Isaiah 10:5 - Meaning and Application

The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, was foretold in the previous chapter, and it came to pass in the sixth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:10). It was complete and final, with both the leaders and the people cut off. Now Isaiah foretells the discipline of Judah by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. This prophecy was fulfilled in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when that powerful king, encouraged by his predecessor’s victories over the ten tribes, came against all the fortified cities of Judah, captured them, and laid siege to Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:13, 2 Kings 18:17). We can well imagine that Hezekiah and his kingdom were greatly alarmed, even though a good work of reform had recently begun among them. But it ended well, with the Assyrians thrown into confusion and Hezekiah and his people strengthened in their return to God.

Here we see, first, how God, in his sovereign rule, appointed the king of Assyria to be his servant and used him like a tool to carry out his own purposes (Isaiah 10:5, 6). “O Assyrian, know this,” God says, “you are the rod of my anger, and I will send you against the people of my wrath.” Notice two things here. The first is the true condition of the Jews, even though they seemed to be doing well. They were a hypocritical nation. They made a profession of religion, and at that time especially of reform, but they were not truly religious or truly reformed. They were not as good as they pretended to be now that Hezekiah had made goodness respected again. When rulers are godly, and religion is honored, whole nations often become hypocritical. Some also translate it, “a profane nation.” Hezekiah had largely cured them of idolatry, and now they had turned to irreverence. In fact, hypocrisy is a form of profaneness. No one dishonors God’s name more than those who bear that name, call on it, and yet live in sin. Because they were profane and hypocritical, they were now the people of God’s wrath, under his anger and close to being destroyed by it. Hypocritical nations are the people of God’s wrath, because nothing offends him more than pretending to serve him while living falsely. See how sin changed them: those who had once been God’s chosen and holy people above all others had become the people of his wrath (Amos 3:2).

The second thing is the lowly position of the Assyrian, even though he looked so great. He was only the rod of God’s anger, an instrument God chose to use for correcting his people, so that, being disciplined by the Lord, they might not be condemned with the world. The tyrants of the world are only tools in Providence. Men are sometimes God’s hand, his sword, to strike and slay (Psalm 17:13, 14), and at other times his rod to correct. The staff in their hand, with which they strike God’s people, is really his indignation. It is his wrath that puts the staff into their hand and gives them strength to strike as they please those who once thought themselves able to resist them. Sometimes God uses an idolatrous nation, one that serves him not at all, to punish a hypocritical nation, one that serves him without sincerity and truth.

The Assyrian is called the rod of God’s anger because he is being used by God. First, his power comes from God: “I will send him,” God says, “I will give him his charge.” All the power wicked men have, even when they use it against God, comes from him. Pilate could have no power against Christ unless it had been given him from above (John 19:11). Second, God directs how that power is to be used. The Assyrian is to take spoil and prey, not to shed blood. We do not read of slaughter here. He is to plunder the land, search the houses, drive off the cattle, strip the people of their wealth and ornaments, and trample them down like mud in the streets. When God’s professing people wallow in the mud of sin, it is right for God to let their enemies trample them like mud.

Why was the Assyrian allowed to prevail in this way? Not so that God’s people would be ruined, but so that they would be fully corrected and reformed. Next, we see how the king of Assyria, in his pride, made himself out to be his own master and claimed to be beyond all control, acting only by his own will and for his own honor. God had ordained him for judgment, and the mighty God had established him for correction (Habakkuk 1:12), as an instrument to bring his people to repentance. But he did not mean that at all, and his heart did not think so (Isaiah 10:7). He did not imagine that he was either God’s servant or Israel’s helper, or that he could do no more than God would allow, or that he would do no more than God would turn to good for his people. God planned to correct his people and so heal them of their hypocrisy and draw them closer to himself, but that was not Sennacherib’s purpose. He did not mean that. The wise God often makes even the sinful desires and schemes of men serve his own holy purposes. When God uses people as instruments in his hand, it is very common for him to mean one thing and them to mean another, even the opposite. Joseph’s brothers meant evil, but God used it for good (Genesis 50:20). See also (Micah 4:11, 12). Men have their plans, and God has his, but the counsel of the Lord will stand.

But what did the proud Assyrian aim at? The heart of kings is hard to understand, but God knew what was in his heart. He planned only to destroy and cut off nations, not a few, and to make himself their master. He wanted to satisfy his cruelty. Nothing would do but destruction and slaughter. Killing individual people was not enough. He had to cut off whole nations. It was beneath him to deal in small matters. He trafficked in murder on a large scale. Nations, and many of them, had to be treated as if they had only one neck, which he would take pleasure in striking off.

He also aimed to satisfy his greed and ambition, to set himself up as a universal ruler and gather all nations to himself (Habakkuk 2:5). An endless hunger for wealth and power drove him on in this campaign. The prophet presents him boasting and bullying, and the general’s letter to Hezekiah, written in his name, shows how deeply pride and arrogance had taken hold of him. His haughtiness and presumption are described at length, and his own words are quoted, partly to show how ridiculous he was and partly to assure God’s people that he would be brought low. The usual rule is true here, pride goes before destruction. This also reminds us that God notices and records every proud and arrogant word, every word by which people set heaven and earth against them. Those who speak great swelling words of vanity will have to answer for them. The Assyrian first boasts of the great things he had done to other nations.

He had made their kings his courtiers (Isaiah 10:8). “My princes are all kings,” meaning that the men who now served him had once been kings themselves. Or he may mean that he had raised his court so high that his servants and commanders lived with the same luxury and honor as the kings of other lands. It may also mean that even rulers who kept their own crowns did him tribute and paid him homage. This was a proud and foolish boast, yet it reminds us how great our God is, for he is truly King of kings, and his people are made kings to him (Revelation 1:6).

He had also made himself master of their cities. He names several of them, all treated as if they were no different from one another (Isaiah 10:9). Calno fell as Carchemish had fallen, Hamath could not stand any longer than Arpad, and Samaria had become his just like Damascus. To make his boast sound stronger, he has to count the victories of his predecessor too, because it was not Sennacherib but another king who conquered Samaria.

He says he had been too strong for their idols, their local gods, and had found and seized the kingdoms of those idols too (Isaiah 10:10). The nations often named their lands after the gods they worshiped. The Moabites, for example, are called the people of Chemosh (Jeremiah 48:46), because they thought their gods protected them. So Sennacherib foolishly imagined that conquering a kingdom meant conquering its god.

He had also widened his own rule and moved the borders of the people (Isaiah 10:13), bringing large territories under his kingdom and pushing the old boundaries far away from where his fathers had set them. He could not bear to be held in tight limits and wanted more room to grow. By moving the border, Mr. White understands that he also moved colonies from place to place by force, which was the common Assyrian practice in conquest. That is a likely explanation.

He had also filled his own treasury with their wealth. “I have robbed their treasures,” he says. In that, he spoke truth, for great conquerors are often nothing more than great robbers. He also claimed to have crushed every form of resistance. “I have put down the inhabitants like a brave man,” he says, meaning that those who stood high he brought low and made to come down (2 Corinthians 10:4).

He boasts not only about what he did, but how he did it (Isaiah 10:13). He says it was by the strength of his own hand, because he was mighty, and by his own wisdom, because he was shrewd. He gives no thought to God’s providence or blessing. He does not know that it is God who made him what he is and placed the staff in his hand. Instead, he sacrifices to his own power, as Habakkuk says of such a man (Habakkuk 1:16). “This wealth is all gained by my might and the power of my hand,” he says, in the same spirit as Deuteronomy 8:17. Plain unbelief, along with pride and vanity, lies behind this kind of speech, when people claim their success as their own and build up their own reputation from it.

He also boasts that he did all this with ease, almost as a game, like taking birds’ nests (Isaiah 10:14). “My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest,” he says. Once he found them, taking them was no harder than robbing a nest, and he felt no more pity for destroyed families and cities than for broken nests. To him, killing children was as little a thing as killing birds. “As one gathers the eggs left in an abandoned nest, so I have gathered all the earth.” Like Alexander, he thought he had conquered the world. Whatever he seized, no bird moved its wing, opened its mouth, or chirped, as birds do when their nests are robbed. No one dared to resist, and no one dared to complain. They were too weak to fight back, and he was too harsh for them to hope for justice.

It is strange that men made to do good should take pride and pleasure in doing harm, and should glory in what should shame them. But the day will come when those who make themselves a terror to the strong, and even more to the weak, in the land of the living, will fall. He then threatens what he plans to do to Jerusalem, which he is now preparing to attack. He would conquer Jerusalem and its idols just as he had conquered other places and their gods, especially Samaria (Isaiah 10:10-11).

First, he blasphemously calls the God of Israel an idol and puts him on the same level as the false gods of the nations. It is as if no god were true except Mithras, the sun-god he worshiped. His pride helps explain his ignorance, and his ignorance makes his pride less surprising. Second, he ranks the carved images of other countries above those of Jerusalem and Samaria. Yet he could have known that the worshipers of the God of Israel were forbidden to make carved images, and if any such images existed, they would have been made in secret. So they could not be as rich and showy as the idols of other nations. If he means the ark and the mercy seat, then he speaks just like himself, foolishly and by outward appearance alone, which is a poor guide in spiritual matters. Those who treat outward splendor as the mark of the true church use the same shallow standard.

Third, because he had conquered Samaria, he assumed Jerusalem would fall as well. “Shall I not do the same to Jerusalem?” he asks, as if he could and should. But that does not follow, because Jerusalem held fast to her God, while Samaria had turned away from him.

Now see how God, in his justice, rebukes this pride and announces his sentence. We have heard what the great king of Assyria says, and how boldly he speaks. Now let us hear what the great God says through his prophet, and we will find that where the king acts proudly, God stands above him. He shows how empty and foolish these arrogant boasts are (Isaiah 10:15). “Does the axe boast against the one who cuts with it? Or does the saw brag against the one who moves it?” That is how absurd this proud man sounds. “What a dust I make,” said the fly on the cartwheel in the fable. “What destruction I make among the trees,” says the axe.

The axe may boast against the one who wields it in two ways. It may do so by resisting and fighting back. Sennacherib insulted God, blasphemed him, and threatened to deal with him as he had dealt with the gods of the nations. That is like an axe flying at the one who is using it. A tool fighting against the workman is no less absurd than clay fighting against the potter. Just as it is wrong for people to fight against God with the wit, wealth, and power he gives them, so it is a thing that cannot be allowed.

If men grow proud and bold, and challenge everything which is just and holy, they should expect God to deal with them. The more insolent they are, the more certain and severe their ruin will be.

This also shows rivalry and foolish self-importance. Can an axe claim the credit for the work it is used to do? It was absurd for Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, to say, “By my own power and wisdom I have done this” (Isaiah 10:13). That is like a rod boasting that it controls the hand that swings it. Even if the staff is an emblem of authority, like the staves carried by the leaders of the people (Numbers 21:18), or an instrument used to support the weak or punish the wicked, it is still only wood, and can do nothing unless the one using it directs it.

The psalmist asks God to make the nations know that they are only men (Psalm 9:20). In the same way, the staff should know that it is only wood.

He also foretells Sennacherib’s fall and ruin. When God had finished his work by means of him, he would then do his work against him (Isaiah 10:12). This was a comfort to God’s people during Sennacherib’s invasion. Even though it was a dark and painful time, they should know that God meant to do good to Zion and Jerusalem through it. When God allows the enemies of his church and people to have success for a time, it is because he is doing some greater work among his people.

When God brings his people into trouble, he does it to test them (Daniel 11:35), to remind them of their sins and humble them, and to wake them up to their duties. He teaches them to pray, and to love and help one another. The intended result is the removal of sin (Isaiah 27:9). When that work is partly done, the affliction is removed in mercy (Leviticus 26:41-42). If not, it remains, because the word and the rod will both accomplish what God sent them to do.

God would also work wrath and judgment on the invaders. “I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria.” His proud speeches came from his proud heart, and they were the fruit of it. What fills the heart comes out in words. The glory of his high looks is also noted, because a proud look shows a proud spirit. The enemies of the church are often very high-minded and arrogant, but God will settle accounts for their pride in time. He shows his power and rule by looking on proud people and bringing them low (Job 40:11).

However threatening this attack on Zion and Jerusalem seemed, it would fail completely. Sennacherib would not be able to carry out his plan (Isaiah 10:16, Isaiah 10:19). The one who would bring about his destruction was not Hezekiah, not his princes, and not the soldiers of Judah and Jerusalem, for they were no match for such a force. God himself would do it, as the Lord of hosts and the Light of Israel. We can be sure he can do it, because he is the Lord of all the armies of heaven and earth. All creatures are under his command, and he uses them as he pleases. He is the Lord of the armies of both Judah and Assyria, and he can give victory to whom he wills. So we do not need to fear any enemy if the Lord of hosts is for us.

There is also reason to hope he will do it, because he is the Light of Israel and their Holy One. God is light, with perfect brightness, purity, and joy in himself. He is light because he is holy, and his holiness is his glory. He is Israel’s light because he guides and counsels his people, shows favor to them, and comforts them in the worst times. He is their Holy One because he is in covenant with them, and his holiness is committed to their good. God’s holiness is a comfort to his people. They thank him for it, and with joy call him their Holy One (Habakkuk 1:12).

This destruction is described in two ways. First, it is like a body wasting away from disease: “The Lord will send leanness among his fat ones.” His large army, which looked like a body full of fat, would shrink and waste away until it was like a skeleton. Second, it is like buildings or trees being destroyed by fire. “Under his glory,” that is, in the very thing he boasted in, God would kindle a fire, and it would destroy his army as quickly as a raging fire burns a grand house to ashes.

Some take this as a picture of the fire used for sacrifices, since proud sinners fall like sacrifices to divine justice. The same God who is a joyful light to those who serve him faithfully will be a consuming fire to those who mock him or rebel against him. The Light of Israel would be fire to the Assyrians, just as the pillar of cloud was light to Israel and terror to the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Nothing can stand against such a fire, and nothing can put it out.

The fire would bring great ruin. It would burn and devour his thorns and briers, meaning his officers and soldiers, who were of little value and were a burden to God’s people, like thorns and briers that are meant for burning. If people set thorns and briers against God in battle, they would only feed the fire. He would march through them and burn them together (Isaiah 27:4). They would be destroyed in a single day, cut off at once.

When they were saying not only “peace and safety,” but also “victory and triumph,” sudden destruction would come. It would come unexpectedly, and it would be finished quickly. Even the glory of his forest, that is, the best troops in his army, the veterans, the household troops, and the bravest regiments, the ones he trusted most and was proudest of, would be treated like thorns before the fire. They would be fully consumed, body and soul, not just wounded but destroyed entirely. God is able to destroy both soul and body, so we should fear him more than man, who can only kill the body. Great armies before God are like large forests, which he can cut down or burn whenever he pleases.

The prophet is saying, first, that the army would be cut down to a very small number. “The rest of the trees of his forest” means the few soldiers left alive. Very few would escape the sword of the destroying angel, so few that no expert or military officer would be needed to count them. Even a child could soon count them and write down their names.

Second, the few who remained would be completely discouraged. They would be like people when a standard-bearer, the one carrying the battle flag, faints. If he falls or runs away and the enemy takes the flag, the whole army loses heart and falls into confusion. In the end, we must ask, who can stand before this great and holy Lord God?