Isaiah 10
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Oppression will lead to Demise
Oppression will lead to Demise
In the last couple of weeks, we saw the passages from Isa 9 as the Lord brought to mind again the coming a a deliver, a Savior and a Messiah. And this is special news, and while that is a wonderful announcement, there were still challenges.
There was punishment coming though. In light of the promise, there were consequences because of sin.
And here is the universal message of sin, sin is present and if we are not careful it can rule in our lives and it will always have consequences.
You dont want consequences, then do your best to follow the Lord. God has clearly laid out how man should live in front of Him. Consequences do not come because God hates us, NO! It comes because we refuse to live correctly.
So lets continue with our text....
1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
A “woe” indicates sorrow over the death of a person or nation, and at times it speaks to approaching judgment that is close at hand. So it is a sorrowful thing, God doesn’t call out a woe for nothing, sin has brought consequences upon the people and nation.
So look at this woe… it is to those who decree iniquitous decrees… Part of this is the leaders treatment of the poor. Unjust law and the continuing injustice in the courts enables those in power to steal money and property while denying the rights of others.
They ( those who were powerful and wealthy) have made themselves rich off the backs of the poor
Verse 1 it says they wrote oppression.... there is the making of the laws. And with verse 2, Isaiah says they turned aside form the needy. They take advantage of the poor, the needy and widows.
Look at that last line, they make the fatherless, literally the orphans their prey. They consume and take what should be for them, for their help.
It is truly a sad day when the nation, who are supposed to bless and help those under them, take advantage of those in their scope of care.
Do we see this day?
Now Isa 10:3-4
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the ruin that will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
The question is very blunt. What will you do on the day of punishment, or literally the day of Judgment. But God calls it the day of punishment, so we are already known to be guilty.
The question is what will you do? So it gives those listeners a chance to respond, hopefully with sorrow, repentance, and hopefully the plan to make their sin right..
So on this day of reckoning, where will you turn for help? what will you do with your riches?
In turn with the question, verse 4 we find there was no where to turn, no nation or leader and certainly, not even God will help you because of your sin.
They will be treated like the other prisoners, crouch there with them the prophet says…
These things are going to happen because the anger of the Lord, and his hand of power will not be with drawn.
Listen the same God that cast Israel into captivity, will send Judah as well, God does not play favorites with people.
Sin will be punished whether you are king or pauper...
No lets mover forward to verse 5-6
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.
Verse 5 begins a second “woe’ oracle, this one is against Assyria. They are the people God has raised up to bring destruction upon Israel.
Now we can see some sort of date here, we are before 722bc. Assyria has been a foe against Israel, but God is still in control my friends.
So here they are seen as the instruments of God’s divine punishment, He calls them the rod of my anger, and the staff of his fury…
We know form 2 Kings, 16 that faithless Ahaz called on the Assyrians to deliver them from the Syro-Ephraimite war. Isaiah here reveals to God will intervene and send Assyrian against Judah … so their once proposed protector will be their destroyer.
Here is the other side we need to consider when we think about the punishment for sin… The consequence of falling int the hands of a angry God is military defeat, becoming an object of plunder and the people will be trampled upon.
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;
The Assyrians has their own ideals about what they would do Their mind desired them to think in sinful ways that were beyond and contrary to God’s purposes.
Their purpose in their heart was to destroy, to wipe out and annihilate people, not just to defeat them as one would an enemy.
Think about that, can you imagine being a country and thinking you are in power and acting as you want… but it is really the God of Israel who is in power and controls you.
That is a great thought
Now, lets look at verses 8-9
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?
The Assyrian king, in his pride he begins with the first question, The strength of the commanders of his army, are they not just as strong and the kings in these smaller states or countries.
Well that question Yes answer.... But what we see is the arrogance of the king looking into the future.
With each pair of these cities, the movement is drawing an Army closer and closer to God’s people.
The Assyrian King is saying I conquered the latter cities, these next ones will fall as well, just watch it happen.
He is blindly arrogant.
Now lets look at verses 10-11
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?”
Listen to more boasts of the king. He claims that he and his power are mighter than the idols and gods of the areas he has defeated.
In those pagan areas, he says your gods could not stop me, these gods like baal, Hadad, and Marduk. The people trusted these so called gods, but it only fueled the rhetoric of this kings voice.
Now his thinking is logical, but faulty. He has walked upon the lands and thus these false gods by defeating their people, armies and kings. And He thinks now, he can do the same to the God of Israel and Judah.
God might allow them to experience defeat at times, but this was His doing not the power of this king.
God is not a worthless idol…
Now lets look at verses 12-15
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!
So God says when he has finished his work, he would settle accounts with this arrogant King.
Although some of those listening to to Isaiah wondered about God’s power to thwart the Assyrians mistreatment of Jerusalem.
Isaiah assures them that God will hole Tiglath-pileser III accountable for his willful rebellion against the plans God has for the Assyrians.
So with verses 13-14,
While is arrogant king is claiming for himself the ownership of the whole world, he is truly saying he is like a god and setting himself up as such.
He says in verse 13 “ By my own strength and wisdom, look at what I have done..
The says that he removed the boundaries of the land and that is a phrase used to say that people are captured and carried off into captivity. They carry off the people and annex the lands of the Northern 10 tribes as their own.
He claims to be “like a mighty one” He says the pulls down those who set on a throne, and in doing so he is saying am like a god, I remove and establish myself upon the throne.
In verse 14, The task of plundering these nations is likened to robbing the eggs from the hen house if you will… In His pride he says, it is so easy...
He says he did this over all the earth and no one batted a wing or chirped like a hen might if being messed with...
Now coming to verse 15, God speaks.... it is a series of rhetorical questions that is asked… What the Father is doing is inquiring about the real power of the Assyrian king.
The king is compared to 3 things here, a Ax, a Saw and a Rod. These are tools that are useless unless someone picks them up.
So what is God says, you are useless, unless I use you… These are just objects of wood, metal or stone.... of no use in and of themselves.
This king has really nothing to brag about, God is and continues to be in control.
The people listening to Isaiah should trust God, He is all powerful and at work in this world to carry out his perfect plans.
Here is a question
Can we trust God today like in the past, Yes!
Now lets move to verses 16-19 Isa 10:16-19
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.
The conclusion of the woe oracle describes God’s punishment against Assyria because of its pride.
The true Lord, Jehovah God will send judgment on the Assyrians, a wasting sickness He says will come to the plump one. The Holy One of Israel is a destructive fire that will devastate the powerful nation of Assyria.
All that this king and its people gloried in as they plundered the people of Israel, the Lord will take away and finally destroy. In fact God says it iwll be so bad for them, there will remain only a few, like those a child could count.
Lets stop there for tonight