Isaiah 10:5-19--Judgment on Arrogant Assyria

Isaiah 10:5-19
English Standard Version

Judgment on Arrogant Assyria
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;
    the staff in their hands is my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
    and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But he does not so intend,
    and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
    and to cut off nations not a few;
8 for he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
    Is not Hamath like Arpad?
    Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
    whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
    as I have done to Samaria and her images?”

12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. 13 For he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
    and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I remove the boundaries of peoples,
    and plunder their treasures;
    like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
14 My hand has found like a nest
    the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
    so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing
    or opened the mouth or chirped.”

15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,
    or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
    or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts
    will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
    like the burning of fire.
17 The light of Israel will become a fire,
    and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
    his thorns and briers in one day.
18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land
    the LORD will destroy, both soul and body,
    and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
    that a child can write them down.

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The question is probably rolling around in the heads of the northern people of Israel, "Yeah, but what about the Assyrians?" They may even be thinking, "How can you use THEM to judge US?  We may be bad, but they are REALLY bad."  Though God doesn't have to answer our judgments of Him (see the book of Job), in this case, He does.  Assyria will not go without punishment.  Though He will use them as the rod of correction for Israel, they will be conquered by another godless nation (the Medo-Babylonian Empire after Medo-Persia conquered Babylon).

Many nations conquered other nations for the spoils of war, but the Assyrians seemed intent simply on destroying other nations and proving that their gods were superior to the gods of the other nations that were unable to save them from their armies.

God's first priority is to take care of His rebellious children, and once He has taken care of punishing them, He will turn His attention outward to the other nations that need to be corrected or overthrown.  The king of Assyria imagines that he is the one that establishes nations, tears them down and draws or erases borders between nations, but it is the LORD who does this.  While he may not have been looking for spoils of war, he certainly has acquired them, and no one has made a peep to contest him for his land or wealth (yet).

The LORD says it is as silly for the king of Assyria to boast that the LORD has given nations into his hand as it is for the axe to boast in its own strength when it is simply the fact that it is wielded by a strong woodsman that makes the axe effective--it has no strength of its own.  This is how the LORD sees the king of Assyria--he is nothing more than a tool like an axe to the LORD to accomplish His will and purposes.  What is it that this king boasts in?  His gods and his armies.  His armies will come down with a sickness that his gods cannot heal (for they are but idols and not real gods).  His strong men will be taken off the battle lines.  The Lord Himself and the angels He commands will make war with Assyria (it will not just be a war of human strength), and the once great nation of Assyria will be destroyed in a single day like when a wildfire burns up the thorns, thistles and other underbrush that has been dried up and made perfect kindling.  It is gone without a trace that it was ever there.

While that would make the people of Judah happy, it's not really the good news they want to hear.  They would be waiting to hear when the LORD's wrath against them would relent.  Would it relent, or would they too be destroyed in HIs fiery wrath like the Assyrians?  The hope of the returning remnant is what we will talk about next time.