The Assyrian Rod – Part 1
Isaiah 10:5-34 (5-19)
May 14, 2023
This morning
• We talked about the wrath of God and why He is just is not saving everyone.
• We also learned that no amount punishment could ultimately satisfy God’s
wrath.
They were an arrogant people who ignored the discipline of the LORD,
They were a corrupt people who excelled in wickedness
And they were a people who exploited the helpless.
And it hadn’t mattered how many times God had afflicted them,
They still refused to repent and humble themselves.
And so God promised a terrifying judgment.
Isaiah 10:4 “Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives Or fall among the slain. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.”
God told them they had two options: Slaughter or Slavery.
Dark days were coming for both the northern and the southern kingdoms.
• The nation of Israel was soon to be destroyed.
• The nation of Judah almost is.
Well, TONIGHT I would simply tell you that
A lot has happened between verses 4 and 5.
By the time we get to verse 5
Assyria has already wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel.
You see this in verse 11 as Assyria reasons to herself:
(11) “Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
“Samaria” was the capital city of the northern kingdom.
What had Assyria done to her?
TURN TO: 2 KINGS 17:1-23
That is what has occurred between verses 4 & 5.
• Assyria has invaded and wiped out the northern kingdom and deported them.
AND NOW, having conquered the northern kingdom
The Assyrians have set their sights on invading the southern kingdom
And doing the same to them.
TURN TO: 2 KINGS 18:13-37
That is the backdrop to our text this evening.
• We have an Assyrian army which has already annihilated the nation of Israel and has now invaded Judah.
• They have already sacked many cities and now they have reached Jerusalem and are threatening it.
This is exactly what Isaiah said was coming.
Isaiah 8:5-8 “Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying, “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah; “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
• Assyria was compared to a title wave that would over take Israel
• And would reach to the neck of Judah.
THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING.
It is yet another one of those temporal judgments on sinners
Which is deserved but which still won’t fully satisfy God’s wrath.
BUT in the midst of this turmoil Isaiah has a message for the remnant…
The message is simple.
(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.”
That is the point of our text tonight.
Do not fear the Assyrian.
That all sounds well and good, but think about this situation.
The Assyrians were cruel and dangerous people.
One commentator referred to them as the Nazis of the ancient east.
You may remember discussing them when we studied the book of Jonah.
The MEMOIRS and chronicles of the Assyrian kings
Reveals common practices of cruelty against their enemies.
Things like:
• Commonly beheading their enemies and piling the heads outside their enemies’ gates.
• They are noted for skinning their enemies, sometimes alive, and draping their skin over their own city walls.
• They often times took pleasure in mutilating both the dead and the living and humiliating them.
• They burned multitudes in the fire.
• And all of this was bragged about by their kings in their memoirs.
(Walvoord & Zuck [The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament; Victor Publishing; Colorado Springs, CO; 1998] pg. 1494)
The book of Nahum describes Nineveh which was Assyria’s capitol.
Nahum 3:1-4 “Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs. The noise of the whip, The noise of the rattling of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots! Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many slain, a mass of corpses, And countless dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies! All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her harlotries And families by her sorceries.”
The Assyrians were so cruel and wicked
That Jonah didn’t even think they were redeemable.
And these are the people who are standing outside the wall of Jerusalem.
• They’ve already sacked the northern kingdom.
• They’ve already sacked several cities in Judah.
But your message to us is: “Do not fear the Assyrian”
Because even though all men in the same nation
May experience the same temporal judgments
God uses them for totally different purposes
On the remnant than He does the rabble.
For the RABBLE it is clearly to judge.
It is for slavery or slaughter.
But for the REMNANT,
God uses those same horrible realities for good, “for God causes all things to work together for good to them who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”
God is sending Assyria to attack His people
But through this judgment, not only will He punish the wicked,
HE WILL ALSO REVEAL AND SATISFY HIS REMNANT.
THE WHOLE EVENT TEACHES US
To look differently at our trials and tribulations.
When God sends a judgment on the land,
Certainly for some it is meant only to destroy,
But for others that same judgment is meant to reveal.
While the RABBLE is called to “crouch among the captives or fall among the slain”
The REMNANT is called to “not fear the Assyrian”.
SO TONIGHT, after seeing God’s wrath on the nation this morning,
We start examining the process
Through which God revealed and called out and saved His remnant.
And incidentally, the process God used here is a process He will use again.
We’re going to break this down into two main points.
#1 THE REVELATION
Isaiah 10:5-23
Very simply, in this section God is going to reveal
His sovereign plan behind the Assyrian invasion.
Let’s begin with the simple word
Which Isaiah has grown accustomed to throwing out.
“Woe to Assyria”
From the start of the section Isaiah reveals to us which side of the judgment Assyria is on.
• Isaiah pronounces that same woe upon them.
And the immediate announcement must have been a cause for a cheer among the people of Israel.
But no sooner does Isaiah announce the woe
Then do we get a STARTLING PIECE OF INFORMATION.
I want to break this first point down a little further.
Let’s talk a little about Assyria.
1) HIS PRESENCE (5-6)
Where did Assyria come from and how did he come onto the scene?
The announcement of God here is a little shocking.
For God calls Assyria, “the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation.”
WAIT! WHAT?
• God brought the Assyrians to power?
• God is using the Assyrians?
They may not seem strange to you today
But what if in 1945 someone told you that God was using Hitler?
What if God called Germany “the rod of My anger”?
The insinuation would almost seem unthinkable.
These were godless pagans and yet God is using them?
There really must be some mistake.
• We like to think that God hated everything about what the Assyrians did
• And that He was opposed to them from the start
• And finally He has decided to rise up and stop them.
But that train of thought has all sorts of problems attached to it.
If God didn’t want the Assyrians doing what they did:
• Why did God wait so long?
• Why did God let it get so bad?
• If Assyria was this rogue nation outside of the will of God then could He just not
stop them?
Again think of Germany.
• Was Hitler just outsmarting God and it took Him a while to get His bearings on
how to stop him?
That would be a terrifying notion.
But here we find that Assyria wasn’t beyond the control of God,
God was using them.
He had selected them.
God had brought them to power.
Just as He had done with Pharaoh years before
Just as He would do with Babylon in a few more years.
Beyond that, we read in verse 6 that GOD SENT THEM.
And this statement would surely get Israel riled.
(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.”
I hope you notice the irony here.
God sent Assyria against Israel and Judah
Whom He called “a godless nation” and “the people of My fury”
THAT SEEMS BACKWARD.
Remember in a few years the prophet Habakkuk will complain to God about the immorality of his nation God will promise to deal with it.
God said:
Habakkuk 1:5-6 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told. “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”
God was going to send the Babylonians to wipe out Judah.
This totally offended Habakkuk who said:
Habakkuk 1:12-17 “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful. Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing?”
To Habakkuk this made no sense.
Babylon is worse than we are, you can’t use them!
No doubt that would be the argument here.
• How can you call us “godless”
• And then use Assyria to beat us?
There’s a few things that need to be considered here.
1. God looks at the heart, so who’s to say that Assyria was worse than Israel?
A hypocrite may appear righteous on the outside
But inwardly be full of all lawlessness and self-indulgence.
Luke 13:1-5 “Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Just because we think someone is a worse sinner than someone else,
Doesn’t meant that this is God’s assessment.
(The Assyrians were indeed awful, but perhaps Israel was worse)
The Lord looks at the heart.
2. Those who have access to the truth are always judged more severely by God than those who do not.
Even if Assyria was more wicked than Israel,
God’s fury would still be aimed more at Israel for they knew better.
Luke 12:47-48 “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
So it could be that Israel was more righteous than Assyria,
But they were also more informed and this makes their judgment worse.
3. When God raises up a nation for the purpose of judgment, He uses nations suitable to the task.
What would be the benefit in getting a kind and thoughtful nation to come and carry out His judgment?
God wanted a ruthless nation for a ruthless task.
Assyria was the right nation for the job.
Israel had broken their covenant and offended God.
• He was furious with them
• And that fury is seen in His decision to raise up the Assyrians
• They would be “the rod” of His anger and the staff of His “indignation”.
• God sent them into Israel and then Judah for the purpose of looting them and trampling them down like mud in the streets.
Perhaps it is not as wrong as it first seems.
THIS IS THE SOVEREIGN PREROGATIVE OF GOD.
When we see evil come to power like Assyria or like Babylon
Or like Nazi Germany or like corrupt leaders in our day
WE MUST NOT ASSUME they are
Outside the scope of the sovereignty of God.
• They may be godless…
• They may be cruel…
• They may do vile and immoral and indecent things…
But they are not beyond the sovereign prerogative of God.
He uses even the wicked for His own purposes.
Of course the most remarkable incident of this was the cross.
Acts 2:23 “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”
It was an incident where God foreordained for wicked men to have their way and do their worst and yet He used it for the ultimate good.
This is what is on display here with Assyria.
God is taking wicked men and using their wickedness
To bring the necessary discipline and sanctification to His people.
THE PRESENCE OF ASSYRIA IS ALL GOD’S DOING.
But we also see that this DOES NOT MEAN that God is responsible for all their sinful actions.
2) HIS PLAN (7-11)
Clearly we see where the Assyrians went “off the reservation”.
They went rogue.
• God sent them to “capture booty”
• And to “trample them down like mud in the streets”
But Assyria, in their own sinful arrogance had different plans.
(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.”
This of course reminds us of Satan.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
When Satan worked to have Jesus crucified,
• Satan wasn’t seeking to help God save sinners,
• He was seeking to kill the Savior and condemn sinners forever.
And the same is true for Assyria.
They were an agent of God by God’s sovereign providence,
But not by their own free will.
MAYBE THIS HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND
The balance in world governments today.
We read what Paul writes:
Romans 13:1-4 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
So clearly when you see the existence of governmental control
• You know that is because God placed it there.
• And we don’t even have a problem saying that God placed certain men or
women in control in those governments.
• I don’t have a problem at all stating that Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin or any
other world ruler is in power because God put them there.
• Just like God raised up Pharaoh and just like God raised up Assyria.
But that does NOT mean that they are eager servants of God
Or that they please God in any aspect of their rule.
But God, in His providence, uses men who would go rogue and disregard His word to accomplish tasks that are bigger than we can comprehend.
Here He is using Assyria.
It is a nation that, if given free reign, would go much farther in their discipline than God intends.
All they want to do is “destroy”
And they are quite confident that they can do it.
(8-11) “For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? “Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
You not only find ARROGANCE there, but BLASPHEMY.
The king of Assyria equates the God of Israel
(and incidentally the sovereign God of all the universe)
To be no different than the pagan idols of the nations.
He is confident that he’ll have no problem defeating God
Just as he defeated all the others.
So we see that
• HIS PRESENCE is because of the sovereign prerogative of God,
• But HIS PLAN far exceeds what God intends.
3) HIS PRIDE (12-15)
FIRST we recognize that God is not going to allow
The king of Assyria to get away with anything.
God will use this wicked staff,
But DON’T THINK the wicked staff gets off without answering to God.
Let that give you comfort while also dwelling under wicked governments.
God has a purpose in the evil men who currently run our nation,
But they do not sit above the judgment of God.
(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.”
HE IS A RUTHLESS LION,
But he is a ruthless lion ON A CHAIN
And he will answer for all that he does.
God used the evil men in Jesus’ day to nail Him to a cross just as God designed, but that DOES NOT MEAN that the men who did it get a pass on judgment.
God is using wicked men to work,
And when “the Lord has completed all His work”
Then he’ll deal with Assyria.
God is well aware of the pride of Assyria.
(13-14) “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, 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.”
“my” – “my” – “I” – “I” – “I” – “I” – “my” – “I”
That’s pretty egotistical to say the least.
We’ve seen similar arrogance in the past.
Daniel 4:28-30 “All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. “Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. “The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’”
Of course Nebuchadnezzar then was afforded the opportunity to have earn a doctorate in bovine studies and to earn his wilderness merit badge.
Acts 12:21-23 “On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
When the Bible says that God is opposed to the proud it means it.
God may tolerate the arrogant for a season
As He uses them to accomplish His purposes,
But the arrogant never stand before God.
Only those who are poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of God.
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself— And though men praise you when you do well for yourself— He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”
But you clearly see the pride of Assyria.
• “power of my hand”
• “my wisdom”
• “I did this”
• “I have understanding”
• “I removed boundaries”
• “I brought down their inhabitants”
• “My hand reached to the riches”
• “I gathered all the earth”
THOSE ARE 8 STATEMENTS
By which you can measure the arrogance in your own life.
• When you look at your tiny insignificant kingdom here on earth…
• When you examine the certificates and diplomas on your wall…
• When you go through your bank statements or look upon your treasures…
• When you think on your successes and accomplishments…
How were you able to get where you are?
• By your power?
• By your wisdom?
• Did you do this?
• Was it by your understanding?
Paul looked at the Corinthians and asked them a very interesting question:
1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
But the king of Assyria dripped with such pride.
God was using him, but that DOES NOT MEAN that God was pleased.
God even asks him a question to sort of put things in perspective.
(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.”
What a way to consider your accomplishments.
You and I are nothing more than tools in the hands of God.
This also explains why some of us accomplish different tasks.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”
• Paul wrote in Romans 9 that God has vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy.
• Jeremiah taught us that God is the potter and no lump of clay has the right to reject the Potter who formed them.
God is the sovereign One.
We are tools in His hands.
If you accomplish great things in life
Or even great things in the kingdom of God
It is not because you are so great,
But because God chose to use you in that way.
And in this way we see EVEN THE EVIL MEN of the world.
God was specific about Pharoah.
Romans 9:17 “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.”
God’s sovereign plan was to glorify Himself by demonstrating His great power through plagues.
• In order to fulfill that plan He would need a stubborn man who would not repent even under such judgment.
• For that, God used the stubborn man Pharaoh.
God did not approve of his stubbornness,
But God certainly used it to demonstrate His power.
SUCH IS TRUE OF ALL EVIL MEN.
GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN.
The only reason any of those nations fell before the king of Assyria
Is because God caused them to fall.
Later Isaiah will specifically answer the pomp of the Assyrian invader.
TURN TO: ISAIAH 37:21-29
It is foolish to walk in such pride before God and if you do, your time will come.
4) HIS PUNISHMENT (16-19)
At this point we must make a distinction in the message of Isaiah.
• We see the word “Therefore” used here
• Which certainly ties the judgment of Assyria to his pomp and arrogance.
There is also a shift in Isaiah’s preaching for the benefit of the remnant.
Isaiah is going to start elevating the person of God in his message.
We start now seeing God defined in powerful terms.
(16, 23, 24, 26, 33) “The LORD God of hosts”
Isaiah now begins speaking of the God of the armies of heaven.
(17, 20) “The Holy One”
Certainly a reference to the One Isaiah saw in the temple.
(21) “mighty God”
The same title given to the coming King – EL GIBHOR the warrior God.
(34) “Mighty One”
Or as some translate it “Majestic One”
There is a shift now occurring in the message
Where Isaiah is now communicating to the remnant
That perhaps Assyria is not as big and bad as you think.
Judah is standing before the giant of Assyria
But Isaiah begins to point out the God that stands with them.
IN SHORT,
We started this chapter
• With Assyria having all the power, respect, and fear.
By the time we end this chapter,
• Assyria will have been stripped of her magnificence and all glory will be given to God.
BUT HERE, as a result of Assyria’s pomp, God pronounces punishment.
(16-19) “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. 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. 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. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down.”
We just read in Isaiah
How God was pronouncing judgment on Assyria’s pomp.
2 Kings 19:32-37 “‘Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. “By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,” ’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ” Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.”
CLEARY GOD WINS.
God would burn him to the ground with the light of His Holy One.
And not just kill him, but look at verse 18.
“And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body.”
What do we learn of God?
Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
He won’t just kill the king of Assyria,
He will destroy him for all eternity in hell.
Perhaps Assyria is not the threat you perceived him to be.
He is here, but he is here for a purpose,
And when God is finished with that purpose,
Assyria will be no more.
BUT WHAT IS THAT PURPOSE?
(20-21) “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. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”
God is using Assyria not only to JUDGE THE RABBLE,
But also to SOLIDIFY THE REMNANT.
And we’ll talk about that next time.
