40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 10:8-34 (Episode 454)

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

All nations are just kingdoms to conquer in the mind of the Assyrians. When God doesn't fight, His people lose. But God has not forgotten His promises and a remnant will remain. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Pre-order: Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi  Bible in One Year with Chad Bird Junk Drawer Jesus By Matt Popovits Take 20% Off Our Lenten Devotionals until March 5th: The Sinner/Saint Lenten Devotional Finding Christ in the Straw: A Forty-Day Devotion on the Epistle of James  More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go over to 1517.org slash podcast to check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing, so many things. Hey, why don't you sign up for an event while you're over there? There's still a handful of tickets left for the national event, a handful of tickets left for the regional event, which is happening in April in Bentonville. Hey, if you haven't got one of those, grab one.

It will sell out, always does. And so if you're thinking, it's probably too late for me, it's not too late for you. If you act now, you can come hang out with Chad and myself. chad we are in isaiah chapter 10 we've got through the first couple of verses and i got through uh some poetry you know so isaiah's one of those books right you know he's like i got i got a poem i don't think you're gonna like this poem uh this one is a little bit more like here's all the things you've done and that's the reason that god's

hand is stretched out and his anger has not turned away i'm gonna go let me list the reasons right and uh that's kind of that's kind of where we ended. God is speaking a lot of judgment. He's going to use the Assyrians to bring about this judgment, and we're going to pick it up where he's got words for the Assyrians, too, that make you go, wait, what? Like, what's the deal? Is this your instrument, or is this your adversary? I'm unsure what's going on here. Yeah, a little bit of both, right? Yeah, we're going to hear a lot about Assyria from 10 to 5 through the whole whole rest of the chapter and uh yeah i mean the basic the basic uh theme will

be god using assyria and assyria is doing this all for themselves for their pride and their arrogance and their glory and so god is going to turn around and he's going to punish them for their arrogance so he's not punishing them for necessarily what they did as far as their instrumental usage by god but rather they're acting as if this is all about all about them and at the same time as we'll see they're they're also blaspheming the very god of israel who's using them for this instrumental purpose so uh yeah there's a lot a lot of pretty fascinating theological stuff in here i think it was uh who was the commentator i think maybe it was was matier my favorite commentator in isaiah who says that this this section is one of the

bible's profoundest statements on the nature of of earthly history so quite quite a claim and then i think he i think he's right because here you have obviously assyria being used by god so you have the whole providential ordering of events but at the same time you have what's going on on earth full of pride and arrogance and and violence and evil and blasphemy and so So the instrument used by God is also going to be punished by God at the same time. Yeah, this is where God uses what is in someone's heart to accomplish His purposes, even if that thing in their heart is also something that He later on judges. And so you could do this in your own life.

I mean, don't do this because you're not God, but I can give you an example of this. By the way, I didn't do this. It was a joke that I put forward, but it's an example of how this sort of thing does work so my wife was a little upset about something that someone had said and i was like i don't know just tell them tell that person you're upset she's like i don't want to tell them i'm upset but i want them to know i'm upset well that's a real pickle uh you want them to know but you don't want to tell them but then we and i was like well you know this other person who has a reputation of you know

not being someone you tell secrets to if you want them to stay kept i was like you could just tell this person and then that other person will for sure find out you're upset so this is an example using what you know is in the person's heart to accomplish your purposes like you want them to know you're upset about that but you don't want to tell them just tell this other person and i am dead certain they will find out yeah in fact they were probably on the phone within five minutes letting this other person know yeah that's a good that's a good example i mean uh you know what's their heart you know what they're prone to so uh they can be of instrumental value don't do that by the way uh but yeah not a good idea god is god and he's this is what he's going to do with

the assyrians he's like oh oh you want to destroy these people well i want to punish these people so there you go also by the way that that wanting to destroy these people that is in your heart i'm going to judge that i'm going to i'm going to judge the judgment yeah and you see that boy You see this throughout biblical history. I mean, we see it. It's like made explicit a couple of times in the New Testament with regard to the death of Jesus. You know, by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you, by the hands of sinful men, put Christ to death. So what's going on?

I mean, was this God's plan or was this human sin? Well, yes. I mean, this is the way it works in the cross. This is the way it works throughout biblical history. And it still is today. It's a little harder sometimes for us to figure out because we don't have a prophet like Isaiah standing around saying, Hey, you know what's really going on? Let me tell you, because I was in the divine council.

But, you know, sometimes you can still see, especially after events have taken place. You're like, Oh, I guess I can see what God was doing there. So it goes all the way. Biblical history, human history, still today, our personal histories. We've all seen this happen. Yeah. All right. So, uh, we'll start it here with 10, five, the first word kind of sets the whole tone

for this. Whoa, right? You know, this is not going to be gospel coming up when it begins with, whoa, whoa to Assyria. And he calls them the rod of my anger. The staff in their hands is my fury against a godless nation. I sent him. And here he's talking about, uh, his own people, Israel against a godless nation. us in him and against the people of my wrath i command him to take spoil and seize plunder

and to this this image just like it is so gross but so so apropos to to tread them down like the mire of the streets you know i almost hear the squishing sound of something treaded down in the mire of the streets so that's the that's the opening that's what god has done verse seven But he, talking about Assyria, 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, and so this is the Assyrian king speaking, to Samaria and her images. Boy, this thing is just dripping with arrogance, isn't it? So it's not as though even that the Assyrians have, like,

some specific beef against Israel. They're just like, hey, one country is like another country, and I'm taking over all of them. So God sees a king who has got all this arrogance built up. Is there anything that should not belong to me? The answer in this king's heart, of course, is no. I should take over all things. And so God's like, oh, well, I can certainly use that.

So it wasn't as if—now, this is like an ancient foe or whatever, that kind of stuff. But, I mean, the Assyrians weren't just foes to the Jews. I mean, it wasn't like they never took anyone else over, right? Yeah, I think sometimes when we read biblical history, we can— because so much is focused on Israel, I think there is a tendency we have sometimes to over-inflate the importance of Israel in its historical context, right? And we can kind of think of them as a rival superpower to the Babylonians or to the Assyrians, to the Egyptians. I mean, except for maybe the time of Solomon.

And, you know, it sort of came close to that with maybe a couple of the other kings. Israel is just, it's like a, it's a very small place that happens to be in an ideal stretch of land connecting Egypt and Africa, of course, to Mesopotamia. So it's a hotly disputed area. But it's not ever as if the Babylonians or the Egyptians or the Assyrians were quaking in their boots over, man, we better not make Israel mad. You know, tell them what they might do to us. Well, that's the whole reason it's shocking whenever Israel doesn't get overthrown when someone tries, right? Because you're like, what's the problem here? This country is – this should not be an issue.

Right. Yeah. So when the Assyrians are moving from their land in outward, westward, and then southward, taking over countries, I mean, yeah. In fact, we'll hear it in just a minute. They're nothing. You know, there's just an egg that the Assyrians have taken out of the nest. No problem whatsoever. That's kind of the way that they're viewing this.

But we, I mean, right away in verses five and six, we're introduced to God's perspective. He, so he's saying, here's who the Assyrians are. They're my anger rod. They're my fury staff, right? I'm going to use them and I'm going to send them against this godless nation, talking about his own people and uh i think last week it was after we recorded you had a great line dan that uh israel may be a godless nation but god is not a peopleless god something like that yeah yeah i mean that's that's what's going on here you have a godless nation but they're still his

people and he's not his his goal is not to destroy israel of course his his whole goal is to uh to refine them to discipline them to use assyria to get them back to himself but the assyrians have come along and they're they're like nope nope uh what's in their heart is all this destruction and uh and taking of of captives and all the other stuff yeah so the uh verse nine if you're confused about some of the names here called lakarkamish hamath arpod samaria damascus basically this whole list and there's like i don't know eight of those names just kind of picture the assyrians moving from north to south the names actually reverse you have like a uh a southern city and then the one after it is a little bit farther north then you move a little bit farther

south you have a southern city one a little bit farther north so you have this pairing these doublets going down until finally you get to damascus and then samaria and then jerusalem And it's difficult not to hear the, I don't know if you want to call it blasphemy or whatever, but when he says, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols what I've done to Samaria and her images? I don't think he's, I mean, he could be, I don't think here he's talking about Baal and Asherah and all the other idols that were in Jerusalem. I think he's lumping the Lord himself, Yahweh himself, in with these idols. basically saying, he's just one more god that I'm going to conquer.

Yeah, I mean, this whole list here is him just saying one place is the same as another to me. There's no difference between any of these places. They're just kingdoms to be conquered, and all these kingdoms have their gods, and my god's better, and you get to know that my god's better with the ease in which I overthrow these kingdoms and destroy their idols, their gods. And yeah, there's – I mean yes, there's this combination of obvious arrogance where you're just like every kingdom is the same to me, just like another – just a bug to be squashed. And every god is the same to me. Like these are all false gods.

Because you've got to remember, it's not as though – I mean if you go read like Assyrian history, it reads – you think that like the Old Testament is the only sort of like historical account that reads like some people truly believed in some gods and stuff. Go read some ancient literature, and the Assyrians do all kinds of weird stuff. If they have a big fight, they're going to get their version of a holy man out, and he's going to do some stuff, and he's going to tell them how it's going to go, and tell them which day they should do it. Should they do it in the morning? Should they do it in the evening? Whatever. And so the Assyrians are also people who believe in a god. They think that they have a god, and if they're having massive success, which they are,

our god is way better than your god, obviously. right these aren't they aren't just like all these stupid people that believe in god not they're not like you know evolved like us uh that's that's not it at all they they totally believe in god or gods and uh and they believe that they've got got the right one to achieve their ends yeah that's that's super necessary to point out because that is so different than the way we think today or not by we i mean just internationally you know no one no one thinks in uh those kind of categories when you're engaging in you know any kind of diplomacy or threats against another nation well yeah look out because we're going to bring our god against your god and we're going to kick

your butt on the battlefield but that that is precisely i mean that was the international theology of the ancient world and not just the ancient world i mean the the greeks thought like this the romans thought like this i mean this was this was the dominant way of thinking basically until maybe the enlightenment i mean this is that this is what the muslims were thinking i mean this is yeah every battle man every battle was not just like let's see whose army's better it was also let's see whose god's better yeah yes yeah the uh the assumption was always well if we won our god's better yeah i mean it was there was never the thinking oh well maybe their god is using us and our false gods to bring discipline or punishment upon them this is the way that's

being described here in in isaiah chapter 10 this is not the way that anybody thought outside of israel it was always my god against against your god yeah and the reason i bring up sort of other you know other text is that you might think that the bible is giving you like a sneak peek behind and like like there's some cosmic thing going on here but like that's not but that's not the case like if you if you go read like the like extra biblical accounts of this stuff happening they absolutely thought this stuff oh yeah yeah i mean though you'll you can read this anywhere you can read it in the the assyrian uh chronicles you can read it in babylonia you can read in egypt it doesn't matter where you are yeah this is the way that they thought this is the way they describe

things things happening uh yeah they're gonna cut the liver out of something like mix it up with some things and like figure out figure out like what how many troops are gonna lose or whatever it is like that's that's like oh should we cross should we cross this river and attack or should we go around well let's find out and do something like that was totally the thing that was happening Oh, yeah. They're going to use omens. They're going to use their holy men. They're going to make sacrifices.

They're going to do all the things, you know, which have some counterparts in Israel. You have the Urim and the Thummim that the high priest had. You determine God's will. They had their own way of checking their omens, whether it was the liver or oil and water or watching the flight of birds or any number of things. Oh, yeah. I can't remember. I was reading. This is years ago.

But I just remember thinking it was interesting is this army was all set to attack. And then there was like one random out of nowhere lightning strike. And they were like, not today. Yep. Not today. Like a lone lightning strike? Yep. I got to wait.

I got to wait till tomorrow. That's a clear sign. Obviously, today is not the day. Yeah. I think it's really hard for us, even though we're Christians and we believe that God is a creator. and he's in charge of everything happening. It's really hard for us to get into the mindset that dominated most of human history

where everything that's happening around you is often interpreted as some sort of sign from God. Yeah. Good or ill. But anyway, that's what's going on here. So pick up here with verse 12. So it goes on to say, When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the, ESV has the speech, the Hebrew there is, he will, it's kind of, here's the literal reading.

He will punish the fruit of the bigness of heart of a king of Assyria. If he has the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria. So his heart, his arrogant heart, the fruit of that big or arrogant heart is his speech. So all this boastful talk. When God is done doing what he's going to do in Zion and in Jerusalem, then he's going to turn around and punish this uh fruitful speech of the arrogant heart of the king of syria and the boastful look in his eyes so what he says and the way he looks god is going to turn right around and he's going to punish him and if you thought that we were done

with what the king of assyria is talking about we're not here we have another example and i just love this one because so keep in mind when i read this it's a verses 13 through 14 that this is exactly you know you were talking dan earlier about how you know this is the way that they spoke this way that they thought well we know because this this these words could have been drawn from an assyrian chronicle i mean this could have been so don't read these in other words or don't hear these as as as the bible's hyperbole of what the king of assyria would have said oh no this this rings true oh no they look at they said crazy stuff if they win a battle like the the boasting on the other side of it like this is nothing compared to like

the boasting is out of control like they say the craziest stuff like they say i did this and i did that like things that you're like what you know like like crazy crazy stuff there's no bridle on the ego when it comes to this kind of stuff no so uh yeah here's here's what 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 people and plunder their treasures like a bull i bring down those who sit on thrones my hand is 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 i love the uh i mean despite his arrogance and boastfulness i just love the uh the metaphor

that she's there yeah i just walked up you know there's this nation there and i just went in and wiped them all out took all their stuff and it was as easy as if i walked up on a nest where there wasn't even a bird there and it was an egg and i just picked it up and there was not a wing or a chirp from anyone when i when i did this yeah man that's that's the assyrian for you uh i don't know if there's anything else i need to really say about that i mean you you get the gist there's a lot of eyes and mys in there this is what this is what i've done so this is a sample of the way they like to think and talk victor's right the history and back then like they wrote crazy histories about like how these things went down like the like the numbers and stuff like you know

are insane i mean everything is just way over the top you know it's they'll say something like i you know i we rode in with a hundred horses and trampled you know 50 000 men or something crazy yeah with a single stroke of my sword i wiped out 10 000 men i mean yeah yeah so they're basically presenting themselves like they're a god incarnate who's striding through the earth just squashing people left and left and right so how does god respond to all this so we've heard the boast of king of assyria and now here's what god goes on to say so i'll read 15 through 19 shall the axe boast over him who hews with it with a 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 a wasting sickness among his stout warriors. That could just mean like portly people, actually. People who have, you know, had a lot to eat, let's put it that way. He's going to send a wasting sickness among his fat ones, we might say. A little bit of a dig here where God's saying, I'm going to send a wasting sickness. Like these warriors aren't exactly as good as you think they are. Yeah, precisely. God's over here.

This reminds me, so this is a bad example, but it's funny, because God lets them win. Like this is the whole thing. God's like, yeah, you won, but like I didn't fight, right? And so back in the day when I was in a band, I was super poor, and there was a guy that managed a bowling alley, and he really, really liked our band, so he let us bowl there for free. And since we had no money to do anything, we bowled a lot. So we were there like five nights a week just bowling.

And I got pretty good at bowling over the course of a year of doing this. Like you're pretty good at bowling if you do it five nights a week for a year. And when I first started dating my wife, she wanted to go bowling. and so we went and uh and i bowled left-handed like the first game uh on purpose and she beat me and you know i was like so i mean i let her win that's what you did right but then and then she but she was like she got super cocky about it and was like like just talking all this trash like rubbing in my face so i was like oh uh by the way you know i i'm not left-handed and then proceeded the next game to just annihilate her and uh this is how i feel like god this is god

saying like listen uh i'm not left-handed just so you know so i just i i wasn't trying yeah yeah you're about to find out what happens when uh i fight with my right hand yeah this is is not going to go well for you so uh yeah pick it up back here with verse 16 uh god's consent of wasting sickness among his uh his fat ones and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of a fire the light of israel which i think is used here probably a capital l Like a title for God The light of Israel Will become a fire

And his holy one a flame And it will burn and devour His thorns and briars In one day The glory of his forest and his fruitful land The Lord will destroy 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 or a little boy and write them down i always get a picture man what a dig a kid that can count because of fingers he's like one two three four five five that's how many hey how many trees is that uh bc how many fingers do i have i can count them on one hand yeah such a uh such a great contrast uh god's like oh yeah i heard your boast uh heard all that arrogant speech you know what's

going to happen let me tell you and it starts out here i mean the whole thing is uh is it's such a taunt it's a whole taunting tone here to to this which is not uncommon in the bible but like you know you know who you are you're an axe have you ever seen an axe like open its mouth and boast against the guy who's chopping with the axe you realize how ridiculous that would be or a saw that boast against the one who's sawing the tree with it or you know a rod or a staff the one holding it well that's who you are you're an axe you're a saw you're a rod you're staffed you're basically just an inanimate object that i happen to be using for my own purposes so don't turn around and boast as if oh look how well i'm axing or sawing or rotting or staffing no you're just an

instrument in in my hand yeah i know that you think your army is like super impressive and everyone's freaked out by him but i was checking them out and to me they look a little out of shape we're going to thin them down a little bit and of course one of the bible's favorite ways of describing divine well it can be you know fire can be used in multiple ways but one of the bible's favorite way of using of describing punishment comes in the form of fire so he's gonna he's got things kindled up and it's going to start burning and once it starts burning well there's not gonna be a hole left not not a lot left not just thorns and briars but evidently his whole forest right so the assyrians are pictured here as this great uh forest and you got trees you got thorns you got

briars you got all the vegetation you get all the the shrubbery you got all the stuff and god's going to come in with a blowtorch and he's going to take care of of all of that uh completely so that What's left is, yeah, you got this kid walking around counting trees with his fingers, and that's it. You ever notice something about the judgment of God? So people do this. This is like what atheists do, and I've always found it irritating. So on one hand, Dick, you've heard this, Chad, right? Because every Christian's heard this.

Like, if God is good and all-powerful, why doesn't he take care of all the evil in the world? That's the oldest atheist argument out there. Right. That same person always makes this same argument when God takes care of— so then they come across, like, if they read the Bible, they're like three chapters in, they come to the flood, and then God takes care of all the evil in the world, and they're like, how could a good God flood the entire earth? And you're like, all right, man, listen, you can't have it both ways.

It's like, what are you talking about here? On one hand, you're like, why doesn't he take care of all this evil? And then when he takes care of all the evil, you're like, how can he be good and take care of all that evil? And these kind of things are the same kind of way. When you read this, you'd be like, oh my gosh, God's talking his talk, and he's going to bring this judge. He's judging his people, and he's going to judge these people. But then at the same time, you're like, why doesn't God ever deal with evil? And you're like, he does deal with evil.

He does it quite a bit. And you find that horrible too So I don't know I don't know what you want him to do So do you want justice or do you not want justice? Because you can't have your cake And eat it too He's doing both

Yeah so that's what's going down here And it's going to be quite the judgment He's dealing with all evil I guess is my point here His people are wicked and godless And he's going to deal with that And the people he's using to do it are also wicked and godless and he's going to deal with that too so hey if you're wondering does god ever deal with

evil yeah he does he does i mean obviously ultimately he does this at the cross and by the way you should be very careful about asking god to deal with evil because you yourself not that unevil cue the solstice and uh a quote right and for god's judgment is uh it's you better be pretty careful when you do that very specific because this is the sort of this is what you get and this is like what is instructive about these kind of things like when god puts on his uh judgment hat guess what it looks like it looks like judgment that's what it looks like yeah you don't want to be in the courtroom when that happens for sure so uh a little bit of good news here hey uh we've had quite a bit bad news here's some good news so this is verse 20

In that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them. Talking about the Assyrians, because, you know, the Israelites were prone to engage in the kind of diplomacy where they become basically a vassal of the more powerful state. So, you're not going to lean on him who struck you, but you will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 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. For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. So there are a lot of remnant talk we have in the Bible.

There's, I think, one, two, three, four, like four or five references, in fact, here in these verses to a remnant. We've heard about a remnant before in Isaiah, and it's going to be something that features throughout all the prophets. There's this idea, basically, that, hey, yeah, there's going to be discipline, punishment, destruction, all that kind of stuff, but it's not as if God is going to wipe everybody out. There's always going to be a remnant that survives, that believes, that returns, that God will use in order to continue to build and to bless his people. I got to point out, too, this reflects back when we were talking in chapter 9 about the Messiah being the one who bears the government on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. well that that phrase mighty god el gibor is what's used here in verse 21 in clear reference to god himself so if you go back to isaiah 9 and you have this whole list of names applied to

the messiah well that's the same thing that's used here so the mighty god in chapter 9 is the same in hebrew as the mighty god which is which is here so this is yeah there's going to be a lot of bad stuff that happens, God says, but it's not the end by any means. There's going to be a remnant of my people who survive and a remnant who return to me, and that remnant I will continue to nurture and to build afterward. Yeah, that's how this works, because the remnant is all about God having a vehicle to bring about his promise, right? And so he made a promise way, way, way, way back and uh you know even when he brings about the flood you got noah when he's doing this you've got a remnant and it's not because noah's so awesome or probably even because this remnant

is so awesome but because god made a promise he is going to uh save himself a vehicle to bring it about because none of this judgment god knows this of course is sufficient uh this has to get to the This remnant, whether it's Noah or this remnant, this is a vehicle to get his promise to the cross where he can ultimately deal with sin and unrighteousness. That's what it is. Yeah, absolutely. That's what the whole Old Testament is leading us toward. So you might think, okay, next chapter. He's not done yet.

We still have to deal with some more with Assyria. So pick it up here with 24. Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, Lord God of Hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while, my fury will come to an end and my anger will be directed to their destruction. Now, in Hebrew, that word for fury and that word for anger

are the exact same words that we heard back in verse 5, the verse that we began this podcast with. So, they were the rod of my fury and the staff of my anger. Well, in a very little while, my fury is going to come to an end. My anger will be directed. And here we have the complete reversal to their destruction. And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb.

come back to that in a second, and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. And in that day, his burden will depart from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of the fat. Kind of a weird image, and there's some questionable things going on there with the Hebrew. As it stands translated here, it's the idea that I'm going to make you so big and fat with my blessings that that yoke is just going going to pop off of you because you're you're going to be so blessed so maybe that's what it means maybe not but anyway a couple things here that i think are worth pointing out uh and that is how isaiah loves to loves to read biblical history so prior to his time and to compare it

to what's got god is doing or is about to do so we have two historical references here one to what he did to the Egyptians, actually that's referred to twice, that he lifted up his rod and staff, the Assyrians did, like the Egyptians did. So the Assyrians were oppressing you like the Egyptians did. And God is also going to lift up his staff over them as he did in Egypt. So they were oppressing you as the Egyptians did. I'm going to deliver you from the Assyrians as I deliver to you from the Egyptians. And then we have a reference, we've heard this before in Isaiah too, back to Gideon's day. Isaiah must have liked the book of Judges and Gideon because now he refers to as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. So this is a reference back to some of the

conquest of Gideon in the book of Judges when they killed Oreb, who was one of the leaders of the Midianites when Gideon and his army went and chased them down and defeated them. So the basic meaning here is that, okay, look at the past. What God did in the past in delivering you is exactly what he's going to do now in the future. Yeah, and there's something interesting that God, and he does this all the time, where he's talking to his people, and obviously the language we've got is that most all of you like are going to experience like this horrible thing there's going to be this remnant that comes through it and all this kind of stuff is like so don't be afraid you're like well i

don't know it seems like my odds are not good of like of making it through this thing but god always speaks to his people sort of in like as one and in relation to the promise right and so So, and the reason this happens is because God knows that the most important thing is not, like, whether or not I completely stop this horrible thing from happening. The most important thing is, does this mean that I'm not going to keep my promise? And the answer is no. And so that no matter what this judgment looks like, you can know that, like, I haven't become unfaithful. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Everything he does is going to testify to his faithfulness, and that faithfulness eventually is going to lead to the ultimate fulfillment of all of his promises in Christ. All right, we've got a couple minutes here before we're out of time. I'm going to read through 28 verses 28 through 32. There's not a whole lot we need to say about this. There's a lot of names here. but as I read through them, I want you just to picture the Assyrian army moving from north to south until they get right there on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

That's the way this itinerary is kind of set up to flow. So he is talking about the Assyrians and their rulers. He has come to Iath, and he's passed through Migron. At Mikmash, he stores his baggage. They've crossed over the pass. At Geba, they lodge for the night. Ramah trembles. gibeah of saul has fled cry aloud o daughter of galim give attention oh lesha oh poor anathoth

madman is in flight the inhabitants of gavim flee for safety this very day he will halt at knob he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of zion the hill of jerusalem so this is kind of this movement south all those place names i have to worry about but on the map if You can picture they're going from place to place and moving north to south until finally they're looking at Jerusalem and he's shaking his fist at Jerusalem. And this is the way we'll end. This is 33 and 34. Here's what God is going to do.

Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop off the bowels with terrifying power. The great in height he will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. he will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one. Now, keep that in mind. Keep this image of God chopping things down, chopping trees down with an axe, because this is going to be the perfect segue into what we're going to encounter in chapter 11, where we hear about a shoot coming from a stump and a branch from his roots. So it's going to be a nice segue between what god is going to do to the assyrians in this complete destruction of their forest of power he might say and then what he's going to follow up with doing

in israel when he brings a shoot from the stump of jesse awesome yeah you don't want to miss that uh god is going to be uh making some promises reminding you of some promises in the next episode so you know you want to hear that chad i will see you then all right see you then Thanks for watching!