Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+018

 

Chapter 18 (ESV)

1 Ah, land of whirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of Cush,
² which sends ambassadors by the sea,
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴ For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
⁶ They shall all of them be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts

from a people tall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide,

to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.

 

REFLECTION:

1. During 715 BC, envoys of Cush (Ethiopia) tried to persuade Jerusalem to align with them against Assyria. Isaiah fiercely opposed it and proclaimed to the messengers that God is in control of history.  When time comes, God will intervene directly and cause Assyrian to crumble so that Cush will know God.
2. Sometimes we are eager to do something on our own, regardless of what others think or feel. We may not even consider how our actions would appear to God.  God sees and knows us.  He is aware of our actions, but he remains quiet and still.  Why do you think God allows us to pursue our plans?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

In Control – youtu.be/YVS6hTRgOOI