So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day—the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up. Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:14-17
Israel was subject to judgment first but Judah would not be too far behind. Leadership in both political and spiritual areas has become useless. They all were spouting lies. The leaders had God's word and didn't need to lead badly. Those who followed had God's word and should not have fallen into sin. So those who would normally be first in God's concern (youth, orphans, widows) have removed themselves from His protection. Motyer says they have, “the practical atheism which believes that life can be lived without God, that God and His word are irrelevant to the 'real world.'” That “practical atheism” permeates our society and even corrupts us. We forget we are living “coram Deo” or before the face of God and drift away and start living with God, at best, as a safety net or lucky rabbits foot. I saw a man the other day who had a car with stuff hanging from the rear view mirror. He had 2 lucky rabbits feet, a crucifix, and a pair of sunglasses. The sunglasses might help him a little if he put them on but the crucifix and rabbits feet together were a testimony all their own to his uncertainty and to their futility. One of the great challenges in the Church's outreach as to avoid “syncretism” or a melding and mixing of religions. Having lived in the American Southwest I've seen syncretism in which native animistic beliefs are mixed with Roman Catholicism. With the world we live in we are challenged to not live as if there were no God. The predominance of “practical atheism” can influence the way we act and the way we make decisions. When God's grace saves someone they can struggle with allowing God to be Lord of their life and not simply a practical something they add to have a better life. Better in an eternal sense is often difficult to see when we think of better in the sense of our short life.
For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another. They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied;each devours the flesh of his own arm, Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:18-21
Wickedness was growing in response to the difficulty and stress of the nations that were surrounding Judah and Israel. But this was God's judgment on Israel and Judah and not some random event. Wickedness is ultimately self destructive and our Holy God has made a world in which this is consistently the case. There is pleasure in sin for a season but then destruction. Israel went through 6 Kings before they fell. Of those 6, 5 came to power by assassination. Everyone was acquiring but no one was satisfied with their acquisitions. Eventually, they devour their own families and their own strength. Ephraim and Manasseh were “brother tribes” that together got the inheritance of Joseph. Now they consume one another and even in the midst of fighting each other they manage to find the resources to go up against Judah.
Satisfaction with what God has given us is a great thing to have. We don't need to participate in our society's glorification of excess and violence. We are about to have another in a long line of films making someone (Al Capone) who was greedy and violent look like they weren't all that bad or at least they were someone we could imagine being or getting along with. We need to keep our heart with diligence because we want to respond to life's situations in a godly manner and not with the greed and violence typical of our world.
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, 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! 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? 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.
Isaiah 10:1-4
Once again, notice God's concern with justice. God gives these evidences of injustice as evidence of corrupt hearts. He brings out the evidence of unrighteous hearts and indicates that He will judge those who take advantage of those who have no advocate (widows and orphans). Eventually, those who are strong, proud, and ruthless will answer for their sin. Justice is something that we generally have a natural affinity for. We will at least give lip service to a love of justice. Justice is not something we see worked out fully on earth. Nietzsche even said “there is no eternal justice” and that is what most hope for if they exploit those who can't defend themselves. In fact, Nietzsche argued that the concept of justice was part of a slave-morality of the weak. But God will have justice as Nietzsche now knows.
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! 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. 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; for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?” 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.
Isaiah 10:5-12
God uses an unrighteous nation according to their unrighteous nature to rebuke and correct His chosen people. Assyria has no idea that God is using them to correct Israel. Assyria thinks that their leadership is top notch and each city will fall like the other cities have fallen. But in the end the King of Assyria is destroyed as God punishes their arrogant heart.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom in many ways. Here you can see that God's plans will not be blocked and that His purposes for His chosen ones will be accomplished. Paul says of the Philippians that he is “sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6) and we rightly think of good things. In context the Philippians were serving God and submitting themselves to the Holy Spirit. However, just like corporate Israel here in the prophecy of Isaiah, our individual lives can become subject to a more severe correction and we may shake our head in wonder at the tools used to get our attention (1 Corinthians 5:5).
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. 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.”
Isaiah 10:13-14
Sometimes we see a disaster hit like a bull to change leaders and history rapidly and sometimes no one even sees what happened until it was all over. Like taking an egg from under a wild bird without it even noticing it was happening. God's message is that He is sovereign and that we are not. God is sovereign over history even when we see a Godless nation like Assyria take over Israel. God is Lord in the deepest way you can imagine. We will not understand all of God's ways but we can trust Him.
Another error that we find in our culture is a concept of dualism. This is especially a prevalent concept when eastern religions have influenced a region or subculture. Dualism tends to think of a competition of equals in the battle of good and evil. These Scriptures and many others like them make it clear that this is no battle of equals. God has no equal and the enemy of our souls is a fallen created being. God has no equal in wisdom and understanding and He reveals that so we will be encouraged. Evil is in the world but God is in sovereign control and we can trust Him. We know He is Holy and so we fear God and separate ourselves from evil.
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! 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. 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. 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. The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.
Isaiah 10:15-19
The concept that God will use a wicked man according to his wicked nature is repeated in many places in Scripture but it is a difficult one for us to grasp sometimes. We may say, “God works in mysterious ways” but not really apply that easily to nations. We forget our need for mercy and grace just like Israel. Judah and Israel were God's chosen people. Like you (and all true Christian believers) are chosen by Him now. However, that only makes your sin more likely to be disciplined by God. My earthly father was not vary likely to discipline just any child in the neighborhood. He was likely to discipline me and my brother. Other kids were basically exempt and we had some bad kids in the neighborhood. I got disciplined and they didn't but I wouldn't have it any other way. I was my fathers child and he did what he thought was best for me even when I didn't think it was good for me.
God's discipline of Israel surpassed this analogy in many ways. God had a covenant with Abraham and David that He was going to honor. God had the atoning sacrifice coming in the person of Christ from this people. God still had some faithful in this population that was apostate. He was going to use ugly tools and it was going to be a scorched earth that the remnant would return to with trees you could count on a couple of hands. The glory doesn't go to the axe, or saw, or rod but rather the glory goes to the one in whom all wisdom and knowledge are found. God was doing an eternal work and correcting a people but keeping a remnant that would return and rebuild the temple. Those who returned with Nehemiah and cried when the law was read to them and fasted in sackcloth with dirt on their heads were a different people than these who were going to fall before the Assyrians.
There is a challenge here for each of us to hear what Scripture says to us and to bow before God and accept His correction early. To hear what Scripture says with all our attention and hearts is a product of the Holy Spirit. We know the source of what we need and to neglect that source in our lives is foolish … and I'll say that first of all to me.
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