Year 9, Day 3: Isaiah 18

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Ah, Isaiah 18.  It’s the oracle against Cush that honestly isn’t against Cush.  In fact, Cush is mentioned in the opening stanza and then the rest of the oracle is addressed more to the rest of the world than anyone else.  If we were to say that the oracle is against anyone, it would be against the people of the nations near the Promised Land.  God is telling the people of Cush – and the rest of the world – to keep their distance and be prepared to look on in awesome terror as God uses Assyria to make chaos in the region of the Promised Land.

As we would expect, we hear about God destroying the region.  Shoots will be cut off.  Spreading branches will be removed.  Essentially, God is going to come in, take out a bunch of nations that are so full of themselves that they are no longer acknowledging Him, and then lay them bare.  He is going to lay them open so that it is clear that they will have no option but to go into exile, repent, and acknowledge Him.

What I love, though, is the end of this passage.  What is going to happen when the nations around the Promised Land is laid bare?  We have no way of knowing with absolute certainty what nation is being spoken of, but perhaps the point.  A nation – some nation – will come forth and bring praise to God.  It could be Babylon, the nation that destroys Assyrian domination, as we know that for a while the Babylonians respect people like Daniel who bring God to them.  It could be the Persians, as we know that Cyrus was called a messiah in the Old Testament.  It could be Egypt/Cush itself, as we know that they were spared from the Assyrian threat.

The point is that the result of the nations of the Promised land being laid bare is that God will be praised.  People will recognize God’s supremacy.  People will do exactly what they aren’t doing and therefore deserving of punishment.  People will stop focusing on themselves, stop leaning on their own understanding, stop thinking of themselves as their own salvation, and instead turn to God.  What a wonderful end to the chapter.

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