Week 23 Isaiah
Isaiah 10 is about Assyria.
I turned back to II Kings: the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria…and carried Israel away into captivity.
So Assyria was doing some empire-building. But then Isaiah quotes the Lord, who says that Assyria was: the rod of My anger.
I doubt that Assyria thought of itself as the Lord’s rod. As far as it was concerned it had its own independent foreign policy agenda which was to conquer other nations. Assyria wasn’t consulting the Lord.
And yet Assyria is referred to in this instrumental way – the tool of the Lord – and Isaiah says the Lord’s plan was to: send (Assyria) against a godless nation and commission it against the people of My fury.
So two things are going on: Assyria has a plan and the Lord has a plan. And the plans come together.
It’s pretty clear that the Lord’s in the driver’s-seat. But the driver’s not taking the passenger where the passenger doesn’t want to go. In fact Assyria figured it was in the driver’s seat because it said: by the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this.
The Assyrians figured they were the initiators. So it’s hard to imagine them complaining that they were forced to do something if what they were forced to do was exactly what they wanted.
Note: quote from I Kings 17:5-6, Isaiah 10:5-6, 13 (NASB version)