Isaiah 10:5-34 - The Humiliation of the Proud & The Restoration of God's Remnant
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING]
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, 6 I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. 7 Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations. 8 For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? 9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? 10 “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11 Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” 12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” 13 For he has said, “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, 14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.” 15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. 16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. 17 And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. 18 And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. 19 And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down. 20 Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord God of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land. 24 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. 25 “For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” 26 The Lord of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. 27 So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness. 28 He has come against Aiath, He has passed through Migron; At Michmash he deposited his baggage. 29 They have gone through the pass, saying, “Geba will be our lodging place.” Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled away. 30 Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim! Pay attention, Laishah and wretched Anathoth! 31 Madmenah has fled. The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge. 32 Yet today he will halt at Nob; He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] At this point in the history of God’s people, the Assyrian threat is becoming the Assyrian reality for Israel in the north, God’s people in the southern kingdom of Judah fear that the Assyrian threat will become a reality for them as well.
[CIT] God, however, told His people in Judah that they need not fear the Assyrians; He would bring destruction to Assyria and restoration to His people; His people only need trust Him.
[TURN] Trusting is easy when the enemy looks small and easy to defeat, but when the enemy looks big and invincible our trust is put to the test.
[INTER] When the enemy looks ferocious and unstoppable, will we still trust YHWH?
[PROP] God has given us good reason to trust Him.
[TS] We will see one REASON tonight and come back to this passage next Sunday night, God willing…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
REASON #1: We trust God because he sometimes uses the wicked to discipline his people, but he will certainly punish the wicked (Isaiah 10:5-11)
REASON #1: We trust God because he sometimes uses the wicked to discipline his people, but he will certainly punish the wicked (Isaiah 10:5-11)
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, 6 I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. 7 Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations. 8 For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? 9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? 10 “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11 Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
[EXP] God used Assyria to discipline His people in Israel; Assyria was the club in His hand to express His anger.
Although it was a nation full of idols, Israel was a godless nation because it had turned from worshipping the Living God.
Therefore, God sent Assyria to plunder and trample Israel underfoot.
But the King of Assyria did not understand that he was being used by God to discipline Israel; his pagan mind had no category for such thinking; he only planned to destroy and take captive nation after nation; he wanted to own it all.
Each kingdom taken will be given to an Assyrian prince who will then be an Assyrian king.
After all, what’s to stop the Assyrian king who has been working his way toward Samaria and even Jerusalem?
He conquered Carchemish and crept closer to God’s people by taking Calno.
He conquered Aprad, and crept closer by taking Hamath.
He conquered Damascus, and crept closer by taking Samaria.
And if he has taken Samaria, what’s to stop him from creeping all the way down to Jerusalem and taking it too?
No other god from any other place has been strong enough to resist Assyria; why should the God of Jerusalem be any different?
The Lord responds in vv. 12…
12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”
And then we are given an example of the Assyrian arrogance in vv. 13-14…
13 For he has said, “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, 14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”
The Assyrian king credits himself for all his victories and says that it was easy, like stealing eggs from an abandoned birds next or, as we might say, like taking candy from a baby.
But the Assyrian king was ignorant to the fact that he was merely the tool of discipline in God’s hand; if he had understood that, then would have understood that all of his boasting was ridiculous. This is what God pointed out in v. 15…
15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.
Axes, saws, clubs, and rods are all useless without those who wield them.
In the same way, Assyria would have accomplish nothing if God had not ordained it.
But Assyria did not recognize this and did not want to recognize this.
Then God promises punishment to prideful Assyria…
16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. 17 And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. 18 And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. 19 And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down.
God will bring his judgment upon Assyria and reduce its once proud army to nearly nothing.
Through plague and fire, which may have been symbolic or may have been literal, the Lord—the Light of Israel—laid waste to Assyria’s army, leaving it with so few trees (i.e., soldiers) that a child could count them.
Here is a reason to trust God: He sometimes uses the wicked to discipline His people, but he will certainly punish the wicked.
[ILLUS] I know a woman, a daughter of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who is dealing with a wicked individual in her life.
Things have been tough and may only get tougher, but I wonder how God is using that wicked person to discipline his beloved daughter for greater godliness.
[APP] Hebrews 12:9 says that earthly fathers “disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share his holiness.”
I think God may doing that in the life of this one daughter of his who is dealing with this wicked individual; this wicked individual may be the instrument in God’s hand to make his daughter more holy.
But please don’t think the wicked individual will escape God’s judgment. No, even though God may be using him to grow one of his children in holiness, this wicked person will not escape the judgment of God.
If that wicked person doesn’t repent of pride and trust in Christ, then he will perish in his sins—the Light of Israel will not be the light of life to him, but a fire and a flame to devour, burn, and consume.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
Proverbs 10:13 says that the “rod is for the back of him who lacks understanding.”
Sometimes the rod that God uses to give his people understanding is pain at the hands of the wicked.
That pain may make God’s people turn back to him; it may make God’s people call on him again; it may make them trust in him anew.
That’s the good result that God brings from the pain, but the wicked will not escape God’s judgment just because they have been used of God to discipline His people.
After he has disciplined his people, God will shatter the arrogance of the wicked as he swallows them up in vengeance.
This will happen conclusively at the return of Jesus Christ.
Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead as proof of his divinity and as proof that we could be made right with God through faith in him.
He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and will one day come to make manifest that authority all over heaven and earth.
What a great and glorious day that will be for the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ!
That will be the day that he who began a good work in us and disciplines us in that good brings that good work to completion in Christ Jesus!
But what a terrible day that will be for the prideful who, although used by God to discipline his sinful people, never repented of sin themselves.
All that will remain for them is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Let’s be sure that we are humbling ourselves before the Lord Jesus.
Let’s be sure that we responding to the Lord’s loving discipline of us with repentant obedience.
Let’s be sure to trust the God who loves us so much that he is willing to not only save us from sin but to discipline us for holiness.
And even if he uses the wicked to do it, we still trust him because he will by no means excuse the wicked.
[PRAYER]