April 2025

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 28: Fugitives from Justice 

Near the beginning of his long series of burdens on the nations, in Isaiah chapters 18 and 19 the prophet had announced the Burdens of Captivity, as we had described his burdens for Egypt and the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, or Kush. Then in Isaiah chapter 20 we read: “3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,” or Kush, and in Isaiah’s time kings of Kush had ruled over Egypt, something which they had done for approximately seventy-five years, or by some accounts, nearly as long as ninety years. Having discussed those burdens, we had posited that they had more than one aspect of meaning. The people of Judah at the time of Isaiah had indeed sought help from the Egyptians, in order to fend off the encroaching Assyrians, while many of them had also sought refuge in Egypt, having fled from the Assyrians. But Egypt is also used as an allegory for the Israelites, who had once been in captivity in Egypt, and in that manner also as a prophetic metaphor for Israel in captivity.

The twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt is often called the dynasty of “Black Pharaohs”, but that concept is entirely laughable, and the archaeological evidence is contrary, as many ancient statues of Kushite rulers with fine European features have been discovered, and since the Kushites of Africa had several language dialects among them which were clearly derived from the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia, which had also once belonged to the empire of Kush in Mesopotamia. However it is evident that the Kushites in Egypt had been accompanied by Nubians, having had Nubians in their own armies. The ultimate union of Kush and Nubia is described perhaps a hundred years after Isaiah, in Jeremiah chapter 13 where the Word of Yahweh asks a rhetorical question and its says: “23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” This is a Hebrew parallelism, where we see that by Jeremiah’s time the skin of Kush in Africa had become as that of a leopard, mixed with both black and white. (Isaiah chapter 43 also touches on this subject.)

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 27: Instruction from God

Thus far in the course of our discussion of Isaiah chapter 28, we have once again observed that as the children of Israel had been taken off into captivity for punishment for their sins, they were given hope in promises of a future reconciliation. However the terms of that reconciliation had also been expressed along with those promises. So where the prophet had asked “whom shall He teach knowledge?” and “whom shall He make to understand doctrine?”, as those questions had been answered in his prophecy it becomes manifest that doctrine and knowledge as they are taught by the Word of God are prerequisite to entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, as we discussed those answers, we noticed that Paul of Tarsus had cited this very passage in Isaiah where he wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that “21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.” There Paul had purposely omitted the reference to the rest of Yahweh which is found in that same statement he had cited from Isaiah 28:11-12. However writing in (what we now know as) Hebrews chapter 4, Paul spoke of the necessity of hearing the Word of Yahweh in order to enter into His rest, where he had said in part: “7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

Here in Isaiah, hearing the voice of Yahweh is described as learning His knowledge and understanding His doctrine, so Paul of Tarsus was essentially teaching the same things which the prophet Isaiah had also declared, even if it was from a somewhat different perspective. The hardening of hearts is the rejection of the Word of God, as Paul wrote earlier in that same epistle, in chapter 3, “15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” This is explained in Proverbs chapter 28 where we read “13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. 14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” There, hardening the heart is a rejection of the Word of God, and concealment of sin leads to evil, or, as the Hebrew word may also mean, distress, injury, misery or calamity. That is what happened to the children of Israel, they just kept sinning, and justified themselves for their sins. So the evil which resulted was the destruction of their kingdom, and their calamity was their going into captivity.