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. Isaiah 18:7
Observation: This passage refers to other nations that will someday come to Jerusalem with gifts to present to the Lord. The commentaries about this passage vary greatly about who this other nation - people tall, with different skin, who speaks a strange language and are from a land divided by rivers - might be. The three prevailing guesses in order to apparent popularity are a) Ethiopia, b) the United States, and c) India. There is a scattering of other opinions about northern Persia, Europe (especially Rome), and China as well.
Here's the deal ... none of those quite make sense, yet they all do make sense, especially the U.S. and India. These are both far-off lands who have received visitors by boat (v2) with a message about the Lord, both would be accurately described as speaking a language very different from ancient Hebrew, both are populated by people with skin different than middle easterners, and the U.S. is very rightly described as an aggressive nation who a feared. This overall passage also talks about the rivers of Cush, which at that time was understood to mean the Nile and its tributaries, which is where the idea of modern Ethiopia and Sudan comes in, and this is reenforced when the next section discusses the 'land of Ham' (aka Egypt and northeastern Africa). You can even say ... the Roman empire absolutely came to Jerusalem as an aggressive and feared people, then brought Jesus as the supreme 'gift' onto a hill in Zion.
The concerning thing is that it seems clear that Isaiah - speaking the words of the Lord - had a definitive idea of who this people-group was who would come to Zion and presents gifts to the Lord, yet modern-day scholars who should be understanding this prophesy by the power of the Holy Spirit don't agree.
Application: This is an interesting component of bible study. On one hand, I like going down a bit of a rabbit hole and trying to figure out these sorts of things. I often learn a lot when I do. I discover context I didn't know, and word meaning that wasn't obvious, and feel the Holy Spirit guides me to a deeper understanding when I do.
Likewise, these sort of issues lend themselves to personal encouragement. For example, this is vague enough even after research that I could say ... "This is the U.S. and believers are supposed to be taking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem" ... or "This is India and believers need to be traveling there to give them the good news so they'll want to support Israel" ... or "This was Rome and look, it's another Messianic prophesy Jesus already fulfilled!" Interestingly, any one of those could lead me to a right and encouraging thought and action, and at the same time all three of those are probably wrong (as this was probably about Africa).
I truly do like reading the bible, leaning into the Holy Spirit's direction, and knowing that whatever revelation I get from the spirit is for me. It is God's word for me today, and that represents the true living power of words written a millennia ago.
Prayer: Lord, please give me your spirit today to do what is right, understand everything with your wisdom, and serve others. Amen.
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