EGYPT SUBMITS TO ASSYRIA At the time, God proclaims His plan concerning Egypt, and all nations, represented in Egypt that in its midst He will establish His spiritual kingdom, and will grant it His blessing. He, once more, confirms to the children of Judah, the futility of leaning upon Egypt, to protect them against Assyria, as Egypt itself, together with Cush are to be eventually captivated by Assyria, so that they won’t lean upon human arms. 1. Captivity of Egypt and Cush 1-4. 2. Collapse of Judah 5-6. 1. CAPTIVITY OF EGYPT AND CUSH Certain scholars believed that Sargon, king of Assyria, who dispatched Tartan to Ashdod, was Shalmaneser or Sennacherib, while others denied the existence of a king with that name in Assyria. But, as said by Bultema1, God made the stones utter, to shame non-believers. Today, it became well known that Sargon has been one of the strongest kings of Assyria; he has been the father of Sennacherib, who confiscated the throne from Shalmaneser the fifth, and reigned after him. The word “Sargon” means “assigned by God,” or “the righteous king;” that name was meant to cover up his action of confiscating the throne. Tartan is not the name of a person, but most probably a military rank. Sargon dispatched the leader of his army to Ashdod, to face Soua, king of Egypt (2 Kings 17: 4); Ashdod, being on the border of the Philistines, has been a key to enter into Egypt. Recent studies revealed that Soua was not the name of a Pharaoh, but was an abbreviation of the name of a garrison leader in the Delta, called Sibe, or it was an abbreviation of the name of a town west of the Delta, called Sais, used by Tefnakhte as a dwelling place2. Assyria, having defeated Aram and Ephraim, saw that the time was ripe to strike Pharaoh. So the king dispatched the leader of his army to Ashdod to occupy it. He was the same leader sent by Sennacherib to put Jerusalem under siege. Wishing to move the feelings of His people, to transform their hearts, and to rebuke their leaning upon Egypt and Cush, God instructed His prophet to walk naked and barefoot before the people, for the duration of three years, to be himself a prophecy of what will happen to Egypt and Cush, when these two countries are captivated by Assyria, and their elite are led as prisoners and captives, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to their shame. Isaiah himself became “a sign and a wonder” (Is. 20: 3), an object of mockery by everyone who sees him, for the sake of the salvation of his people, and to stop them from leaning upon the Pharaoh of Egypt. Isaiah, in his sufferings and nakedness carried a shadow of the Passions of the Lord Christ, who suffered nakedness to clothe us with His righteousness; carried the wounds of His people in His body to heal us. Isaiah walked as a slave, with no sackcloth on his body or a sandals on his feet, as an image of his Master who “took the form of a servant” (Philippians 2: 7), in order to set us free of the yoke of servitude. 1 Bultema, p. 204. 2 Ibid. 2. THE COLLAPSE OF JUDAH As the Pharaoh of Egypt submitted to Assyria, Judah got terrified; their hopes devastated to see the humiliation of Egypt the subject of their pride: “And the inhabitants of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape? “(Is. 20: 6) That is the end of everyone who leans upon a human arm!
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