Isaiah 17:12-18:7 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 17:12-18:7. Let’s go!
Isaiah 17:12-14 (NIV)
12 Oh, the raging of many nations– they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples– they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
On verses 12-14: Isaiah has just written an oracle against Aram and Israel (v1-11). He follows up with these verses, the message being that no matter how fierce, how powerful, how loud a nation or a group of nations may seem, there are nothing compared to the LORD. The one we are to fear is not an alliance of nations or people but the LORD.
Isaiah 18:1-7 (NIV)
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, whose land is divided by rivers.
3 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.
4 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.”
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
On verses 1-7: Next Isaiah has a message for the people of Cush, also known as Ethiopia. Isaiah describes how God is going to prune Cush (v5-6) but that in the end the people of Cush will trust in the LORD, bringing their gifts to the place where God is worshiped (v7).
It reminds me of John 15:2 where Jesus says, “…every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Praise God who allows us sometimes to go through a pruning process so that we can be more fruitful.
Father thank You that even when we go through seasons of pruning, we can still praise You, knowing that You will use that pruning process to make us more fruitful and to clarify our reason for living and doing what we do. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
