Arrogant Assyria is Judged
May 18, 2021
Commentary
Isaiah pronounced woe on the people (vv. 1-4). Israel’s leaders were guilty of six things: They were (a) making unjust laws, (b) issuing oppressive decrees, (c) depriving the poor of their rights, (d) taking away justice, (e) hurting widows, and (f) robbing the fatherless. These actions, involved taking advantage of people who could not defend their rights. God had commissioned Assyria to chasten Israel. God often uses unlikely instruments to accomplish His purposes. Isaiah was not claiming that Assyria was godly or that the empire even knew that God was using it to do His bidding. In His sovereignty He directed Assyria to be His tool for vengeance (vv. 5-6).
Though Assyria was a tool in God’s hands God was not pleased with her (vv. 7-11). She had the wrong attitude in conquering Israel. Discounting the greatness of Israel’s God, Assyria assumed that Jerusalem was like any other city she had conquered and could take it easily. Since these other conquered cities had greater gods, in the minds of the Assyrians, Jerusalem could be taken more easily. Though God was using Assyria, her motives were purely political and expansionist.
After using Assyria to punish Jerusalem, God would then punish Assyria because of the king’s willful pride evidenced by his haughty spirit. The words of the Assyrian king express the empire’s haughty pride (vv. 12-14). The king felt that what had been achieved had been done by his strength and wisdom (six times he said I and three times my). Because of Assyria’s pride, the Lord said He would judge the king of Assyria and his empire (vv. 15-19). The Lord said He would destroy the Assyrian army by disease and fire. The Assyrian Empire fell to Babylon.
Application
Lord, help me to never think I can conquer battles in my own strength but rely on You.
Isaiah 10:1– 19 (NET)
1 Beware, those who enact unjust policies; those who are always instituting unfair regulations,
2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans.
3 What will you do on judgment day, when destruction arrives from a distant place? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners, or to fall among those who have been killed. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.
5 “Beware, Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, a cudgel with which I angrily punish.
6 I sent him against a godless nation, I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, to take plunder and to carry away loot, to trample them down like dirt in the streets.
7 But he does not agree with this; his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations.
8 Indeed, he says: ‘Are not my officials all kings?
9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus?
10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s.
11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”
12 But when the Lord finishes judging Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then he will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. 13 For he says: “By my strong hand I have accomplished this, by my strategy that I devised. I invaded the territory of nations, and looted their storehouses. Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.
14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest, as one gathers up abandoned eggs, I gathered up the whole earth. There was no wing flapping, or open mouth chirping.”
15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it, or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it, or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!
16 For this reason the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke.
17 The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One will become a flame; it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s briers and his thorns in one day.
18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard will be completely destroyed, as when a sick man’s life ebbs away.
19 There will be so few trees left in his forest, a child will be able to count them.