12OH, THE RAGING of many nations—
they rage like the raging sea!
Oh, the uproar of the peoples—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.
18:1Woe to the land of whirring wings
along the rivers of Cush,
2which 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.
3All 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.
4This 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.”
5For, 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.
6They 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.
7At 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.
Original Meaning
AS MOTYER CORRECTLY notes, whatever the original settings of 17:12–14 and 18:1–7 may have been, they now function together to address the topic “who actually rules the world and whose purposes will in the end be accomplished?”1 According to 17:12–14, it is unnecessary to become frightened because of the raging of the nations, for they will soon be gone. Isaiah 18:1–3 says that instead of envoys coming from the Ethiopian king of Egypt to invite Judah to join a coalition against Assyria, envoys should go to the Ethiopians to tell them what God says. A direct message from God appears in 18:4–7. While the nations roil about like the waves of the sea, God quietly waits and will take action at just the right moment, cutting off the oppressing nations and leaving their corpses on the mountains.
The Raging of the Nations (17:12–14)
IN LANGUAGE REMINISCENT of Psalm 46, the prophet compares the nations to the raging sea. The waves crash and roar with frightening power, and it seems as though they are the ultimate reality with which we must come to terms. But in fact, that is not the case. As Psalm 2 says, it is the One who sits in the heavens who is the ultimate reality. Before his breath, the nations are no more substantial than bits of “chaff” or a rolling “tumbleweed” (Isa. 17:13; see also 11:4). They have their day, but suddenly night falls, and in the morning nothing is left of what seemed so enduring (17:14).
In other words, Isaiah is attempting to get his people to focus beyond apparent realities and onto the One who is reality in himself. The nations may plan to “plunder” and “loot” God’s people, but whatever they may think, they do not control their own destinies (cf. 14:24–27).
Messengers for Cush (18:1–3)
ABOUT 740 B.C. the Ethiopian Piankhy (also known as Piye) took over Egypt from the previous Libyan rulers. He along with his successor Shabako (715–702) brought a new energy to Egyptian affairs. Most likely both of them attempted to cement alliances with various surrounding countries in order to counter the Assyrian threat posed by both Sargon and Sennacherib.2 We can imagine the stir made in Jerusalem by the tall, regal-looking Ethiopian envoys,3 who came up the Mediterranean coast in their strange “papyrus” craft (18:2). But Isaiah says that envoys should instead go to Ethiopia4 to tell them to beware of the true Ruler of the world. It is his battle flag and his war trumpet for which they should be on the alert (18:3).
A Message from God (18:4–7)
COMPARED TO THE marching of armies and the comings and goings of ambassadors, God’s activity often seems unnoticeable. But in a masterful way the prophet reminds his hearers that just because something does not draw much attention to itself does not mean it is powerless.
He uses two comparisons to make his point: the sun and the dew (18:4). Neither comes with fanfare or pageantry; they are simply present and inescapable. So is God. And in his harvest he will cut down the enemy nations like unproductive branches on a vine (18:5–6). He is the reality, not they. This means that instead of the Judeans giving the Ethiopians a large sum of money for their help, the Judeans should remember that the day will come when the Ethiopians will be giving gifts to the God of Jerusalem (18:7; cf. 2:1–3; 60:10–14).
Bridging Contexts
IN THE MIDST of earth’s struggles, it is sometimes hard to believe that God is really on the throne. For instance, suppose a modern-day Isaiah had stood up on the streets of London in the spring of 1942 and said that Germany and Japan, who at that moment ruled fully half the world between them, would be completely powerless in just a little over three years. He would probably have been laughed to scorn. Yet he would have been completely correct. Despite the energy, intellect, and military power of those two great nations, they were swept away. God is the one reality who does not change or fade away. He is the One with whom we must come to terms.
Contemporary Significance
IN PSALM 2:1–4 we read these words,
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the LORD
and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say,
“and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
The Lord scoffs at them.
The nations of the earth may take many drastic steps to elevate themselves to positions of absolute power. But God has kept that power for himself, and all the efforts by the nations will be as futile as a two-year-old’s straining against the restraints in a car-seat. To the child this is a matter of serious rebellion. To the adults looking on, it is merely laughable. Psalm 46:6 makes a similar point: “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.”
Created beings are not the final reality; only the Creator is. We may see the nations of earth boiling about. We grow anxious as we see kingdoms fall. But the psalmist and Isaiah invite us to remember that all the power of the nations is derivative. Despite anything they do, the basic conditions of life are unchanged. But God is the One who established those conditions. Having brought the universe into existence with a word, he can just as easily put it out of existence with a word (cf. Isa. 11:4; Rev. 19:15). That is indeed power—power the nations of the earth can only dream about (cf. Isa. 40:15–17.)
When we think of the prediction that the Ethiopians will come to Jerusalem bearing gifts to the Lord Almighty (18:7), we remember the Ethiopian eunuch who received the Christian interpretation of Isaiah 53 in Acts 8:26–39 and became a believer. He represents all those other nations who have brought their gifts to God in Jerusalem, both before the birth of Christ and even more since. Isaiah has the long view that sees the reality behind what the other people of his day only imagine to be reality.