Isaiah 18:1
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
- This is not Egypt (chapter 19 is specific to Egypt)
- This is not the U.S.
- This is not agreed upon
- This is generally thought to be the U.S. by many
- Ethiopia is know by foreigners and missionaries as "the Land Of Birds" or "the Land Of Wings"
CUSH
- Son of Ham, Father of Nimrod
- Has sent back to Israel many Jews, fulfilling Isaiah 11:11
ETHIOPIA
- Mentioned in the Creation account, Genesis 2:13 (different than the Ethiopia today, Asia)
- Exodus 2:15, the African Ethiopia
- Moses married an Ethiopian woman
- Ethiopia fought along side Egypt and was aligned with Egypt many times, plus was an enemy of Israel in the Old Testament(Kings, Chronicles) and often had many horses and chariots
- In 2 Chronicles 14, God defeated the Ethiopians, vastly outnumbering Israel, for Asa, because Asa relied solely on the LORD, knowing that, in the human realm, This was impossible
- Job mentions it as having topaz deposits (Job 28:19)
- Ethiopian kings apparently had eunuchs alot, or at least they are mentioned a lot, in Scripture
- Great judgment is coming on Ethiopia, for their rejection of the God of Israel all of these millennia
- Great blessing and love from God toward Ethiopia is coming also
- Phillip met a eunuch from Ethiopia who got saved
- they apparently are a pure group and will remain so (Jeremiah 13:23)
- the Coptic, Ethiopian church is the oldest, continuously running church in existence
- God has a special love of Ethiopia, and often speaks well of them in Scripture
ETHIOPIA(ASIA)
Genesis 2:13
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
ETHIOPIA (AFRICA)
Exodus 2:15
Now when Pharaoh heard This thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
Psalms 68:31
Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
Psalms 87:4
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; This man was born there.
Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Amos 9:7
Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
Acts 8:27
And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
Isaiah 18:2
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!
- Bulrushes are Nile, Egyptian/Ethiopian, not hi-tech, not for long distance, not American
- The nation visited by the ambassadors is none other than Israel
- Because of context, the place where the rivers have spoiled has to be "Palestine", the location of so many wars
Isaiah 18:3
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.
- God is calling the earth to pay attention to all that is about to pass.
Isaiah 18:4
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.
- Heat destroys herbs as a crop, dew in time of harvest also is destructive
Isaiah 18:5
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.
- The raiders will pillage the crops, destroying them, leaving the spoil
Isaiah 18:6
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.
- The plundering will be complete by the birds and the beasts, not the conquerors
Isaiah 18:7
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.
- This has to be the Millenium
- This is also the perfect description of the downtrodden nation of Israel, although the flooding of the rivers is not indicative of them, except the nation peripherally that they originall inhabited, today a fraction of that