February 13, 2022
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Reading along with us in Isaiah? Here’s today’s reading:
Isaiah 18 (NIV)
A Prophecy Against Cush
1 Woe to the land of whirring wings
along the rivers of Cush,
2 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,
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.
This immediately made me think of John 15. That God will prune us for correction, for growth, and for our own good. He can do it in our hearts and the hearts of nations.
Cush is believed to be a nation just South of Egypt in Northeast Africa, hence the reference to fair skin and a land of rivers. It is the first prophecy made against a nation that was not a direct neighbor of Israel. But they would be linked to the prophecy against Egypt which will come in chapter 19. It is interesting that this waring people who receive this judgement of God will one day brings its wealth to Zion, bringing homage to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Isaiah 18
God says, regarding the land of Ethiopia,
“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.”
will bring Him presents at Mount Zion.