Chapter 18 of Isaiah is very interesting and instructive in view of Arab intransigence toward Israel; for the recent Palestinian struggle, and all the United Nations' resolutions, implemented by a small army in the field, have settled nothing basically. The old hostility of Ishmael, Esau, Moab, and Ammon toward the posterity of Jacob is as deep and real as ever. Almost as soon as the Israeli army withdrew from the Gaza strip, infiltrators from there began again to harass adjacent Israeli territory. The following excerpts from Arab sources will indicate their continued belligerent mood:
"Egypt is not relying on the United Nations or the United States to secure her rights. Egypt can liberate her territory from the invaders... and the fight will not be merely for Gaza or Sharm El-Sheikh, but will be a life or death struggle to settle the whole issue.... Regardless of the powers that support Israel, the world still has a chance to snap off the thorn of Israel." -Radio Cairo, Feb. 9, 1957.
"Israel is a passing cloud that currently blocks the sun, but it will not be long before she ceases to exist.... Israel will get out of Palestine... and then every Arab will cheer."—Al-Jihad, Jordan Daily, Feb. 24.
"The Arab states must triumph over imperialism and its underlings and crush Israel -and thus achieve their desired supreme unity." -Voice of The Arabs, Cairo, March 5.
"Arab nationalism is the ammunition... which we shall use against Zionist hopes.... Arab nationalism is the main ammunition in our long battle against Zionism and imperialism." -Colonel Abdul Nasser, in Cairo, March 10.
"Tomorrow, with the help of Allah, Palestine will be regained." -Al Bilad, Jordan Daily, March 11.
"We believe that Israel is the source of evil in the Middle East and in all the world, and, before the eyes and ears of the world we say openly, We are Israel's enemies."—Al Jihad, Jordan Daily, March 17.
God has promised that land to Abraham and his seed, and those who say that God is through with the children of Israel fly in the face of Scripture. They are to possess it in peace and security. What they have now is not in any sense the fulfillment of God's promise.
The Jews do not now occupy the land in its entirety; they only have portions of it. The old city of Jerusalem is very definitely in Arab hands, and the sacred temple site is defiled by a Mohammedan mosque. Such conditions certainly will not exist when they come into possession of the land from God's hand. They have done wonderful things in shaping an ordered government with modern industrial and agricultural improvements and some economic stability. We might say that the success in less than a decade is phenomenal, but yet it has not been done with faith in God and in His Christ. What they have accomplished is a credit to their fortitude and perseverance, but it will not stand. That people, "beloved for the fathers' sakes," are due for greater disappointments than anything they have yet encountered. When their true deliverance comes, it will come to a repentant and chastened people who will accept all on the ground of God's pure mercy—not as a result of their lifting themselves by sheer determination and effort.
Neither will the West's conciliatory attitude toward the Arabs bring peace to the Middle East. It seems evident from current developments, and as indicated by the Scriptures, that the West will yet be forced to take an openly hostile attitude toward the Arabs in order to defend the Jews. Even a worldly writer recently said that in his opinion the Arabs will eventually strike against Israel on a large scale, and that with the support of Russia, so that the Western powers will have to intervene. He also predicted that the future world struggle will be decided in the Middle East in the "foreseeable future."
When this happens, and the West comes to afflict Asshur and afflict Eber (Numb. 24:2424And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. (Numbers 24:24)) the future head of the Western confederacy will give the Jews their land, including the old city of Jerusalem, so that the temple will again be built in the appointed place. This will be the league which the Western "beast" will make with the
Jews for a period of seven years (Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)), and it will be very promising. What has been going on in Israel in the last nine years will be dwarfed by the mammoth aid to be given at that time. It is here that Isa. 18 comes in with the description of the great human work yet to be done to make Israel a prosperous nation. Let us read the first two verses of this notable chapter:
It should begin with the word "He," not "Woe"; it is a call to a great maritime power. "He to the land shadowing [or whirring] with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia [or rather, Cush]: 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!"
The call is to a great power which will lie outside of Israel's former connections—beyond the rivers of Cush. The descendants of Cush settled on the Nile in Egypt, and on the Euphrates in Asia, so this great power is some nation beyond the Nile and the Euphrates, some power unknown to the Israel of Isaiah's day. It will exercise its might and resources to bring the Jews into their land; for there can be no doubt that the Jews are the people and Palestine the land which is spoken of by the prophet—their land has been despoiled by the constant washings of the Gentiles as rivers ever since Nebuchadnezzar took it in B.C. 606. They are the people who had an auspicious beginning as God brought them out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses by great signs and wonders.
It might be well to quote here the words of the great 18th century prelate, Samuel Horsley, regarding these verses: "The country, therefore, to which the prophet calls, is characterized as one which, in the days of the completion of this prophecy, should be a great maritime and commercial power, forming remote alliances, making distant voyages to all parts of the world with expedition and security, and in the habit of affording protection to their friends and allies. Where this country is to be found is not otherwise said than that it will be remote from Judea, and, with respect to that country, beyond the Cushean streams." These remarks sound very much like present-day phraseology in the matter of international diplomacy and alliances.
Next., let us read the third verse of our chapter: "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he [the head of this great Western power] lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he [same person] bloweth a trumpet, hear ye." When this great leader espouses Israel's cause and gives their Arab opponents a severe setback, he will startle the world with the pronouncement of his policy of "Israel for the Israelites" as he throws the resources of the Western confederacy into the crusade. The magnitude of Western transportation will be at the disposal of Jews returning to their homeland. This, then, will be the great climax of man's attempting to set up Israel in their land—of human effort to do what God has promised He will do. Under such auspices and patronage great numbers of Jews from all parts of the world will return to Palestine to do great things. But what will there be of God or for God in all these great undertakings?
Nothing; simply nothing! It will be man, and the Jew, acting in independency; and we learn from other scriptures that there will be a trinity of evil at work—the devil, the "beast," and the two-horned lamb-like beast (or antichrist in Jerusalem). These will be in league to set up and deify man, and displace God from His own creation. But what will God do when all their machinations are at work on the side of an apostate Jewish people? Let us read verses 4 to 6 of our chapter:
"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. 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. 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." God apparently sits quietly by, but He contemplates man's busy efforts. Then when everything seems about to succeed and Israel be prominently displayed before the world as that which man (not God) has done, God will show the utter folly of man's effort. After a time of great stillness, while man acts, God will bring all their work to naught. When the "vine of the earth" is about to bear fruit under man's culture, God will send the "king of the north" (of Dan. 11:4040And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. (Daniel 11:40); Isa. 28:14, 15, 18-2014Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 15Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: (Isaiah 28:14‑15)
18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 19From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. (Isaiah 28:18‑20)) to "cut down the branches."
Then "It shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name." Zech. 13:8, 98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9). It will then be plainly evident that man in his audacity and boldness will not be able to bring about in his own way what God has designed to do in His time and way. We may well weep for the sorrows that are yet to be accomplished upon that people while they remain in their unbelief. God is allowing the present upbuilding of Israel, but it shall not prosper to a conclusion. Then when the West finally espouses Israel's cause and throws its resources into the fray to make Israel a great and prosperous nation, God will watch, and then allow an attacking force from the north to demolish all once more.
But now let us read the last verse of Isa. 18 "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 underfoot, whose lands the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion."
After all seems hopelessly lost, after a great desolation of that which looks promising now, and will look more so under the Roman beast, God's time will come to re-establish that people in their land under His favor. He will thus rebuke all the work of man, either to further Israel's possession of the land, or to frustrate it as the Arabs are doing and will yet do more violently. And when God brings them back there will be no breakdown or disruption of His plans.
Let us connect with Israel's restoration under God's favor (after their repentance and weeping over what they did to their Messiah before Pilate), the 60th chapter of Isaiah:
"Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows [or dovecotes]? Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.... The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel." vv. 8-14.
This describes the earthly Jerusalem in the day of Christ's reign, when God's Son will sit on His holy hill of Zion, according to God's decree, in spite of the futile efforts of men to prevent it. (See Psalm 2) This will in no way alter the heavenly scene of glory which will be for the raised and glorified saints, but God's Son must be honored in this world where He was once cast out. And when that moment comes, all the resources of the earth will be put at the disposal of that people, "beloved for the fathers' sakes," but who for 2000 years have suffered as a result of that fateful cry, "His blood be on us, and on our children."
The fall of Israel has been "the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles," but the receiving of them back into divine favor will be "life from the dead." If the world at large benefited from Israel's fall, how much more will it benefit from the fullness of their blessing in the midst of the earth. Jerusalem will be the spot from which world government will be administered during the Millennium. Therefore it is evident that they have not been permanently cut off as a people, but the Gentiles of Christendom have not continued in God's goodness and favor, and they will be cut off irretrievably. What a solemn time awaits the Christ rejecters of this favored land when the "fullness of the Gentiles be come in"; that is, when the Lord gathers the Church home to His heavenly glory. (Read Rom. 11 carefully.)
Therefore, as we see man at work either to frustrate God's purposes concerning Israel, or to help build Israel, let us keep our bearings and remember that God will neither be hindered by the one, nor helped by the other. Man cannot hasten it before the time, nor can he prevent it when God's time comes. All must bend to His will and way.
"When once His word is passed,
When He has said, 'I will,'
The thing shall come at last,
God keeps His promise still."
And as His purposes and plans for the earth shall be accomplished, just as surely will all His purposes for us, His heavenly people, be fulfilled—we are to be with Christ, and like Him, and behold His glory.