Peter Allison's sermon titled 'The Tranquil Sovereignty of Jehovah' explores the themes of God's sovereignty in judgment and mercy, as illustrated in Isaiah chapters 17 and 18. The sermon emphasizes God's power over nations, particularly the Assyrian army, likened to the destructive force of rushing waters. Despite Assyria's might, God promises to rebuke them, showcasing His supreme authority. The prophecy also foretells the inclusion of the Kushite nation, known for its strength and history, into God's kingdom, fulfilled partially by the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion in Acts 8. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's ownership over time and wealth, urging faithfulness and acknowledgment of His sovereignty.

Our scripture reading this morning is Isaiah chapter 17. We'll pick up the last three verses there in chapter 18. Isaiah 17 beginning at verse 12. Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. But God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the wind, mountains before the wind, like a whirling thing before the whirlwind, then behold that eventide trouble.

And before the morning he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who rob us. Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, which sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, go Swift messengers to a nation tall and smooth of skin to a people terrible from their beginning Onward a nation powerful and treading down whose land the rivers divide all inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it. And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it. For so Jehovah said to me, I will take my rest.

I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches, and they will be left together for the mountain birds of prey and for the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them and the beasts of the earth will winter on them. And in that time, a present will be brought to the Lord of Hosts, from a people tall and smooth of skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down, whose land the rivers divide to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts to Mount Zion. May we speak of his testimonies before kings and not be ashamed.

Almighty Heavenly Father, please open our hearts to your word. Open your word to us. Send your Spirit to give us understanding, to give us a will to do your will, to give us a delight in your precepts and commandments, a heart for them. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips that through a vessel of clay, the riches of your grace and of your gospel might be brought to us this morning in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, there's a manuscript that has been sitting in Yale University's rare book and manuscript library. They have a separate library for these things. It's been sitting there for 60 years. It's been extensively tested, studied, analyzed by all manner of scientists and all of the instruments they can bring to bear on it. And their studies of this piece of calfskin with ink on it have verified many things about it.

From its date somewhere between 1404 to 1438 AD, its binding, its compounds in the ink, to the detailed analysis of the letters themselves. What letters are never together, what letters are frequently together, or nearly in every word, and so on. They've determined the relative frequency of the words and other patterns in the distribution and ordering of the worlds. But despite having been extensively studied by numerous experts from World War II code breakers to computer scientists to paleographers, No one has been able to read this or decipher what it says. It's a language that nobody knows.

And a host of conflicting theories have been advanced as to what it is and what it says. But no one really knows. It's called the Voynich manuscript after somebody that owned it 100 years ago. And the text this morning has at least one characteristic with this manuscript in that the verses, the first couple of verses of chapter 18 have stumped most every commentator. One commentator said, nearly every word and phrase of this difficult verse has been the subject of conflicting explanations.

And Calvin said, I cannot determine with certainty what is the nation of which Isaiah speaks here even. And of course, that much is evident from just a casual check of the various ways that this verse has been translated. I'll give you just a few examples. The bishop's Bible says, oh, this is translating verse 1, the first phrase there in verse 1. Oh, that land that trusts under the shadow of wings.

Or the Christian standard Bible, woe to the land of buzzing insect wings, with a marginal note that says it could be woe to the land of sailing ships. Or the common English Bible, doom to the land of winged ships. Or Jerome's Vulgate, woe to the land that is a symbol of wings. And That's referring to the percussion instrument, the symbol of wings. But unlike the Voynich manuscript, while there is some uncertainty about how these verses are to be translated and exactly what kingdom and who's being referred to, the message of the text and its application are abundantly clear and totally unambiguous.

And the message is that God is sovereign in both His judgment and in His mercy. God is sovereign. And we'll look at this passage in three parts here this morning. And the first is the sovereign God's message to Israel regarding the nations in verses 12 to 14 of chapter 17. We said last week that this oracle in Chapter 17, this oracle against Damascus, is a fuller or more detailed version of the message that Isaiah brought in Isaiah Chapter 7, when he met King Ahaz by the Fuller's Highway and assured him that Samaria would not harm him.

And in chapter 10, Isaiah brought God's word concerning Assyria. And the message there was that although God was using Assyria as the instrument of his judgment, as his rod, that they too, Assyria too, would come under his rod for their iniquity against the Lord when he was finished with them. And he would destroy them just like he destroyed the Egyptian nation in the Red Sea when he was finished using the Egyptians in the life and the sanctification of his covenant people. And so Isaiah, having addressed Damascus and Israel in the first part of chapter 17, he now addresses what is in Assyria's immediate future. Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters.

The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters. He's addressing Syria. The Assyrian armies were composed of a composite of. Many different peoples from all the nations that they had conquered. This is the this is the nature of empires and empire building nations.

They would conquer a nation and they would make them a vassal. And these vassal nations were bound by an oath. Usually it was an oath invoking their own local pagan idols as a witness. They were bound by oath to support the Assyrian king. And failure to support the king meant complete destruction.

They could either support the king or be annihilated. Failing to maintain their allegiance was treason and that would justify annihilating their city and it was also sacrilege against their own gods or so they thought. And so these foreign troops were put under Assyrian commanders and carried far away from their home, so that deserting an army, the army in a foreign land would be nearly impossible or would be even worse for them than their existence in the army. Typically alone, far from family support, without any resources, they would have a bigger chance of dying. They deserted.

Then if they stayed and so very quickly, these troops would be assimilated as Assyrians, If not wholeheartedly, they at least recognized that their identity and their survival was tied to the success of the Assyrian empire. The spoils of war were also another incentive to these men. The Syrian soldiers were entitled to a share of the loot, of the livestock, of the gold, of the captives that were seized during the campaigns. In fact, even the Israelite army was entitled at times to receive a share of the of the spoils of war. This is how this was true in the days of the early campaigns, there's also how David built and gathered the gold for the temple.

And so this offered a path to status and material wealth for these armies that was impossible for them any other way. And so these are the multitude of nations that made a noise like the roar of the seas that Isaiah is speaking of here. They were a powerful force. They left the wake of destruction and desolation very similar to what mighty rushing waters do. Just think of the destructive power of the recent flood in Nepal.

Survivors described those flood waters as a thunderous roar, as a thunderclap, as an explosion, or as the deep earth-shaking rumble of an earthquake. Herds of buffalo and cattle would be swept away, entire villages just wiped out by the rushing of mighty waters. And you can see those videos. Some of them have been kept. Some of these scenes have been captured on film.

One survivor described hearing a hissing sound which turned into a roar as a wall of water, mud, and boulders came crashing down, sweeping away his house, the street, and the whole village, leaving just a mud flat. And so Isaiah is describing the Assyrian army as a similar force across the across Mesopotamia across the Levant, the eastern region where Syria and Palestine and in northern Egypt. The movement you can imagine of these armies raise no small concern among the nations that were in their path. At the height of their power in Isaiah's day There really was no army that could stop them. Remember the Rabshekah's boast at Jerusalem in Isaiah 36?

He said, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust? I say you speak of having plans and power for war, But those are mere words, he said. Now in whom do you trust that you rebel against me look you are trusting in the staff of this broken-read Egypt On which if a man leans it will go in his hand and pierce it so is Sparo the king of Egypt to all who trust in him Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharbim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? That was his boast. But God. God's reply is like the reply of a seasoned master black belt in the martial arts, responding to some boast of an upstart who's too big for his britches and doesn't have any idea who he's challenging. But God, Isaiah says, God will rebuke them and they will flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind like a rolling thing before the whirlwind this see this was a message of assurance and comfort to Israel.

Assyria is no problem. For Jehovah. He'll merely say a few words and they will run, they will blow away like a bit of confetti in the wind. They are a menace in the evening, but they'll be gone by the morning, vanished. And indeed, that is exactly what happened to Assyria.

One night, Sunakrib went to his tent surrounded by an army of a couple hundred thousand soldiers and the next morning he woke up to find a hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers dead. He had no option other than to return to Nineveh in a humiliating defeat. This Isaiah says is the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who rob us. That was his message to Israel. But the Lord also in the second part here has a word for the Gentile nations that are troubled about Assyria.

And that brings us to chapter 18. Woe to the land of buzzing wings. Woe is is just an interjection. So it often precedes a declaration of judgment. It's often a lament of anguish or serves as a warning of impending destruction.

But it can also be, just as frequently, simply an expression of lament or an exclamation to highlight something. Like Isaiah 55 which says ho everyone that thirsts come to the waters buy without money and without price. That word ho in isaiah 55 is translating the same hebrew word here. That's whoa And and except in isaiah 55 it's it's a exclamation a verbal call to everyone to listen to some good news. And that I think is closer to the sense here in verse 1 of Isaiah 18.

Ho, or look, behold, oh. Ho or look, behold, oh. Now here is where most of the uncertainty lies about who Isaiah is addressing here. We know that it is a land or a nation that is related in some way to Ethiopia, that much is certain. Woe to the land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

But how to translate buzzing wings or what exactly that is referring to is a question that I don't think anyone has a good answer. But I think there are two ideas that have the most credibility. One is land of buzzing wings, and the other is land of sailing ships. See, sailing ships is the ancient translation from the Septuagint. That's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament done several hundred years before Christ.

Eusebius of Caesarea writing shortly after the Council of Nicaea, which would be 300 years after Christ, translates this phrase as, ah, wings of a land of ships, or land of sailing ships, or land of light ships. See, the idea of sailing ships comes from the fact that the sails of a ship are like wings and are sometimes referred to as wings, very commonly referred to as wings. For example, writing just before the time of Christ, Virgil speaks in his Aeneid of spreading the wings of our sails. Those are his exact words. Spreading the wings of our sails, referring to launching a sailboat.

Even today, some expensive racing yachts have solid airfoils just like an airplane wing instead of fabric sails. And this also fits with the context of this passage of sending ambassadors by sea in reed vessels on the waters. The only problem with it is that the Hebrew doesn't supply any support for the word ship. The Greek translators of the Hebrew translated it that way, but the Hebrew scholars today can't find any support for that word to mean ship. So while a few translations of the modern era have gone that route, most translations since the Middle Ages translated as buzzing wings or some variation of that.

So the land to whom this message is addressed is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. And Ethiopia is a land that people say have many buzzing insects. And so that provides some support for that idea. Now, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Or beyond the rivers is a phrase that's used many times in the scriptures, and it usually means on the other side of the river.

In other words, farther south of the rivers than the rivers of Ethiopia. And the rivers of Ethiopia are usually understood to be the upper Nile river system. The headwaters of the Nile, which are formed from a collection of rivers in what today is called Sudan. But the Hebrew word that's translated Ethiopia is actually Kush. And if you have a more modern translation than the Reformation era ones, most of them use to translate this as Kush.

But the Reformation era translations actually are inconsistent on this point. Sometimes they will translate Kush as Ethiopia like they do here, and sometimes they translate it as Kush. But the word, the Hebrew word is Kush. And the story of how Ethiopia and Kush, or how Ethiopia relates to Kush, is actually somewhat related to understanding the amazing prophecy of this chapter. You see, you remember Kush was one of the sons of Ham according to Genesis 10.

And some of his descendants settled, some of Mahan's descendants settled in the regions south of Egypt. Misriam, which is Egypt, was a son of Ham. Put, another son. And Kush was a son of him. And some of Kush's descendants settled in the regions south of Egypt.

And that's the land that encompasses the headwaters of the Nile. Others of Kush's descendants settled in Arabia and the land of Shinar. And these Arabian Kushites migrated across the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa. And this happened over a long period of time from around the time of King David to the Babylonian captivity. So this was happening this migration of Kush from Arabia the Arabian Kushites to the African Kushites was happening during Isaiah's ministry and during the time of this prophecy.

And so when the Septuagint translated the Hebrew term Kush, the translators used the Greek word. Ithiopia, which means burnt face or dark skinned in the Greek. Because those were the occupants of. Of Kush, of the of where Kush was. And so in Greek culture, Ithiopia was a generalized term for any land south of Egypt anything really in in the Sub-Saharan Africa So essentially you have Kush is a Hebrew term and Ethiopia is a loosely equivalent Greek term that was based on the color of the skin of the African people.

But over time, these two words became specialized and took on separate meanings. Because the Arabian And the native African Kushites that were living in the south of Egypt in the in the what's now called the Ethiopia, the highlands of Africa. These two groups of people formed what became called the Axum Empire. And the Axum Empire reached its zenith from the first century after Christ through the seventh century. So that's from the time of acts through to the start of the Middle Ages.

The. One of their kings about the time in Nicaea actually left a monument. A Stella in three languages in which they referred to themselves as Ethiopians. That's a name they took for themselves. And so as this Axumite Empire grew in influence, the term Ethiopia became exclusively connected to this Axumite Kingdom, which is where modern day Ethiopia, Eritrea is today, or in the extreme south of Sudan.

While Kushite, the term Kush became limited to the region that's now essentially Sudan. And so these are two different nations. But But at the time of the New Testament, this Kushite land that is now Sudan would have been called Ethiopia or Ethiopia. And So this nation here that's called Kush or Ethiopia is the Kushite kingdom, which is now Sudan. It's not our modern day Ethiopia.

It has a separate history. And so this Kushite nation, what's now Sudan, was sending ambassadors on ships of papyrus to read to every province under Ethiopian rule because the advance of the Syrian army had them very alarmed. The Syrian army is coming around the Mesopotamian crescent, the Fertile Crescent coming down from the north, coming through Syria, coming through Judah. And and they are concerned they actually did have a major battle a little after this time. Now, the king of Kush around this time is actually named in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37.9.

He's named as Tirhakka. Tirhakka. He was a powerful king who ruled in both Egypt and in Kush. And he he was threatening a battle against Sinakarib, who had come up against Judah. And so Isaiah breaks in.

Now, that's the background. Isaiah breaks in now as these Kushite nation is sending out ambassadors by the sea. Isaiah breaks in and says, Go swift messengers to a nation tall and smooth of skin. Now, he could be addressing these ambassadors that were sent by Kush, or he could be speaking in terms of just a general announcement, go to these people. But whoever is being given this commission, The message, the commission is clear.

Go to this nation tall and smooth of skin. Now that's a strange sounding description. It's given twice in this seven verses, this description to a nation tall and smooth of skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down, whose lands the rivers divide. That's whom Isaiah is saying, go to these people. Whether it's the ambassadors that the Kushites have sent out or whether it's just a general proclamation to go to these people, Isaiah has a message for them.

This is, most people are in agreement, most commentators that this is referring to the Ethiopian people, the Kushites, which had a universal reputation in antiquity of having gigantic strength and invincibility. Smooth as skin is a reference to being clean shaven. Herodotus claimed that the Egyptian priests shaved their entire body every other day just for the sake of cleanliness. And so these are clean shaven. Whose lands the rivers divide refers to of course the headwaters of the upper Nile throughout the land of Kush.

But whatever ambiguity is there in terms of who is being given this commission, The details don't affect the overall message and application of this text. God is sovereign. God is the sovereign who with utmost tranquility and ease dispatches nations accordingly as he pleases. And the mighty God, Jehovah, will dispatch the Assyrian army without any effort. And so Isaiah, as the herald of Jehovah, announces to all inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth.

When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you will see it. And when he blows a trumpet, you will hear it. Now, why can Isaiah say this? Because as he relates in verse four, the Lord, Jehovah, has said to me, Isaiah says, the Lord has said to me, I will take my rest. God's not, it's just the opposite of these troubled waters, these raging waters, rushing waters of the nations.

God is going to take his rest. And I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. And God says that he, Jehovah, will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches. And they're going to be left for the mountain birds of prey and the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them and the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

This is a poetic description of God's annihilation of the Assyrian army as it encamped against Jerusalem. When he destroyed those 185, 000 soldiers in one night without Hezekiah or anyone else even lifting a sword. Even Gideon, God didn't even need Gideon's 300 men. That was too many. He didn't need anyone.

But that's not even the most amazing prophecy here. Verse seven prophesies a time when these very same people. These member, these descendants of Ham, these Kushites who were cursed, These people will bring their ties to the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion. They will be the object of God's mercy. They will be adopted into his kingdom as his as his children.

Acts eight records the fulfillment of this prophecy or the beginning of its fulfillment. Behold a man of Ethiopia. And that that's this Kushite land. And a eunuch of great authority under Candice, the queen of the Ethiopians. This is this Kushite nation.

It was a mighty nation who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning. This Kushite had come to Jerusalem to worship, just like Isaiah said. And Philip ran to him and heard him. The Spirit said to Philip, go and overtake the chariot. He was riding in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah.

And Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and he said, do you understand what you are reading? And the eunuch said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him in the chariot, you remember the story. And the place where he was reading in the scriptures was he was led as a lamb, as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away, and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from him, from the earth?

And the eunuch asked Philip, And he said, who's the prophet speaking of here of himself or some other man? And so Philip opened his mouth and began with the beginning of scripture, preach Jesus to him from Isaiah, from the Pentateuch. And the eunuch saw some water and he said, see, here's water, What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

This Ethiopian eunuch, this Kushite. And so they commanded the chariot to stop and Philip baptized this man. And when he came out of the water, God took Philip away. But the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Here was an Ethiopian bringing his ties and his worship to Mount Zion.

He went back to Ethiopia and began evangelizing that nation. According to early church historians, the Apostle Matthew Levi also went to Ethiopia. And so this church was established in Ethiopia in the early first century, just like Paul had said that the Gospel had been preached to every nation under heaven. Under the Roman persecution during the second and third centuries, that growth of this Ethiopian or Cushite church accelerated significantly. Because as the Roman persecutions of the second and third centuries intensified, large numbers of Coptic Christians fled into Nubia, which is what this nation was called, strengthening the church.

In 300 AD, the Axumite King, remember, That's the nation down in what we call Ethiopia today. Around 300 AD, the Axumite king converted to Christianity, sometime probably after the Council of Nicaea. He reigned from 320 to 360, a lengthy reign. A powerful king converted to Christianity. And so by the sixth century, continued missionary activity supported by bishops from Alexandria and Byzantine led to establishing major significant churches in the Nubian kingdoms there in the region of Kush.

And actually when after the death of Muhammad as Islam continued to expand across Northern Europe, it was this land of Nubia, where the church had been established, beginning with the Ethiopian eunuch, through later evangelations. This country stopped the Islamic advance further south. And there was for many hundred years there a Christian nation that held out and actually had basically a truce with the Islamic hordes. Of course, That nation fell to Islam later on as the church weakened. And so that indigenous Christians in the land of Sudan today faced a very difficult, very, very difficult persecution, a genocide.

And when the Sudan became independent of the colonial nations in the 50s, became very dangerous for a couple of generations. In 1964, the government expelled all foreign missionaries, forcing the church to become entirely indigenous. But despite this genocide going on of Christians in Sudan, the Christian population grew significantly from 1.6 million in 1980 to 11 million 30 years later. And this was under a nation that was living under Sharia law. It was under a nation that engaged in the systematic persecution and murder of pastors, burning villages, and specifically targeting Sunday services.

Eventually, though, this South Sudan was able to become a separate nation in 2011. And, but this is the story, this is the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied in verse seven. In that time a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin, from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down whose land the rivers divide to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts to Mount Zion. It's the bringing of ties to the Lord that is one way that we recognize God's sovereignty over us. There are two or his propriety ownership of us.

The Sabbath we acknowledge God's propriety over our time. That He is the one who determines what we do and when we do it. And the Sabbath day we give to him, he commands a special propriety over us and over the use of our time. And in the tithe, We recognize that God owns our wealth as well, and we are giving it to him, acknowledging that he is the sovereign. And God said here, God's gracious promise here was that this pagan nation, this cursed nation, descendants of Ham, would be bringing his ties to Mount Zion.

And that indeed has been fulfilled. And is continuing to be fulfilled. And this is the hope of the gospel. This is what the reign of Christ is accomplishing even in our day. But we also see in this how unfaithfulness can lead to falling away.

Many of the churches that the Apostles established in Asia Minor today don't exist because they have fallen away. Just like those letters in the book of Revelation unwind them against the church at Ephesus, doctrinally pure but had left its first love, the church of Laodicea, unfaithful and so on. So it is both an encouragement to us that God is sovereign, He is accomplishing His purpose, but also a warning to us not to fall away, and not to be weary in well-doing, not to be at ease in Zion. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You For Your Word, it is light to us, it is health, it is life-giving, it is powerful and living, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Father, may Your Word sanctify us this morning, setting us apart, equipping us that we would be thoroughly furnished for every good work. May you strengthen and encourage us that we would not doubt your sovereignty, your power, your goodness, Even in the face of uncertainty, in the face of war, global war, in the face of Islamic hordes overtaking our land, Father, You are still sovereign. May your word be our strength, our comfort, our delight. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.