Isa 19: 11-15 The Lord Has Mingled A Perverse Spirit In… Egypt

Isa 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Isa 19:12  Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
Isa 19:13  The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
Isa 19:14  The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

Isa 19:15  Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

In our last two studies we saw how the Lord is in the process of drying up the waters of Egypt.  The “rivers of living waters” of the Truth of God’s Words have long ago been dried up and replaced by the deadly “waters of Egypt [and] the rivers of Babylon”. We have demonstrated that the holy spirit uses those two phrases interchangeably to speak of what are both the same spiritual condition within our hearts and minds:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Spiritually speaking we are here told that the city in which our Lord was crucified is nothing other than Sodom and Egypt. Where does such an idea originate? It originates from the same spirit which inspired this prophecy of Isaiah:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

“The great city wherein our Lord was crucified” is called “Sodom and Egypt”, and it is also first called a harlot right here is Isaiah.

Now let’s go back and look very carefully at that Revelation 11:8.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Jerusalem, the symbol of the Lord’s own people, is called Sodom, and it is called a harlot. It is the use of the word ‘harlot’ or ‘whore’, which gives us to know that  “the mother of harlots” is the same apostate people of God, apostate Israel:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Clearly these words are being directed to those who have been “nourished and brought up [as the Lord’s own] children”, who have now “rebelled against [Him]”, and are now “drunken with the blood of the saints… from Abel to Zacharias”:

Luk 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

While the churches of this world point their fingers at anyone but themselves, you and I are blessed to know that “this generation” means this generation reading these words from the time of Christ until today.

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.

When the Lord’s rebellious people, in time, become aware that they have been carried away as captives to Babylon, this is their lament:

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Psa 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

This is the point at which we are brought to see that the Truth of God, through the judgment of God, is being cut off from Egypt. Suffering with Christ has been replaced with substitutionary atonement, a ten-​second sinner’​s prayer and the prosperity gospel. When we come to see all of that, then Egypt’s destruction within us is well underway. The lack of those waters of Egypt causes, and brings about, the drying up of everything which is supported by that water. Those who work with flax are not in the waters, but they are nourished by those waters, and without those waters “they that weave networks” will cease to exist.

As we have already shown by the scriptures, ‘waters’ typify both people and the doctrines believed by those people and how those words and doctrines support their lives. If and when we come to see that everything upon which our own lives have depended for support is no longer able to support us, then it begins to dry up and cease to exist.

The waters of Babylon feed and support Babylon and all the activities and commerce of Babylon in the same way the waters of Egypt feed and support all the people and activities and all the businesses that are part of Egypt. When the waters of Babylon are dried up, Babylon will fall and be no more:

Rev 16:12  And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

Both Egypt and Babylon are but types and shadows of who we are at different stages of the Lord’s work within our lives.

Egypt and its waters typify our first contact with our Creator. It is while we are living by the waters of Egypt that we begin to see that we are enslaved to our flesh. We begin to see that we are enslaved to Egypt.  We realize that what saved us from starvation and brought us to Christ has now become a slave master:

Exo 1:8  Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
Exo 1:9  And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Exo 1:10  Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Exo 1:11  Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13  And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

Christ put all of this in these words:

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Physical Israel symbolizes our knowledge of Christ in the flesh only, as we all first come to know Him. At first we see Christ as a babe in His crib, then as a 12 year-​old boy questioning the teachers in the temple. Then we see Him as a teacher, working miracles, feeding thousands and healing their sick. Then we see Christ as a dying man on the cross, and our final knowledge of Christ is as a resurrected body which we can touch and with whom we can eat. We simply cannot yet know Him in the spirit. That carnal knowledge of Christ, with all the “carnal command[ments]” (Heb 7:12) that come with it, is the bondage that becomes our slave master, “the law… for the lawless”:

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

At first Egypt appeared to be our savior, and indeed it gave us the land of Goshen, and for a time the Lord Himself caused us to prosper in Egypt. It was the Lord who first showed Himself to us, typified as Joseph in Egypt. But something happened and that which “[brought] us to Christ” somehow became a “schoolmaster” and a slave master to us:

Exo 2:23  And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Exo 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin [under the law for the lawless], that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith [Christ] came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law [“for the  lawless”] was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [under the schoolmaster, the law], differeth nothing from a servant [Greek:  doulas (G1210) – slave, bondservant], though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant [a slave “under the law”], but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The very meaning of the name Moses means ‘drawn from the waters’.

We must understand that the waters from which we are first drawn at this stage, are the waters of Egypt which empty into the “sea” out of which all flesh comes. We do not come willingly:

Isa 19:4  And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 19:5  And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
Isa 19:6  And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
Isa 19:7  The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Soon enough we will come out of Egypt through the gut-wrenching experience of the Red Sea. And yet this coming out of Egypt is but a precursor to later coming out of Babylon. However, before we can even go into Babylon, we must first enter into another even greater very trying time of dwelling in the wilderness, between Egypt and the land of promise. This experience lasts forty years, symbolizing a time of great trial which seems at the time to be an eternity, and it begins the process of the dying of our old man and the destruction of his kingdom within us:

Num 14:33  And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Num 14:34  After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Our old man only begins to die there in the wilderness. It is while we are there in the wilderness that we begin to be brought to our wits’ end, and we will even wish we could return to the slavery of Egypt. The pains and trials of life are just more than we can bear, and it appears to us that the Lord has brought us out here just to destroy us. Indeed our old man is in the process of being destroyed there in the wilderness, but the fruit of that experience is a new generation which will enter into the land of promise as type and a shadow of our new man.

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Heb 3:16  For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18  And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb 3:19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

In the promised land we are given the work of waging war against the giants whom God has placed there to try us while we are in our promised land. We are even given to build big outwardly very beautiful houses for God, and we experience what seems to be a time of permanent peace.

But even after we have experienced the typical death of our old man in the wilderness and we are granted to enter into the promised land typifying “heaven itself”,​ and after we have subdued many of the giants who have ruled over those nations within us, we are predestined to “lose [our] first love” (Rev 2:4) and become so corrupted that the Lord must send us off into a second time of slavery. In this state of slavery we are again seduced into feeling very comfortable in our bondage.

This is all of us each in our own time:

Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Think about this. When we are taken away captives to Babylon, we are Israel, we are in the promised land, and we have turned our backs on God while at the same time self-righteously proclaiming that we are God’s Israel, His special people. At that point we have become so self-righteous that we have already spiritually been carried away into the  bondage of Babylon, and we aren’t even aware of our sad spiritual condition.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

We become so comfortable in Babylon that we don’t even realize that we are in bondage. The multitudes in Babylon never realize where they are spiritually, but it is there “by the waters of Babylon” that a chosen few are granted to be shown that they are a wild beast, a man of sin who is usurping and is sitting upon the very throne of God within their own hearts. Along with this knowledge, we are granted to overcome that wild beast who is always there, and to come out of Babylon and return to the Lord, and we are commissioned to begin to rebuild His temple. However, this second temple, typifying the Lord’s elect, is nowhere near as outwardly beautiful as the first temple we were given to build.

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Zec 4:7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
Zec 4:8  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Zec 4:9  The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Zec 4:11  Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
Zec 4:12  And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
Zec 4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:14  Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

This 4th chapter of Zechariah is explained in the 11th chapter of Revelation:

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

It is “the temple of God in heaven”, which is typified by the second much smaller and much less outwardly glorious temple, which typifies the Lord’s elect in whom He dwells (1Co 3:16 and 2Co 6:16).

Hag 2:9  The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

This latter temple is so small and despised that it seems to have no glory at all when compared to the first temple we built. But it is this “time of small things” that the Lord will use to finish His work within us and make us far greater and far more glorious that the earthly glory of our first temple, where all we knew was “Christ after the flesh”. “Henceforth know we Him no more… after the flesh.”

Exo 2:10  And the child [Moses] grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Hag 2:6  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
Hag 2:7  And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:9  The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

It is those who make up this “latter temple” who know where the living waters of life are. They are the ones out of whose bellies will flow “rivers of living water”:

Here again are a few verses which show us the spiritual meaning of the word ‘waters’ in the scriptures:

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Rev 21:6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

So waters symbolize both the people and the words and doctrines of Christ as well as the people and the words and doctrines of Egypt and Babylon. When the Lord’s Truth, those ‘waters of life’, are taken away from us, this is what we experience:

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

The words of the Lord are what prevents famine in our land. We are told that we are cleansed by the washing of His Word, which again is called water:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

With the spiritual meaning of ‘water’ in mind, we will continue our study here in Isaiah 19:

Isa 19:8  The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Who is it who is able to understand what the holy spirit is saying here through the prophet Isaiah? This is the answer of scripture:

Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

Concerning “They that go down to the sea in ships [and] that do business in great waters, what is it they see? What are “His wonders in the deep”?

The answer is given to us in the very next verse. This is “His wonders in the deep”:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Those who are given eyes that see know that “[God’s] wonders in the deep” consist of Him commanding and raising “the stormy wind which lifts up the waves” which melt our souls and bring us to our wits’ end. Only after that has been worked in our lives will He calm the wind and the waves which He has raised up. Only then will He bring us out of our distresses, make us glad and bring us to our desired place of rest, “[our] desired haven”.

That is a scriptural description of the Lord’s wonders in the great deep. “The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.” It sounds very much like, “He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They are at their wits’ end… their soul is melted because of trouble… they cry to the Lord in their trouble.”

“He” is of course the Lord Himself working His wonders in “the deep” where “they that go down to the sea in ships… spread their nets.” So what is the holy spirit speaking of in these verses about the need for water and the judgments of God which are symbolized by the drying up of the waters? This is all about the judgment which is now upon the house of God which we are (1Co 3:16 and 1Pe 4:17). Our Lord Himself tells us to what the scriptures are really referring when speaking of spreading nets in waters:

Mat 4:18  And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
Mat 4:19  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Men are likened to fish in the Lord’s parables:

Mat 13:47  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
Mat 13:48  Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
Mat 13:49  So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

The great whore and all of her daughter harlots thrive on outward blessings which are called “the waters of Egypt”, and when those waters begin to dry up, this is what happens within us:

Isa 19:9  Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
Isa 19:10  And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
Isa 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Isa 19:12  Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
Isa 19:13  The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
Isa 19:14  The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
Isa 19:15  Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

This is the meaning of “the head and the tail”:

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

This prophecy is addressed to our heavens and to our earth, and it begins by informing us that our “head is sick”. The head of our heavens and the head of our earth is our rebellious old man who “cannot hear Christ’s words” for the simple reason that we have been given ears that hear but simply cannot understand what they are hearing:

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

It is God Himself who has made us to simply not see the mysteries of the kingdom of God working within us.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

When we are being judged there is no work or even a place in our lives for false doctrines. Those false doctrines used to be our leader, and they are now being destroyed, and they have no work to do within us:

Lam 5:15  The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
Lam 5:16  The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Lam 5:17  For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Those are the words of our rebellious, dying old man. Those dying words produce these words of life:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will see how the Lord will begin to work with Egypt within us:

Isa 19:16  In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
Isa 19:17  And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
Isa 19:18  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.
Isa 19:19  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.
Isa 19:20  And it shall 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 deliver them.