Isaiah 10: The Coming of Assyria

• v.1-4 The Causes of the Coming Judgment
• v.5-11 How Assyria Misunderstands their task
• v.12-15 Why they will be disciplined in turn
• v.16-19 The Extent of Assyria’s Destruction
• v.20-22 A Remnant of Israel will Survive
• v.23-27  Assyria’s Time of Disciplining Israel will be limited
• v.28-34 Their progress through the Land

[Notes: Israel will be disciplined for their unjust lives by the coming of the Assyrian armies and although they are coming at God’s behest, Assyria will be held accountable for their wilful, destructive attitudes and their land will be destroyed in turn. Their time of disciplining Israel will be limited by the Lord and there will be a faithful remnant left in Israel when they have finished.]

v.1-4 The Causes of the Coming Judgment

v.1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,

v.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.

v.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?

v.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.

[Notes: Judgment is coming on those who practice injustice and care nothing for the poor and needy, and they may well wonder what will be left after judgment? Nothing, they will be left in a pitiful state.]

v.5-11 How Assyria Misunderstands their task

v.5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!

v.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.

v.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.

v.8 ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.

v.9  ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?

v.10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—

v.11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”

[Notes: But Assyria, who God will use to bring discipline, plan to go further and utterly destroy nations, boasting of their power and destructive achievements over bigger nations than Israel, so they won’t have any problem destroying Jerusalem, they think.]

v.12-15 Why they will be disciplined in turn

v.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.

v.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.

v.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.’”

v.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!

[Notes: Once Assyria has finished disciplining Jerusalem, they will be punished in turn, for their pride and arrogance, thinking they could take what they want, but is the instrument greater than the one who holds it?]

v.16-19 The Extent of Assyria’s Destruction

v.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.

v.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.

v.18 The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away.

v.19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

[Notes: So plague will come on their soldiers, a fire to burn them all up, God will come as a fire to consume them, and their land will be ruined with virtually nothing left.]

v.20-22 A Remnant of Israel will Survive

v.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.

v.21 A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.

v.22 Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.

[Notes: But in Israel there will be a faithful remnant who will turn back to the Lord, having survived the destruction.]

v.23-27  Assyria’s Time of Disciplining Israel will be limited

v.23 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

v.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.

v.25 Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”

v.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.

v.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.

[Notes: The destruction will come on your land yet don’t be afraid for this judgment will be of limited time because then God will destroy the destroyer as He destroyed other enemies in the past. Then the yoke of enemy oppression will be lifted off you.]

v.28-34 Their progress through the Land

v.28 They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Mikmash.

v.29 They go over the pass, and say,  We will camp overnight at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

v.30 Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!

v.31 Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover.

v.32 This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.

v.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.

v.34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

[Notes:  So the enemy will work their way through the land until they see Jerusalem but then see how the Lord will fell them like trees, clear them like forests.

Concluding Comment: As we noted above, the Assyrians are to be sent to discipline the nation. The only problem is that such a sinful warrior people are unrestrained and so, where the Lord would just chastise Israel, Assyria would seek to utterly destroy them. But the Lord will not allow that, He will ensure there are survivors, a remnant who will turn back to Him. And Assyria? He will hold them accountable for their godless and unrighteous lack of restraint and destroy them. The lesson is that even those the Lord may use to chastise His people, will be held accountable to Him.]

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