Isaiah 18
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Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Commentary
I have moved far too many times. It seems that just about the time I am finally putting down enough roots that my life seems to be coming together and I am feeling settled, something comes along to cut off those roots and pluck me out of the soil and plop me down in a new field where I have to start all over with the process of putting down roots.
There is a corollary experience in the Bible. In the ultimate sense, no one can put down permanent roots until sin has been destroyed and the earth is made new. This side of eternity, the idea of permanence is relative. Sometimes that is for our good. Isaiah 18 describes how people were looking like they were going to flourish but that God had different plans and cut them off before the harvest could fully ripen. That seems harsh until you notice that it is because they were not planted in God’s holy land. They were planted in the land of the enemy. God stepped in and nipped that in the bud.
Where are you putting down your spiritual roots? Do you need to be transplanted into the Lord’s vineyard?
Karen D. Lifshay
Chorister, Hermiston SDA Church, Oregon USA
