In Isaiah’s day the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” is what we identify as theGulf of Suez, a northern extension of the Red Sea that slithers between Egypt and Sinai like a long wet tongue.  Since Isaiah’s writings man has dug out a northern extension of the “Egyptian Sea” to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas together.  This extension is known as the Suez Canal.  The two words “utterly destroy” come from “charam,” which means “to be cut off” or “to shut up.”  We are advised by God, through the prophet Isaiah, that He intends to completely shut-up the waters of what we identify today as the Suez Canal.  He will do so by crushing the western and eastern banks together by movement of two tectonic plates.

 

In Birth Pang Number 18, Chapter 20, the division of the Mount of Olives into two remaining halves was described, with one half being carried northward on the extreme southern edge of a newly created Gaza Plate, while the other half drifted south on the northern tip of a newly formed Sinai Plate (See Figure 33).  In Figure 34 you may observe the consequences of the movement of the Sinai Plate as it floats southward on an underground liquid sea of magma.  As the southward drift occurs, the Sinai Plate will be jammed against the massive African Plate.  Dry land will crunch against dry land, and the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” will be “completely shut-up.”  It will be possible to walk across this area on dry land throughout the millennial reign of Christ. 

 

When the expression “the river” is used in Hebrew, if there is no context above or below to identify it specifically, always means the Euphrates River.  The term “the river,” found above in verse fifteen, is “hannahar,” and it applies to the Euphrates River.  When it states that the Euphrates should be smitten “in the seven streams,” the Hebrew construction does not mean that it was already existing as seven streams, and that God smites all seven.  Instead, it states that God shall smite a single river and, when he has performed that action, it will have divided it into seven streams.  That single river is none other than the massive Euphrates River.  This drying up of the great Euphrates is also echoed by John in Revelation.

 

[12] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Revelation 16:12

 

We are advised in verse sixteen that the drying up of the great Euphrates creates a dry highway, a highway for the millennial return of Israelite tribulation survivors from lands east of the Euphrates.  The latter portion of this verse also indicates that the dry highway will extend into Egypt.  The “Israel” of verse sixteen represents the descendants of the man Jacob, hence the personal pronoun “he” is used, even though it refers to the entire nation that came forth from him through his twelve sons.  When the nation of Israel “came up out of the land of Egypt,” God parted the waters of the extreme northern extension of the Red Sea, the extension that Isaiah identified as “the tongue of the Egyptian Sea” in 700 B.C., but which is identified as the Gulf of Suez today.  On the day Israel crossed the “yam cuwph” extension of the Red Sea, while fleeing from the Egyptian Pharaoh, it could be said that God created a highway of dry land from Egypt to Assyria.  But God closed his dry land bridge to destroy the Pharaoh’s mighty army with a flood of closing walls of water, however, the dry land bridge he describes in Isaiah will last a thousand years.

 

Because of the drying up of the Euphrates, and the shutting up of the Suez Canal, it will be possible to walk all the way from Egypt to Assyria without passing through waters that cannot be waded in sandals.  When God jams the Sinai Peninsula against the extreme northeastern tip of Africa, a sea-free highway will be created, a highway that will last for a thousand years.  Two great continents, the African and the Eurasian, will be fused together by God.  Throughout the millennial reign of Christ the many nations of these massive continents will move up and down this dry land bridge to worship Christ in Jerusalem, the new capital of the world.  The commerce of Africa will flow through Israel to Eurasia, and the products of Eurasia will flow through to Africa.  Israel will sit at the crossroads of the world’s land and sea commerce.  She will be the center of the world.  God will destroy those who came against Jerusalem during the Tribulation Period.  And the city of Jerusalem will be the place where all the nations of the world come up to worship the King of kings, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel.

 

[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zechariah 14:2,3,16

 

[30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [33] And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Luke 1:30-33

 

[13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Daniel 7:13,14, 27.