The prophecies of Isaiah were written around 750 B.C. and pertained primarily to the major powers of his own day, but if you tweak them just a bit, they apply remarkably well to us. Believers will say that’s because his prophecies were laced with intentional double-meaning, but you don’t have to be a believer to see how remarkably well his words apply to our day and age.
According to Avraham Gileadi (my favorite commentator on the book of Isaiah), the ancient nation that most closely corresponds to the modern United States of America is Egypt. So I thought it would be interesting to present a few exceprts from Isaiah 19, replacing “Egypt” with “America,” “Egyptian” with “American,” etc.
1 The burden of America. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into the United States of America: and the idols of America shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of America shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Americans against the Americans: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the American Dream shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Americans will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce dictator shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
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11 Surely the Republicans are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of the president is become brutish: how say ye unto the president, I am the son of the wise, the son of the founding fathers?
12 Where are they? where are thy founding fathers? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon America.
13 The Republicans are become fools, the Democrats are deceived; they have also seduced America, even they that are the stay of the states thereof.
14 The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused the United States to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
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22 And the Lord shall smite the United States of America: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
