Cushites is another name for the people who lived in Ethiopia. Israel had always considered themselves to be distinct from other people on account of the Exodus. Now they are being told that they are not more significant than the Ethiopians. God has managed their migration just as much as he has managed that of Israel.1 This had to teach Israel that the Lord, being sovereign over all, provides for people of other nations even as he has chosen Israel.2 God’s involvement with other nations is also seen in Deuteronomy 2.
7 “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the LORD. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?