Isaiah 18

Such beautiful poetry.

I must confess, though, that this chapter has, for the last few days, left me a little bewildered. I feel like there is something really big here, but I don't know what it is. And this bothers me some.

There are two sections here I have not been able to fully understand. The first and lesser of the two is use for four lines used twice, once at the beginning of the chapter and once at the end. The lines are:

From a people tall and smooth,
From a people feared near and far,
A nation mighty and conquering,
Whose land the rivers divide.
(vv 2 & 7)

(The very end of verse 7 is another good verse to think and meditate on)

But the passage here that really grabbed my attention and has left me a little frustrated and kind of bothers me a little, is verse 4, "For thus the LORD said to me: 'I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'" This is the only thing God says in this chapter. I still am not quite sure what means nor do I fully understand it. But without any questions, how could we grow in our relationship with God?