Isaiah Chapter 10
2021 - 10:1 starts with "Woe to those..." We haven't seen a woe like this since 5:22.
1-4, Who will these evil oppressors run to "in the ruin that will come from afar"? And this:
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain...[Isa 10:4a ESV] At the end, all are the same, crouching among the prisoners, awaiting a fate over which they have no control at all. And then the fourth refrain at the end of vs 4.
2021 - So even though the "woe" is a change, that refrain continues, and ties this chapter back to 9.
2022 - Just occurred to me...this verse seems very appropriate to the Holocaust. The Jews were rounded up, relieved of any difference in status between the captors, and completely powerless to change events. No help came to them from outside or inside. The whole world looked away as it happened. Put this together with the repeating phrase "...for all this, his anger was not turned away...", and you finally have the reason for the holocaust. It is not specifically prophesied because the OT prophets couldn't see the church age. But we may understand it as the continuing anger of God that began with Manasseh, broke over into direct retribution from God when Assyria came, continued into the Babylonian conquests, and STILL continues to this day. It will go on until this: 4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: [Rev 7:4 ESV]. At this point, the blindness will be removed, the anger of God toward Israel will be spent, and they will be welcomed back as God's anger turns instead toward the Gentiles who have spurned almost completely the special provision of God that includes them with the children of Abraham in an eternity in heaven. I will try to keep this in mind, now, as I read Isaiah, and consider whether the prophecies of that time can also be seen to apply to the experience of Israel during the church age.
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! [Isa 10:5 ESV]
So even though God is using Assyria to accomplish His wrath towards Israel, - they are the chastening rod in His hands - it isn't because He thinks they are good people. They are just his rod. But they don't see that. The Assyrians believe in their own greatness, and give no credit to God. They are unaware that they are merely playing a role.
2021 - This verse:
[Isa 10:7 ESV] 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;
The King of Assyria does not see himself as God's avenger, in God's control, doing God's will. This King wants only to conquer and take, and colonize and expand. This King wants only to make himself greater. God's will is nowhere in his thinking, though it is God that is orchestrating his success. This verse also:
[Isa 10:11 ESV] shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?"
So the point of this verse is that the King of Assyria does not see the conquest of Syria and then Samaria/Israel as the end. He plans to go on into Jerusalem and take that too. Why wouldn't he? And he will invade all the way into Judah, we've already seen that in the fears of King Ahaz. But he does not conquer Jerusalem. Think of just how concise these prophecies are, in that they know Assyria will conquer many places, but will be stopped short of conquering Jerusalem. That is still 100 years in the future, and Babylon will be the invader. Isaiah knew this.
And once they have done God's bidding, this:
12 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. [Isa 10:12 ESV]
This is the true "greatness" of the King of Assyria:
15 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! [Isa 10:15 ESV]
He is just a tool used by God to accomplish His will. We should make sure that's not all we are!
In vs 16 we see how God will bring Assyria low:
16 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. [Isa 10:16 ESV]
It won't be a battle. They won't be conquered, but they will die of sickness. I believe this happens when he comes against Jerusalem. Thousands die overnight (2021 - not so sure this is right. Sennacherib I believe is the leader of the army that a sickness wipes out overnight. Is that what is in view here? Because if it is, this is another irrefutable proof of the accuracy of Isaiah's prophecies. Really need to see if this is so. Wikipedia - Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705 BC to his own death in 681 BC. So yes, Isaiah not only prophesied the fall of Assyria, but prophesied the means of their destruction, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Wow. Just wow.), he abandons his siege and goes home, and his own sons kill him as he worships his gods back in Assyria. I think I have that right...another good one to track down. MSB does not reference that story...so maybe I have it wrong.
Beginning in 20 there is a prophesy that Israel will return. To their land and to their God. This is likely the Millennial, though they are returning in droves in the present day.
2021 - I agree with the sentence above, but I am really worn out this morning. Just reading through the rest.
22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. [Isa 10:22 ESV]
This last sentence...is that what Hitler was about? The refrain says despite all that God was doing to Israel by Assyria would still not quench his anger for all they'd done. Maybe it was to continue - IS to continue, until they begin to return at the Millennial?
Or...these verses are addressed to Judah, telling Judah that Assyria will not conquer it, and they should not fear because of what happens to Israel. Only a small remnant of the Northern Kingdom will ever return, because their destruction is decreed. So far, Judah is not in the same boat. This seems a better way to read it in my opinion.
2022 - I think now that this may be a reference to the return after the Babylonian captivity. There were a lot more Jews living in Babylon than chose to return to Israel under Cyrus. They had integrated into Babylonian society, the whole Esther story had taken place. Jews were more or less accepted - or at least fearfully tolerated - at that time. So they would have been flourishing. But only a remnant came home. That is probably what this is about rather than a reference to the 144,000.
2022 - These two verses, which put a giant hole in what I have been thinking:
24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. [Isa 10:24-25 ESV]. This would imply that the four times in the poem where it says his anger was not turned away, do in fact come to an end "in a very little while". It seems clear that when Assyria is destroyed, God's anger will be at an end, so the whole Hitler idea above may not be quite right. May not be at all correct...So...if we look at it that way, then the Babylonian invasion and captivity would be about a different episode of God's anger reaching a breakover point. It would be related to the actions of the southern kingdom and concern only them. It would also mean that the little remnant that returns is about some of the northern kingdom - a very small remnant - returning to the northern lands. And...that might mean that the double punishment is strictly and only about the southern kingdom, abut Babylon's destruction of the kingship, and Rome's destruction of the priesthood. Hmmm....
28-34, These read like they were specific to the invasion as it happened. Maybe if one knew all the places that are referred to it would make good sense. It reads like prophecy. This would be a good study.
2025 - Just an observation...the phrase "his hand is still stretched out" in Chapter 9 vvs. 12, 17, and 21 and again in 10 vvs 4 surely ties all four of these descriptions together.