentaries on this, and most of the commentaries can't agree on who that king would be in history, there's a big long list, but most of them admit, well they didn't really control Egypt in the way this passage is describing, but at least it's a partial fulfillment. God is going to discipline Egypt through the antichrist, that's one of the means, not the only means, but in verse 22 we're going to find out if Isaiah 19 is going to heal the land. Verse 5, then the Nile, again this is just inconceivable, when you think about the implications, I mean the Nile and the Amazon River, they're the two biggest, largest rivers in the earth, they're both over 4,000 miles, they're the economics, I mean the Nile is the economic base of the nation, I mean if the Nile is not functioning right, the economics dry up everywhere, and that's what it says in verse 10, all who make wages will be troubled, very, very troubled, because it will bring economic bankruptcy, but the Lord says, I'm going to do it, because I'm going to give them great prosperity on the other end of it. He says, but I'm not going to stop there, it's going to be more than economic collapse, that's, you can read verse 8 to 10 on your own time there, describes it a little bit, I just, I kind of abbreviated it here. Verse 13, he says, I'm going to cause their leaders to become seen, displayed as foolish. I'm going to do this, I'm going to cause their leaders, the best of the nation, their ideas are going to be, they're going to delude the nation, they're going to bring the nation into error on their military ideas, their economic ideas, their political alliances, their social infrastructure, they're going to miss it on every point, and I'm going to see to it that they do. They will cause Egypt to err, in all of her ways, you know, the social, economic, military, all these kinds of ways, and the nation will stagger as an nation, this word picture, like a drunken man, just unable to barely make it, and then the Lord says, I'm then going to deliver them with a deliverance so glorious, with an honor so beyond what they can imagine, and that glory will last upon them forever and forever. Trust my leadership, I know what I'm doing. But again, the point I want to make here, because this is pretty severe, we're reading it, we're going, oh, poor Egypt, but the Lord's saying, no, I'm giving you an expose of my leadership. I'm giving you insight in one of the most severe situations, so you will grasp what I'm doing in the nations. I want you to understand, I do do this stuff. And if you know the word, then you've got a grid for what's going on, and the history is not the train off the track going nowhere, it's not lost its way, there's a sovereign God, though there's moments that are very painful and chaotic, He's leading it to a redemptive end. That's the message we're getting here. But I love Egypt, and I love a lot of, I've got a lot of friends over there, and I want to join in, in prayer for this next part, verse 16 to 25, you know, the whole thing turns around, and there's promises, promises that we are to pray and we're to cry out to the Lord, even now, because the promises that will happen in fullness when the Lord comes, those promises will happen in part right now. If the Lord says, I'm going to do miracles when I appear, then we know He's going to do miracles now in an increasing way. Whatever positive thing He's going to do in fullness when He appears in the clouds, He's going to do that positive thing in an increasing way, more and more closer to His return, we can believe for the glory to increase, in the way He describes here in this chapter. Well, in all these chapters. But the judgment against oppression will increase as well, because the judgments in the Bible, most of them are against the end times, or against the Antichrist empire, or for the people that absolutely refuse to yield to the Lord, He's trying to wake them up so that He can save them. Let's turn to top of page four. Now we're going to look at, there's five different decrees. Look at paragraph A. There's five times where Isaiah says, in that day. And you know the phrase, in that day, in the prophetic scriptures, it is kind of, it's code for the generation the Lord returns. Not every single one, but the vast majority of the, in the scripture, when it says, in that day, it's talking about those years leading right up to the second coming of Christ, and those years immediately preceding the second coming of Christ, where everything is being transitioned and reordered in a glorious way. Now these five decrees, in Isaiah 19, I have written here in paragraph A, they will be commonly known by the body of Christ. Because these five decrees, their promises, we can pray these for Egypt now. But not only can we pray these five things for Egypt now, if God will do these five things in a dark, hostile nation to Jesus, He will do these things in other nations as well. The idea there's no nation that's out of reach. This is one of the great hope chapters of the end time chapters, Isaiah chapter 19. So each one of these five things, I say, Lord, it might look different in our nation, but we know these similar types of glorious expressions of your grace and mercy. You're going to do it, it will look different in every nation, but we know this is what you're about. We know these are the sort of things on your agenda in the end times. Well, it starts off, the first decree. The first is individual. And then you'll see as we go on, it goes from individual, the word is how individuals respond. Then the second decree, it's regional. Then it's national. Then it's international. The scope gets bigger and bigger. You'll see that as we go, these five different decrees. And again, you'll have to look at it on your own time and kind of get your mind around it. But tonight, I'm just kind of giving you the big picture view. So you go, okay, I think I got the view of where this is going. You know, the analogy I like to use, it's the puzzle on the cover of the puzzle box. You see the picture, so you can see where things are going. Then you can go find out where the individual pieces fit later. And so that's what I like to do on these Friday nights, kind of give you the overview of the chapter. And then you can spend more time and then the pieces kind of fit together as you get more familiar. But I want to encourage you again. I do this nearly every week. Some of these details, they seem kind of so, you know, like new. And I want to say again, there's only about ten key dates, only about ten dates and international events and international facts in Isaiah. If you know those ten, you really got the story. It's not like a hundred. There's about five or ten of them. And at first, it seems like when you hear these, you know, Assyria, I never heard of Assyria. You know, you hear a couple dates and you hear a couple historical things. It's a little overwhelming because you might hear five or ten of them, but that's really about all there is is five or ten of them. And once you get them and you think, hey, this isn't so hard. You know, I can put this together. Then you begin to get familiar with it. Then chapters like Isaiah 19, they fit with other chapters. And you go, yeah, I know the Egypt story. I kind of know that Egypt story. That fits with the Ethiopia story. Yeah, that fits with the Iraq story. Yeah, I can see where this is going. It just takes a little bit of familiarity to stay with it. And the fog lifts and the whole thing really does come together. And it's really not that confusing if you just stay with it, give it a little bit of time. Because I know, you know, we've been doing this six weeks. Give it six months and a lot of it, you'll find out, we'll be covering some of the same material, different nations, different chapters, but the same storyline happening over and over and over again. Then you become real comfortable that you grasp the storyline. And then those chapters really begin to come together because you have a confidence and they fit in your understanding. But I say that every week. I probably will for a few more months. Well, it starts the first decree, paragraph B. It's in that day. Here's the first thing. Egypt will be afraid. Egypt will have fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he waves over it. Now the waving of God's hand, we just read about it, verses 1 to 15. He's going to trouble the nations. So God's going to trouble the nations. In verse 17, the first one is negative. The first one of these decrees is really though for the spirit of the fear of the Lord to come on the nation. That's the point. That's the thing that the implied promise here is that the negative fear is to be replaced by a positive fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the answer to overcoming the fear of the Lord stirring up the nation. He's going to wave His hand over the nation, verse 16. Again, we just described that in the first 15 verses. He's troubling the nation. He's striking the nation. Waving His hand is a negative thing. He's stirring it up to wake them up. But then verse 17, it says that, and the land of Judah, of course that's Israel right above Egypt, will be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who even mentions the land of Israel, the mention of it, the people in Egypt will be afraid. You think, what? Why is this? Because the counsel of the Lord has determined this against Egypt. Now if you only have this verse, you think, why would Egypt be afraid of the land of Judah or Israel? Like what? We just looked at it at the very beginning, Revelation, I mean Daniel chapter 11, the passage we started with, because the Antichrist has his palace and one of his bases in Israel right above the land of Egypt. And he's invading Egypt over and over, troubling them. And he has taken over control of Israel. So for a brief time, Israel to the Egyptians means the Antichrist oppression. And it says even the mention of the land of Judah terrorizes them. Internally every individual is going, this is horrible. How could it ever get worse? Paragraph C, fear and terror are mentioned four times in these two verses. That's the theme of it. But the overarching theme is the Lord wants the spirit of the fear of the Lord, not the fear of judgment or the fear of the Antichrist's rage. He's saying, get on my team and get that inferior fear replaced by a superior fear called the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Okay, I give you a couple verses there. Look at paragraph 2, in the middle of page 4. This is going ahead to Isaiah 28. Isaiah is describing the Antichrist. He says, and when the overflowing whip or scourge, scourge and whip is the same thing, of the Antichrist passes through the land, you will be trampled down by it. He's talking about the land of Israel right here in Isaiah 28. He says, verse 19, it will be a terror just to hear the report of that evil man trampling through Israel. And that's what's going on in Egypt. They've heard the report of that evil man up there, and that evil man is invading their own nation, and it's a terror just to hear the story. That's how intense the Antichrist will be. But the good news is, it will be a very temporary three and a half year reign of terror, and God will use that scourge to wake up Israel, to wake up Egypt, and actually to wake up the nations of the earth. And three and a half years is long when it's heavy, but it's short when you think of billions of years of the glory of God on those people and upon those nations as they turn away from their darkness and turn to the Lord. Now paragraph D, what do we do with this first decree? This, in that day, the Lord says, fear will come. We ask the Lord, wave your hand, Lord. Wave your hand over Egypt even now. Trouble Egypt in a way that's redemptive. Lord, wave your hand over America. Wave your hand over Europe. Wave your hand over Asia. Lord, wave your hand so that the unbelieving powers that be are alerted, and they wake up to the fact that their agenda and their power is not ultimate. Wave your hand, release the spirit of the fear of the Lord, and stop ungodly leaders in their hubris, their arrogance, that they think their agenda and their power and their way is the solution for their nation without crying out to the Lord. So that's one way that we can pray this first decree. Lord, release your hand, wake up and stir and let them see the truth of the bigger picture that there is a Savior that is not them. Paragraph 5, let's look at the second decree. Verse 18, Isaiah says, in that day. So he's now, he's going to give the second oracle, so to speak, or decree. This is really different. This is what happens when the fear comes, and the nation is troubled, then it makes way for this second thing. I believe there's a progression going on here. This is remarkable. This is like very surprising. In that day, five cities, or five large communities. We don't know the size of them, but they're enough that the Bible calls them a city. Five cities in the land of Egypt. They will speak the language of Canaan, which is Hebrew, the language of Israel is what it's talking about. And these five cities will speak Hebrew. Now beloved, in Egypt, cities don't speak Hebrew. They speak Arabic. In Egypt, nobody speaks Hebrew. They do one here, one there, kind of on the side. But there's going to be something happening so dramatic in five cities. And Isaiah adds to it. He says, not only are they going to learn the language of Hebrew, they're going to swear by the God of Israel. Now if you swear by the God of Israel, and you're the leader of a city in Islamic Egypt, and the Antichrist is breathing down the neck of the Egyptians, there's this group of people. It's not a little group of five or ten. There's five cities, and we don't know exactly where they are. They're going to be raised up. They're going to be like cities of refuge, spiritually speaking, where they're going to love Jesus. Because the name of the Lord, His name is Jesus. It's not just generic God. They are going to learn Hebrew. And one of the reasons they're going to learn Hebrew is I believe they want to serve and they want to relate to Jews in flight from the Antichrist in Egypt, fleeing down from Israel. I mean in flight from Israel, fleeing to Egypt. These cities are going to be ready, prepared, and they're going to greet them in their own native language. And they say, we know the Hebrew Bible. We know the Hebrew God. We know the Hebrew Messiah, Jesus. We know who you are. And these Jews in flight are going to be like, really? You love us enough to know our language? In a hostile nation to Israel? This is a most remarkable reality. Now when I see that in Egypt, I say, Lord, if you could raise up five cities in an Islamic nation under the eye of the Antichrist and his oppression. Lord, raise up five cities in this nation like this. Raise up five cities of unusual devotion to the Lord that swear by the name of the Lord openly. Meaning they don't have just a secret devotion. They have a public, bold stand for Jesus. They understand Jesus' kingdom purposes for Israel. They stand for Israel even in a way that Israel doesn't understand. And then they are prepared to even receive the Jews in flight from the Antichrist. Of course, in Egypt, they're fleeing from Israel itself because the Antichrist is troubling them. Of course, the Antichrist is troubling the Egyptians. And the Antichrist is troubling the Syrians. And the Antichrist is troubling everybody who doesn't obey him. And so, paragraph C, we pray, Lord, in Egypt. I love to pray this for Egypt, but I also, we can pray for Asia. You can pray for Mexico. You can pray for the islands. Lord, release a spirit of revival on five cities. And it doesn't have to be limited to five, but in the midst of darkness, in the midst of great shaking, in the midst of people filled with terror, with economic crisis, with religious persecution, raise up a city, raise up communities of radical people. Because you would think under this kind of situation, you know, you think of World War II, you look at the, you know, some of the documentaries of the war, war-torn cities, the broken economies, they don't have the food. Or, you know, look at the Syrian refugees. You think, how could anybody really connect with God in all that? Well, God's saying, there's going to be five cities in Egypt. This is before Jesus returns. This isn't after He returns. This is before. The spirit of revival will be that powerful. The grace of God will be that deficient that in a nation with economic, I mean, economic chaos, political chaos, civil war, strife, persecution from the Antichrist, there will be a flourishing gospel advancement and entire cities captured in the name of the Lord. Again, I don't just pray for the five cities in Egypt. I don't know what those cities are. I say, Lord, if you could do it there, you could do it here. If you could do it here, you could do it in the other nation. There is no nation that's out of reach from this kind of complete reversal and rescue, even in the midst of darkness. Top of page five. Now, the third decree isn't just regional. It's not just five different regions or five cities. This is national. So the scope is getting bigger and larger in each one of these five decrees as there's a progression here. Verse 19, in that day, now again, this is before the Lord returns. This is the devotion in an Islamic Egypt with economic crisis, civil war, Antichrist breathing down their neck. This is how God is going to move by the grace of God on people. When I read this, it just totally gets me excited. There will be an altar to the Lord. There will be an altar speaks of worship and prayer. There will be worship and prayer ministries to the Lord throughout the land. And in the midst of the land, there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land. Again, that's a worship and prayer dimension. That's what an altar is for in the Bible. It's a public expression of worship and prayer. And then they will have a pillar, like a monument to the Lord at the border. Meaning, I don't know how they're going to do this with the Antichrist raging. They're going to have like a monument, a pillar that says, we love Jesus at the border. If you're going to come in our area, this is a Jesus place. We love the God of Israel. I mean, it's public. It's open. It's bold. It's defiant before the presence of darkness. I look at that and I go, wow. I mean, there's so many believers even today, they won't speak up for almost anything if there's 10 people in a social or a work setting that's talking the other direction. They just get all quiet. But these people in Egypt, they'll build a monument, a pillar, an open declaration. Verse 20, this altar, this prayer and worship ministry, this pillar, this public declaration, it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord. In the land of Egypt. I mean, in a land of darkness, hostility, chaos and brokenness, there will be a witness to Jesus that's open, bold and public. For they will cry out to the Lord. I mean, how is this going to happen? Because there's an oppressor who's coming to the land. Of course, that's the Antichrist. They will cry out to the Lord and the God of Israel will send them a savior. God the Father is going to say, Jesus, when Jesus returns, he's going to say, I want you to actually visit Egypt when you return. I mean, I think Jesus is going to literally go to Egypt in context to his second coming and return. He will go to Egypt and he will do whatever he does there, but he will deliver them. He will be the greater Moses as Moses went to Egypt and delivered the people who cried out to him. So the greater Moses is going to literally in context of when he returns in the second coming, you know, in verse 1, he's going to come by the cloud of his presence, but eventually he's going to come back on that heavenly cloud and somewhere in the mix, he's going to enter Egypt in some dimension and he's going to bring open deliverance to the nation. Verse 21, then the Lord, now remember in Isaiah's time, he didn't know his name was Yeshua or Jesus. I want to say Jesus because the God of Israel, his name is Jesus. He will be known in Egypt. I love it. The Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and he takes a deep breath. Isaiah says, yes, you heard me. They will make a vow and they won't make a casual vow that costs them nothing. They will make a vow to obey him and they will follow through on their vows. They will perform it. See, a lot of people get into a good mood and it's a conference or they go to a retreat or a seminar or a weekend somewhere or summer somewhere and they make promises to the Lord and then when they get back to business as usual, the promise kind of fades. Not this case. They're going to make a vow in the place of pressure and adversity. They will follow through because the vow will touch their heart at that level. Verse 22, now Isaiah describes the whole thing. He says, how did all this happen? He goes, let me summarize it. The Lord is going to strike Egypt. He really is. The one they're vowing to, the one they love, the one that they're building an altar to, he struck them and they know it was him that struck them. But they see the redemptive reason. They see the salvation. But he will heal them. They will return to the Lord. And the Lord will be entreated by them. Entreated means prayed to. The Lord says, I'm going to cause them to pray to me and I'm going to cause the prayer dynamic in Egypt, a prayer anointing among the believers in Egypt to be at a level that's beyond anything they can imagine. But then again, the same thing. I say, Lord, release that prayer anointing in Egypt. But hey, Lord, if you can do it there, you can do it here. If you can do it here, you can do it over the other nation. If you can release a prayer anointing in that kind of adverse situation, if you can do it there, you can do it here. Let's look at the bottom of page five. Let's just bring this to an end here. The fourth decree. It's now international. Paragraph B, verse 23. Here's the fourth decree. Because there's five decrees total, as you know. In that day, there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria. Assyria is the majority of the Middle East nations. Assyria is the old ancient name, but it's Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, you know, the Gulf States. It's those kind of, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. Now you think, oh, that's cool. Well, if you know a little bit, I don't know that much about it, but there is so much animosity between Arab nations. I mean, the Egyptians don't like the Egyptians, according to verse 2 of this chapter. Many of them in that hour. But many of the Muslim leaders, they don't like each other. You know, you've got the Shiites and the Sunnis and the tremendous adversarial relationship between nations. There's going to be, in Jesus, a reconciliation where Iran and Iraq and Egypt and Syria, they will love each other in Christ. This is going to be a massive reversal of ancient animosities between these Middle East nations. And they will do it. They will actually have a servant spirit, and they will have a highway for international cooperation, communication, projects, collaboration. They'll do many things together and serve one another. This is a radical healing and a restoring of international broken relationships at a level surpassed only by verse 24. Let's go to top of page 6. And the final one, Roman numeral 8, the final decree. In that day, in that day, it won't just be Egypt and Assyria that are unified, but it's going to be Egypt and Assyria and Israel. Not only are the Egyptians going to like the Iraqis and the Iranians, they're all going to love each other in Christ. The former Islamic nations are going to love Israel. And Israel's going to love them. And there's going to be peace in the Middle East under the name of Jesus. And it says in that day, Israel will be one of the three. There will be a blessing in the midst of the land. And the Lord shall bless them. He says, blessed is Egypt, My people. Blessed is Assyria, the work of My hands. Blessed is Israel, My inheritance. This is so intense because these are names reserved only for Israel. God is declaring them over Egypt and Assyria. I mean, these dark, adversarial, hostile nations to Israel. The Lord's message is, My salvation is bigger than you can imagine. My power, even though I'm going to use negative in My plan, I have such the ability to restore, to reverse, to turn around at a level you can't imagine. And if I can do this between Islamic nations with each other and then Islamic nations and Israel, I can do it in any nation. I can heal any nation if I can do this. And so He's giving us one of the most intense, the most difficult examples. And He says, if I can do it there, I can do it everywhere. If I can do it to nations, I can do it to families. If I can do it to families, I can do it to marriages. I can do it to ministries. I can restore. I can reconcile. I can do this in My leadership. Now the last thing I'm going to point out here is that it says here that verse 24, they will be, Israel will be one of the three with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land. Now the word land, I have a few notes on this, is that it's the same word as the word earth. As a matter of fact, many translations say there'll be a blessing in the midst of the earth. Because if you look at Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, again, which is the Middle East nations, that is the original boundary lines of the Garden of Eden. And what the Lord is doing, He's going to restore the Garden of Eden in its original boundary lines, and it's going to be those nations, and He's going to say, this new Eden is going to flourish and spread out and infiltrate in a glorious way the whole earth. It's going to start there, and then it's going to work its way out, and the branch of the Lord will branch out, and this Eden reality will spread throughout the whole earth after the Lord first establishes it under His leadership right here in Isaiah chapter 19. Well, amen and amen. Now again, I realize, if this is the first time you've ever read Isaiah 19, it says, yeah, I'm stuck back on Ethiopia. What? What is happening? And again, it's not that hard. It really isn't. And a lot of the chapters, they have the same general story lines, just some different nuances, and as you get more comfortable with them, you really, really can't get this. Anyway, let's just stand before the Lord. Let's ask the Lord for a miracle of reconciliation somewhere in our own life. Let's ask Him for a miracle. If God can do this with Egypt, turn Egypt around, God can turn you around. If God can bring Egypt and Assyria, these are animosity, enemies, and then Israel, He can restore your friendships that are broken. So Lord, we're asking you, even tonight, God, I'm asking you for restoration. I'm asking you for a spirit of restoration. Lord, if you can release a prayer movement in Egypt, you can release one here. You can release one there. Whatever nation's on your heart, there's a prayer anointing, even in the midst of chaos and darkness, is not stronger than the prayer anointing that God's going to release at the end of the age. I'm going to pray for people that, again, reconciliation. There's a relationship that's really dear to you that's wounded. You think, man, it is really stuck. It might be here, it might be far away. You would like prayer for that. I want to invite you forward. There's a spirit of reconciliation that's in the grace of God in Isaiah chapter 19. I just want to take that and apply it to your life. Lord, I say, if you can do this in Israel and Egypt, you can do it in our life. Father, I ask you for reconciliation. Lord, if you can reconcile the nations, we know you can reconcile families and friends. Lord, I ask you for a story. I ask that you would heal. I ask that you would show your muscles, so to speak, your grace, your extravagance of weak and broken people. You bring them together in a way that we can't imagine. Lord, I ask you to do it. Yes, Lord. Release your glory, Lord. Lord, I ask for the spirit of grace right now. Lord, release the grace of God. In Jesus' name. Others of you, maybe you're praying for a city. Maybe you have a nation on your heart. We're going to see amazing miracles as we approach the coming of the Lord of cities and nations. Lord, release your fire right now, I ask. Lord, bring restoration. The Holy Spirit. Lord, healing. God, I ask you for healing. Release healing in the name of Jesus, I ask you, Lord. Release the fire of the Holy Spirit. Release the fire of the Holy Spirit. Yes, Lord. Yes, Jesus. Turn it into joy, Lord, we ask you. Release restoration. God, I ask you for those marriages. I ask you for miracles in marriages. God, I ask you for healing of bodies. How many healed people's bodies? In the name of Jesus, release healing in bodies, I ask. We ask. Jesus. Lord, I ask you for healing. Yes, Lord. Heal America. I ask you for your healing power in this nation, Lord. We're believing you to do in this nation what you're doing in other nations. You're making all things new, Lord. Make all things new. Yes, Lord. Lord, you've taken our shame, you've given us a new name. You've given us joy. You've taken our pain. You've called us. You've called us by name. You've taken our shame, and in its light, you give us joy. You've given us joy. You've taken our pain. You've taken our name. You've called us by name. I'm going to pray for Egypt. Just continue worship. Just continue, Rachel. Father, I ask you that in the land of Egypt, you would raise up altar ministries. You would raise up five cities of unusual devotion. That in the presence of resistance and darkness, they would persevere before you. That I just need to raise up companies that entreat the Lord for healing for their land. That knows the name of the Lord. Raise up messengers in Egypt that know you and love you. God, I ask you for the prayer room at Casa Eldobaro with Lillian and the group that we know so well over there. I ask that you would strengthen that 24-hour prayer room in Cairo. God, I ask you for the prayer rooms all around the nation of Egypt. Raise up those who entreat the name of the Lord for healing of the land.
06 the Forerunner Message in Isaiah 18-19
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Mike Bickle (1955 - ). American evangelical pastor, author, and founder of the International House of Prayer (IHOPKC), born in Kansas City, Missouri. Converted at 15 after hearing Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach at a 1970 Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference, he pastored several St. Louis churches before founding Kansas City Fellowship in 1982, later Metro Christian Fellowship. In 1999, he launched IHOPKC, pioneering 24/7 prayer and worship, growing to 2,500 staff and including a Bible college until its closure in 2024. Bickle authored books like Passion for Jesus (1994), emphasizing intimacy with God, eschatology, and Israel’s spiritual role. Associated with the Kansas City Prophets in the 1980s, he briefly aligned with John Wimber’s Vineyard movement until 1996. Married to Diane since 1973, they have two sons. His teachings, broadcast globally, focused on prayer and prophecy but faced criticism for controversial prophetic claims. In 2023, Bickle was dismissed from IHOPKC following allegations of misconduct, leading to his withdrawal from public ministry. His influence persists through archived sermons despite ongoing debates about his legacy