Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush,
Isaiah 18 opens with a call to a land that is never named — far off, sheltering the weak, and sending messengers by sea to a scattered people. Commentators see a distant power taking up Israel's cause, which raises two questions: which land is it, and why does the effort fail?
Older translations open the chapter with "Woe." Writers say that word is wrong here. It calls for attention rather than announcing doom.
It is true, as Henderson says along with many others, that the chapter is not a "woe" (as the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Authorised Version translate it). It is not like the "burdens" before and after it either. It is a call that summons attention — "Ho!" — to a land that is not named and is about to be described. The contrast seems plain between Isaiah 17:12-14 and Isaiah 18:4-6. One nation, whose name is not given, will try to befriend the Jews in the time and way spoken of. Other nations break out into their old jealousy and hatred, and take their revenge on the Jews all the more.
The ESV's "whirring wings" appears in older translations as "shadowing with wings." One writer explains the picture:
The use of "wings" to picture a cover for the oppressed or defenceless is too common to need proof.
Another writer sets the shelter this land offers beside the shelter a believer asks from God.
The power spoken to here is friendly. "Shadowing with wings" means it is ready to protect the weak Jews. But how much happier it would be for the Jew if he could say, "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by" (Psalm 57:1). But sadly, God is not in all their thoughts. They would rather lean on human strength than on the arm of the Lord.
The verse does not point to Cush itself. It points past Cush, past the two great rivers that marked the edge of Israel's known world.
"Beyond the rivers of Cush" means beyond the Nile and the Euphrates. It means a country outside the circle of nations that had threatened or meddled with Israel up to the prophet's day… The call is to a land beyond both limits. Egypt and Assyria had been the chief of those powers, and there was an Asian Cush as well as an African one… This distant land takes up the cause of Israel. But the protection would fail in the end, however loud the offer and the preparations.
Some writers refuse to guess the name. They list only what the text says.
The land is not named, but it has three marks: (1) it is a distant land; (2) it is a sea power; and (3) it is friendly to the Jews. There is no need to guess its name; events will show in time.
Commentators differ. Another writer thinks the marks fit one nation.
The land spoken to here is one that has given protection to the Jewish people. This surely is the meaning of "shadowing with wings"… There seems little doubt that Britain is the land in question, for what land sends more ambassadors across the sea than Britain?
Commentators read the chapter as a return that men arrange, not God. That should shape how believers hear news about Israel.
This prepares us for human methods of restoring Israel, and is an important safeguard for the children of God now, so that they are not excited by rumours here or there of great things for the Jews. The believer should have no confidence in any plans of men for bringing Israel into their own land. God is not working to that end. He is gathering souls out of Israel as He is out of the Gentiles, for Christ is still at God's right hand in heaven. When He has finished that heavenly work, He will permit man in his confidence to think he can repair the ruins of Zion, and gather back the dispersed of Israel; but all will prove fruitless in the pride of man.
The rest of the chapter shows why the effort fails. The growth is real, but nothing comes of it.
Look at Isaiah 18. The land shadowing with wings sends ambassadors to bring them back, and the people of the earth are called to pay attention. Then, in verse 5, there was a sprouting out to fill the land with fruit, but all is cut down… Though they are brought back to the land, their troubles are not over yet.
- Call — the chapter opens with "Ho!", a shout for attention, not a curse.
- Wings — wings picture shelter for the defenceless; this land offers it, and God offers better.
- Beyond — the land lies past the rivers, outside the nations that had always troubled Israel, and it reaches Israel by sea.
- Unnamed — writers agree on three marks: distant, seagoing, friendly. They differ on the name; one says Britain, another says events will tell.
- Cut down — the shelter fails. Men can bring Israel back to the land, but they cannot end Israel's troubles.
that sendest ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, [saying,] Go, swift messengers, to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth; to a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
The chapter opens with a shout toward a far-off land the prophet never names. Verse 2 shows what that land does: it sends envoys across the sea to a battered people. Who are these messengers? Who is the nation they reach? And where is God in the plan?
(A note on wording: the ESV calls this people "tall and smooth… mighty and conquering." Older translations read "scattered and peeled… meted out and trodden down." The writers quoted below use the older wording.)
Many Bibles open the chapter with "Woe." Yet this is not a message of doom like the ones on either side of it.
It is true, as Henderson says along with many others, that the chapter is not a "woe," though the Septuagint, the Vulgate and the Authorised Version translate it that way. It is not like the "burdens" before it or after it either. It is a call for attention — "Ho!" — to an unnamed land, which the prophet then describes.
Verse 1 places this land past "the rivers of Cush." That phrase is a boundary marker, not an address.
"Beyond the rivers of Cush" means beyond the Nile and the Euphrates. It points to a country outside the circle of nations that had threatened or meddled with Israel up to the prophet's day… The call goes specifically to a land beyond both limits. Egypt and Assyria had been the chief of those powers, for there was an Asiatic Cush as well as an African one… This far-off land takes up the cause of Israel. But the protection would fail in the end, however loud the offer and the preparation.
Boats made of reed sound like Nile craft, so many have read Egypt here. Other writers answer that the image points to speed, not to a place.
Seagoing ships are certainly meant… But if the country spoken to lies far from Egypt, reed boats are only a fitting picture. Their lightness stands for fast-sailing ships of any material. So the prophet marks out the country he calls to. When this prophecy is fulfilled, that country will be a great sea and trading power. It will form alliances far away, and make long voyages to every part of the world with speed and safety.
Each phrase in the verse fits one people. The "rivers" that spoiled their land stand for invading armies.
More than any other, they are a nation whose hope has been put off a long time, and who have suffered humiliation beyond all. Yet wonders have marked them out from their beginning onwards. God has measured out His judgement on them exactly, as on no other nation. Who else has been trodden down as they have? Their land did not escape either: powers overwhelming like rivers laid it waste, and Isaiah 8 uses the same picture of it.
The prophet never names the land. One writer lists the three marks the verse does give.
The land is not named, but three marks are given: (1) it is a distant land; (2) it is a maritime power; and (3) it is friendly to the Jews. There is no need to speculate about its name; events will show in due course.
Commentators differ on whether recent history has supplied the answer. Some see the start of a fulfilment in the modern return of Jews to Palestine:
Under the protection of the great western powers, a Jewish state stands again in Palestine… The great power that shadows Israel with its protecting wings lies beyond the countries Israel dealt with in days gone by. It is a sea power.
Read the verse closely and you notice who is not mentioned in it — a silence the following verses make deliberate.
The Jews are no doubt meant by the nation described as scattered and peeled, a people terrible from their beginning. But a great maritime power befriends them and helps them in their return to their land. Notice, however, that there is no mention of God in all this. It is all human activity, political policy, and all in unbelief. God is not the aim of it, and it does not happen at His command. Yet it is in line with His purposes. In His providence He favours it, and He holds back every hostile attempt to overthrow it.
The help sent out in verse 2 does not last. The rest of the chapter tells how it ends.
They may bring some of the Jews back to their own land, but the Jews will still be rebellious and unbelieving. All seems to flourish. Then a blight comes from God without warning… The Gentiles who seemed so kind will again keep their distance… And what will be the end? God will take up the cause of His people.
This rescue is a plan of men. One writer draws a warning from that.
This prepares us for human methods of restoring Israel. It is an important safeguard for the children of God now, so that rumours here or there of great things for the Jews do not excite them. The believer should have no confidence in any plans of men for bringing Israel into their own land.
- Call. The chapter is not a curse but a shout for attention, addressed to a land the prophet refuses to name.
- Far. "Beyond the rivers of Cush" puts that land outside every power that had dealt with Israel before. It is distant, seafaring, and offers shelter under its wings.
- Fast. Reed boats picture light, quick craft. The messengers travel fast, and their errand reaches across the world.
- Frail. The people they reach are the Jews: scattered, judged, trodden down, their land overrun like a flood. God's name appears nowhere in the plan to help them.
- Failure, then God. The rescue flourishes, then collapses under fresh hatred. Only then does God take up His people Himself. So no human scheme for Israel deserves a believer's trust.
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, see ye, and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye!
At verse 3 the prophet turns from the far-off land of verses 1 and 2 and calls out to every person alive. Who raises the signal on the mountains, and what is God doing while it goes up?
The call to look and listen comes from God Himself. He is pointing the world to something He has in hand.
God summons attention to what He is going to do. "See when he lifts up a banner on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear."
The Zionist movement went ahead quietly. This verse points to something louder: a moment when every nation is made to look.
Isaiah 18:3 seems to show that when the summons really does come it will be a far more public matter than the Zionist movement is. God commands the inhabitants of the world to see. It looks as though the whole world will take an interest in the question, and that it will be a matter of international politics.
Commentators differ here, and the wording is part of the reason. The ESV reads "when a signal is raised", without saying who raises it. Older translations read "when he lifts up a banner". Some take that "he" as the friendly seafaring power of verses 1 and 2, gathering the Jews by its own arrangements. On that reading the flag flies and the trumpet sounds, but God has not given the order.
With such help, Israel "lifts up a banner on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear." This banner, with the name Israeli on it, has gone up in the holy land, and the trumpet has sounded. But this is not the trumpet sound of the first day of the seventh month. Jehovah did not command it. God's time to step in for His ancient people has not yet come.
Others read the raised banner as God's own act, and draw a sharp line between what diplomacy can arrange and what God alone will do.
When that time does come God will not need diplomatic declarations — neither those given in return for services, nor those forced by international politics. Mandates from Geneva will have no place when He acts. He will not let men and nations have any say in the disposal of the land that is His and not theirs. He will act with sovereign power, supreme and swift. All the inhabitants of the world and the dwellers on the earth will see when He lifts up a banner on the mountains, and when He blows a trumpet they will hear.
Verse 3 is loud. What follows is silence: God calls the world to attention, then keeps still and watches.
But another enters the scene and stops the zeal of man. The whole world must pay attention. Great events hang in the balance. There are signs to see and signs to hear... God is looking on at this busy enterprise. Man is active. Jehovah, as it were, steps back and watches... It is a moment of deep stillness and suspense. He allows an apparent advantage but does not act Himself, while huge efforts go on to gather in the Jews under the patronage of the seafaring nation of verses 1 and 2.
The land has an owner. Its release will come at a set time, and on one ground.
The land is His and He has the right to redeem it, and the year of Jubilee will surely come; until then it will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles... But that trumpet of Jubilee will only sound in relation to atonement. The release of the land from its bondage and the liberty of the people will come through Calvary (Lev. 25), and not through anything men can do. God will fall back on His own electing grace and on the precious atoning blood of Christ.
- Signal. A banner goes up on the mountains and a trumpet sounds. God is drawing the eyes of the whole world to what He is about to do.
- Seen. The real summons will not be a quiet migration. It will be public, and God commands the world to watch.
- Silence. Commentators differ over who raises the banner — a friendly foreign power, or God Himself. Meanwhile God keeps still and watches while men work.
- Sovereign. When God acts, no treaty or mandate will decide the matter. The land is His, and He will act over it with sovereign power.
- Set free. The trumpet that finally matters is the trumpet of Jubilee. It sounds only on the ground of atonement: the land released and the people freed through Calvary, not through anything men can do.
For thus hath Jehovah said unto me I will take my rest, and I will observe from my dwelling-place like clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
This verse is God's own comment on His silence: while men are busy over Israel's future, He says He will sit still and watch from where He dwells. It raises the questions the chapter goes on to answer. Why does God hold back? What is He watching? And what happens when the stillness ends?
The verse says two things at once. God does not move, and yet He watches closely.
The language may be unclear to some of our readers, but it shows one thing plainly. Men are busy in the wrong direction. God is not moving. From His heavenly dwelling place He notes what they are doing. He weighs their action, yet He stays at rest, because the right moment for deliverance has not come.
Two weather pictures carry the verse: heat in sunshine, and dew in harvest.
The picture here is very striking. Think of a hot, heavy day: the sun beats down without mercy, not a leaf stirs, and every sign points to a gathering storm. So it will be with the Jewish people, brought back in unbelief, for political reasons, by those who mean to help them.
Earlier in the chapter a distant sea power takes Israel under its protection. Then God speaks, and He says He is standing back.
God is watching this busy enterprise. Man is active. Jehovah, as it were, steps back and looks on. It is like a clear heat in the sunlight, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. It is a moment of deep stillness and suspense. He lets men seem to gain by it, but He does not act Himself, while huge efforts are made to gather in the Jews under the protection of the sea power of verses 1 and 2… Everything seemed to flourish. But what is man without God?… Everything looked like a quick gathering of good for Israel, and their national hopes seemed about to come true, when God brings it all to nothing. He lets the old passions of the nations loose against His people once more.
God only watches here. So this return is not the restoration He Himself will bring about.
But God wants us to know that this national resurrection of Israel is not His work… This is not the resurrection of Israel that Ezekiel 37 pictures, when the dry bones in the valley come to life. That will certainly come, when God steps in to bless His earthly people. Meanwhile, He watches everything men do for Israel. He takes account of how well the venture seems to be going, and of the forces that keep it from full success.
One writer sees the same stillness across Scripture. God keeps His distance from Israel through the present age.
He seems to neglect His people. He is "silent" towards them. He does not show Himself… During this present Gentile age, God is apart from Israel, just as Joseph was apart from his brothers in Egypt, and Moses was apart from them in Midian… And the Lord Jesus, speaking as the God of Israel at the close of His ministry, says to them, "See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"
The verses that follow complete the sequence:
Isaiah 18:4 shows Jehovah standing apart from Israel after they return to the land without repentance. Isaiah 18:5 and 6 show the terrible slaughter that falls in judgment on the mass of the nation who have turned away from God, and who will have received and worshipped "the man of sin" ("the antichrist") in the temple. Isaiah 18:7 shows the godly remnant, brought as an offering or gift to Jehovah of hosts, once the wicked of Israel have been destroyed.
So the quiet does not end in ruin. It ends with God doing what neither man's help nor man's hatred could achieve.
For as surely as the nations turn again to tear Israel, He will appear in the middle of the desolation. With His own mighty hand He will do what man tries to bring about and tries to stop, and fails at both… They will come, not empty-handed, but emptied of self, with humble and thankful hearts to Jehovah in Mount Zion.
- Still — God says He will not move; His time for deliverance has not come.
- Seeing — the stillness is not indifference. From His dwelling place He notes what men are doing, and what is holding their plans back.
- Storm coming — the heat and the dew paint a heavy, still day, with a storm building behind it.
- Not His work — God watches a return that men arrange. He did not author it. The raising of Israel He calls His own comes later.
- Then Himself — stillness first, then judgment, then a people brought to Him at Mount Zion, emptied of self.
For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-knives, and take away [and] cut down the branches.
Isaiah 18 describes a far-off sea power that takes up the cause of scattered Israel. God Himself stays still and watches. Verse 5 is the turning point: the blossom is over and the grape is ripening — and that is when the knife comes.
Before the knife comes, there is a pause. God lets man's work go ahead and looks on.
God is watching this busy enterprise. Man is active. Jehovah, as it were, steps back and watches... It is a moment of deep stillness and suspense. He lets man seem to gain by it, but He does not act Himself, while men make huge efforts to gather in the Jews under the sponsorship of the seafaring nation of verses 1 and 2. Everything then seemed to be thriving. But what is man without God?
The shoots and branches stand for real growth — a nation sprouting again in its own land. The verse says that growth will never reach its fruit.
There was a sprouting out to fill the land with fruit, but it is all cut down. Verse 7 then speaks of a present brought to the Lord. Though they are brought back to the land, their troubles are not finally over.
Will the friendly nation's plan succeed? Fereday answers no.
Man's plan will be destroyed. When everything looks fine, and success seems certain, disaster will come. The people brought back this way will only fall prey to the powers around them. With this Scripture before us, we need not be surprised when someone tries to resettle scattered Israel in the land of their fathers.
Kelly names what brings the plan down:
So the friendly plan fails completely. Israel's national hopes seemed about to come true. Then God brings it all to nothing by letting loose once more the old passions of the Gentiles against His people.
The cutting does not fall on everyone alike. One writer sets verses 5 and 6 together as judgment, and verse 7 as its opposite.
Isaiah 18:4 shows Jehovah standing apart from Israel when they have come back to the land without repenting. Isaiah 18:5 and 6 show the terrible slaughter that comes in judgment on the mass who turn away from God — those who will have welcomed and worshipped "the man of sin" ("the antichrist") in the temple. Isaiah 18:7 shows the godly remnant, brought as an offering or present to Jehovah of hosts, once the wicked of Israel have been destroyed.
This verse has a practical edge today. If God cuts down what human effort raises for Israel, believers should not pin their hopes on such plans.
This prepares us for human methods of restoring Israel. It is an important safeguard for God's children now, so that rumours here or there of great things for the Jews do not carry them away. The believer should have no confidence in any plans of men for bringing Israel into their own land. God is not working to that end; He is gathering souls out of Israel as He is out of the Gentiles, for Christ is still at God's right hand in heaven. When He has finished the heavenly work, He will let man in his self-confidence think he can repair the ruins of Zion and gather back the scattered of Israel. But all will prove fruitless, because of man's pride... just when everything seems to fail more completely than ever, at that moment Jehovah will carry out the purposes He has held back so long.
The cutting belongs to a gardener, not a destroyer. Bellett sees even the bitterest stage as part of a skilled work moving toward sweetness.
The bud was very bitter indeed, but the flower was very sweet indeed. It had to ripen under the cutting of the shoots and the taking away of the branches (Isaiah 18:5). In the end, though, it shows the skill and patience of the divine gardener who tends it.
- Watching — before the knife there is silence. God steps back and looks on while people build. He allows the effort without joining it.
- Sprouting — the growth is real. The land fills with promise. The verse does not deny the bud; it denies the harvest.
- Cutting — the blow lands just short of success. This is not bad luck. God brings man's plan to nothing.
- Sifting — the same judgment that destroys the unrepentant leaves a godly remnant. The chapter's last verse shows them as a present given to the Lord of hosts.
- Ripening — the gardener prunes with a purpose. Bitter bud first, sweet flower after. Blessing comes at last in God's way, not man's.
They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth; and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
Isaiah 18 describes a human effort to gather a scattered people back into their land. Just as the plan looks like it is working, God cuts it down. Verse 6 is the result: a nation left lying in the open, food for birds and beasts.
The birds and beasts are a picture. Commentators read them as the nations, turned loose on a people who have come home without God.
The people are brought back to their land to be given over as prey to the nations, like wild beasts in winter or ravenous birds in summer. That will be their fate when they have just returned to their land, for God is not yet putting His hand to it. The Jew will be oppressed by the nations once more in their land, but deliverance is near.
Summer and winter together cover the whole year. This is not one raid. The nations feed on them season after season.
The sting of the verse is who does the preying.
Even the nations that first befriended the Jew for political reasons will turn round and take out their full revenge on the restored nation. So the enemies of Israel among the nations are let loose on the people of Jehovah's choice, who by then are openly worshipping idols and have turned away from God and the truth.
The verse is severe. Commentators tie that severity to what the nation will have done: it will have welcomed a false christ in the temple.
Isaiah 18:4 shows Jehovah standing apart from Israel when they have returned to the land unrepentant. Isaiah 18:5 and 6 show the terrible slaughter that comes in judgment on the mass who have abandoned the faith. They will have received and worshipped "the man of sin" ("the antichrist") in the temple. Isaiah 18:7 shows the godly remnant, brought as an offering or present to Jehovah of hosts, when the wicked of Israel have been destroyed.
The same writer adds that the protecting nation is never named. Its description brings England to mind. Even so, he warns, it would be wrong to assume England is meant, since we cannot know which nation will fit the words when the time comes.
Commentators place the verse in one stretch of future history — the worst suffering the nation will ever know.
All the Jewish order, set up in pride, will be completely overturned, as in Isaiah 18. They are brought into such trouble as never was since there was a nation, and never will be again. It is the time, times, and half a time — the great tribulation.
The collapse in this verse follows a well-meant human rescue plan. One writer draws a caution from that for readers today, and says why the birds and beasts are let loose.
This prepares us for human methods of restoring Israel. It is an important safeguard for God's children now, so that rumours here or there of great things for the Jews do not excite them. The believer should have no confidence in any plans of men for bringing Israel into their own land. God is not working to that end. He is gathering souls out of Israel as He is out of the nations, for Christ is still at God's right hand in heaven. When Christ has finished the heavenly work, He will permit man in his confidence to think he can repair the ruins of Zion and gather back the scattered of Israel. But all will prove fruitless in the pride of man… All the birds and beasts of prey from among the nations break loose on them, because they have abandoned God and because of their presumption.
Verse 6 is not the last word. The chapter closes with the same battered people carried to God as a gift.
So God will rebuke the presumptuous help of man, and the renewed anger of the nations that once more prey on the poor but loved people of Jehovah. As surely as they turn again to tear Israel apart, He will appear in the middle of the ruin. With His own mighty hand He will do what man tries in vain to bring about, and tries in vain to stop… They will come not empty-handed but emptied of self, with humble and grateful hearts, to Jehovah in Mount Zion. They bring the present, and they are the present to Jehovah. Here, as always, God's dealings in judgment end in the blessing of His ancient people.
- Left — God leaves the people lying in the open as prey to the nations, because He is not yet putting His hand to their restoration.
- All year — birds in summer, beasts in winter. The picture covers every season: the suffering never lets up.
- Betrayed — the nations that first befriended the Jew turn round and tear the restored nation apart.
- Why — judgment falls on a people who came back unrepentant and worshipped the man of sin. This is the great tribulation, trouble such as never was.
- Then blessing — the chapter ends with the same trodden-down people carried to Mount Zion as a present to the LORD, emptied of self. Judgment closes in mercy.
In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a people scattered and ravaged, -- and from a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth, a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled, ... to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.
Isaiah 18 pictures a distant power gathering the scattered Jewish people home, and that whole plan is then cut down like unripe fruit before harvest. This last verse turns it around: the same battered nation still reaches Mount Zion, brought to God as a gift, not settled there by men.
"At that time" points back to the failed rescue in verses 5 and 6. Commentators read the chapter as a warning against trusting political plans for Israel, and as a promise that God's purpose outlives them.
The believer should have no confidence in any plans of men for bringing Israel into their own land. God is not working to that end. He is gathering souls out of Israel as He is out of the Gentiles, for Christ is still at God's right hand in heaven. When He has finished that heavenly work, He will let confident man think he can repair the ruins of Zion and gather back the scattered of Israel. But all of it will prove fruitless in the pride of man. Gentile affection for Israel will prove completely worthless. Yet just when everything seems to fail more hopelessly than ever, at that time Jehovah will carry out His long-delayed purposes.
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The same reading is put more bluntly elsewhere: God will not allow His people to be restored as the by-product of politics.
The Lord breaks up men's plans, because He is not going to have His people put back into His land, and theirs, as the outcome of man's political ideas.
The verse describes this people with the same words used in verse 2. Older translations read those words differently. Where the ESV has "a people tall and smooth," Darby has "a people scattered and ravaged." The writers quoted here follow that older wording. Readers have asked whether three different peoples are meant.
Israel is (1) the people scattered and stripped, (2) feared from their beginning until now, (3) measured out and trampled under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled. Compare verse 2. It is the Jewish nation, owned by God as His own, and in fact the object of divine judgment as well as of Gentile oppression, yet in the end to be delivered, after human efforts to bring the blessing have failed.
In older translations the gift is brought "of" a people and also "from" a people. Writers take that double wording as two truths about one nation, not a hint of two.
Verse 7 speaks not of two peoples, but of two things taught about Israel: that a present should be made (1) of them, and (2) from them, to Jehovah of hosts. The Jewish nation should be brought as a present, and they should also bring one to the Lord in Mount Zion, after their remarkable rescue from the fury of the Gentiles.
How they come matters as much as that they come.
They will come not empty-handed but emptied of self, with humble and grateful hearts, to Jehovah in Mount Zion, after their final escape from Gentile fury, in His mercy which lasts for ever. They bring the present, and they are the present to Jehovah. Here, as always, God's dealings in judgment end in the blessing of His ancient people. So Zion is the place where He makes His name known in connection with them. It would be unreasonable to imagine that the church, called to heavenly glory, is God's object in this chapter. It is Israel only, and they must pass through fresh and bitter trouble, worst of all at the end, before Jehovah does His own work of establishing them in the seat of royal grace under Messiah and the new covenant. He has never given up this purpose of His for the earth.
The verse does not say who carries them there. One writer points to a fuller account of the same event.
Gentiles will bring back all the Jews still living outside the Holy Land. This appears to be the detail of the prediction in Isaiah 18:7. This offering will be brought to Jehovah from all nations, and by every means of travel.
The destination is named: "Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts." One writer uses that name as a test which today's Jerusalem fails.
Verse 7 does not tell us how this will be done after the earlier attempt has failed. When we read Matthew 24:31, we find the Lord shedding light on the matter. The people who will be brought to the Lord as a present will be "His elect," and not just a mixture of patriots and refugees, as we see today... Jerusalem as it is today cannot be called that. It is the place where Jews are regathering, hoping to display the greatness of their own name, while still rejecting their Messiah.
- Failure first. God lets man's plan for Israel's return look promising, then cuts it down like fruit before harvest. "At that time" begins where man's plan ends.
- Gift second. What man could not settle, God receives. The nation is brought in as a present, not installed by men's plans.
- Both ways. They are the gift and they bring the gift — brought to God, and bringing to God, in the same verse.
- Worldwide reach. Another prophecy fills in the method: Gentiles bring Israel back from every nation.
- Named destination. The gift arrives at Mount Zion, the place of God's name. Today's Jerusalem, seeking its own name, does not answer to that.