Day 14 — Isaiah 17:12-20:6 Nations rage, God rules
Opening prayer
Sovereign Lord, when the nations rage and the world feels unstable, please keep me from fear and from false trust. Help me to see that you rule over history, that your purposes are wise, and that my safest place is in humble dependence on you. Amen.
Headline
However loudly the nations rage, God remains in control: he judges human pride, brings unexpected mercy, and teaches his people to trust him alone.
Isaiah 17:12-20:6
12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.
18 Woe to the land of whirring wings
along the rivers of Cush,
2 which sends envoys by sea
in papyrus boats over the water.
Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers.
3 All you people of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it,
and when a trumpet sounds,
you will hear it.
4 This is what the Lord says to me:
“I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter.
7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty
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.
19 A prophecy against Egypt:
See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud
and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—
brother will fight against brother,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.
3 The Egyptians will lose heart,
and I will bring their plans to nothing;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
the mediums and the spiritists.
4 I will hand the Egyptians over
to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
5 The waters of the river will dry up,
and the riverbed will be parched and dry.
6 The canals will stink;
the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.
The reeds and rushes will wither,
7 also the plants along the Nile,
at the mouth of the river.
Every sown field along the Nile
will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
8 The fishermen will groan and lament,
all who cast hooks into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
will pine away.
9 Those who work with combed flax will despair,
the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.
10 The workers in cloth will be dejected,
and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.
11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the wise men,
a disciple of the ancient kings”?
12 Where are your wise men now?
Let them show you and make known
what the Lord Almighty
has planned against Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoan have become fools,
the leaders of Memphis are deceived;
the cornerstones of her peoples
have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has poured into them
a spirit of dizziness;
they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
15 There is nothing Egypt can do—
head or tail, palm branch or reed.
16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them. 17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.
18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.
19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. 21 So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
20 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.
3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”
Comment
Today’s reading widens Isaiah’s vision again. The nations are noisy, restless, and threatening. They “rage” and “roar” like the sea (17:12). That image feels very contemporary. Human history so often looks like a storm of conflict, ambition, alliances, fears, and collapsing powers. But Isaiah wants us to see something deeper: however loud the nations sound, they are not in charge. God is.
That is the first note of the passage. The nations may thunder, but God can rebuke them and they vanish like chaff before the wind (17:13). What terrifies human beings does not unsettle the Lord. He is never anxious, never surprised, never scrambling to react. That is an important corrective for us. We are easily unsettled by events, headlines, threats, and uncertainty. But God is never rattled by what rattles us.
That same truth is developed in the oracle concerning Cush, a large region in the south-west, which is modern day Sudan (18:1-7). The picture is unusual. God says he will “remain quiet” and watch (18:4). That quietness is not inactivity or indifference. It is sovereign patience. God is not absent from world events; he is waiting for the right moment to act. Then, at harvest time, he will cut down what human pride has produced (18:5–6). Nations may look impressive in their growth and power, but God can prune them in an instant. Human glory never lasts long when set against the Lord of history.
Then the focus turns to Egypt, to the south of Judah (19:1-20:6). Egypt had long represented worldly security for God’s people — ancient strength, political wisdom, impressive resources. But when the Lord comes against Egypt, everything begins to unravel. Idols tremble, hearts melt, civil order collapses, the economy dries up, and wise counsel is exposed as foolishness (19:1–15). It is a searching reminder that what looks strong may be deeply fragile if God is against it.
But judgment is not the end of the story. One of the most remarkable features of this passage is that Egypt, Cush, and even Assyria are not only judged — they are also included in God’s future mercy. “In that day” the nations that once raged against God will come to know him, worship him, and belong with his people (19:16–25). That is astonishing. The God who judges the nations is also the God who can convert them. His purpose is not only to humble proud powers, but to gather worshippers from them.
That means God’s people must learn a vital lesson: do not trust the nations more than God, and do not fear them more than God. Chapter 20 makes that painfully clear. Isaiah’s strange, enacted prophecy of walking around “stripped and barefoot” (20:3,4) shows that Cush and Egypt, however impressive they may appear, are not reliable saviours. Judah would be foolish to build its future on them. And so would we, whenever we look to human strength, cultural confidence, political solutions, or worldly institutions as if they were ultimate.
Why does God want us to hear this today? Because we are always tempted either to be intimidated by the world or to place too much hope in it. Isaiah reminds us that the nations are neither to be worshipped nor feared. God alone rules. And wonderfully, the God who rules over the nations is able not only to judge them, but to redeem people from them. So we can trust him, pray for the world, and live without panic.
Reflect
- What world events, powers, or pressures are most likely to make me fearful?
- Where am I tempted to place hope in human strength rather than in God?
- How does this passage encourage me to pray not only for judgment on evil, but also for the salvation of the nations?
Closing prayer
Almighty God, thank you that you rule over the raging nations and that nothing in this world is beyond your power. Please forgive me for the ways I fear human strength or trust in it too much. Teach me to rest in your sovereignty, to hope in your mercy, and to pray with confidence for the peoples of the world to come and worship you. Amen.
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