Isaiah 18

There are some people who believe God plays favorites, that He keeps a list of who’s been naughty and nice and doles out blessings or curses accordingly. As evidence of this, some people point to the Israelites and claim that since God chose them to be “His” people, He plays favorites. This kind of thinking usually leads these folks to conclude that “they” are on God’s popular list and “others” (mainly those who do not think, talk, act, dress, or behave as they do) are not.

Here’s the truth: God does not play favorites. Yes, He “chose” the Israelites, not to be His only people, but to do a special job. (Incidentally, it was a job they rejected—mainly because they thought God played favorites!) But God doesn’t play favorites. He loves each one of us as if we were the only one to love. He loves you just as if you were the only person on Earth. And because He loves you, He is pursuing you. It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from or where you’re going, God wants you.

In this chapter of Isaiah, God speaks to a nation of people who live in the “land of whirring wings.” (vs 1) Most Bible scholars and commentators agree that this is referring to the Ethiopians. They would have been considered a heathen, or Gentile, nation. Most of the Israelites from the Old Testament—and certainly those who lived in Jesus’s time!—would have believed that God didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

Au contraire. God addresses and describes them as “a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.” (vs 2) He then describes the way in which He will reveal His saving activity in events to come. First, He says He will stay aloof and silent (vs 4); then, He will act swiftly to discipline those who are ripe for pruning (vs 5-6).

The result? “At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.” (vs 7)

God cared very much about those tall, smooth-skinned, feared, aggressive, strange-speaking people. He wanted them to also come to know Him and love Him. He wanted them to also be His people.

No matter who you are—Jew or Gentile, male or female, young or old, slave or free—God is pursuing you. He is the Hound of Heaven, on the trail, right behind you, waiting for just the right time to make Himself known to you. He will do this because He loves you. He will do this because He wants to capture your heart.

He will do this because you are His favorite. (And so am I.)