Isaiah 10: Whose Side Is God On?

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! 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. 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. 20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. 24 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.” 28 He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage; 29 they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled. 30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth! 31 Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. 32 This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

Target Date: Sunday, 17 March 2024

Sermon Text:

This morning we will look at chapter 10 of Isaiah’s prophecy.

[Read Isaiah 10]

What do we mean when we say God is sovereign?

As we see demonstrated in this passage, we know that God orders all things on earth.

But there is a part of that truth that may be troubling for many: God uses unholy people and nations for His holy purpose.

That is possibly the most disturbing part of Isaiah’s prophecy here, particularly for the people of Isaiah’s day: God is using the godless and idolatrous Assyrians as His instrument for the judgment of Israel and Judah.

So it is natural to ask if God has switched sides here.

Had He, in that day, found a new favored nation that He chose to bless with victory and success?

And if He had abandoned the Jewish people of that day, why didn’t He move to a more righteous nation than the bloodthirsty Assyrians?

It is quite certain they were not the best and nicest nation God had to choose from.

That is what this chapter of Isaiah is seeking to answer in the hearts of the Jewish people.

Not all the Jewish people, to be exact, but to those Jewish people who were interested in the movement and purposes of God at all.

Not everybody was; many were apathetic, too concerned with their own business and political affairs to bother with what God was commanding them.

Many, as we talked about last week, had hardened hearts that made them shake their fist at God rather than bow their knee.

But for those who were concerned that God had completely abandoned Israel and Judah for their sins, this was a real fear.

How would they live?

To whom would they go?

It reminds us of the time in Jesus’s ministry where many of His disciples abandoned Him because His sayings were too hard, too unpopular.

many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God. – John 6:66-69

Even though this is a real fear, Jesus doesn’t chide them for it.

This kind of fear, this desperation, this absolute poverty of spirit apart from Jesus Christ – that is the factory of faith.

You see it in Simon Peter’s response here.

We too often stop at the end of verse 68: You have the words of eternal life.

But Simon Peter didn’t stop there.

Nor did John, who wrote it down.

Nor did the Holy Spirit who directly inspired it.

They all went on: and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

The desperation, the knowledge that there is NOTHING out there for you if you are separated from Jesus Christ – that is the true result of faith.

It is that desperation that has, throughout the centuries, taken Christian martyrs to their deaths at the hands of evil people: even if they ran and preserved their lives, to where would they run without the blessing of Jesus Christ?

What treasure of this world would compare to the treasure of obtaining the full salvation He brought?

No doubt in Isaiah’s day, there were many faithful Jews who were crushed in their soul over the thought that their brothers and sisters had so rejected God that His judgment was upon them by the hand of an evil nation.

And in the midst of this chapter, he tells them about God’s provision for His people – the Remnant.

Those who remain.

Even though many might worry that God had abandoned them, nothing could be farther from the truth: God sustained them.

God kept them through the violence.

God guaranteed by His promises that there would be some who made it through.

They would be the Remnant.

God would raise the evil Assyria up for a time, but He was never fooled about who they were:

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? (vv.6-8)

The godless nation God is sending Assyria against is Israel, and then Judah.

The dominant army of Assyria would completely conquer the Northern Kingdom and bring Judah to its knees in a siege.

And all this conquest – against the Lord’s people – was commanded by God.

But notice what God says about Assyria:

He does not so intend…

That is not the way Assyria sees it.

The king of Assyria thinks he is acting of his own free will.

How laughable.

The nations rage, they plot and scheme against the Lord and His Messiah.

His heart is to destroy;

His heart is to conquer other nations.

His heart is to take the spoil and plunder of those nations back to enrich himself and secure his power.

All the time not realizing that the days of his power are coming to an end.

God uses Assyria, but He owes NOTHING to Assyria.

He has made no holy promises to them.

No promises to make of them a nation too large to count – like He did to Abram.

No promises to be their God and they will be His people – like He did through Moses.

No promises to establish their throne forever – like He did with David.

No, we see Assyria is just a tool, a weapon, wielded by God in his judgment of His people.

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! – (v.15)

God owes Assyria nothing; their evil and sinfulness will catch up with them very soon.

But God HAS made promises to Israel.

All the promises I just mentioned – to Abram, Moses, David, and so many others.

God has chosen to be their God, and them, His people.

And so He declares that even in the calamity that is brought on by their unbelief and sinfulness, He will preserve the Remnant.

In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. – (vv.20-21)

Those promises all converge at a single moment in time, in a single person – the man Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God.

And so we, as God’s people through Jesus Christ, have that same assurance that He will keep us and preserve us until the final Day, the day of His Appearing.

[So] if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. – 1 John 2:1-2

You may remember, that big word “propitiation” is a single word that means “to satisfy a wrathful god”.

That is what Jesus Christ did on the day He was crucified:

He took the full and unlimited wrath of God against the sin of God’s people.

He Himself WAS the propitiation, the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people the Father had given to the Son.

And when He paid for our sin, He gave us His righteousness – not of works, but of grace – so we could stand blameless before God.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

I would also offer you the reminder not to misunderstand that last phrase in 1 John 2:2 – but also for the sins of the whole world.

Just stated like that, with no reference to any other Scripture, it might sound like some universal salvation, where God punishes no one, not even the evil Assyrians.

The “whole world” is simply used there to mean “beyond the people in my immediate vicinity”.

You might say “from among all the peoples of the earth” as we see in other places.

The key to this group?

Belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and righteousness.

The path will not always be easy, but God, through Jesus Christ, will always be on the side of His people:

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

In Isaiah’s day, the covenant was earthly, with an earthly nation and earthly people.

So the Remnant in this passage is the removal of some people from the covenant nation.

But in Christ, God doesn’t remove people from it – In Christ, you are chosen forever.

What God removes are parts of US that are not pleasing to Him, that do not conform to His will.

In every trial, you can be sure God has a loving purpose for your HOLINESS, even if, especially if, it is troubling to your flesh.

Those purposes include:

1. To dislodge besetting sin or to chastise.

2. To remove the love for this world; to cause us to long more strongly for heaven.

3. To show God’s power to save, strengthening our reliance on Him.

4. To demonstrate His kindness toward us.

5. To give us testimony through suffering – to comfort others with the comfort we have received.

6. To prevent our fall and secure our perseverance.

7. To bring salvation to someone else (Stephen).