Isaiah 10

Isaiah 10:1

10:1-4 A woe is pronounced on those rulers who rob the needy, oppress the poor, and write unjust decrees. When the judgment of God falls, they will lose all the wealth they gained through graft and extortion. 10:5-11 God will use Assyria to punish Judah. But the Assyrian has bigger plans than that! His aim is to build a world empire through conquest. He boasts that his princes (or commanders) are all kings, that the cities in his pathway are no greater than those he has conquered, and that the idols of Israel and Judah are not comparable to those of the kingdoms he has captured, or to himself. 10:12-19 But God will punish the pride and arrogance of the king of Assyria. The latter ascribes his success to his own strength and wisdom. The rod and staff in the hands of the Lord should not boast itself against the hands that hold it. A terrible disaster will strike Assyria’s stout warriors, who are also called his glory and the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field. The light of Israel is the Lord, and His thorns and His briers are the Assyrian troops. The survivors of those troops will be so few . . . that a child will be able to count them. 10:20-23 In that day . . . the remnant of Israel never again will depend on the Assyrian, as Ahaz did, but rather on the LORD. Much of this prophecy looks forward to the Second Advent. 10:24-27 Though the Assyrian king will march against Jerusalem from the north, the people of Judah need not be afraid, because the LORD of hosts will intervene, as He did against Midian and Egypt, and Judah will be freed from the fear of Assyrian domination. 10:28-34 In the cities mentioned we have a graphic, animated description of the marching route of the Assyrians. Everywhere there is panic and flight as the invaders approach. Finally they come within sight of the hill of Jerusalem. Then the Lord intervenes and destroys the army, officers and men, as if He were cutting down a forest.