That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 19: THE SPIRIT OF PERVERSION

Day 19: THE SPIRIT OF PERVERSION

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In ancient times, Egypt used to be the courted and dreaded world power; the model land of civilization; the political, economic, and military superpower. But time came when the usual wise counsels of the wise government advisers in that great nation of Egypt began to get the nation into trouble. Those men had long established a reputation for wisdom and reliability as advisers, but this time, they all began to notice that their wisdom, rather than building up Egypt, was ruining it fast. It was not the isolated experience of just one or two of the counsellors; then it could have been easy to explain it. But it was the case with all the counsellors. Their ideas still looked very attractive, as usual, and the nation invested much into those ideas as well as in the counsellors themselves, but the hitherto reliable, world-famous advisers, as well as their impressive counsels, were becoming an unfortunate national disaster, causing the nation to stagger like a drunkard in his vomit.

Certainly, there was a conspiracy against Egypt; a high-level spiritual conspiracy working to wreck the land through phenomenal disasters resulting from the previously dependable inputs of those and other national officers, who used to be the backbone of Egypt’s strength and the architects of her greatness as a nation. In Isaiah 19:14, we discover the source of Egypt’s calamities:

The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man thereof in his vomit.

Perhaps the matter becomes clearer as we read it from other translations also:

The Living Bible:

The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so that all their suggestions were wrong; they make Egypt stagger like a sick drunkard (v.14).

The Amplified Bible

14 The Lord has mingled a spirit of perverseness, error and confusion within her; her leaders have caused Egypt to stagger in all her doings, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15 Neither can any work accomplish anything for Egypt, whether by head or tail, palm branch or rush, high or low.

16 In that day will the Egyptians be like women , and they will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shakes over them.

The Good News Bible

11 The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools! Egypt’s wisest people give stupid advice! How dare they tell the king that they are successors to the ancient scholars [of Havard, Oxford, Cambridge, Toronto, etc] and kings [Zik, Awolowo, Nkurumah, John F. Kennedy, etc]? 12 King of Egypt, where are those clever advisers of yours? Perhaps they can tell you what plans the LORD Almighty has for Egypt. 13 The leaders of Zoan and Memphis are fools. They were supposed to lead the nation, but they have misled it. 14 The LORD has made them give confusing advice. As a result, Egypt does everything wrong and staggers like a drunken man slipping on his own vomit. 15 No one in Egypt, rich or poor, important or unknown, can offer help.

God judged Egypt – by mingling “a perverse spirit in the midst thereof” – a kind of judgment usually sent upon leaders. The effect of the judgment was that Egypt, the hitherto strong, reliable, and model nation, the ‘giant of the ancient world,’ began to be a shame; a weakened, fearing, staggering embarrassment. How did this come about? Through the counsellors of Egypt whose wisdom God perverted to foolishness. They were experienced and skillful. They offered their best. Their ideas had worked in and profited theirs as well as other lands in the past. But this time the result was anticlimactic. Unknown to them, God had mingled a perverse spirit in their midst. But they were in no position to discern, so they “staggered” on, without balance, without stability – politically, socially, economically, etc. (Is that where we are now as a people?)