The Book Of Isaiah. Day 42, Judgment Against Assyria, Part One

The Lord has been speaking of His intention to allow the northern kingdom to fall. This is the judgment for their unrepentant sin. But He will also judge the nation to whom the northern kingdom falls.

"Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of My anger, in whose hand is the club of My wrath!" (Isaiah 10:5) Assyria was simply the instrument of the Lord's discipline, but that empire went too far. Later in the book of Isaiah we will learn that it tries to come up against Jerusalem as well, but by then the people there have largely repented (for a time) and the Lord will give Judah a reprieve. 

Discipline only lasts for as long as it needs to last. It only goes as far as the Lord allows it to go. It is not the Lord's will for the nation of Judah to fall to the Assyrian Empire and He will prevent the Assyrian army from taking Jerusalem. In speaking of Assyria, the Lord talks about how He used it for a specific time for a specific purpose because of the sins of His people. But no enemy---not even the devil himself---can go beyond the boundaries the Lord puts in place.

Assyria is the one referred to as "him" in this next segment. "I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger Me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets." (Isaiah 10:6) The "godless nation" is the northern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom began falling into idolatrous practices as soon as those ten tribes split off from the two southern tribes. By Isaiah's day, the kingdoms have been split for approximately two hundred years, and the Lord has been sending prophets with words of warning to Israel for those two hundred years. The time for talking is almost finished; the time for action is at hand.

The Lord raised the Assyrian Empire to prominence in order to fulfill His word against the northern kingdom, but Judah has not fallen into such great idolatry as Israel---not yet. During the days of Isaiah, when King Hezekiah reigns over Judah for twenty-nine years, he will reinstate godly practices in the nation and will set an example for the people to follow. This will result in a revival. The Assyrian Empire thinks it because it conquered Israel it can conquer Judah as well, but it cannot because this is not the Lord's will.

The Lord speaks of Assyria's plan to attack Judah after subjugating Israel. "But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations." (Isaiah 10:7) In other words, the king of Assyria won't be content with conquering Israel. He will set his sights on Judah too.

This is how the leader of Assyria thinks: "'Are not my commanders all kings?' he says. 'Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria---shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?'" (Isaiah 10:8-11)

Several kings ruled over Assyria in its glory days but their attitudes were much the same: they would defeat other nations and reign over them, conquering the entire world as they knew it in their day. They believed that the gods of other nations weren't powerful like the gods of Assyria. They even made fun of the idols of other nations, saying they weren't as impressive in appearance as the idols of Assyria. It's true that the idols of the nations weren't powerful, since the gods represented by those idols didn't exist, but the Assyrians don't understand that that there is one true God and that He is the only reason they have achieved so much dominance over nations and tribes in their region of the world. It's true that the capital cities mentioned in verse 9 fell to Assyria, but it's also true that this happened only because it was the Lord's will for it to happen. But it is not His intention for Jerusalem to fall to Assyria and nothing the Assyrians can do will give them success in that endeavor. 

He will allow them to trouble the nation of Judah, for during the early days of Isaiah's ministry there was much repenting that needed to be done, and because during the days of Isaiah's ministry there was a wicked king named Ahaz on the throne, but Ahaz's son Hezekiah will bring about many positive reforms. Hezekiah will learn from his father's mistakes, which is an admirable thing, and by his example many people will turn back to the Lord.