To a Nation Tall and Smooth (Isaiah 18:1-3)

“Ho! To the land of fluttering wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia…”

Isaiah’s oracle concerning Cush is the “Day 2” step of a “de-creation” sequence (see the chart here). What does that mean? The prophecies are ordered according to the days of Genesis 1, but the prophet deliberately runs the pattern backwards to make a theological point. Instead of creation ex nihilo, these nations will be a-nnihil-ated. Having been “un-created,” it will be as though they never existed.

As the Division/Delegation/Exodus step of the sevenfold Jachin pillar sequence, the oracle concerning Cush (Nubia) plays poetically upon the separation of the waters on Day 2. Its dark people are “stretched out” (tall) and “smooth” like the firmament, and its mediatory function is alluded to in the ministry of the naval emissaries. The ancient territory is divided by rivers and runs alongside the Red Sea. The exodus is also referenced in the fact that the ambassadors are carried in vessels made of bulrushes.

The Cushites are “judged” only in the sense that their mission is assessed by God and redirected. Their king dispatched delegates to seek help in fighting off the Assyrians (Isaiah 37:9), but they are sent home with the promise that Sennacherib would be defeated suddenly by Yahweh. In gratitude for this deliverance, the Cushite ambassadors would return with a tribute to Israel’s mighty God.

The chapter has a brilliant three-layered structure. Firstly, it is sevenfold, beginning with the sending of the delegates and ending with their return. Secondly, as the Firmament step of the Jachin sequence, it is comprised of only two Cycles. These represent the waters above and the waters below, a witness of heaven and earth (Deuteronomy 4:26; 30:19).

Heaven is a triune vertical order, so the Lord makes a threefold descent with a proclamation (Oath). The horizontal land has four corners (the compass points), so the Lord brings a fourfold judgment upon the earth (Sanctions).

EPISODE 2F
Overview

2F1
Oath: The Lord Bows the Heavens

2F2
Sanctions: The Lord Judges the Earth

Thirdly, under closer analysis, the seven Stanzas of 2F1 (Oath) work through the Tabernacle from heaven to earth, arranged according to its three vertical domains, as well as the fivefold Covenant and sevenfold Creation patterns; then the ten Stanzas of 2F2 (Sanctions) work through the rubric of the Ten Commandments as the Lord declares His judgment concerning the cutting off of Assyria.

CYCLE 2F1
Oath:
The Lord Bows the Heavens (18:1-3)

TRANSCENDENCE
A directive to the land of fluttering wings, (18:1)
(Ark of the Testimony – Throne – Genesis)

HIERARCHY
which sends ambassadors by sea in vessels of reed (18:2a)
(Veil – Glory Cloud – Exodus)

ETHICS
Priesthood
Swift messengers are sent (above) (18:2b)
Kingdom
to a tall people who are widely feared (beside), (18:2c)
Prophecy
conquerors whose rivers divide the land (below) (18:2d)
(Holy Place – Heavenly Court – Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

OATH/SANCTIONS
A call to all inhabitants of the world who dwell in the land (18:3a)
(Bronze Laver – Crystal Sea – Joshua)

SUCCESSION
to see the banner raised on the mountains
and hear the trumpet blown (18:3b)
(Bronze Altar – Mount Sinai – Judges)

The Oath Cycle begins with fluttering wings, an allusion to the cherubim in the Most Holy Place, and ends with the people of God assembled at His holy mountain, as pictured by the Bronze Altar. Related images are found in Genesis (the dove finding a place to rest her foot upon the highest peak) and Revelation (the New Jerusalem descending upon the greatest mountain).

In legal terms, the court of God with its crystal sea “tabernacles” among men. It becomes one with its replica on earth as it did at Mount Sinai for the giving of the Law (Exodus 24:9-10), and when Solomon’s Temple was judged according to that Law (Ezekiel 1:22).

The crystal sea highlights this Episode’s correspondence to the Red Sea (Division) in the Jachin pillar sequence. The vertical descent in 2F1 makes it a pillar of cloud coming down to protect the people of God from the invaders. The earth is the Lord’s footstool, and His “feet” make the mountain tremble and smoke (Psalm 144:5-8).

The legal steps of sacrifice are also apparent, from Initiation by God in heaven to Representation of God by His images on earth.

• (Isaiah 18:1) (Initiation) Rather than “Woe,” it is “Ho!” and it begins an imperative. The oracle is not speaking against the Cushites but to them. Rather than the “buzzing” of insects in most translations, the Septuagint and Aramaic Targum say this phrase refers to the ships that raced up and down the rivers. The sound of motion comes from the sails fluttering in the wind. In this Genesis step, it evokes the Spirit vibrating over the waters, and the Noahic dove.
• (Isaiah 18:2a) (Delegation) These ambassadors had arrived in Jerusalem after descending from the Upper Nile in swift ships of reed (Job 9:26). In Isaiah 57:9 and Proverbs 25:13, the word for the ambassadors is rendered “messengers,” so the fiery angels embroidered on the Tabernacle Veil who travel like the wind are also in mind (Exodus 36:35; Psalm 104:3-4).
• (Isaiah 18:2b) (Presentation) These swift envoys are carried upon the waters, just as the land is “above” the sea (Day 3).
• (Isaiah 18:2c) (Purification) The Nubians resembled royalty, “drawn-out and polished” like the finest metalwork or weaponry; elegant, bronze-skinned, and widely feared. Smoothness speaks of high culture. Smooth Jacob was the refined brother, and Joseph was shaved for his appearance in the court of Pharaoh.
• (Isaiah 18:2d) (Transformation) The military/multiplication Stanza portrays them as strong and victorious (literally, “powerful and treading down”). Dwelling at the source of mighty waters, the image evokes the Edenic spring and fertile paradise in Genesis 2.
• As illustrated in the 2F1 chart, these three Stanzas comprise a sequence that moves from above, to beside, to below, an allusion to Exodus 20:4. In the humaniform terms of Genesis 2-3, this is the head (the wind/breath of the Spirit in the mouth), the hands (long limbs and weaponry that cut into the side), and the feet (the conquest and abundance resulting from faithful warfare and its bruised heel). This “Tabernacle man” describes an integrated and glorious culture at the center of the Cycle in the heavenly court—the house of Man within the House of God. It is another reference to this being the Exodus step of the pillar.¹The “Tabernacle Man” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream likewise appears in an Exodus step. See “The Dominion of Daniel” chart here.
• (Isaiah 18:3a) (Vindication) The divine oath in this Conquest Stanza summons the nations to expect the fall of the Assyrian invaders at the hand of the angel of the Lord (2 Kings 19:35).
• (Isaiah 18:3b) (Representation) They are invited to look for a sign from God concerning His impending judgment. In a great irony, this would be the standards of Sennacherib on the mountains of Judea, and the sound of his army’s trumpets preparing to besiege Jerusalem. In terms of the Tabernacle imagery of the Cycle, this is the point when the feet of God would stand on the mountain of God as a great Bronze Altar, the one which, like Sinai, no “naked Adam” was permitted to ascend (Exodus 19:12-13; 20:26).

Stanza analysis

(Isaiah 18:2bcd) When combined, the three Ethics Stanzas also work as a fivefold Covenant sequence. There is the wind of God carrying the vessels, the mission, the royal people, their blessed exploits, and the fertility that brings them a future. Notice the symmetry in the key words: waters, nation, people, nation, rivers.

Cycle 2F1