‘In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come to Egypt, and the Egyptian to Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.'
In Isaiah's day, and in the conceptions of Judah, there were two great nations, one to the north, Assyria, and one to the south, Egypt (to the east was desert and to the west the sea). They could be seen as representing all nations. Between them was bitter enmity. They were irreconcilable. The highway between them, which led through Palestine, was a highway for armies, a highway of conquest. And so seemingly it would always be. And yet here was the impossible promise that one day a highway of peace and brotherhood would be built along which each would pass to the other, and they would worship the same God together.
And in the early days of the Christian church this became so. The universal church was united as one and met together in councils and in fellowship and worshipped together, acknowledging that they were one, all serving a Jewish, but universal, Messiah and Deliverer. And in days to come at the final triumph of Christ the true remnants of Egypt and Assyria will be one with all nations, serving and worshipping Yahweh.