Isaiah 11:15, commentary and pictures

The Lord will completely dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea and by His powerful wind divide the river into seven shallow channels so His people can walk across on dry ground with every water barrier removed. It belongs to His promise to set His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria and Egypt and Pathros and Cush and Elam and Shinar and Hamath and the islands of the sea, gathering the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth to the ensign of the root of Jesse and making a highway for them like Israel's coming up out of Egypt. It describes His final gathering of Jews and Gentiles into His immortal kingdom at Christ's second advent, repeating with like power His deliverance of Israel from Egypt to overcome every barrier to that recovery. The wolf dwelling with the lamb and the earth full of the knowledge of the Lord and the gathering of the dispersed and the glorious reign over all the earth lie far in the future at the second coming, not at the human birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. It is a prophecy of better days for Israel when Jesus reigns as Prince of Peace and as Christ, when war and sorrow and sin and death no longer rule the earth.

Language and Prophetic Setting

The word rendered mighty wind is roo-agh in the sense of wind, describing the Lord acting with a mighty wind in the drying and dividing of the river. The Lord utterly destroys the tongue of the Egyptian sea and divides the river into seven streams so that men go over dry-shod, thereby clearing a safe passage through the waters and removing barriers to gather His people. This clearing of a way through waters so His people can pass safely recalls Israel's passage out of Egypt.

The verse belongs to the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, which consists of prophecies and historical accounts from the period of Isaiah's active public ministry. Those prophecies were issued on different occasions and later collected while remaining distinct. It belongs to the evangelistic prophecy of Isaiah, a prophet of Judah writing from 760 to 700 B.C. during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, in a book filled with Gospel truth. Like chapters 10 to 12, it reproves the great sins of Isaiah's day, points forward to similar conditions in the last days, and promises the great deliverance at the coming of Christ.

The verse belongs to the promise that God has set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people and gather them to His rest as truly as He set it before Israel of old. Assyria means Babylon, and with Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the sea as the places of scattering, the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah are assembled from the four corners of the earth under the root of Jesse standing for an ensign to which the Gentiles seek. To gather them the Lord utterly destroys the tongue of the Egyptian sea and with His mighty wind shakes His hand over the river and smites it in the seven streams and makes men go over dry-shod, making a highway for the remnant left from Assyria like as it was to Israel in the day he came up out of the land of Egypt.

The verse belongs to the prophecy of the Lord's second gathering of the remnant of His people from the countries where they were scattered. That gathering involves leaving the land of captivity and traveling west, with the following verses connecting the sea crossing with that westward journey. It is a prophetic denunciation concerning Egypt's waters, whose drying up would bring destruction to the country as a habitable land.

Second Gathering and Deliverance

The later part of the chapter belongs to the second coming, not the first. Its opening portrays the human birth at Bethlehem, but the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, the gathering of the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth, the setting up of an ensign for the nations, and the glorious reign over all the earth lie far in the future. They are placed side by side with the birth as if synchronous or closely connected within the lifetime of the Messiah, with no hint of the mighty stretch of years between the cradle and that day, so that humiliation and glorification, first and second comings, are gathered into one grand crisis without showing the time intervening between them.

Those restoration prophecies that refer to the return from captivity to Jerusalem were fulfilled in the past. Among the prophecies concerning Israel, some were fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon, while others may have a near and a distant fulfillment, with later fulfillment under the covenant conditions established through Christ. The gathering and deliverance here belong to the commencement of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just, associated with the gathering of many of literal Israel in Jerusalem during the battle of the great day of the Lord, alongside the deliverance of God's people in every nation and the outpouring of God's Spirit.

The drying of the Egyptian sea and the dividing of the river into seven streams so that people cross on dry ground removes barriers and clears a safe passage through the waters. This deliverance is the final gathering of Jews and Gentiles into the immortal kingdom at Christ's second advent, recalling and echoing Israel's passage out of Egypt. It is the promise that God will recover His remnant people with power like His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, overcoming barriers to bring about that recovery.

That recovery of the remnant follows the pattern of Israel's recovery from Egypt, with the wilderness journey and the events of Israel's forty years there serving as a type of the remnant's last-day recovery from bondage, and the recovery has an appointed period. As part of the prophecy of Israel's second gathering, the removal of the sea barrier and the dividing of the river into shallow streams for a dry-shod crossing presents a future deliverance like Israel's escape from Egypt, and that ancient deliverance was a type of God's final deliverance of His people and their inheritance of the renewed earth. This is God setting His hand a second time to recover the remnant from under the indignation, which is their deliverance from being trodden under foot by Gentile dominion, with the indignation ending before His anger falls on their oppressors.

It belongs to a future age of peace and better days for Israel, when Jesus reigns as Prince of Peace and as Christ, with deliverance and restoration in which war, sorrow, sin and death no longer rule the earth. It is part of the program of the accomplishment of the times of restitution of all things, when disorganized creation is reorganized and restored to its former condition, bringing coolness after heat and rest after sin scorched the soil and weakened mankind, with refreshing coming from the presence of the Lord. It belongs to God's closing work, in which a message goes to all nations and an ensign gathers God's people to take their stand.

God here repeats the Red Sea deliverance to bring the remnant out of spiritual Egypt to the heavenly Canaan on a highway, which is a message of truth promised to the last generation, so plain, clear and definite that once found there is no doubt about truth and the life to come, with all gaps and byways of error closed so it is easy to find and easy to follow. The Egyptian sea and river represent darkness and atheism, and their being struck and divided pictures God overcoming streams of error and opening a path of light through them so the remnant passes through dry-shod, with His power so evident that atheism will have no grounds to deny His existence. The work of this second-time deliverance may be delayed until those appointed to serve are prepared with meekness, humility, self-denial, self-distrust and implicit confidence in His leadership.