Isaiah 18

“Ah!  The land of buzzing insect wings beyond the rivers of Cush sends couriers by sea, in reed vessels on the waters.  Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers.  All you inhabitants of the world and you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, look!  When the trumpet sounds, listen!”  Isaiah 18:1-3 (HCSB)

Tsetse flies are buzzing beside the Nile River.  We are in the heat of a Sudanese summer.  Today’s passage takes us southwest of Israel and almost to the equator.  We might be tempted to think that a country so far away from Jerusalem would not come into God’s reckoning, but we would be mistaken.  Nothing escapes His notice, no matter how far away it is.  Cush is called to account.

Cush (aka Ethiopia) is in trouble.  A flurry of ambassadors is bent on achieving diplomatic solutions to the oncoming Assyrian aggressor, but to no avail.  On the surface, Isaiah’s message to the Cushites is encouraging.  It brings out the truth that God is in absolute control of events.  The Cushites have no reason to be concerned about war: God will allow the Assyrians to come only as far as Egypt and no further.  A trumpet (shofar) will sound in the mountains of Judah, proclaiming the limits of Assyria’s power.

God is never taken by surprise because He is Lord of all, and the nations rise and fall at His command.  Isaiah predicts Assyria’s end with graphic imagery: wild birds and animals devour them.  This teaching is repeated by the Apostle Paul in his sermon in Athens:

“From one man He made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.” Acts 17:26 (HCSB)

We find the same message in the Book of Job.  Satan is allowed to bring so much devastation into Job’s life, but there are limits.  It is the same lesson that lies behind the “chain” that currently binds Satan. (Revelation 20:1-2)  

Just as Damascus and Ephraim (Israel) will return to the Lord as a result of His chastisements, so too will there be Cushites (Ethiopians) who will come and present Him gifts.  (Psalm 68:31-35)

We cannot help but be reminded of the story (Acts 8) of the salvation of the Eunuch servant of Queen Candice of Ethiopia.  Most likely, a dispersed Jew who found himself pressed into the service of the Ethiopian queen, the Eunuch would have been in Jerusalem during the Pesach (Passover) crucifixion of Jesus.  No doubt, he heard the testimony of other dispersed Jews who heard the gospel proclaimed in their own language during the festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) 50 days after Pesach.  God sent Philip to the Eunuch, who was reading Isaiah 53. No doubt, when they reached Isaiah 56, its message of grace and mercy towards eunuchs was the trigger for the Eunuch’s faith in Jesus.  Praise the Lord that His Word can be trusted and His salvation endures forever!