Isaiah 18:1-7

Journal:
Isaiah 18
Proclamation Against Ethiopia (Cush)
1 Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
2 Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”
3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
4 For so the LORD said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
6 They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 In that time a present will be brought to the LORD of hosts
From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts,
To Mount Zion.

Journal: God now turns his attention (and the words of His prophet Isaiah) toward Cush (Ethiopia), a land south of modern day Egypt. Yet, the message is not only for the Cushites but also for "all inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth" [verse 3]. That is, all the nations of the earth that would experience God's wrath through the rod in His hand, the Assyrians. Though He has remained quiet for a while, His patience is nearing an end. ("For so the LORD said to me, 'I will take My rest, and I will look from My dwelling place like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'”) His ultimate judgment contains two graphic pictures -- "He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches" [verse 5] and "they will be left together for the mountain birds of prey and for the beasts of the earth; the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them" [verse 6]. The end result of God's judgment is His own glory, for some of the Cushites (as well as the neighboring Egyptians) will be called according to His purpose ("In that time a present will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down, whose land the rivers divide— to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, to Mount Zion.")