Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush. – Isaiah 18:1

Today's Scripture Reading (March 28, 2023): Isaiah 18

I am not a fan of bugs. As a child, my daughter used to find them in the house and gently move them outside. Maybe that was because if her dad saw them, he killed them, usually without any discussion. If I found a lot of them, I reached for a pesticide that would do the job of killing for me. And it really didn't matter what the bugs were. Some find specific bugs, like "ladybugs," cute, but I never had that affliction. My rule had always been that bugs in the house, regardless of the species, are bad.

As a result of my hatred for bugs, years when bugs were abundant are burned into my memory. They are also the substance of my nightmares. I remember living in an area when a plague of grasshoppers hit the area. If you drove down the street, you couldn't help but travel over them. I remember opening up the refrigerator of a friend who lived in the country and having a couple of these awful insects fly out at me. I am not sure how they got in there, but this was not the time to stand in front of the open refrigerator door, wondering what it might be that you felt like eating. At the time, I was an avid golfer, but this was a horrible time to go for an outing on the course.

Isaiah continues his declaration of woe as he talks about the land along the rivers of Cush. Cush was a fertile land along the Nile River and its tributaries in what is now the extreme southeast of Egypt, North Sudan, and extending down into Ethiopia. Ethiopia was the other power and the counterpoint nation of Assyria during Isaiah's life. And so, Ethiopia is likely at the center of Isaiah's mind.

In Egypt, the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty features the Ethiopian or Kushite Pharaohs. Shebitku appears to have taken control of the Egyptian area in 712 B.C.E., while that control was consolidated and strengthened by Shabaka in the years that followed. Originally, the Pharaohs of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty tried to exist in peace with Assyria, but as the years went on, they found themselves increasingly in competition with the Northern Empire. These Kings are often called "The Black Pharaohs" of Egypt.

Isaiah calls the area of origin for these Kings the "Land of Whirring Wings." It is a nod toward the many flying insects, including an abundance of locusts or grasshoppers, that inhabit the land. It is not a place I would find comfortable, but it is probably the place to go if you are a fan of bugs.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 19 & 20