Day 186: The nations judged

Isaiah saw a long way - into the future, and into a new world that his contemporaries couldn’t begin to imagine. Quite what they thought about his extravagant prophecies, I couldn’t say.
A message about Edom
Isaiah 21:11-12
A message about Arabia
Isaiah 21:13-17
Judgement upon the Philistines
Isaiah 14:28-32
Judgement upon Moab
Isaiah 15:1-9
Moab’s hopeless situation
Isaiah 16:1-14
Hezekiah defeats Assyria
2 Kings 18:7-8
The Amalekites slain
1 Chronicles 4:39-43
Judgement against Ethiopia
Isaiah 18:1-7
Judgement against Egypt
Isaiah 19:1-15
Egypt will worship the Lord
Isaiah 19:16-25

There is a definite shift in thinking as the prophets get going - a new understanding about God beginning to permeate the people’s understanding. They are moving away from thinking of Yahweh as their tribal God, and beginning to see him as the God of all the earth.
Of course this has been implicit since the beginning - didn’t God say to Abraham that he would bless all the nations of the earth through him - but now it is gathering pace. One particular way in which it manifests is with God showing concern, not just for his nation, but for them all - criticising them for their sin and promising that one day they will come to know that he is God over them, as well as over Israel.
There are remarkable words in Isaiah - promises that Ethiopians and Egyptians and Assyrians will worship God, that they will be blessings to others. Promises like this haven’t been heard before. They seem to belong to the far distant future, even today. Here’s a thing about Isaiah, which I remember being pointed out to me when I was a young Christian  his prophecies are like a range of mountains, some near, some far. The nearest peaks have been fulfilled already, the furthest are yet to come.  Isaiah was given words of extraordinary hope to captivate and inspire an embattled people, to lift their eyes beyond the battles and defeats of today, into a world of peace and love inhabited by the God of all the earth, and all the nations of the earth will be blessings to each other.