“God plans to make Egypt, Israel, and Iraq a blessing to all the world.” This final announcement seems to be more breathtaking than all of the previous promises: These same three nations who up to this point in history have been at such terrible odds with each other and the great disturbers of the peace of the rest of the world will turn around and suddenly become a blessing on earth (v. 24). What is more, God will bless each of the three nations individually. He will call Egypt “My people;” Assyria/ Iraq will be named “My handiwork;” and Israel will be known by God as “My inheritance,” v. 25). Those are the names that had at one time or another been the exclusive names for Israel, but now were being shared with her former enemies!
We are familiar with the call of Abraham, where God promised that he and his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:3), but now God promises something similar to these three former bitter enemies who will now be “third[s]” together in the kingdom of God. Amazing!
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “Israel and Her Neighbors: Isaiah 19” in Israel, the Church and the Middle East: A Biblical Response to the Current Conflict ed. Mitch Glaser and Darrell Bock (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2018) 43-44.