Isaiah 10:5-11

Rachel Workman: ⁵ “What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.
    I use it as a club to express my anger.
⁶ I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,
    against a people with whom I am angry.
Assyria will plunder them,
    trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
⁷ But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;
    his mind does not work that way.
His plan is simply to destroy,
    to cut down nation after nation.
⁸ He will say,
    ‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.
⁹ We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.
    Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.
    And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.
¹⁰ Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom
    whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
¹¹ So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,
    just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’”

This again just proves that God is still in control. Even in the face of evil.

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John Burnett:  ⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;
    the staff in their hands is my fury!
⁶ Against a godless nation I send him,
    and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.  God uses the Assyrians to exact judgement on Judah.
⁷ But 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;
⁸ for he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
⁹ Is not Calno like Carchemish?
    Is not Hamath like Arpad?
    Is not Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
    whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
¹¹ shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
    as I have done to Samaria and her images?”  Assyria’s army was used for judgment but their haughtiness will bring them woe when God is through using them.

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Monday’s reading for Isaiah 10:12-19

¹² After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. ¹³ He boasts,

“By my own powerful arm I have done this.
    With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.
I have broken down the defenses of nations
    and carried off their treasures.
    I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
¹⁴ I have robbed their nests of riches
    and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.
No one can even flap a wing against me
    or utter a peep of protest.”

¹⁵ But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?
    Is the saw greater than the person who saws?
Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?
    Can a wooden cane walk by itself?
¹⁶ Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops,
    and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
¹⁷ The Lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;
    the Holy One will be a flame.
He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,
    burning up the enemy in a single night.
¹⁸ The Lord will consume Assyria’s glory
    like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;
    it will waste away like sick people in a plague.
¹⁹ Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—
    so few that a child could count them!