Isaiah 18 - Bible Study in 5 Minutes

Isaiah 18 Short Summary:

Isaiah 18 is an oracle regarding the nation of Cush, which was located south of Egypt in modern day North Sudan. It is a hard chapter to understand, but it seems likely that Isaiah was addressing a potential military alliance between the people of Judah and the people of Cush.

Isaiah 18 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• The prophetic ministry of Isaiah spanned the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

• The date of this oracle is not certain, but we know it prior to 701 BC, because that was when Assyria, led by King Sennacherib, attempted its failed siege of Jerusalem.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Isaiah – The son of Amoz (1:1). God commissioned Isaiah as His prophet to Judah.

• The Nation of Cush - Cush, called Ethiopia in other versions, was south of Egypt along the coast of the Red Sea.

DEFINITIONS:

• Whirring Wings (18:1) - Isaiah referred to Cush as the land of whirring wings. Exactly what was mean by this is unclear. It could be a reference to the winged insects that inhabit the Nile River, or it could refer metaphorically to sails on ships.

• Papyrus (18:2) – Papyrus is a reed that grows natively along the Nile River. It was used to make small boats and was also used as one of the first forms of paper.  

OUTLINE:

• AN ORACLE REGARDING CUSH (18:1-7):

  • Isaiah 18 is a challenging chapter, and many commentators concur that it is the hardest chapter in Isaiah to confidently interpret.

  • It is thought that Isaiah’s words in this chapter were a response to envoys from Cush that were attempting to make an alliance with Judah against the Assyrians. The people of Judah were not to put their trust in foreign alliances. God had already promised to save them from the Assyrian threat.

  • Cush sent many ships up the Nile River and the Red Sea. They sent ambassadors to other lands to conduct diplomacy. It may be on account of one of these ambassadors reaching Judah that God gave this oracle.

  • The “swift messengers” in verse 2 appear to be messengers sent, perhaps from Judah, back to Cush with replies.

  • Isaiah described the people of Cush as powerful, feared among the nations, and curiously, as “a nation tall and smooth.”

  • But God had no use for the power of Cush. He had no reason to nurture an alliance between them and His people. He had already promised to save Judah from Assyria.

  • Verse 5 in the ASV reads, “For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

  • God was at rest, unconcerned with diplomatic relations, watching the Assyrian plot develop as passively as sunshine and dew fall on a field of growing crops (18:7).

  • He would rest until He was ready, at which point, He would rise up and cut the crops to the ground, and thwart everything the Assyrians had planned.

  • Like a fruit tree that brought its fruit to 90% ripeness, but then had its branches lopped off, so Assyria would be at the doorstep of achieving their plans when God would cut them down.

  • He would leave Assyria like fallen fruit for the wild animals.

  • When God accomplished this, the mighty of people of Cush would come to Jerusalem to pay tribute to the God of Judah.

APPLICATION:

• This chapter teaches us something important about God’s timing.

• As humans, when we perceive a threat on the horizon, we begin preparing for it and praying about it immediately.

• We want swift reassurance that the threat has been prepared for adequately and that we are going to be able to overcome it when it arrives.

• When we don’t get that reassurance as quickly as we’d like, we start to worry, maybe we’re even tempted to do things we know we shouldn’t do.

• This chapter is an encouragement to wait for God’s help.

• God doesn’t need to prepare months in advance, He doesn’t need to execute on an elaborate drawn-out plan to save us from trouble, in His infinite power He can snap His fingers and save us from any threat within human imagination.

• In Isaiah 18, the greatest military force known to man was marching on Judah, and God was resting. Don’t get stressed out when troubles start to creep up on you, God is watching and He will rise to help when He deems the time to be right.