Judgment of Ethiopia
September 26, 2021
Commentary
The prophet now turns his attention to the land of Ethiopia (Cush). Cush is a land that included modern Ethiopia, the Sudan and Somalia. the land shadowed with buzzing wings possibly refers to locusts and probably pictures the armies of Ethiopia. The king of Ethiopia had heard that Assyria’s great army was marching south towards them. He sent messengers up the Nile asking the surrounding nations to form an alliance (vv. 1-2). Isaiah exhorted the Ethiopians to go home and not to try to form this alliance because the Lord would defeat the enemy at the proper time (v. 3).
At this point it seems that God is really calling His hears to view things from a divine viewpoint rather than trusting in alliances and other powers (v. 4). The Lord promised through Isaiah that when the time would come to fight the Assyrians, they would know it and would see the enemy fall. However, the Assyrian army first had to complete the task God had for them; to punish the people of Israel by taking them captive. Once God’s purposes had been accomplished, He would intervene and cut them off (v. 5), just when they, like grapes, were beginning to ripen. Even though Isaiah illustrates this failure by that of a destroyed crop which is cut down, even before the time of her ripening, he ends with a message of hope (vv. 6-7). The very people who from their position of strength had sent word to Judah to cooperate in a military venture would come again with gifts for the true God of Zion. The prophet looks to a day when the Ethiopians would pay tribute to the Lord and would come to “Mount Zion.”
Application
Isaiah 18:1– 7 (NET)
1 Beware, land of buzzing wings, the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
2 that sends messengers by sea, who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, to a people that are feared far and wide, to a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide.
3 All you who live in the world, who reside on the earth, you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains; you will hear a trumpet being blown.
4 For this is what the Lord has told me: “I will wait and watch from my place, like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, like a cloud of mist in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted, and the ripening fruit appears, he will cut off the unproductive shoots with pruning knives; he will prune the tendrils.
6 They will all be left for the birds of the hills and the wild animals; the birds will eat them during the summer, and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
7 At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned, a people that are feared far and wide, a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide. The tribute will be brought to the place where the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion.