Well I'll be... DAM! ( A look at Isaiah 19:4-8).

A certain Manuel Tecson from Facebook posted a certain BBC news [Will Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam Dry the NileRiver in Egypt].  According to him, the news is the fulfillment of Isaiah 19:4-8.

In case you don’t have any idea what the hell is he talking about, here’s the Isaiah prophesy:

And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts. And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more]. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. - Isaiah 19:4-8

For Bible believers, prophecies are very important on proving the Bible and the existence of their god.  Since they believed that the Bible was inspired by a god, fulfilment of prophecies are evidence of supernatural and divine authorship in which only an omnipresent God can provide.  – If the prophesy was fulfilled, the Bible is true – therefore, their god exists! Sadly, it’s really not that easy.

Take Manuel Tecson for example.

According to him, the BBC news about the (supposed to be…) drying up of the Nile River because of the Grand Renaissance Dam was (again, supposed to be) the fulfillment of Isaiah 19:4-8, therefore… wait a minute? The prophesy was not talking about a dam drying up the Nile. The statement is very clear – the Egyptian was supposed to be defeated and to be govern by a fierce king, then the river (Nile?) will “supposed” to “dry up.”   Now, most Bible scholars agree that Isaiah 19:4-8 was predicting the time when Egypt was conquered by the Assyrians in 671 BCE. 

Wait? 

That was about thousands of years ago, right? About 2,600 years ago. Oh and by the way, in that period there were no historical accounts that says the Nile dried up. Does the prophesy says that the Egyptians will be conquered by the Assyrians and 2,600 years later, the Nile will dry up because of a dam that was built in Ethiopia? I don’t think so.  That will make Isaiah a very lousy prophet. 

I think Manuel Tecson was quite too late on his interpretation of Isaiah 19:4-8.