EVERY KINDRED AND TRIBE
Opening Prayer
My Father, as I read of your faithfulness in Scripture, use the history it shares to build my faith and help me trust you with greater measure.
Read ISAIAH 17, 18
A Prophecy Against Damascus
17 A prophecy against Damascus:
“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day people will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a]
and the incense altars their fingers have made.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although 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.
14 In 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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 17:8 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
A Prophecy Against Cush
18 Woe to the land of whirring wings[a]
along the rivers of Cush,[b]
2 which 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.
3 All 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.
4 This 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.”
5 For, 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.
6 They 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.
7 At 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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 Or of locusts
- Isaiah 18:1 That is, the upper Nile region
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
God is our Maker, our Rock, and our Savior. May we turn our eyes to God and keep them fixed there.
Think Further
Rudyard Kipling’s poem for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrated the achievements of the British Empire and included the refrain ‘Lord God of Hosts, be with us … yet, Lest we forget – lest we forget!’1 It aimed to shatter any hint of complacency. All humanity is caught up in God’s global purposes (17:12, 13; 18:3). His rule is not restricted, like that of some local council member or regional warlord. His writ covers Damascus (the Syrian capital) to the north and Cush (with its strange language, 18:2) to the south. Their accountability to God means judgment (17:3; 18:1, 5, 6). Nations may rage like the sea (17:12, 13) but, as Jesus calmed the waves, they will be made still.2 Israel or Jacob (the northern kingdom in coalition with Syria) must never think themselves immune from judgment. Seeking salvation in military coalition and forgetting ‘God your Savior’ (17:10) has consequences.
Cities in the Bible often represent centers of defiance to God’s rule. Their flattening is part of God’s determination to turn people away from idolatry (17:7, 8). Agricultural metaphors tell stories of harvests that leave only a remnant (17:4–6) – but at least a remnant remains; harvests that will be insignificant because the provider of every gift has been ignored (17:10, 11); and a harvest where God diverts the produce elsewhere (18:5, 6). In all this, God’s actions in judgment are difficult to discern. He chooses not to rush, seeming to remain inactive (18:4). Don’t be fooled into thinking that God is inattentive or unconcerned. He’s there to be seen if you have eyes to see (18:4)! Thankfully, God’s judgment always carries salvation for some. If there is a remnant of Israel (17:7), then also of Damascus (17:3) and Cush (18:7). He will have tribute from the most unlikely sources – from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
Apply
Is complacency a danger for you and your church? Do you give proper place to our ‘Father,’ recognizing that he is someone who ‘judges each person’s work impartially’?3
Closing prayer
Almighty God, you go before us; help us to faithfully follow in everything you call us to do.
1 Rudyard Kipling, ‘Recessional’, 1897 2 Matt 8:23–27 3 1 Pet 1:17
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