For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 10:1-4

1 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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who does he next chide? v.1
2. What do they do? v.2
3. What 2 things does he first ask them? v.3a,b
4. What third thing does he ask them? v.3c
5. What will be their end? v.4

B. Think:

1. What wrong element of Israel does the Lord now pick on?
2. What had these people being doing?
3. What will their end be?

C. Comment:

The Lord has thus far condemned Israel in fairly general terms for their pride and arrogance (9:9), for failing to seek the Lord (9:13), for misleading the people (9:15 ,16), for being misled (9:16 ,17) and for their wickedness (9:18). Now in chapter 10 he moves on to specifically condemn those who are using their positions of power to oppress others.

The Law was always strong on justice and caring for the weak and poor and so when the Lord sees these people being oppressed by their leaders He speaks out and condemns. The way He does it is interesting. He asks them who will be there for them when God brings judgement on the land from afar – from foreign nations. When I bring that on the land, to whom will you go to get help when you are being oppressed (implied)? You have used your positions to get unjust gain and so you think you are rich (v.3) and can rebuild where previous invaders have been in and destroyed (9:10), but I’m going to bring in yet more invaders and this time it will be you who are oppressed.

When they come, nothing will be left and all your riches will be gone and you will be taken captive or will fall among those killed by this invader. In the same way you have oppressed and killed your fellow countrymen (implied), so you will be oppressed and killed by the invader. A third time, at the end of v.4 now, we are told that God’s anger still burns and He has hasn’t finished with them, the chiding will yet go on more!

D. Application:

1. Pride doesn’t count for anything before the Lord. Beware!
2. Merely because time passes, don’t be misled. The Lord will act.

Passage: Isaiah 10:5-14

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?”’

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 wilful 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 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.”’

A. Find Out:

1. How is Assyria described? v.5
2. What had the Lord prompted ‘him’ to do? v.6
3. How had he gone further than that? v.7-11
4. So what will the Lord do and why? v.12
5. How had that pride expressed itself? v.13a
6. How had he seen himself doing it? v.13b,14

B. Think:

1. What had been the Lord’s intent with Assyria ?
2. How had Assyria gone beyond that and why?
3. So what was the Lord going to do with them?

C. Comment:

The prophetic word now turns the spotlight of heaven on Assyria. This nation to the north and east is the Lord’s instrument is chastising Israel. Yes, Israel had become godless (v.6a) and so was going to receive the Lord’s chastising, but that was to be a limited exercise where Assyria were simply supposed to plunder the land and humiliate the nation (v.6) and thus humble it and bring it back to God. But Assyria didn’t realise who it was who was motivating them and why, and so their foolish pride rose up and their intentions went way beyond what the Lord intended.

The Lord intended a simple chastising, but Assyria intended a total wiping out of Israel and other surrounding nations (v.7). The king of Assyria saw all his army commanders as potential rulers over the defeated lands (v.8). He looked at other idol-worshipping lands that he had conquered and saw no problem in dealing with Samaria and then Jerusalem (v.10,11). His pride looked at what he had done, snatching nations like birds from nests (v.13,14) and thought he could do the same with Israel and Judah. Not so, says the Lord. When I have used you in accordance with MY plans, then I will deal with you. Assyria had to learn that although they are God’s instrument that does not allow them to do what they want for their own ego!

D. Application:

1. Bringing discipline has to be only as far as God says.
2. Being used by God is not excuse for pride.

Passage: Isaiah 10:15-23

15 Does the axe 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 splendour of his forests and fertile fields
    it will completely destroy,
    as when one who is ill wastes away.
19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few
    that a child could write them down.

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, 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What 4 illustrations of folly are used? v.15
2. So what will the Lord do first to Assyria? v.16a
3. How will this also be seen? v.16b-19
4. How will that change the remnant left in Israel? v.20
5. What point is emphasised again and again? v.20a,21,22
6. Why? v.23

B. Think:

1. How does the Lord picture the folly of Assyria?
2. What does He decree for them?
3. What is clear about the immediate future of Israel?

C. Comment:

The Lord has warned that He will deal with the pride of Assyria. For a moment now he shows the folly of their pride. Look, He implies, Assyria is an instrument in my hand. Think about it: what axe or saw or tool or weapon has energy of itself to raise itself above its user? No, that is foolish, that is obvious, but that’s how they are! So the Lord will deal with them and take away their energy. Suddenly they will be powerless and Israel will come back on them like a blazing fire and will completely destroy them. Oh yes, their time is coming when the Lord will bring down on them His judgement, whatever their pride says!

All of this part of Isaiah is really about pride. First the Lord was going to deal with the pride of Israel (9:9) and then when He used Assyria to humble Israel, Assyria’s pride needs dealing with (10:12). What a curse this thing pride is.

At the end of it all, after Israel has been humbled and Assyria dealt with, there will be but a remnant of Israel left. Four times in three verses the word remnant is used, just in case Isaiah’s listeners hadn’t taken it in the first time. Because of the devastation only a few of them will be left but this few will turn back to the Lord, and He will still have His people. It will be a mighty destruction and will almost appear the end of Israel, but there WILL be a faithful people left at the end of it.

D. Application:

1. Pride produces such folly in human beings. Beware.
2. Remember the power and strength is the Lord’s.

Passage: Isaiah 10:24-34

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.

28 They enter Aiath;
    they pass through Migron;
    they store supplies at Michmash.
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 axe;
    Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

A. Find Out:

1. What message does the Lord now bring Israel? v.24
2. Why? v.25
3. How will He work? v.26,27
4. How does He portray Assyria’s advance? v.28-31
5. Yet where will they be halted? v.32
6. How does the Lord portray what He will do with them? v.33,34

B. Think:

1. What is the Lord’s overall intent in this passage?
2. How does He do that?

C. Comment:

The Lord has just been reassuring Israel that a remnant will survive His chastising, but it will only be a remnant because the chastising will yet go on some, before the Lord will deal with Assyria. This passage is the continuing reassurance for those left, that they will survive because the Lord will deal with Assyria.

Yes, they are causing affliction (v.24,25) for that is what they are meant to do to humble Israel, yet a time will come when the Lord will deal with them even as He dealt with the mighty Midianite army in Gideon’s day, and even as He delivered Israel out of the hands of Egypt by parting the waters (v.26).

As when an oxen squares its shoulders and the yoke is broken off (v.27) so it will be on the day the Lord deals with Assyria. He portrays their relentless march on the land (v.28-31), yet when they get near Jerusalem they will be halted (v.32), that’s how close it will be!

The mighty warriors of Assyria, who are like a mighty forest of weaponry as they advance, will first be trimmed (v.33a) and then when they continue (implied) they will be felled (v.33b). Like the mighty forests of Lebanon this army will come but they will be felled by the Lord like a mighty axe-man (v.34).

The message is quite clear and explicit: yes, you will be chastised by this people, but they will be stopped by God.

D. Application:

1. God’s discipline goes just as far as God decrees and no further.
2. It’s safe to be disciplined by God.