The Conquered Conquerors Text: Isaiah 18:7
Introduction: The Gospel's Gravitational Pull
The book of Isaiah is a majestic mountain range in the landscape of Scripture. From its peaks, the prophet sees the entire sweep of redemptive history. He sees judgment and he sees grace, he sees the suffering servant and he sees the reigning king. And one of the consistent themes, a river of grace that runs through all these mountains, is the startling promise that the nations, the Gentiles, the outsiders, will one day be brought into the people of God. Not as second class citizens, not as tolerated guests, but as full sons and heirs.
Our modern evangelical sensibilities have grown so accustomed to this idea that we have lost the sheer, tectonic shock of it. For centuries, Israel was God's chosen, a tiny island of covenant faithfulness in a vast and raging pagan sea. The nations were defined by their opposition to Yahweh. They were the enemies, the idolaters, the darkness. But Isaiah, speaking by the Spirit, declares that the light of Zion will not be a defensive spotlight, but a sun that rises with healing in its wings, drawing the most unlikely and far-flung peoples into its orbit.
This chapter, Isaiah 18, is a prophecy directed at the land of Cush, what we might think of as Ethiopia or the regions of the upper Nile. This was a remote and powerful kingdom, known for its formidable warriors. They were, from an Israelite perspective, the very definition of "far away." And yet, God says that even from this place, a gift will be brought to Him. This is not a prophecy about a one-time diplomatic exchange of pleasantries. This is a picture of the magnetic power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a snapshot of the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It shows us that the kingdom of God is not a beleaguered retreat, but an advancing, conquering force that takes the very strongholds of the enemy and makes them into worshiping outposts for the King.
We live in an age of fear. We see powerful nations, hostile ideologies, and oppressive cultural forces, and we are tempted to despair. We think the church is losing. But Isaiah tells us a different story. He tells us that the most feared and powerful people on earth will one day bow the knee. Their strength will be repurposed, their wealth will be consecrated, and their homage will be brought, not to a god of their own making, but to Yahweh of hosts, on His holy mountain.
The Text
At that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh of hosts From a people tall and smooth, Even from a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide, To the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion.
(Isaiah 18:7 LSB)
The Unlikely Pilgrims
Let's begin by looking at the description of the people who bring this gift.
"From a people tall and smooth, Even from a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide..." (Isaiah 18:7a)
Isaiah is not just giving us ethnographic details for our curiosity. He is painting a theological picture. He piles up descriptions of this people to emphasize their worldly strength and their intimidating nature. They are "tall and smooth," which likely refers to their impressive physical stature. They are a people "feared far and wide." This is not a weak or negligible tribe; this is a regional superpower. They are a "powerful and oppressive nation," literally a nation of "treading down." They are conquerors. Their land is well-watered and prosperous, a land "the rivers divide."
In short, this is a description of a people who, in the eyes of the world, have no need for Yahweh. They are self-sufficient. They are strong. They are feared. They are the kind of nation that makes other nations tremble. They are, in a word, proud. And this is precisely the point. The gospel does not just come for the humble and the broken, though it certainly comes for them. The gospel is so powerful that it can conquer and humble the most arrogant and powerful forces on the planet.
This is a direct assault on our timid, defensive Christianity. We often think the gospel is for nice people, for the "religious" types. But Isaiah says that God is going to receive homage from the kind of people our State Department issues travel warnings about. He is going to receive worship from the very nations that build empires on the backs of others. Why? Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). It is not a polite suggestion; it is a declaration of cosmic regime change. Jesus Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and that includes authority over the powerful and oppressive nations.
This prophecy is a foretaste of what the New Testament proclaims openly. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24). The apostle Paul was sent to bear Christ's name before Gentiles and kings (Acts 9:15). The promise to Abraham was that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Not just some of them. Not just the nice ones. All of them. The gospel is going to go into the hardest places, the most resistant cultures, the most intimidating empires, and it is going to win. It will take these tall, feared, oppressive people, and it will make them worshippers.
The Consecrated Gift
Next, notice what is brought, and to whom it is brought.
"At that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh of hosts..." (Isaiah 18:7b)
The gift is not a bribe to appease a local deity. It is a "gift of homage." This is the tribute that a subject brings to a conquering king. It is an act of submission, an acknowledgment of sovereignty. And who is this gift brought to? Not to a generic deity, but to "Yahweh of hosts," the Lord of armies, the covenant God of Israel. The very God these nations likely ignored or despised is the one they will come to honor.
But what is the gift? The text doesn't specify gold or cattle. In the ultimate sense, the gift is the people themselves. They are the offering. Paul uses this very language in Romans when he speaks of his ministry as presenting the Gentiles as an acceptable offering to God (Rom. 15:16). The conversion of the nations is the tribute that is laid at the feet of the victorious Christ.
This is the heart of our postmillennial confidence. We believe that the Great Commission is not a suggestion or a forlorn hope, but a command from the King that will be successfully accomplished in history, before His return. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9). This happens as nation after nation, people after people, are brought in. The "gift of homage" is the fruit of worldwide revival. It is the result of faithful gospel preaching, where the Spirit of God takes the Word and breaks the hardest of hearts, turning oppressors into servants and proud warriors into humble worshippers.
This means that all the cultural treasures of these nations are to be consecrated to God. Their music, their art, their intellectual strength, their economic power, all of it is to be brought as a gift of homage. The "glory and honor of the nations" is not annihilated; it is baptized. It is brought into the city of God and repurposed for the glory of the King. The strength that was once used for oppression will be used for service. The fear they once inspired will be transformed into the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
The True Zion
Finally, we see the destination of this great pilgrimage.
"To the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion." (Isaiah 18:7c)
For Isaiah's original audience, Mount Zion was a specific geographical location: the hill in Jerusalem where the Temple stood. It was the place where God had chosen to put His name, the place where heaven and earth met. But the New Testament teaches us that the physical Zion was a type, a shadow, of a greater reality.
The book of Hebrews tells us that we have not come to a physical mountain that can be touched, but "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22). Mount Zion in the new covenant is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the assembly of the saints, the place where God dwells by His Spirit. This is a crucial point. Isaiah's prophecy is not fulfilled by planeloads of tourists visiting modern-day Jerusalem. It is fulfilled every time the gospel conquers a new people group and a new church is planted among them. It is fulfilled every Lord's Day, when believers from every tribe and tongue and nation gather to offer up the sacrifice of praise to Yahweh of hosts.
The "place of the name of Yahweh" is wherever His people are gathered in His name. For where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in their midst (Matt. 18:20). The worship that was once centralized in Jerusalem is now decentralized across the entire globe. As Jesus told the woman at the well, the hour was coming when true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not just on this mountain or that one (John 4:21-24). Malachi prophesied the same thing: "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering" (Mal. 1:11).
This is what is happening now. The tall, smooth, feared, and oppressive nations of the world are being conquered by a message of a crucified and risen Jewish Messiah. Their tribute is their repentance and faith. Their gift is their very lives, offered up in service to the King. And the place they bring it to is the Church, the global Mount Zion, the ever-expanding kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
Conclusion: From Ethiopia to the Ends of the Earth
This prophecy found a beautiful, personal fulfillment in the book of Acts. An official from the court of Ethiopia, a man of great authority, came to Jerusalem to worship. He was reading the prophet Isaiah, and God sent Philip to explain it to him. He heard the good news about Jesus, was baptized, and went on his way rejoicing, taking the gospel back to that distant land (Acts 8:26-39). A man from a people "feared far and wide" brought the gift of his own converted heart to the true Zion.
That Ethiopian eunuch was the first fruits of a great harvest. He was the down payment on the promise of Isaiah 18:7. What began with one man in a chariot has been swelling for two thousand years into a mighty river of redeemed humanity from every corner of the globe. The kingdom of God often seems small and insignificant, like a mustard seed. But it grows into a great tree, and the birds of the air, representing the nations of the world, come and find shelter in its branches.
Therefore, do not be discouraged by the headlines. Do not fear the proud and oppressive nations of our day. They are nothing to our God. He holds them in derision. Their strength is a vapor, their empires are temporary scaffolding. The solid and lasting reality is the kingdom of His Son. And that kingdom is on the march. It is inexorably advancing, and it will not stop until all the peoples, even the tall and smooth and feared, have been brought as a gift of homage to Mount Zion, to the glory of Yahweh of hosts.