Question of the day: What has been the most challenging impact of the last two years for you and what has been a surprising benefit of all that we have been going through?
Isaiah 10
10 Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
Let's first look at this section. This is a continuation of chapter 9. There are four sections that end in, "Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his had is still upraised." Three were at the end of chapter 9 and the fourth one is here at the beginning of chapter 10.
Let's take a quick look.
1. Isaiah 9:8-12 Here it is all about arrogance. Thinking they are invincible.
God’s Judgment on Assyria
5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
6 I send him against a godless nation,
I dispatch him against a people who anger me,
to seize loot and snatch plunder,
and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends,
this is not what he has in mind;
his purpose is to destroy,
to put an end to many nations.
8 ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.
9 ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad,
and Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,
kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—
11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images
as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”
This section starts with a difficult to swallow passage. "The rod of my anger... hand of my wrath..." Because God's children were arrogant, wicked, leading people astray, implementing laws that hurt the less fortunate, God is using Assyria to chastise them. I will admit I am struggling with this. This speaks to the very character of God.
God uses an evil king who worships other Gods? Uses him to discipline or chastise the children of God? He uses the Assyrians but then here is chastising them because of their arrogance etc. So God uses an evil King to chastise His children, and then is upset because this King is not behaving in the correct way?
Could it be that God was "using" the Assyrians is more about God not being able to use His own hands and arms because of the decisions made by the children of God?
Is this about the God we have all feared, or is this still a parent that is angry because His children don't get it, and he is chastising, and disciplining.
No matter how you look at it, this is challenging.
Let's try to put this in terms that we can understand.
If I have a child who is arrogant, hurting others, being in many ways abusive to their siblings. A child who refuses to listen to me, refuses to listen to me and continues to hurt those around them, we as parents would be angry. I would also do all I could to try to not only discipline them, but I would want them to really understand what it was they were doing to others, and sometimes experiencing it is one way.
When our son was about 4 the neighbor boy who was the same age kept hitting him. His mother and father kept trying to teach him to be nice, and stop hitting, but it kept going! Every time they would be around each other for even a couple minutes, James would just start hitting Andrew. Finally the mom said, "will you just tell Andrew the next time it happens to hit James back." I wasn't sure about this tactic. Teaching my kid to hit didn't sound like something I wanted to do. However, I had a conversation with Chris about it and he agreed that it might not be a bad idea. Chris had a long conversation with our little 4 year old. Explaining the difference between self defense and being a bully. He gave Andrew permission to go ahead and hit him if James hit him again. Sure enough the very next day, James just walked up to Andrew and socked him in the face, Andrew my little skinny, sweet boy, let all his pent up anger come out in one very swift fist to the face of James. Instead of crying or getting upset, James was stunned. He just stood there. Then, he started just playing and never hit Andrew again. They ended up becoming best friends. This is not just about the children of God being bad, this is about the children of God in the name of God, hurting others. They were being terrible to others, and so God, angry, and frustrated with them, let the Assyrians give them a punch to the face. The problem was, then the Assyrians wanted to kill them. They wanted to completely take them out. Unlike Andrew who gave the punch back and then nothing more, the Assyrians were here doing way more, and God said, nope.
I hope that analogy helps. Was James' mom hateful, and mean, to suggest we let our son hit her son back? No, she loved her boy and didn't want him to hit or punch and certainly didn't want him to get hit or punched but, in her wisdom after trying everything, chose to let the harm he was inflicting on others come back to him, in a hopes that he would wake up and stop this terrible behavior. A terrible behavior that unless corrected would get him into even more trouble down the road.
Let's keep reading.
12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. 13 For he says:
“‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,
and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.
I removed the boundaries of nations,
I plundered their treasures;
like a mighty one I subdued[a] their kings.
14 As one reaches into a nest,
so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;
as people gather abandoned eggs,
so I gathered all the countries;
not one flapped a wing,
or opened its mouth to chirp.’”
15 Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it,
or the saw boast against the one who uses it?
As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up,
or a club brandish the one who is not wood!
16 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;
under his pomp a fire will be kindled
like a blazing flame.
17 The Light of Israel will become a fire,
their Holy One a flame;
in a single day it will burn and consume
his thorns and his briers.
18 The splendor of his forests and fertile fields
it will completely destroy,
as when a sick person wastes away.
19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few
that a child could write them down.
The Remnant of Israel
20 In that day the remnant of Israel,
the survivors of Jacob,
will no longer rely on him
who struck them down
but will truly rely on the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
21 A remnant will return,[b] a remnant of Jacob
will return to the Mighty God.
22 Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel,
only a remnant will return.
Destruction has been decreed,
overwhelming and righteous.
23 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, will carry out
the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
24 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:
“My people who live in Zion,
do not be afraid of the Assyrians,
who beat you with a rod
and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.
25 Very soon my anger against you will end
and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”
26 The Lord Almighty will lash them with a whip,
as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and he will raise his staff over the waters,
as he did in Egypt.
27 In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders,
their yoke from your neck;
the yoke will be broken
because you have grown so fat.[c]
28 They enter Aiath;
they pass through Migron;
they store supplies at Mikmash.
29 They go over the pass, and say,
“We will camp overnight at Geba.”
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul flees.
30 Cry out, Daughter Gallim!
Listen, Laishah!
Poor Anathoth!
31 Madmenah is in flight;
the people of Gebim take cover.
32 This day they will halt at Nob;
they will shake their fist
at the mount of Daughter Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
God is not forsaking His people, in fact it is quite the opposite! God is desperately trying to get them to once again, play nice! He needs them to stop hurting others and live as children of God.
Life Application: We serve a loving God! A God who loves us so much that He will do all he can to guide us and direct us. We have a choice though. If we choose Him, we love others. If we don't love others we aren't choosing Him. Loving others also isn't just saying with love them! To love them is to work toward loving, to be loving, to serve, to give, to forgive. Are we loving those around us?
God may at times need to find ways to get you to see your error. He may simply make a passage of His word stand out. Will you hear him?
He may be angry at you, not because he has stopped loving you, but because he loves you and wants the best for you!
What other life application lessons did you take away from this passage?
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