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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 HenryConcise 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 WesleyExplanatory Notes on Isaiah

 

18 Chapter 18

 

Verses 1-7


Verses 1-3

Isaiah 18:1-3

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

Isaiah 18:3

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 MNeile M. A.)


Verse 4-5

Isaiah 18:4-5

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