Isaiah 18:1-7

 

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.

 

New International Version (NIV)

We fear what we do not know. In fact, when we meet people who are different from us, we may assume the worst. You hear it in the prejudicial judgments which pronounce opinions as universal truth, “All of those people are always . . . (fill in the blank). Moving around the country and across the Atlantic Ocean as a child gave me ample opportunity to see this phenomenon is fairly universal. For  example, the Montanans tell North Dakotan jokes. “Did you hear about the North Dakotan . . .” they would start the story. About whom do the North Dakotans tell jokes? I remember them joking about people from Canada.

              

Everyone is strange to someone. The Israelites feared the people from Cush. They were tall with smooth skin, speaking a strange language from a land divided by rivers. As Isaiah envisioned swift messengers taking news of judgment to the people there, he shared what God said, “I will remain quiet . . .”  In a twist, the people of Cush turn to God and bring gifts to the Lord Almighty. They leave their land to come up to worship at Mount Zion where God’s name is hallowed. Cush is modern day Sudan and Southern Egypt. In our church we have a congregation of people from South Sudan. One day I walked into our Arabic Service for a prayer meeting about events in the Middle East. Our joyful Sudanese pastor, Johannes, was playing the keyboard, singing praise to God in Arabic. Our pastor Refat, from Egypt led us in prayer in Houston. Did you hear about the Cushites, who went up to worship the Lord Almighty? I have seen it myself. 

              

What should we think when God seems silent to us? What if we pray and receive no immediate reply?  Michael Card was a theologian who sang songs on Christian radio back in the 1980’s. His meaningful lyrics still arrest me, stop me in my tracks. In one song he addressed God, singing,

“Could it be You make Your presence known
So often by Your absence?
Could it be that questions tell us more
Than answers ever do?
Could it be that You would really rather die
Than live without us?
Could it be the only answer
That means anything is You?”

              

Beneath the silence, God is still working, confirming his love for all people. When God pronounces impending judgment, as he did through Jonah at Nineveh, his ultimate desire is the redemption of his enemies. He desires to love them back to life. God wants the ones who seem strange to us to come to know him and worship him as holy. God is calling all the strangers. Are we listening?

 

Pray with me: 

Father, when we see others who look and sound strange to us, remind us that we look and sound strange to others. You are the Lord of the whole earth. All peoples will come to you. Help us to share your good news with everyone in hopes that someone will come to know the only One who can save us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Our Monday through Friday devotionals are in the book of Isaiah. Join us for these devotionals as we learn together about our God and his Kingdom in the world.  

We also invite you to join us as we read through the Bible. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy here:

 

2026 Bible Reading Plan

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