Frameworks:
Isaiah 18: A prophecy against Cush [Upper Nile - Ethiopia]
v.1,2
A warning to the people of Cush
v.3,4
The world and the Lord will watch them
v.5-7
This people will be pruned before harvest and they will come
to God
[Introductory
Comment: This short chapter warns this
particular group of people who seem to feel secure in their international
travels, that the Lord is coming to prune them in the sight of
the world, in order to bring them to their senses and to the Lord.]
v.1,2
A warning to the people of Cush
v.1
(Cush, get ready for
sorrow) Woe
to the land of whirring wings
along the rivers of Cush,
v.2 (You
who are strong and travel far and wide) which
sends envoys by sea
in papyrus boats over the water.
Go,
swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers.
v.3,4
The world and the Lord will watch them
v.3 (The
world will watch when this happens) All
you people of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it,
and when a trumpet sounds,
you will hear it.
v.4 (The
Lord will watch silently in anticipation) This
is what the Lord says to me:
‘I will remain quiet and will look on
from my dwelling-place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'
v.5-7
This people will be pruned before harvest and they will come to
God
v.5
(Even as there are shoots
of life, they will be taken) For,
before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading
branches.
v.6 (They
will be ravished by others) They
will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter.
v.7
(Then this people will
worship the Lord) At
that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty
from
a people tall and smooth-skinned,
from a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers –
the
gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of
the Lord Almighty.
CONTINUE
TO CHAPTER 19