fearing

August 2, 2016

The future defeat of Egypt (Isa 19:16-19:17)

“On that day,

The Egyptians will be

Like women.

They will tremble with fear

Before the hand

That Yahweh of hosts

Raises against them.

The land of Judah

Will become a terror

To the Egyptians.

Everyone to whom it is mentioned

Will fear

Because of the plan

That Yahweh of hosts

Is planning against them.”

Once again, Yahweh, via Isaiah, talks about a specific future day, ‘on that day,’ when the Egyptians will be defeated. They would be afraid like women, trembling and fearing the hand of Yahweh. Judah would become a name to be feared in Egypt, where everyone there would fear Yahweh. However, the only great defeat of Egypt did not come until the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, some 400 years after the time of Isaiah, but not under the name of Judah.

June 16, 2015

King Antiochus IV dies (2 Macc 9:28-9:29)

“Thus the murderer and blasphemer, having endured more intense suffering, such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his life by a most pitiable fate, among the mountains in a strange land. Philip, one of his courtiers, took his body home. Then, fearing the son of Antiochus, he withdrew to Ptolemy Philometor in Egypt.”

King Antiochus IV, despite his kind words in the preceding letter, was perceived to be a murder and blasphemer. He endured justly the most intense suffering because he had inflicted suffering on others. He even died in a strange mountain land at the age of 51. Philip, according to 1 Maccabees, chapter 6, was to be in charge of his young son, now King Antiochus V. However, Lysias, who was in Antioch was helping the 9 year old king rule, according to the same source. Thus Philip went to the king of Egypt, King Ptolemy VI (180-145 BCE), who had been the young king that King Antiochus IV had defeated earlier in his reign.