(Again, if you would like some more historical background I recommend the 2Kings (n) study.)
Our last study finished on a depressing note. The people Isaiah was warning had paid no attention to him, and as a result we read ‘Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upwards, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. ’ (Isaiah 8:21-22)
What is more, the Assyrians had already attacked the very north of the country, and had taken into exile those tribes that had settled around Galilee and the west side of the Jordan (bordered by blue).
But that will not be the end of the story.
Read Isaiah 9:1-7
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan –
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
This is a far-reaching prophecy. It doesn’t only encourage those who could see the nation of Israel in the north crumbling, but also extended to those who expected that the same fate would also engulf Judah in the south. And it doesn’t stop there – it is an amazing encouragement for us too who also feel that often we are a people walking in darkness.
Read verse 2 again
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
Then John 8:12
Jesus said: ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’
And John 1:4
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There will be a time coming, when there will be true peace. Yokes, bars, rods, boots and garments rolled in blood (verses 4 & 5) will be utterly destroyed, and in their place they will be replaced with – not a mighty conqueror – but by the coming of a baby. Read verses 6 and 7 again:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
What do we have to do to gain our salvation? Nothing! Jesus has done it all. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
And that should cause us to rejoice in what the Lord has already done for us. But we also recognise that verse 7 is looking even further forward to the time when we will be ushered into a world where Jesus rules at the right hand of the Father. Where no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived – the things God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
However, for now, we too are to be lights in a world that has lost its way in the darkness.
And for Isaiah his task was to continue to warn people of the impending punishment about to be unleashed on them. Yes God is punishing nations, but it is individuals who had sinned and it is those individuals who will suffer.
Yet even while their world is crumbling around them, their pride says we will be ok! We will simply rebuild it by our own strength.
Read Isaiah 9:8-13
8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.
9 All the people will know it – Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria – who say with pride and arrogance of heart,
10 ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig-trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.’ 11 But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on.
12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.
Isaiah’s message becomes more urgent. The Lord has already raised his hand as a signal for Israel’s enemies to attack. Meanwhile Israel had effectively capitulated to Rezin, King of Damascus (confusingly that was the capital city of Aram, or the Arameans . Further East, the Assyrians were also gaining territory). During the years that followed, Rezin and the Arameans would use Israel’s forces to attack Jerusalem, prompting its king Ahaz to bribe the Assyrians to come and attack Damascus.
Read Isaiah 9:14-17
14 So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day;
15 the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
16 Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray.
17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
This is not random destruction. God has considered each individual, and has found that everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly. So there will be no escape.
Read Isaiah 9:18-21
18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upwards in a column of smoke.
19 By the wrath of the Lord Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another.
20 On the right they will devour, but still be hungry; on the left they will eat, but not be satisfied. Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring: 21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
Raging forest fires were frightening in those days. They are today but at least now we are better prepared to cope with them. How does a forest fire start? Whatever causes it, it always starts very small. It may be caused by someone doing something they would argue was trivial or careless. Just like the justification for sin: ‘only a little white lie’. But verse 18 still applies.
Once the fire has taken hold, it continually seeks out more fuel – so we have verse 19, then 20 and 21.
Read Isaiah 10:1-2
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.
Throughout history, up to the present day, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Lawmakers may set out with good intentions, but often the result may help the majority (richer) people, but the minority (poorer) for one reason or another, will always suffer.
Currently in the U.K. it seems that those without internet access or skills are unlikely to access the help that is legally theirs. Our equivalent to the poor, widows and fatherless could also include elderly, disabled and marginalised.
Read Isaiah 10:3-4
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
Everyone will one day have to give an account for their actions. For those without a clear conscience there will be nowhere to hide – and the wealth they have amassed and on which they rely will have to be left behind. You can’t take it with you when you die.
The last line in verse 4 brings us back to the people of Israel where the Lord’s righteous anger is still directed.
Read Isaiah 10:5-6
5 ‘Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
6 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.
Here the Lord is speaking, not to the Assyrians as a nation, or even a tribe, But simply to the King of Assyria – as a person who God has now determined will be his rod of punishment. But because the king has found he had the power, he assumed it was by his own strength he had achieved this. He assumed that he could actually go on to overcome the whole world.
So the warning is now directed to him. He had been given a specific task but,
Read Isaiah 10:7-11
7 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.
8 “Are not my commanders all kings?” he says.
9“Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria –
11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?”’
Why is it that people put their trust in images and idols?
Even today people will have a ‘St. Christopher’ in their car to keep them safe, or will ‘touch wood’. Throughout history people have worshipped ‘gods’ of their own making. And often that involved making images and idols – some most elaborate and expensive.
The view of the Assyrian king was that none of these so-called gods or their idols had saved any nation they had attacked so far, so it would be an easy matter to take Israel and Judah too.
But unlike a raging fire the Lord’s punishment is deliberate, specific and measured.
Read Isaiah 10:12-14
12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, ‘I will punish the king of Assyria for the wilful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. 13 For he says:
‘“By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.
14 As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.”’
The King of Assyria never stopped to consider the possibility that he was being used by a power vastly superior to his. He assumed that it had been solely ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this’. So it is now his turn to be corrected.
Read Isaiah 10:15-22
15 Does the axe raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!
16 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.
17 The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.
18 The splendour of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when one who is ill wastes away.
19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.
(This prophecy was fulfilled in 2 Kings 19:35-37)
20 In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
21 A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
22 Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.
Very few of those who were taken from Israel into exile to Assyria would return. Israel was repopulated with people from the other lands that the Assyrians had captured. (But it is a fact that there are many Christians among those who live in Palestine today – verse 20!)
Now the prophecy extends to include Judah too:
Read Isaiah 10:23-24
23 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
24 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:
‘My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.
25 Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.’
2 Kings 18 and 19 tell us of the time Sennacherib, King of Assyria, turned his attention to Judah. He destroyed the fortified cities and laid siege to Jerusalem. Finally, in desperation, Hezekiah asked Isaiah to pray. (2 Kings 19:1-7)
We can’t tell the exact sequence of events, but Isaiah’s prophecy continues:
Read Isaiah 10:26-34
26 The Lord Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt.
27 In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.
28 They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Michmash.
29 They go over the pass, and say, ‘We will camp overnight at Geba.’
Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
30 Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!
31 Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover.
32 This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
A scene of great destruction. (It is hard to reconcile the ancient place-names with modern titles – better to just absorb the speed and relentless onslaught of the attacking army.)
Judah suffered greatly but was not finally overwhelmed and the Lord himself answered the prayers of Hezekiah and Isaiah and caused the Assyrians to withdraw.
The book of Isaiah contains background narrative covering this time – if you would like some homework, read chapters 36 & 37
