Isai. xix. 24, 25. In that day shall Israel he the third vnth Egypt and tcith Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the zvork of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
THERE is among God's ancient people an idea, that, so far from their nation being converted to Christianity, the whole world is, in due season, to be
converted to Judaism. Nor do we wonder much that this error should obtain amongst them ; since, in the pro])hetic writings, the change which is to be wrought upon the Gentiles is very generally described in terms taken from the Jewish Law. This is peculiarly ob- servable in the passage before us, where Assyria and Egypt, the representatives of God's enemies in all ages, are spoken of as " raising an altar to the Lord," and " offering sacrifices thereon;" and "making vows unto the Lord," and "swearing by his name;" and as " raising up to him a pillar," such as the Israelites formed after their passage through Jordan, " to be a sign and a witness to the Lord" that they were his redeemed people, and that he alone was their God\ But a more thorough knowledge of their prophecies would convince them, that they are to enjoy a far different dispensation from that of Moses — a dis- pensation, not of works, but of grace; a dispensation, suited not to one small nation only, but to Egyptians and Assyrians, and to every people under heaven. In fact, though legal terms are here used to express the piety which shall characterize the latter day, it is of that day that my text speaks, when " all the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ;" and it is in this view that God expresses such satisfaction in it.
Let us consider,
I. The event in which God expresses such delight —
It is the conversion of the whole world to God —
[Egypt and Assyria, and the whole Gentile world, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be erected as a standard in the midst of them, shall flock to it from every quarter ; and, toge- ther with the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah, form one universal Church, " one fold under one Shepherd''." " With Assyria and Egypt shall Israel be a third, even a bless- ing in the midst of the land." Hitherto, " the Israelites have only been a curse in the different countries over which tliey have been dispersed*^:" for whilst they have been universally
^ See these different expressions, ver. 18 — 21. ^ Compare ver. 2.3, 24. with xi. 10 — 12, 15, 16.
<" Zech. viii. 13.