Woe To The Land....???????

Isaiah18:1-2 -  Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:  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.

 

Isaiah’s message in this chapter is for a ‘land beyond the rivers….with shadowing wings.  It is another gloomy communication of destruction for a people that are ‘terrible’…’meted out’….and ’trodden down’. The commentaries I read said it was the most ‘obscure’ chapter of this book…because the place God was talking about was never given a specific name.

 

I put a big question mark on my notes after I read it…..and sat staring at the on-line text I copy my scripture from longer than usual.  As I waited for God to show me what to copy…I read several commentaries that named Ethiopia….and even one article that used some very convincing theories to support his belief that this prophecy might even be for the United States.

 

Perhaps it is not for any one place…but a warning to all the people beyond the borders of what was then known as the world.  Perhaps we should take heed to its beginning words anywhere we live…for none of us will escape the end judgment of God.  It won’t be pretty…there are more details in the books of Revelation. And even though some believe that all believers will be raptured before any bad stuff goes down…others use the same scripture to theorize that all of us will go through some sort of trial in the end.

 

It all comes down to this for me.  I had better be ready…and I need to be telling others the same thing Isaiah did.  Woe to those that don’t believe…who have chosen to turn away from God…they will not get to share Heaven with any of us…whether we are raptured immediately into God’s presence…or have to endure part of the end times before he claims us.

 

I also need to strengthen my faith as tough as I can get it.  Since scripture is so confusing about the end…. I have no guarantees that I will not have to prove my love for God before he lets me enter into his kingdom.  I had better prepare my heart…and my mind with lots of prayer…and study of the scriptures.  Perhaps three key scriptures will take me through the end of anything God asks me to endure before he takes me up to Heaven….that is the way Jesus sent satan packing in the wilderness where he was tempted.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that you have proclaimed your disappointment with the world and its failure to follow you in all your commands.  Forgive me for not being ready in this moment to fight off satan like your son did so long ago. Help me to study to show myself approved…and be that workman that you are so proud of…so I will be able to send satan packing with a scripture you have helped me to memorize just for that moment.  Build the strongest faith you can in me…so that I will be able to suffer any hardship that comes my way without growing bitter or confused about the future you promised to me in your word.  Amen.