Isaiah 10:33-34. Behold, the Lord, &c. We have in these verses the consequence of the expedition before mentioned, Interpreters, however, vary greatly respecting their application; but Vitringa is clearly of opinion, from the whole scope and coherence of the prophesy, that the passage refers not, as some would have it, to the destruction of the house of David, but to that of Sennacherib, which has been the subject of this whole prophesy; and whose overthrow is painted in similar terms, Isaiah 10:18-19. In Ezekiel the Assyrian is called a cedar in Lebanon. The mighty one by whom this great cedar in Lebanon was to fall, can mean no other than the destroying angel referred to in Isaiah 10:17. See Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, God proceeds in his controversy with Israel.
1. He accuses their governors of oppression and injustice, in framing such laws as immediately tended to distress the poor; or by making the proceedings so tedious, and expensive, that the needy man never could afford to maintain his right; or in their administration they were so corrupt, that they enriched themselves with the spoil of the fatherless and widows, and feared not to rob and plunder those who were too weak to resist. Note; There is a lawgiver, to whom the oppressed may appeal, and woe to those whose unrighteous decrees shall come before his bar!
2. He warns them of the folly, sin, and danger of their ways. They braved it out now, but what will ye do in the day of visitation, when God rises up to judge? and in the desolation which shall come from far? from the king of Babylon: to whom will ye flee for help, in that day of calamity? and where will ye leave your glory? the riches, which they accounted their great support, but in that day would perish irrecoverably. Without me, when forsaken of my help, they shall bow down under the prisoners, or among the prisoners, and shall fall under, or among the slain; either in chains led captive, or left dead by the enemies' sword; and after all, greater judgments are still in store. Note; (1.) As there is an awful day of inquiry approaching, it becomes every one seriously to consider what he shall then do, and how he shall be able to stand before the eternal Judge. (2.) Whatever greatness and glory a sinner may acquire, he must leave it all behind, and go a naked criminal to a righteous bar, where no covering or excuse can hide his iniquities, and whence there lies no appeal. (3.) They who live without God, will die without hope, the prisoners of the grave, and lying down among the slain in the second death. (4.) It will be the consummation of misery to the damned, that no gleam of hope will ever cheer their darkness, nor the least prospect appear of God's justice being ever satisfied.
2nd, Desolations upon Israel being accomplished, let not Judah think to go unpunished: Sennacherib is commissioned to shake the rod over them; yet God prescribes bounds to his pride, and faith, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further.
1. The Jews are described as an hypocritical nation; for, though they complied with the reformation of Hezekiah, their hearts in general remained unchanged, and their religious services were but vain formality, and therefore they are called, The people of my wrath; nothing being in God's sight more detestable than hypocrisy, yet no sin so common among professors.
2. God hath a rod prepared to scourge them; the Assyrian monarch is commissioned from him to ravage and spoil their country, and as mire in the streets to tread them under foot. Note; (1.) The tyrants of the world are but the tools of providence. (2.) They who most impiously employ their power against God, receive it from him, and he can make their wickedness subservient to his glory. (3.) When God chastises his children, he intends their profiting, not their perdition.
3. The proud instrument employed thinks not who employs him, nor means to answer God's purposes but his own; to establish universal monarchy, and to gratify his ambition: boasting, therefore, his power and conquests, he promises himself success against Jerusalem, as well as the other cities that he had taken; his princes, equal to kings, were able to supply his army for the accomplishment of the extensive conquests which he meditated. A variety of cities, the capitals of vanquished countries, he enumerates, over which his arms had proved successful; and whose inhabitants he had transplanted into other countries, after having plundered their houses of their treasures, as eggs taken from the nest while the dam is absent, so that no resistance was made, and none able to withstand him, of all the nations that he or his predecessors had invaded; and this he vainly imputes to his own strength and wisdom, as if none could defeat his politics, and none could withstand his power. Whence he concludes, that as the gods of the heathen whom he had subdued were more powerful than the gods of Jerusalem and Samaria, and the former were already fallen a prey, the latter would afford him as easy a victory; blasphemously comparing Judah's God to the idols of the nations, and supposing him equally unable to protect his votaries. Note; (1.) Nothing is farther from the hearts of sinners than to serve God's designs; but while they mean only their own ends, they are made to answer his. (2.) What is a worm of earth, though princes bow before him, compared with him whom angels, principalities, and all the powers above, obey? (3.) To leave out God in the account of our gains, and to ascribe them to our own prudence, is direct atheism. (4.) Vanity and self-sufficiency generally end in shame and disappointment.
4. God by his prophet rebukes the insolent boaster, and foretels his approaching ruin. Not more absurd would be the boast of the axe or saw in the craftsman's hand, as if the work done was theirs and not his who used them, than for this proud king, the rod of God's justice, to vaunt his conquests; or for this staff of God's indignation to arrogate the glory of his victories to himself, as if he was not the mere instrument, but the self-sufficient agent in those atchievements: but God will make him know his folly in his fall; when he has done his work of chastising and correcting God's people, for which he is employed, then shall his pride and haughtiness be humbled; his mighty army, the glory of his strength, like a body emaciated with consumption, shall pine away, and as fuel for the fire shall be burnt to ashes. God, the Light and Holy One of Israel, the Messiah, shall, by his angel, in one day consume the whole army, and as easily as briers and thorns fall before devouring fire. Though thick as a forest his tents or as the javelins of his soldiers, and tall as cedars his mighty captains, they shall be consumed together, body and soul, as when a standard-bearer fainteth, and the rout is universal; so easily and utterly would they be destroyed; and so few escape the general ruin, that, instead of a muster-master, a little child might number them. Note; (1.) The most proud and insolent, God can abase. (2.) In all the visitations on his believing people, God has some gracious design to answer; when that is done, the rod will be burnt. (3.) In the midst of our trials, if God be our light, we shall see a door of escape, or be comforted with his presence, which can make the heaviest afflictions light. (4.) None ever hardened his heart against God, and prospered. (5.) When God arises to judge the wicked, he will destroy both body and soul together in hell.
3rdly, When judgment is executed on the enemies of God's church, mercy is reserved in store for his faithful people. Amid the general desolations, a remnant would be preserved, and return to their old habitations after Sennacherib raised the siege of Jerusalem, or from the Babylonish captivity: but this prophecy looks farther, and especially regards the times of the Messiah, Romans 9:27.
1. A remnant of Israel would then be saved, escaping from the general blindness and unbelief which were upon the rest of their countrymen; renouncing their vain confidence, as now they were taught by sad experience the vanity of trusting in Assyria for help, and therefore in faith and truth placing all their hopes of salvation on the power and grace of their Redeemer alone. Note; When we return to God, renouncing our self-dependence and our sins, God will turn to us in pardon and peace.
2. When the mighty God the Saviour hath secured his own faithful people, the remnant of Jacob, then vengeance will, according to God's decree, be executed on the more numerous part of Israel that have rejected his salvation; and herein God will abundantly manifest his righteousness, when in all the land a consumption shall be made of the obstinately unbelieving.
4thly, Now God,
1. Encourages his people to trust, and not to be afraid: terrible as Sennacherib's invasion appeared, God had set bounds to his ambition: though for a while they should suffer, as when their fathers were in Egypt, under the scourge, or be distressed as at the Red Sea, when the Egyptians pursued them, yet in a moment the cause of their fears would cease, and God's anger, which seemed to threaten them in this invasion, be removed by the destruction of the Assyrians. A destroying angel, his scourge, should pass through the Assyrian host with sudden and terrible destruction by night, as the sword of Gideon smote the Midianites, and the sea swallowed up the Egyptians, when Moses stretched out his rod. Their enemies defeated, the burden of tribute imposed on them, 2 Kings 18:14, would be taken off, and their yoke of bondage to Assyria be destroyed, because of the anointing, for the sake of the faithful, who have an unction from the Holy One, or for the sake of the Messiah, who is the author of every mercy and blessing that descends on his people. Note; God's believing people need never fear; there is hope for them in the darkest day.
2. He describes the rapid progress of the Assyrian king advancing to the siege, and the ravages and dismay which he shall spread around him: without the least resistance he marches from Aiath to Migron, and thence to Michmash, where he establishes his magazines; and, hastening through the noted pass, 1 Samuel 14:4, encamps for a night at Geba, in Benjamin. Frighted at his approach, the inhabitants sought only to save themselves by flight; while detachments from his army ravaged the country, and the cries of the poor people, plundered by the soldiers, were heard from one end of Judaea to the other. Nob was his last station, where he halted within sight of Jerusalem, and, shaking his hand in threatening, promised himself a speedy conquest of those high battlements. Note; Success is apt to intoxicate, and the confidence of the proud turns to their destruction.
3. His overthrow is determined. The Lord, the Lord of Hosts, before whom the mightiest are but as dust before the whirlwind, will stretch out his hand, and confound the aspiring hopes of the Assyrian; and all his army and chief captains, as the cedars of Lebanon fall under the stroke of the axe, shall perish by the destroying angel. Note; (1.) The terrors of God in the day of wrath will overwhelm the proudest, and sink the mightiest in despair. (2.) None ever persecuted God's church and people with impunity.