18:1-3
The “whirring wings” refers to insects and is a reference to Egypt. The call in verse 2 may be referring to the area we now call Ethiopia, called Cush in the OT. However, there is uncertainty as to the exact locations that Isaiah is talking about. Some even think it is Assyria. |An argument against Egypt is that Egypt soon gets it own “personal prophecy”. With regard to Assyria it seems to be an unnecessarily oblique way of referring to Assyria. But this is not just a prophecy for Egypt or wherever, it is one for the whole world to take notice of.
18:4-7
We now get a glimpse of what the Lord is thinking. The Lord will look upon “his dwelling place”, He will observe the destruction seeming to do nothing. But He is not doing nothing, He is waiting. This is hard for us to take, why won’t the Lord do something? We find this difficult because we view things from a different perspective, one that does not regard our sinfulness as the major problem. Note that Judah is still regarded as “His dwelling place”, and there will come a time when things turn around, and peoples bring gifts to the Lord. Note also that in this time of restoration it is the Lord who is at the centre. Gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty, and Mount Zion is the “place of the Name of the Lord Almighty”. In churches we try many things to make the church grow. These are well meaning, but many do not have the Lord Himself as the prime focus. All such schemes are doomed to failure. We need to make Jesus the focus.
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