Isaiah 19:14: The Lord has mixed her a spirit of distortion; they have led Egypt astray in all that it does, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

When Yahweh comes to Egypt, Isaiah says, He is going to throw Egypt’s advisors, wise men, sages, and prognosticators into confusion. The princes are fools, and Pharaoh’s cabinet has become stupid.

As often in the prophets, Isaiah describes this confusion as drunkenness.

Yahweh is making a mixed drink in the inner parts of Egypt. It will disorient and distort; because the Lord is pouring this mixed drink into Egypt, Egypt will stagger, stumble, and eventually fall. Egypt will be like a drunken man that falls into His own vomit.

This is part of the Lord’s work to restore and renew Egypt. Egypt is full of uncleanness in the inner parts, and that uncleanness needs to be purged. When Israel filled the land with idols and innocent blood, the Lord caused the land to vomit out the inhabitants. He cleansed the land by making a mixed drink that made the land so drunk that it vomited out the uncleanness from its insides. Yahweh accomplishes this by pouring the mixed drink of the Spirit into Egypt.

Not a pleasant image, but it is relevant to this table. According to Paul, this table can be a means of judgment. Some are sick and die because they come to this table full of bitterness against husband or wife, because they are estranged from brothers and sisters, because they have sinned and refused to seek reconciliation, because they are full of hatred and bitterness. Some are sick and die because they come to communion when they are out of communion.

But this table is part of the solution. Here at this table, the Lord mixes a Spiritual drink that serves as a Spiritual emetic. The Spirit makes this a table of joy, but it is a table of joy because through the fiery Spirit of Pentecost, the Father purges our inner parts. He mixes the wine of the Spirit, the blood of His Son, to bring out all the filth and to make us clean within, so that we may be saved.