Isaiah chapter 10
“Asshur, the rod of mine anger.”
IT was not only against Israel that the Assyrian was to have a mission, for Judah also had forsaken God; though there were some good kings on the throne of David. And as for the Assyrian, it was not because he was any better than Israel that he was to prevail against them. The call of God to that power, and the description of its function under the hand of God is very interesting and enlightening; affording a precedent that is very useful in enabling us to appreciate the current international workings with regard to Israel, so far as they have been revealed. The word of God calls to the Assyrian :
“ Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so : but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few'.” And then follows (verses 8-11) a prophetic summary of the Assyrian argument which found utterance in the blasphemous message of Sennacherib against Jerusalem; when “ they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.”
“ Rod of mine anger,” though “ he meaneth not so,” is a principle that finds illustration in more than one place in Bible history, and is recognised by the servants of God in many places. Habakkuk says of the Chaldeans : “ O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.” The Roman subversion of the Jewish State in a.d. 70 was parabolically foretold by Christ as the operation of the King’s armies, which “ destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city ”
(Matt. xxii.). Nehemiah shows us the confession of the Levites (ch. ix.) that the servitude of Israel to the Kings of Persia was God’s chastisement by them. “ The land yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins : also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress ” (v. 37).
The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Roman invasions of Israel, were, from a merely human point of view, but the perfectly natural evolutions of the will of man. It required a higher discernment, which, though rare, was not absolutely non-existent, to perceive that, all unwittingly, these powers were but working out the will of the Lord God of Israel. This higher discernment could only come from the revelation beforehand of the will of God in the matter, and this was unreservedly given through the prophets, upon the principle expressed by one of them (Amos iii. 7) : “ Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Thus the precedents of thousands of years are before us as a guide to the discernment of the workings of the current situation in its bearings upon Israel’s coming deliverance.
The Assyrian “ rod of God’s anger ” was to be broken and cast away when it had served His purpose, while the prostrate nation, the object of chastisement, was to survive. The boasting of the Gentile power would not be tolerated by God without remonstrance. The prophecy continues (v. 12): “Wherefore it shall come to pass when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.” The reason is given in the following verses, namely, the arrogant assumption of the strength and wisdom to himself. The expostulation of God by Isaiah continues: “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith ? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it ? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood.”
This is the divine view of nations—His weapons, or instruments in fashioning for himself upon earth a house of glory for an abiding place in the ages beyond. Israel in turn is to become the “ battle axe and weapons ” (Jer. li. 20) ; but these are the “ times of the
Gentiles ” in which they are rods, staves and saws in the hands of the Eternal. A Kitchener in Egypt wins a great victory over the savage tribes of the desert, and recovers and opens up a vast province for the trade of the latter-day Tyre. Over this the British nation rejoices in the spirit of the Assyrian of old, though without the grossness of blasphemy that he exhibited. It does not consider that it is but the latter-day instrument in the development of a crisis in which it will be removed from the scene of its employment by a rougher instrument from the “ North quarters ” (Dan. xi. 43). This is because the Bible, though circulated in millions, is universally neglected ; which again is partly because the key of knowledge has been taken away, and “ strong delusion ” has for centuries prevailed above the truth.
The fate of the Assyrian is an example of the Gentile nations in their relations to Israel: and the record of it, interwoven with prophecies concerning his latter-day representative, has not been thus divinely preserved and multipled without good reason. It is there for the enlightenment and comfort of those who belong to “ the remnant of Israel,” and will be looked back upon by enlightened nations in the day of Christ as among the many monuments to the truth of God, whose faithfulness will then be openly manifested in His Kingdom.
Because of the Assyrian boasting, it was said (v. 17) :—“ The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame : and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; and shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard- bearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.” If Israel’s “ briers and thorns ” were appointed for destruction (ch. vii. 24, with Heb. vi. 8), those of the Gentile power that God used to chastise them were likewise to be consumed. The principle applies to the present day, when Israel is about to arise from the ashes, and God declares that the nations shall not be utterly unpunished (Jer. xxv. 29-31).
But the burning consumption that came upon Sennacherib’s hosts by the hand of the angel of the Lord in Hezekiah’s days, manifestly does not exhaust the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isa. x. The Light of Israel is still for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame ; for " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all them that believe ” (2 Thess. i. 7-10). David, in his last words, referred to. this :—“ The sons of Belial shall be, all of them, as thorns thrust away, for they cannot he taken with hands. But the man that shall touch them must be filled with iron and the staff of a spear ; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place ” (2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7).
The prophecy of Isaiah continues (v. 20) :—“And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return (Shear-jashub) even the remnant of Jacob, unto (El Gibbor) the mighty God (that is, unto the ‘ son given ’ to the house of David—ch. ix. 6). For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return : the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in the midst of the land.”
When we enquire “ what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ ” in Isaiah here signifies, the answer comes to us from the Scriptures above quoted. It is “ the regeneration ” of Israel when Jesus comes, a matter of which he spoke in terms of definite promise to his apostles (Matt. xix. 28). Then, indeed, the house of Jacob will no more think of Gentile alliances, as with Syria or Assyria, which proved their destruction instead of their succour ; but under the leadership of kings and pastors after God’s own heart will walk in His way instead of being caused to err, and subjugate the Gentiles instead of being crushed under their yoke and burden.
The apostle Paul, in “ great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart ” for his brethren and kinsmen after the flesh, knowing that “ wrath to the uttermost ” was about to overtake them, referred to Isaiah’s prophecy of the remnant who should return. It was when he was writing to the Romans, who had, as wild olive branches, been grafted by the divine husbandry upon the good olive tree of Israel. His argument, in the face of almost universal unbelief and opposition, is that the failure was only apparent. It was “ not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel ” (Rom. ix. 6). After referring to the work of God under the figure of the potter and his clay, and quoting from Hosea concerning the predetermined call of the Gentiles, he turns to Isa. x., saying : “ Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved ” (v. 27). This salvation he attributes to the Lord Jesus at his coming. “ There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
In the remnant, then, of which the Spirit of God spoke by Isaiah in the days, of Ahaz, believing Roman Gentiles of eight hundred years afterwards found a prospective place. The fulness of the Gentiles has not even yet come in, and in these latter days the hope of Israel has, in the providence of God, been revived, and we have been permitted to take a place in the waiting remnant in the solemn and deeply interesting epoch of their return unto the mighty God.
Israel’s Yoke to be destroyed “ because of the anointing.”
The prophecy (Isa. x. 24), goes on to encourage God s people in Zion concerning the threatening of the Assyrian invader. The frequent occurrence of the divine titles “ Lord of Hosts, Lord God of Hosts ” in this passage is an answer to the challenge of the King of Assyria concerning the “ God of Jerusalem.’ The record of the controversy about to be settled between God and the Assyrian was to be preserved for all time, and the issue revealed beforehand by God is emphasised by this frequent formula: “ Thus saith the Lord of Hosts.” It is no mere flourish of words ; but the majestic statement of a glorious fact at present hidden from mortal eyes. These are times of darkness when God does not interfere. His “ legions of angels ” are undetected by the common gaze of sinners, and the time is not quite ripe for the arresting of universal attention by open manifestations of judgment. In Sennacherib’s time it was different; God deeming it a suitable occasion to vindicate and assert His supremacy by a stroke of judgment, the report of which should engage the attention of succeeding generations of His people for thousands of years to come. The impending destruction of Sennacherib’s army in Hezekiah’s days, in “ a very little while ” as God reckons, was at once a great deliverance to His people in Zion at that time, and an earnest of the final deliverance when the yoke shall be taken from off Israel’s shoulder “ because of the anointing.” The words run thus :
“ Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, though he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb ; and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed becaused of the anointing ” (verses 24-28).
The day of Midian, when Gideon, with his three-hundred, defeated a host “ like the sand by the seaside for multitude,” was the subject of remark in a previous chapter. The effect of the stretching forth of “ the rod of God ” in the hand of Moses over the Egyptian Sea, whereby Pharaoh and all his host “ sank like lead in the mighty waters,” is too well remembered to need comment. A stroke of judgment, comparable only to these things, was in store for the Assyrian who blasphemed God as grievously as did Pharaoh, and like him was to encounter an overthrow by means of which Yahweh’s name should be declared in all the earth.
A like fate with a like object awaits the latter-day Assyrian at the hands of God’s Anointed, the prophet like unto Moses. “ The anointing ” (v. 27), is literally “ oil ” in the Hebrew, as the Revised Version says in the margin, and hence gives the alternative “ fatness.” Young puts it “ because of prosperity.” The ideas are congruous, and focus as it were in Christ, who is the heir to the throne of David then occupied by Hezekiah as God’s anointed, for whose sake, because he trusted in Him, God was about to reprove the hostile king (Psa. cv. 14-15). Of “ the King ” of Israel, in the day of victory it is said (Psalm xlv.) “ Gird thy sword upon thy thighj O Mighty One, prosper thou, ride thou because of truth and meekness and righteousness. . . . Thou hast loved righteousness and hated
wickedness : therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”
This implies that his “ fellows ” are likewise to be anointed with “ the oil of gladness ” in the change of nature into likeness with Him as He is. The doctrine of the New Testament plainly sets this forth, and it is also discernible in the prophecy of Micah (ch. v. 5) which says of him and His Saints : “ This man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces; then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men ” (literally “ eight anointed of man ”). These are those who, like him, are anointed with “ the oil of gladness,” “ the oil of joy for mourning,” and are by him “ made princes ” as the forty-fifth Psalm testifies they shall be.
The Vision of the Assyrian Advance upon Jerusalem.
In the concluding verses of Isaiah x. the prophet sees by the Spirit the advance of the Assyrian upon Jerusalem. The rendering of the Revised Version presents the picture in a very graphic manner. The country through which he passed, with the places on his line of march, was a scene of stirring associations. It was here that Abraham sojourned among the Canaanites, received the promise and built an altar unto the Lord (Gen. xii. 8). Here Jacob, departing to Padan Aram, dreamed of the ladder that connected the place with heaven, and upon which the angels ascended and descended (Gen. xxviii.). Here Israel “ fled before the men of Ai ” because of God’s displeasure concerning Achan, “ the troubler of Israel,” and the city was afterwards subdued and destroyed by Joshua (Josh. viii.). Migron and Michmash figure in the history of Saul’s transgression, when he “ forced himself and offered a burnt offering,” and also in the account of the extraordinary smiting of the Philistines by Jonathan and his armour bearer (1 Sam. xiii., xiv.).
In these Scriptures there are various minute descriptions of the locality, the modern identification of which, in the Palestine Exploration Survey, has been very complete. Upon the sheets of the Great Map one can trace the course of Sennacherib’s army as detailed in Isaiah’s vision with ease and accuracy. The reason why the Assyrian King “ laid up his baggage at Michmash ” is seen when one looks at the “ passage ” which, the prophet says in v. 29, “ they are gone over.” The circumstantial agreement of the Land and the Book is so striking here that an extract from Captain Conder’s Tent Work in Palestine may not be judged out of place.
Speaking of Michmash, which lies a little way south of Ai or Aiath, and still bears the name of Mukhmas, he says :—
“ The site of the Philistine camp at Michmash, which Jonathan and his armour bearer attacked, is very minutely described by Josephus. It was he says, a precipice with three tops, ending in a long sharp tongue, and protected by surrounding cliffs. Exactly such a natural fortress exists immediately east of the village of Michmash, and it is still called “ the fort ” by the peasantry. It is a ridge rising in three rounded knolls above a perpendicular crag, ending in a narrow tongue to the east with cliffs below, and having an open valley behind it, and a saddle towards the west on which Michmash itself is situate.
“ Opposite this fortress, on the south, there is a crag of equal height and seemingly impassable; thus the description of the Old Testament is fully borne out—‘ a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other ’ (1 Sam. xiv. 4).
“ The Southern cliff, as we have noticed above, was called Senek, or the acacia,’ and the same name still applies to the modern valley, due to the acacia trees which dot its course. The northern cliff was named Bozez or ‘ shining,’ and the true explanation of this name only presents itself on the spot.
“ The Great Valley runs nearly due east, and thus the southern cliff is almost entirely in shade during the day. The contrast is surprising and picturesque between the dark cool colour of the south side and the ruddy or tawny tints of the northern cliff, crowned with the gleaming white of the upper chalk strata. The picture is unchanged since the days when Jonathan looked over to the white camping ground of the Philistines, and Bozez must then have shone as brightly as it does now in the full light of an Eastern sun.
“ To anyone looking over the valley it seems a most difficult feat to cross it, and in the words of Josephus, it was considered impossible not only to ascend to the camp on that quarter, but even to come near it.’ Yet in the winter of 1874 we were able to march with horses and mules over this great chasm, perhaps treading almost in the steps of Jonathan.”
Here Captain Conder describes the crossing of the valley—a decidedly perilous undertaking, and resumes :
“ Such a descent we never made again ; and looking up, it seemed incredible that iron-shod beasts could have come down those vertical walls ; for the Survey party had marched across almost the worst part of the passage which checked the advance of the King of Assyria on Jerusalem.
“ Though we got down Seneh, we did not attempt to climb up Bozez. That rock was not on our line of march, which was directed east of the Philistine camp. Horses could scarcely find a footing anywhere on the sides of the northern precipice, but judging from the descent, it seemed possible that Jonathan, with immense labour, could have “climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armour-bearer after him ” (1 Sam. xiv. 13).
" Lopping the Bough with Terror.”
Thus, by modern exploration, we are enabled to get quite a vivid picture of the advance of the Assyrian through the Prince’s portion of the land (Ezek. xlviii.) upon the city of the Great King.
At Nob, however, the divine command was : Halt ! “ This very day shall he halt at Nob ” (v. 32 R. V.). Nob is not certainly identified; but it seems to have been situated about two miles north of Jerusalem. It was a Levitical city, the place where David ate the shew bread, and the scene of the slaying of the Lord’s priests by Saul. If Shafat be the site, it is on the main road to Jerusalem from the north, and about two miles distant from the city, which is visible from it. Here the Assyrian was to camp and “ shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.”
The history of the fulfilment of the prophecy shortly afterwards, in Hezekiah’s days, is recorded in 2 Kings xix., and incorporated in Isaiah xxxvi. and xxxvii. At that time, God consoled Hezekiah by an assurance of deliverance from the invader, and a sentence of judgment upon the boastful king : He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it.” And so it came to pass ; for, without striking a blow, he left the dead bodies of his host of 185,000 men, slain by the angel of the Lord “ that night,” and returned in disgrace to Nineveh, where he was slain by his own sons in the presence of his god Nisroch, in whose strength he trusted to prevail against “ the God of Jerusalem.”
This stroke of judgment is figuratively foretold in the last two verses of Isaiah x., *' Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts (that is, the angel of the Lord ’ as the history shows), shall lop the bough with terror ; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.” From this symbolic language, and the literal description of its import that is available, we may estimate the judgments that are yet in store for the world. The book of Revelation (ch. xiv.) gives us a picture of the Son of Man sitting crowned upon a white cloud and armed with a sharp sickle. Angels of the temple, likewise sickle-armed, assist him in the terrible process of reaping the ripe harvest of the earth, “ gathering the clusters of the vine of the earth.” The work being accomplished, the clusters were “ cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine-press : even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs.” The terrible judgments thus portrayed have to do with anti-typical Babylon (Rev.
- 8), the Roman corruption of God’s “ way,” that is as obnoxious to Him as was the aggressive Assyrian of two thousand five hundred years ago.
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