The Drunken Stagger of a Godless State Text: Isaiah 19:11-15
Introduction: The Committee of Dunces
We live in an age that worships at the altar of expertise. Our modern pharaohs, whether in Washington D.C. or Brussels, surround themselves with legions of counselors, advisors, think tanks, and blue-ribbon panels. They are the sons of the wise, the graduates of ancient and prestigious universities, and they confidently assure us that they have the plan. They have the five-point proposal, the ten-year projection, the sustainable development goal. They speak in the calm, credentialed tones of the expert class, and yet, if we have eyes to see, we can watch as they lead their nations staggering into a ditch.
The world believes that its problems are technical, that they require more data, more funding, more sophisticated algorithms. But the Bible diagnoses the problem as fundamentally spiritual. The issue is not a lack of information, but a rebellion against the ultimate source of all information. When a nation, a culture, a civilization turns its back on the living God, it does not become intelligently secular. It becomes profoundly, monumentally stupid. God does not need to hurl thunderbolts from heaven to judge a rebellious nation; He can simply give them exactly what they want. He gives them over to their own vaunted wisdom, which is the surest path to ruin.
This is the lesson of Isaiah 19. Egypt was the ancient world's superpower. It was the kingdom of the Nile, a civilization that had endured for millennia, renowned for its wisdom, its architecture, and its political stability. The princes of Zoan and Memphis were not backwater bumpkins; they were the inheritors of a long and proud tradition of statecraft. And yet, the prophet Isaiah, speaking for Yahweh of hosts, declares that this entire edifice of human wisdom is a sham. It is a hollowed-out gourd, painted to look like iron. God is about to expose the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of the world's finest minds, and He will do it by simply mixing them a cocktail of confusion and letting them drink it down.
What we are about to read is not just an ancient oracle against Egypt. It is a timeless diagnosis of what happens when human pride sets itself up against the counsel of God. It is a description of our own time. When you see our leaders making one senseless decision after another, when you see our culture lurching from one absurdity to the next, you are not watching a series of unfortunate coincidences. You are watching the fulfillment of Isaiah 19. You are watching a drunken man stray into his own vomit.
The Text
The princes of Zoan are merely ignorant fools; The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become senseless. How can you men say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old?” Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what Yahweh of hosts Has counseled against Egypt. The princes of Zoan have acted as ignorant fools, The princes of Memphis are deluded; Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes Have led Egypt astray. Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken man strays into his vomit. There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.
(Isaiah 19:11-15 LSB)
The Folly of the Elite (v. 11)
Isaiah begins his dissection of Egypt's decay at the very top, with the royal court.
"The princes of Zoan are merely ignorant fools; The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become senseless. How can you men say to Pharaoh, 'I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old?'" (Isaiah 19:11)
Zoan was a major city in the Nile Delta, a center of political power. The princes and counselors gathered there were the best and the brightest Egypt had to offer. They were the Ivy Leaguers of their day. Notice the divine assessment: they are "ignorant fools." Their counsel has become "senseless." The Hebrew word for senseless here is related to the idea of being brutish, like an unthinking animal. Their sophisticated policy papers, their nuanced geopolitical strategies, are, in the sight of God, nothing more than the grunting of beasts.
Why? Because their wisdom is cut off from its source. True wisdom begins with the fear of Yahweh (Prov. 9:10). Any system of thought, any political philosophy, that does not begin with this foundational premise will inevitably curdle into folly. It may maintain the outward forms of wisdom for a time, coasting on the fumes of a previous generation's piety, but the internal logic will rot. This is the state of the West today. We still have the buildings of Harvard and Yale, but the animating fear of God that built them is long gone. Consequently, the counsel that comes out of them has become brutish.
Isaiah then issues a direct, taunting challenge. "How can you say to Pharaoh, 'I am a son of the wise'?" These men traded on their pedigree. Their wisdom was a matter of heritage, of being the sons of ancient kings and sages. They were the establishment. But God mocks this appeal to tradition. Your tradition is bankrupt, He says. Your credentials mean nothing. You are claiming an inheritance of wisdom that you have long since squandered through your idolatry and rebellion. You have the diplomas on the wall, but the intellectual and spiritual bank account is overdrawn.
The Divine Challenge (v. 12)
The mockery continues in verse 12, as God throws down the gauntlet.
"Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what Yahweh of hosts Has counseled against Egypt." (Isaiah 19:12)
This is a classic prophetic taunt, one Isaiah uses elsewhere against the false gods of Babylon (Is. 41:23). The true test of wisdom, the true test of divinity, is the ability to declare the end from the beginning. God says, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Is. 46:10). He is the Lord of history. So, He challenges the Egyptian brain trust: "If you are so wise, tell me what I am about to do. Look into the future and discern my sovereign plan."
Of course, they cannot. Their wisdom is limited to the horizontal plane. They can analyze crop yields, troop movements, and trade deficits. But they are utterly blind to the vertical dimension. They have no category for the sovereign counsel of Yahweh of hosts. They are trying to play chess without being aware of the player who moves all the pieces. All secular statecraft is like this. It is an exercise in rearranging the deck chairs on a ship whose course has been set by another.
The great irony is that God's plan is the most important piece of intelligence they could possibly possess. The counsel of Yahweh against Egypt is the one determinative fact about their future. But their entire system of "wisdom" is designed to exclude this fact. They are willfully ignorant of the one thing that matters. This is why our own political discourse is so insane. We debate endlessly about marginal tax rates and carbon footprints, while ignoring the plain declaration of God's Word that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Prov. 14:34).
Delusion and Deception (v. 13)
The verdict is repeated and expanded. The rot is systemic.
"The princes of Zoan have acted as ignorant fools, The princes of Memphis are deluded; Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes Have led Egypt astray." (Isaiah 19:13)
Memphis was another capital city, representing the leadership of the entire nation. The charge here is not just ignorance, but delusion. They are deceived. And because they are deceived, they have become deceivers. The "cornerstone of her tribes," the very leaders who are supposed to provide stability and direction, are the ones leading the nation astray. The shepherds are leading the sheep over a cliff.
This is a critical principle of divine judgment. When a people persist in rebellion, God does not just leave them to their own devices; He confirms them in their delusion. Paul describes this in Romans 1, where God "gave them up" to a debased mind. He says of the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians 2 that "God will send them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false." When men love the lie, God in His righteous judgment will give them the lie, and give it to them good and hard.
We see this all around us. How else can you explain a culture that celebrates the mutilation of children as a form of healthcare? How else can you explain a society that believes men can become women? This is not a simple error in reasoning. This is a delusion. It is a spiritual blindness sent from God upon a people who have rejected His truth. The cornerstones of our culture, our universities, our media, our corporations, are leading the people astray into a fantasy world, and the result is national disintegration.
The Spirit of Distortion (v. 14)
Verse 14 reveals the ultimate source of this national confusion. It is a direct, supernatural act of God's judgment.
"Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken man strays into his vomit." (Isaiah 19:14)
This is a terrifying verse. God Himself is the one who has "mixed" this spirit of distortion. The image is of a bartender mixing a poisonous cocktail. He has mingled a spirit of confusion, of perversity, into the very heart of Egypt's leadership. This is not to say that God is the author of sin, but rather that He is the sovereign Lord over sin. He can and does use the sinful folly of men to accomplish His own righteous purposes. He withdraws His common grace, He removes the restraints, and He allows the natural consequences of rebellion to run their full, chaotic course.
The result is a national stagger. The image is graphic and disgusting: "As a drunken man strays into his vomit." A drunkard has lost his equilibrium. His perceptions are warped. He cannot walk a straight line. He makes a fool of himself, and ends up falling into his own filth. This is Isaiah's inspired picture of a nation under God's judgment. Its policies are incoherent. Its culture is debased. Its leaders cannot distinguish right from left. It stumbles from one crisis to the next, lurching erratically, making a mess of everything it touches, and befouling itself in the process. Look at the state of our foreign policy, our economic policy, our cultural life. If that is not a picture of a drunken man staggering in his own vomit, then words have no meaning.
Paralysis and Impotence (v. 15)
The final verse of our text describes the outcome of this divine judgment: total societal paralysis.
"There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do." (Isaiah 19:15)
The nation becomes incapable of productive work. The "head or tail, palm branch or bulrush" is a merism, a figure of speech that encompasses everything from the highest to the lowest. The elites ("head" and "palm branch," a symbol of loftiness) and the common people ("tail" and "bulrush," a lowly reed) are all rendered impotent. The leadership cannot lead, and the people cannot work. The entire society grinds to a halt.
This is the inevitable end of a society that rejects God's wisdom. When you abandon the Creator's instruction manual, the machine breaks down. All the plans, all the projects, all the great works come to nothing. The economy falters. The infrastructure crumbles. The culture ceases to produce anything of lasting value. The whole enterprise becomes futile. A nation that will not work for God will eventually find that it cannot work at all.
Conclusion: The Only Sobering Counsel
This passage is a grim and sobering prophecy, not just for ancient Egypt, but for any nation that follows the same trajectory. The wisdom of the world is a dead end. The counsel of the ungodly leads to the stagger of the drunkard. The pedigrees of our elites are no defense against the judgment of God.
But this is not the final word. The counsel of Yahweh against Egypt was a counsel of judgment, but the ultimate counsel of Yahweh for the nations is a counsel of grace. The same God who mixes a spirit of distortion for the proud offers a spirit of wisdom for the humble. The same God who strikes the nations can also heal them. Later in this very same chapter, Isaiah foretells a day when there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of Egypt, when Egyptians will know the Lord, and He will heal them (Is. 19:19-22).
How is this possible? It is possible because God had a counsel that was determined before the foundation of the world. It was a plan to deal with the pride and folly of man once and for all. This was the counsel to send His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the very wisdom of God incarnate (1 Cor. 1:24). On the cross, Jesus drank the full cup of God's wrath against our foolish rebellion. He took upon Himself the judgment we deserved. He was treated as the ultimate fool, so that we might be made the wisdom of God in Him.
The only escape from the drunken stagger of this world is to flee to the cross. The only true wisdom is to abandon our own and bow the knee to Christ. He is the only cornerstone that will not lead us astray. All other ground is sinking sand. All other counsel is brutish. The princes of this world are fools, and their wisdom is passing away. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Therefore, let us abandon the committee of dunces that governs this world and submit to the wise and gracious rule of our King.