The Assyrian Rod – Part 3
Isaiah 10:5-34 (24-34)
May 21, 2023
As you know we have been looking at
THE MEANS through which God is saving His remnant.
He is saving them by using “The Assyrian Rod”
Much like when a father extracts foolishness from a child
By using the rod of discipline
The LORD is using Assyria as a rod to punish Israel
And call the remnant back to Himself.
We just looked at this in the morning service so we’re not going to rehash it,
But I am going to put up the outline that we’ve covered
For those of you who are outline type people.
I. THE REVELATION (5-23)
A. His Presence (5-6)
B. His Plan (7-11)
C. His Pride (12-15)
D. His Punishment (16-19)
E. His Purpose (20-23)
1. To Confront the Reliance of the Remnant (20)
2. To Coerce the Return of the Remnant (21-22a)
3. To Cause the Righteousness of the Remnant (22b-23)
What we have learned then over the past couple of sermons
Is that God is in total sovereign control of all things.
This event drips of His sovereignty.
Assyria is an evil and ruthless nation,
But they have not done a single thing
Outside of the sovereign hand and providential control of God.
GOD IS DOING THIS.
Assyria is merely the tool that He is using.
Knowing this BRINGS TREMENDOUS COMFORT
To the heart that trusts in the LORD.
It really serves to solidify in our heart a promise like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
We clearly see in a story like this that there is no rogue leader,
Nor hostile situation which is beyond the scope of God’s control.
He can use anyone and anything to work for good to those who love Him.
We are reminded of His sovereign hand even in governmental affairs.
Isaiah 40:23-24 “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”
Sometimes we are confronted with the illusion
That world leaders are beyond the scope of God’s Law.
• They seem corrupt, they seem rogue, they seem to answer to no one.
• At times, even in our nation, we wonder if they were even legitimately elected.
And it’s easy to assume that we are at the mercy of these rogue rulers
And we wonder what can be done. It can feel helpless.
I’m reminded of the 11th Psalm
When David’s friends looked at the trouble he was in and asked:
Psalms 11:3 “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
We can kind of feel that way sometimes.
• If elections are corrupt…
• If politicians are bought and paid for…
• If they own the media…
• If the rich and powerful control them…
• What can we do?
But David reminded his friends
Of the very truths that we have seen here in Isaiah.
Psalms 11:4-7 “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”
David knew that God was sovereign
Even over the most wicked and powerful men in the world.
AND THAT IS A COMFORT TO US.
Isaiah 43:11-13 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
God does whatever He pleases and He sits in total control of all things.
• That was true of Pharaoh whom He brought to power simply to demonstrate His power in the plagues and the Exodus.
• That is true of Sennacherib whom He allowed to invade and destroy nations simply that He might draw His remnant back to Himself.
• That will be true of Nebuchadnezzar whom He will allow to destroy Jerusalem and take Judah into captivity simply so that He might sanctify His people and teach them to call upon Him.
• That will be true of Pilate whom He will use to crucify His own Son to thus make Him a propitiation for the remnant He is saving.
• And that is true of every ruler in every age, regardless of their level of wickedness.
GOD SITS IN TOTAL SOVEREIGN CONTROL.
And He works all things for His glory and for the salvation of His remnant.
All these events, even though they may have felt like punishment,
Were in reality demonstrations of grace
Whereby God was choosing to save you.
TONIGHT we want to take one more look at this Assyrian Rod.
And here we get the application to the sermon.
• We saw the first point: THE REVELATION
• Here tonight is the second point
#2 THE APPLICATION
Isaiah 10:24-34
The first thing you have to see is the word “Therefore”
THIS MORNING,
God announced the completion of His usage of the king of Assyria.
• He was raised up for the purpose of pushing the remnant to God.
• And in verse 21 we saw the completion of his mission.
• “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”
That is what we call: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
(God’s mission, not Sennacherib’s)
But since God has now used him to accomplish His purposes,
God is finished with him and he will face judgment.
That is why we see the word “Therefore…”
This text represents the FINAL FATE OF EVIL MEN,
Even those who have been used by God for the salvation of the remnant.
Let’s break these verses down into 4 points.
1) EXHORTATION (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.”
The simple message is “do not fear the Assyrian”
AS WE HAVE NOTED,
• That’s easier said than done.
• These were vile and ruthless people.
And up until now they had been extremely successful
In their campaign to rule the region.
From earthly eyes a person would have every reason to fear them.
But God here says that is no longer necessary.
• I know he “strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you”
• I know this reminds of what “Egypt did”
• I know it feels like you are totally helpless against such a mighty power.
• But his time is over, there is no need to fear any longer.
Perhaps you remember what we saw last Sunday night as Hezekiah took the letter from the king of Assyria and spread it out before the LORD.
GOD ANSWERED THAT PRAYER.
2 Kings 19:20 “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’”
FOLLOWING WAS ISAIAH’S TAUNT to the king of Assyria about his foolish pride and failure to recognize that God was merely using him like a puppet.
• He was nothing more than the dummy that sets on the lap of the ventriloquist.
• He had no power…
• He had no wisdom…
• He was only able to do what he did because God had His hand up his shirt and guided his every move.
AND AFTER THAT TAUNT Isaiah turned to encourage Hezekiah that there was no need to fear Assyria any longer.
2 Kings 19:29-34 “‘Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ‘The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ‘For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD will perform this. ‘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.’”
The overall message is that the days of Assyrian threat are over.
You don’t have to fear him, God will deal with him.
BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO RECOGNIZE
The familiar way in which God makes the promise.
“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.”
GOD LOVES TO GIVE SIGNS LIKE THIS.
You may remember when He gave Moses a sign to prove that He would indeed lead Israel out of Egypt He said:
Exodus 3:12 “And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
We’ve often noted how that wasn’t much of a sign…before.
But it would have been tremendous confirmation after the fact and cause for tremendous worship.
Well that is the same type of sign God offered Hezekiah.
Assyria is finished and HERE’S THE SIGN.
• You’ll eat this year from volunteer crops (Assyria likely destroyed their fields)
• Next year you’ll do this again
• And the third year you’ll plant reap and eat.
That doesn’t sound like much of a sign does it?
Not today, but in 3 years it will be quite a time of worship.
God gives signs like this because He wants faith from His people.
According to God all Hezekiah had to do was…NOTHING.
You may see Assyrian soldiers outside your wall,
BUT TRUST ME, the threat is over, go about your life.
Even as we said earlier with Ahaz, sometimes faith in God
Is nothing more than doing nothing and resting in His mighty power.
God simply wants His people to WALK BY FAITH
And that includes LETTING GO OF THEIR FEAR.
Fear is the enemy of faith.
• Satan loves to use fear to control and manipulate us.
• The man of faith overcomes fear and trusts the promises of God.
• The man of faith sees the massive Assyrian army, but he has more faith in what God has said.
So the simple exhortation to the remnant is “do not fear”.
(Do not fear the rod)
2) EXPLANATION (25-27)
Here God explains why fear is not necessary.
“For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.”
NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND…
This seems to be a contradiction of that which we just studied a few verses ago.
Didn’t we just read in chapter 9 and the first 4 verses of chapter 10
That God’s wrath would not and could not be satisfied?
I mean we saw the exact same phrase in (9:12, 9:17, 9:21, 10:4)
• “In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still
stretched out.”
We even talked about how eternity in hell could not satisfy God’s wrath on sinful man, much less a few temporal judgments here on earth.
But now all of a sudden God says,
“For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent…”
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT?
We understand that
• The first 4 statements were made before repentance or a return to the LORD.
• And if a man will not repent or turn to Christ then certainly he will never be able to satisfy God’s wrath on his sin.
• However, if that man repents and returns and trusts in Christ God will impute righteousness to him and His wrath does indeed turn away.
For the man that repents:
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• That is the whole essence of Christ being our propitiation.
• He satisfies God’s wrath on our account.
AND THAT IS WHAT ISAIAH ANNOUNCES HERE.
• God most certainly afflicted you greatly…
• God beat you with the Assyrian rod…
• But you repented and you returned
• You obtained the righteousness which is by faith.
SO, MY ANGER TOWARD YOU IS MOVING ON.
IN FACT, it is turning around and is directed toward the one who afflicted you.
“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.”
God says, now that I finished using Him to save you,
It is time to turn and judge him for what he did.
And God likens it to two great judgments in Israel’s history.
THE FIRST is the defeat of the Midianites under Gideon.
Judges 7:19-25 “So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled. When they blew 300 trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midian and take the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.”
• A battle against overwhelming odds.
• Gideon only had 300 men.
• But God intervened in an otherwise unwinnable battle and totally routed the Midianites.
THE OTHER reference is clearly to the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army in the sea.
Exodus 14:26-31 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.”
• Again a battle against unwinnable odds.
• These were slaves being led out of Egypt on foot.
• They were not soldiers, they had no chariots, they weren’t prepared for battle.
• But God intervened in an otherwise unwinnable battle and totally routed Pharaoh and the Egyptian army.
And here Hezekiah faces an unwinnable battle.
• The full force of the Assyrian army sits outside the gates of the city
• Jerusalem has no physical strength to withstand them.
But God has promised to do again what He has done before.
I’m going to turn My anger towards them and totally route them.
Which He did by killing 180,000 of their troops in one night.
To which Isaiah sums up:
(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.”
What a familiar analogy to us.
That God likens His salvation to the removal of our burden and our yoke.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
• The people of Judah had been heavily taxed by the king of Assyria.
• They had felt the burden of paying him off so as to live in peace with him.
• But the king of Assyria now wanted more.
• It was a burden that the people could not bear.
• So God would remove that burden by abolishing their enemy.
This also reminds us of the salvation of God.
When Peter spoke of the Law. He said:
Acts 15:10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”
Peter referred to the Law and unbearable yoke.
But Jesus came to abolish this yoke for us.
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Christ conquered our foe.
God conquered Assyria.
And this promise is why there was no need for fear.
God had determined to enter the battle and fight for them
Just as Christ enters our battle and fights for us.
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
YOU SEE THE OBVIOUS PICTURE.
• Now we no longer fear judgment, for we have been saved.
• Isaiah told Hezekiah and all the remnant that they should no longer fear either.
God has taken up your cause.
God has entered your battle.
There is no reason for you to fear it any longer.
And friend, when God says you don’t have to fear, you don’t have to fear.
Exhortation, Explanation
3) EXPEDITION (28-32)
These verses remind us again of God’s sovereign control of all things.
These verses represent the exact path or trail that the king of Assyria would take in his efforts to descend upon Jerusalem and destroy it.
What he did not realize is that God had watched his every step.
Psalms 139:2-3 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
Such was true for the king of Assyria too.
He wasn’t calling the shots, he wasn’t moving undetected,
And he wasn’t getting away with anything.
GOD WAS WATCHING.
• He traveled down from “Aiath” to “Migron” then “Michmash”
• He went through the pass and lodged in “Geba” and terrified “Ramah” and “Gibeah” fled in fear.
• He traveled down through “Gallim” and “Laishah” and “Anathoth” and “Madmenah” and “Gebim” and he stopped in “Nob”
And there:
“He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.”
• He must feel so superior in his march.
• He must feel invincible in his attack.
WE READ HIS MIGHTY TAUNT BEFORE GOD
As he spoke to the people in the city wall.
2 Kings 18:32b-35 “But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” ‘Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ‘Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”
How superior he felt.
He just knew he was about to annihilate the city of the LORD.
Exhortation, Explanation, Epedition
4) EXECUTION (33-34)
The king of Assyria could lift his fist and raise a mighty boast,
But he had failed to recognize the sovereign hand of God.
“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. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”
GOD INTERVENES!
The one once seen as an axe chopping down trees
Is now seen as the tree that gets chopped down himself.
WE SAY:
“Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug”
“What goes up, must come down”
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap.”
The remnant had been saved from sin
And now they are saved from Assyria.
God had finished using him for His purposes
And how He is judged.
EVEN THOUGH WE SEE THE NEED FOR IT…
MY HOW WE LOVE IT WHEN GOD PUTS THE ROD AWAY!
Isaiah 41:8-14 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its remotest parts And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you. ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ “Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. “You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. “For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”
THAT IS WHAT GOD DOES FOR HIS REMNANT.
WHEN WE SEE THE STORY NOW,
• God was never for Assyria.
• He was always for Israel.
He merely used evil men to save His remnant
And once they were saved He turned and destroyed the wicked.
That is such a refreshing lens to view even our current world through.
NOW IF YOU KEEP READING IN ISAIAH you see that THE NEXT STEP is for God to place His own King on the throne and usher in a time of total peace.
WELL,
• While history did see God annihilate the Assyrian army,
• We have yet to see this King reign on earth.
That is because there is MORE FULFILLMENT to come.
I TOLD YOU at the outset of this section that Isaiah often sees two fulfillments here and sometimes seems to have difficulty separating them.
• In chapter 9 we saw that prophecy about the child who reigns on David’s throne, but there is still a future fulfillment for much of that.
And the same is true here as well.
In fact, EVEN TODAY, we wait for the remnant of Israel
To repent and return so that our King may come and reign.
Peter preached this very thing in Jerusalem.
Acts 3:19-21 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
And what is the event that will ultimately bring this about?
The Assyrian Rod (the great tribulation)
There are many commentators who actually refer to the Anti-Christ as “The Assyrian”
Because they see even in Isaiah’s prophecy
A representation of the one who is to come.
JUST AS Antiochus Epiphanes in Daniel is a corrupt man who pictures the coming anti-Christ, SO DOES THE KING OF ASSYRIA.
Isaiah 9:5 through 10:34 tells the story of the coming tribulation
In which God will once again use an evil man to save His remnant.
Zechariah 11:15-17 “The LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.”
That is the coming rod with which God will strike Israel.
It is the Anti-Christ.
God will use that rod to drive Israel back to Himself.
Zechariah 12:10-14 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.”
And when Israel returns to God they receive mercy and righteousness.
Zechariah 13:1 “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”
That is the day in which God will save His people.
THE REMNANT WILL RETURN.
Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
We saw the Assyrian
• Descending on Jerusalem by a path that was guided by the LORD.
• He came and planned to wipe out God’s people.
• What he did not know is that God had ordained his steps.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
Revelation 16:12-14 “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.”
God will do the same thing again.
• He’ll gather that ruthless world leader to descend on Jerusalem.
• The nations to come and annihilate His people.
And just like with the king of Assyria,
Before he is able to give that final death blow:
Revelation 16:17-21 “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.”
GOD SAVES HIS REMNANT.
THAT IS THE POINT.
• The remnant did not save themselves.
• The remnant didn’t even really pursue salvation.
But by grace God awakened them and drew them
And saved them and will defend them.
Now do you understand why Isaiah said at the beginning?
Isaiah 1:9 “Unless the LORD of hosts Had left us a few survivors, We would be like Sodom, We would be like Gomorrah.”
The only way anyone is saved is by the sovereign prerogative of God.
HE WORKS TO SAVE HIS REMNANT
It is nothing short of pure grace that He chooses to do it
And nothing short of His majestic power that He brings it to pass.
He has done it before and we look forward to Him doing it again.
SO CHURCH:
• Do not fear the rod, your Father has never meant to destroy you with it.
• Let the rod drive you to Him.
• When God is finished performing His saving work on you.
• He will deliver you and destroy the rod that afflicted you.
This has been true so many times in Israel’s history
And it will be true yet again in Israel’s future.
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him…”
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
