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Isaiah Chapter
Eighteen
Isaiah 18
Chapter Contents
God's care for his people; and the increase of the
church.
This chapter is one of the most obscure in Scripture
though more of it probably was understood by those for whose use it was first
intended
than by us now. Swift messengers are sent by water to a nation marked
by Providence
and measured out
trodden under foot. God's people are trampled
on; but whoever thinks to swallow them up
finds they are cast down
yet not
deserted
not destroyed. All the dwellers on earth must watch the motions of
the Divine Providence
and wait upon the directions of the Divine will. God gives
assurance to his prophet
and by him to be given to his people. Zion is his
rest for ever
and he will look after it. He will suit to their case the
comforts and refreshments he provides for them; they will be acceptable
because seasonable. He will reckon with his and their enemies; and as God's
people are protected at all seasons of the year
so their enemies are exposed
at all seasons. A tribute of praise should be brought to God from all this.
What is offered to God
must be offered in the way he has appointed; and we may
expect him to meet us where he records his name. Thus shall the nations of the
earth be convinced that Jehovah is the God
and Israel is his people
and shall
unite in presenting spiritual sacrifices to his glory. Happy are those who take
warning by his judgment on others
and hasten to join him and his people.
Whatever land or people may be intended
we are here taught not to think that
God takes no care of his church
and has no respect to the affairs of men
because he permits the wicked to triumph for a season. He has wise reasons for
so doing
which we cannot now understand
but which will appear at the great
day of his coming
when he will bring every work into judgment
and reward
every man according to his works.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 18
Verse 1
[1] Woe
to the land shadowing with wings
which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
The lord —
Either Ethiopia beyond Egypt; or of Egypt.
Wings —
The title of wings is given
in scripture
to divers things which have some
kind of resemblance to wings
as to the battlements of an house or temple
to
an army
and to the sails of a ship
as this word is here commonly understood.
And shadowing with wings is nothing else but overspread or filled with them.
Which title may be given either to Ethiopia or Egypt
in regard of the great
numbers either of their armies
or of their ships or vessels sailing upon the
sea or rivers.
Besides —
Situated on both sides of the Nile.
Rivers —
Called rivers
in the plural number
either for its greatness
or for the many
rivulets that run into it
or for the various streams into which it is divided.
Verse 2
[2] That sendeth ambassadors by the sea
even in vessels of bulrushes upon the
waters
saying
Go
ye swift messengers
to a nation scattered and peeled
to a
people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden
down
whose land the rivers have spoiled!
Sendeth —
That at this time are sending ambassadors
to strengthen themselves with alliances.
Bulrushes —
Both the Egyptians and Ethiopians
used boats of rushes or reeds
which were
more convenient for them than those of wood
because they were both cheaper and
swifter
and lighter for carriage from place to place. These seem to be the
words of the prophet
who having pronounced a woe against the land hitherto
described
here continues his speech
and gives a commission from God to these
messengers
to go to this nation scattered
etc. Then he calls to all nations
to be witnesses of the message sent
verse 3
and then the message follows in the
succeeding verses.
Messengers —
Whom I have appointed for this work
and tell them what I am about to do with
them.
Scattered —
Not by banishment but in their habitations. Which agrees well to the
Ethiopians
for the manner of their habitation
which is more scattered than
that of other people.
Peeled —
Having their hair plucked off. This is metaphorically used in scripture
for
some great calamity
whereby men are stripped of all their comforts. And this
title may be given to them prophetically
to signify their approaching
destruction.
Terrible —
Such were the Egyptians
and Ethiopians
as appears both from sacred and
profane histories.
Meted —
Meted out as it were with lines to destruction.
Trodden — By
Divine sentence
and to be trodden down by their enemies.
The rivers —
Which may be understood of the Assyrians or Babylonians breaking in upon them
like a river
and destroying their land and people.
Verse 3
[3] All
ye inhabitants of the world
and dwellers on the earth
see ye
when he lifteth
up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet
hear ye.
When —
When God shall gather together the nations
as it were by the lifting up of an
ensign
or by the sound of a trumpet
to execute his judgments upon this
people.
Verse 4
[4] For
so the LORD said unto me
I will take my rest
and I will consider in my
dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs
and like a cloud of dew in the
heat of harvest.
Rest — I
will not bestir myself
to help this people. God is said in scripture to rest
or sit still
when he doth not work on the behalf of a person or people.
Dwelling-place — In
heaven
the place where God dwells.
Harvest —
The sense is
that God would look upon them with as uncomfortable an influence
as the sun with a clear heat upon the herbs
which are scorched and killed by
it; and as a cloud of the dew
which brings dew or rain
in the heat of
harvest
when it is unwelcome and hurtful.
Verse 5
[5] For afore the harvest
when the bud is perfect
and the sour grape is
ripening in the flower
he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
and take away and cut down the branches.
For —
Before they receive the end of their hopes.
When —
When the bud or flower is turned into a grape
which gives hopes of good
vintage.
He — The Lord.
The branches —
Instead of gathering the grapes
shall cut down the tree
and throw it into the
fire.
Verse 6
[6] They
shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains
and to the beasts of
the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them
and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them.
Thy —
The branches being cut down and thrown upon the ground
with the unripe grapes
upon them.
Left — They
shall lie upon the earth
so that either birds or beasts may shelter themselves
with them
or feed on them
both summer and winter.
Verse 7
[7] In
that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people
scattered and peeled
and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto;
a nation meted out and trodden under foot
whose land the rivers have spoiled
to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts
the mount Zion.
In that time — At
or after that time
when the judgment shall be compleatly executed.
A people —
The people of whom I am speaking shall present themselves
and their
sacrifices
to the true God.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
18 Chapter 18
Verses 1-7
Verses 1-3
Woe to the land shadowing with wings
The Ethiopians
The people here peculiarly described are the Ethiopians
and the
prophet prophesies the effect on Ethiopia of the judgment concerning Assyria
which Jehovah executes
as Drechsler has convincingly proved
and as is now
universally recognised.
(F. Delitzsch.)
Ethiopia
What land is it of which the prophet speaks? It is no doubt
Ethiopia itself
a great kingdom in the olden time. For although he says
“beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
” that is the Blue Nile
and the White Nile
and
the Astaboras
the meaning is perhaps more accurately “beside” those rivers. In
any event the ancient land of Ethiopia reached out to the south far beyond the
confluence of those rivers in the mighty Nile
including probably all upper
Egypt beyond Philae
Nubia
and the northern portion of modern Abyssinia. It
was a fertile country
very rich in gold
ivory
ebony
frankincense
and
precious stones. A country thickly inhabited by a stalwart well-formed race
“men of stature” the prophet calls them
who if they were black were yet
comely. It was a mighty kingdom for many centuries
a rival of Egypt
sometimes
its enemy
and apparently even its conqueror; a kingdom able to make war
against the Assyrians
and a kingdom
too
carrying on a great trade by means
of abundant merchandise with many people. (A. Ritchie.)
“The land shadowing with wings”
1. Full of poetic suggestion is the expression “shadowing with
wings.” The thought is of tender protection
as the mother bird hovers over and
shields her young. The Psalmist is never tired of crying out to God
“Hide me
under the covering of Thy wings.” It was right that Israel and Judah should cry
thus to Jehovah for protection
but not that they should look to the shadowing
wings of Ethiopia. Just as it was pathetically true that in later times our
Lord should say of the Holy City
“O Jerusalem
Jerusalem
thou that killest
the prophets
and stonest them which are sent unto thee
how often would I have
gathered thy children together
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings
and ye would not”--so seven hundred years earlier it was true that Judah
would not seek refuge under the wings of the Lord
but under the shadowing of
Egypt and the covering of Ethiopia.
2. In the Revised Version we have the passage rendered
“Ah
the land
of the rustling of wings.” Some of the old commentators find in this an
allusion to the multitude of bees and the swarms of flies in Ethiopia
so that
there the hum of wings was never absent. More picturesque is another
suggestion
that the reference is to the ever plashing waters of the rivers
hurrying
along with swift current
in rapids and through cataracts until the broad bosom
of father Nile was reached. The swish and lapping of the rushing waters seemed
to the poet like the noise made by the swift flight of many birds
beating the
air with strong pinions
as they sweep on towards the horizon.
3. If we turn to the Septuagint
the Greek Old Testament
we read the
text thus: “Woe to you
ye wings of the land of ships.” What are the wings of
the land of ships but the many sails whereby those ships flit hither and
thither? One sees before him a new picture. The graceful dahabiehs with their
long yards and triangular sails
dotting the water everywhere
and naturally
suggesting great sea birds
with outspread wings
shining in the starlight
white and ghostly on the calm surface of the mysterious river which is Egypt’s
life.
4. Some of the more acute Hebrew scholars point out that it is
possible to understand the prophet’s language in yet another way: “Woe to the
land where the shadow falleth both ways
” that is
of course
near the Equator
where sometimes the shadows stretch out to the south and sometimes to the
north
according to the time of the year. If we understand our text so
it is
natural to see in it an allusion to the fickleness of the Ethiopians
a nation
which Judah vainly trusted in
since today it would be found an ally and
tomorrow an enemy. (A. Ritchie.)
The prophet’s charge to the Ethiopian ambassadors
Ethiopia (Hebrews
“Cush”) corresponds generally to the modern
Soudan (i.e.
the blacks)
. Egypt and Ethiopia were at this time ruled by Tirkakah (704-685). His
ambassadors are in Jerusalem offering an alliance against the Assyrian; and the
prophet sends them back to their people with the words
“Go
ye swift
messengers
” etc. Jehovah needs no help against His enemies. (A. B.Davidson
LL. D.)
Note
Full stop at “waters” (Isaiah 18:2)
and omit “saying.” The
prophet speaks: “Go
ye swift messengers
to a nation tall and smooth . . . a
nation all-powerful and subduing
whose land rivers divide (intersect).”
“Smooth” may refer to the glancing
bronzed skin of the people. (A.
B.Davidson
LL. D.)
Vessels of bulrushes
It is well known that timber proper for building ships was very
scarce in Egypt: to supply this deficiency
the Egyptians used bulrushes
or a
reed called papyrus
of which they made vessels fit for sailing. Ships and
boats built of this sort of materials
being extremely light
and drawing very
little water
were admirably suited to traverse the Nile
along the banks of
which there were doubtless many morasses and shoals. They were also very
convenient and easy to be managed at the waterfalls
where they might be
carried with no great difficulty to smooth water. From such circumstances as
these
we may conclude
that they would sail exceeding fast
and afford a very
speedy conveyance of all kinds of intelligence from one part of the country to
another
and from Egypt to neighbouring nations. In them
therefore
ambassadors or messengers were often sent to different places with various
kinds of information
after having received their orders in terms such as
these
“Go
ye swift messengers.” (R. Macculloch.)
They were made for folding together
so that they could be carried
past the cataracts. (F. Delitzsch
D. D.)
Verse 3
All ye inhabitants of the world . . . see ye
Missionary exertion
Our whole hope of success rests on the prophecies of the Word of
God
declaring it to be His will.
We must first accurately examine what is the object we have in view
for if it
be not in unison with the prophets it must be disappointed.
I. THE LANGUAGE OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT ON THIS SUBJECT. What does that give us reason to expect
under the present dispensation? An elect Church
though in one sense it is
called an universal Church
because it is gathered out of all nations on the
earth.
II. THE EXPERIENCE
OF THE CHURCH AS STRENGTHENING THIS ARGUMENT. For long years the Gospel has
been preached
and what is the result? But is it not written in the Scriptures
that all flesh shall see the salvation of God
etc.? Do we not
then
rightly
expect the conversion of all the people on the earth? Yes
it is written
and
shall come to pass. But the means are also written
and the time. What are the
means? What is the time? “All ye inhabitants of the world
and dwellers on the
earth
see ye!” When? “When He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains
and when
He bloweth a trumpet
hear ye!” I will read you an extract from a missionary
sermon preached by Dr. Buchanan shortly before his death: “The ensign to be
lifted up is the Jewish Church restored to Zion; and the Gospel trumpet is to
be sounded by Jewish missionaries
for to them is reserved the evangelising of
the heathen.” But before this will be the coming of the Son of God. (Hugh M’Neile
M. A.)
Verse 4-5
For so the Lord said unto me
I will take My rest
The rest of providence
Although much diversity of opinion exists among commentators in
regard to the primary design of the prophecy from which this passage is taken
there can be but one sentiment as to the sublime moral which it teaches
concerning the mode in which the Almighty conducts His government.
There are times
probably
in every man’s life
when he feels the temptations
to scepticism unusually strong. They are the times of personal suffering
or of
prosperous iniquity.
I. How often has
the sincere Christian mourned in bitterness of spirit
BECAUSE NO IMMEDIATE
ANSWER SEEMED GIVEN TO HIS PRAYERS. In such circumstances
the assurance that
providence is only taking its rest and considering
is in the highest degree consolatory.
It is not in judgment
but in tender mercy
that God apparently suspends His
answer to His people’s prayers. Thus does He exercise their faith
and the
trial of it is more precious than gold. Thus does He convince them of their
needs
and the conviction leads them to greater self-abandonment. Thus does He
call forth in them the feeling of Christian sympathy for those who are
similarly tried
and this is better for them than heart’s desire. Thus does He
give unto them those experiences which
it is not improbable
may contribute to
their felicity in heaven itself.
II. A second
example of providence taking its rest
is to be seen in THE COMPARATIVELY SLOW
AND LIMITED PROGRESS WHICH THE BLESSED GOSPEL OF CHRIST HAS YET MADE IN THE
WORLD. The march of His administration is not the less sublime
because it is
occasionally invisible.
III. Providence
takes its rest WHEN SENTENCE AGAINST THE EVIL WORKS OF MEN IS NOT EXECUTED
SPEEDILY. When the mystery of God is finished
His ways will appear at once
marvellous and right. This “rest of providence” is beautifully illustrated by
similitudes taken from nature--“a clear heat upon herbs
and a cloud of dew in
the heat of harvest.” You have observed
on a fine summer day
the sunshine
resting calmly on the cornfield
or the dew covering the plants at eventide.
All is peaceful and serene. It seems as if the winds had forgotten to blow
or
the thunder to utter its voice. Thus calmly and silently does the Almighty
“rest in His dwelling place
” till the time comes for interposition. The
patience of God is a demonstration of His power
and His slowness to wrath a
testimony to His infinite wisdom. The metaphor in Isaiah 18:5 is to be regarded as a continuation
of the preceding one
and may be understood as intimating the utter
disappointment of those plans which wicked men form against God
and which He
so forbearingly allows them to mature. “Afore the harvest
when the bud is
perfect
and the sour grape is ripening in the flower
He shall both cut off
the sprigs with pruning hooks
and take away and cut down the branches.” The
meaning is
that at the very moment when the likelihood is
humanly speaking
greatest
that their projects shall be successful
He will awake to overturn
them. Conclusion--
1. The passage under consideration
while it ought to alarm the
enemies
may well enough bring comfort to the people of God. Let them look up
for their redemption draweth nigh.
2. On the other hand
let not the impenitent flatter themselves into
security because their Lord delayeth His coming. (J. L. Adamson.)
Stillness
“A figure of perfect stillness.” (A. B. Davidson.)
The arrest of evil men
It is as though Jehovah were quietly looking on
and permitting the
Assyrians to do their worst. So far from arresting them
He seems even to
favour their plans. He is to them
as the dew to the growth of plants. But
before the bud is formed
He arises to cut them off. This probably refers to
the fatal blow which overwhelmed Sennacherib’s army in a single night. The
gratitude of surrounding nations for so great a deliverance would cause them to
bring sacrifices to Jehovah’s temple (Isaiah 18:7). (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
God’s secret words
How striking are those secret words
whispered by God to His
favoured servant
“The Lord said unto me.” It was as though He had called
Isaiah aside
and spoken to him confidentially of matters which must not be
uttered to uncircumcised ears. It was thus that God spake of old to Abraham and
Moses. And in modern days it is remarkable
in reading the journals of George
Fox
to find how conscious he was of similar confidences reposed in him by his
ever-present and faithful Friend. (F. B.Meyer
B. A.)
God resting in His dwelling place
I. THE DWELLING
PLACE OF GOD AND HIS REPOSE. Let me ask where the queen rests in her love: You
must pass and press beyond the regalia
beyond the throne-room
beyond the
council
beyond the levee
there in the family
amidst her children
in a
charmed family circle
--there she rests in love. And has not God such a circle
such a dwelling place
and home? “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear
Him.” God has revealed to us this great thing
that He
too
lives in the
sympathies and affections of His intelligent creatures. God’s Church is His
dwelling place. God descends to dwell in us
as we ascend to dwell in Him. I
have been struck with a thought like this
when I have been on some quiet village
hill
or in the deeps of some country forest
when
beneath me
or away from
me
all the villagers were in the booths of some fair. I saw it
perhaps
at my
feet
or heard the sounds dying away on my ear. So it is
as we rise to rest in
God. At our feet the uproar the vice--the vanity--of the Babel booths--the
dissoluteness and the song
--but with us deep peace
and quiet
and the rest of
heart and soul
and the prospect of the glory and the vistas beyond; it is even
so
as the world lies beneath us
and above us spreads the calm--when the soul
possesses God
and God sinks into the soul--what does the soul look out upon:
what does the soul look down upon? what does the soul look in upon: the soul
one with God.
II. “I WILL
CONSIDER.” “So the Lord said unto me
I will take My rest.” Exceedingly sublime
are all those magnificent passages in which the calm of the Divine mind is
contrasted with the passion and the agitation of human affairs. This is the
connection of the preceding verses (chap. 17:12
13). It is amidst that
turbulence of the oceans of the population that God says
“I will take My rest
and consider.”
III. THE
ILLUSTRATIONS OF DIVINE CONSIDERATION
the loving and beautiful result. (E.
Paxton Hood.)
God’s all-sufficiency
There is that in God which is a shelter and refreshment to His
people in all weathers
and arms them against the inconveniences of every
change. Is the weather cool: There is that in His favour that will warm them.
Is it hot: There is that in His favour that will cool them. Great men have
their winter house and their summer house Amos 3:15); but they that are at home
with God have both in Him. (M. Henry.)
When the bud is perfect
The flower bud
B--U--D--bud. Beauty; use; design
shall be our three points.
I. BEAUTY. Among
the many kinds of beauty nature gives us
three are very noticeable--
1. Beauty of form.
2. Beauty of colour.
3. Beauty of scent. And to these man has added--
4. Beauty of association.
II. USE.
1. Food. In the economy of nature flowers are useful as food for
insect and bird and man. Groundsel for the birds of the air! The honeysuckle
really belongs to
and is the early home of
a green moth
brown round the
edges
with transparent wings. It also belongs to a caterpillar
which
afterwards becomes a brown and white and dull blue butterfly. And so list after
list might be given of flowers upon which the insect world feeds
and by which
it is nourished. Again
it is from flowers that the bees collect the honey!
Thus the flowers may be said literally to feed man.
2. Medicine.
3. Fruit. Flowering is a stage on the way to fruit. What Christian
graces will you have to show when the time of the ingathering comes:
III. DESIGN. Nature
works on a plan. Who made the plan
the design? There cannot be a plan without
someone to plan; nor a design without a designer. The Christian looks from
nature to nature’s God. (C. H.Grundy
M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》