Ah! the Assyrian! the rod of mine anger! and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
God speaks to a world empire the way a man speaks to a tool in his hand. Two questions follow. How can a cruel pagan empire be God's own rod? And what happens to the rod when God has finished with it?
The nation terrorising the region was not acting outside God's reach. One writer ties the verse to the prophet Habakkuk, who struggled with the same problem: God using a worse nation to correct His own. He also names the part of Israel the Assyrian was sent against.
God had taken that people up as the rod of His anger to chastise many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. This disturbed Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans God was about to use to discipline them were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk. God may use an evil nation to chastise His unfaithful people, but only under His strict supervision and control. God was now sending him, as verse 6 says, against a hypocritical nation — clearly the ten tribes and Samaria.
Being God's instrument is not the same as serving God. The Assyrian meant something different from what God meant. There was also a reason God gave Israel up to him.
That is, the Lord employed him as a means of beating down the pride of Israel. "But he does not so intend." He only seeks to gratify his own pride. If only Israel had held to their true boast, the Lord Himself, and humbly looked to Him to plead their cause. But no, they wanted what the surrounding nations wanted; and their God gave them up to the haughty and cruel foe.
The Assyrian looked like the one in charge. One writer names what he really was.
He was only like an axe or a rod in the hand of the Lord and could not dictate to the One who wielded him. The Holy One of Israel would consume him and bring down his pride and importance.
Being useful to God gave Assyria no protection. The pride God used against Israel became the charge against Assyria.
God uses the pride and sin of wicked men to discipline His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
Where the ESV reads "my fury," older translations read "my indignation." One writer explains why God lets a later oppressor prosper for a time.
God permits it, because it is the time of His indignation against the Jews... This indignation is the period spoken of in Isaiah 10:5, 24, 25: "For in a very little while my fury will come to an end." There is an indignation with a certain limit.
Some writers see more here than an ancient invasion. They point to verse 12: God punishes the Assyrian only after He finishes His work on Zion.
God uses this rod for the chastisement of His guilty people Israel. But at length God judges this haughty enemy, and with this judgment, His indignation against Israel comes to a close... The Lord has clearly not yet finished His whole work on Mount Zion and Jerusalem. So this punishment of the Assyrian must still be future.
Writers also warn that the Assyrian is not the Antichrist. These are two different people:
Another chief will arise, completely opposed to this Antichrist in Jerusalem, who is allied with the western power. This chief is an outside enemy of the Jews. He is the Assyrian, or Daniel's king of the north, who appears so often in the prophecies. Of him Sennacherib, to a certain extent, was a type.
The picture is not only about empires. One writer applies it to the Midianites, a nation God once used against Israel, and then to God's children today.
The Midianites did not know that the Lord had handed Israel over to them. In reality they were only the rod He chose to punish His people with. As with the Assyrian... When He has done with His rod, He can break it, or burn it... Satan himself is very often the rod used by God for the discipline of His children.
- Rod — Assyria is a tool God picks up. He keeps it under His strict supervision and control; it never acts on its own.
- Blind rod — the tool does not mean what the hand means. The Assyrian served his own pride while doing God's work.
- Broken rod — God uses the pride of wicked men, then destroys the tool. Being useful to God saves no one.
- Limited rod — God's indignation runs for a set time, and He fixed its limit in advance.
- Present rod — even Satan can be a rod in God's hand to discipline His children. When God is done with a rod, He can break it or burn it.
I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge; to take the spoil, and to seize the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
God calls a pagan empire "him" and gives it a charge. The invasion looks like Assyria's ambition; Isaiah calls it God's errand. So two questions follow. What had Israel become, that God would hand them over like street mud? And what happens to a nation God uses as His weapon?
The empire that terrified the region was on assignment. One writer names the nation God sent it against, and shows how tightly God held the whole thing. (Older translations read "hypocritical nation" where the ESV has "godless nation".)
In Isaiah's day the power of Assyria was threatening all the nations. God had taken that people up as the rod of His anger to chastise many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. That is what disturbed the mind of Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans were worse — and God was going to use them against Israel for their discipline. We see here what we see also in Habakkuk. God may use an evil nation to chastise His faithless people, but only under His strict supervision and control. God was now sending him, as verse 6 says, against a hypocritical nation — clearly the ten tribes and Samaria.
The charge is not open rebellion. It is pretended religion: worship kept up while the heart had moved away. One writer traces that hypocrisy from Isaiah's day to the crowds who met Jesus.
And the Lord said through His prophet, "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment taught by men" (Isa. 29:13). This was God's word in the prophet's day. Our Lord Jesus confirms it, applying the same word to the Jews in His day (Matt. 15:7-9). Hypocrisy was their character, and it filled the prophet's day. And what is more hateful than hypocrisy? To the tax collectors and prostitutes the Lord said, Come; to the hypocrites He said, Woe. "I will send him against a hypocritical nation."
God gives the charge; the Assyrian never hears it. He marches for his own reasons and reaches God's ends.
Verse 5 of this chapter tells us why God allowed this powerful, destructive nation to attack His people. They were proud of their great victories. But they were only the rod of God's anger. The power they used was only the instrument to show God's indignation. God sent the Assyrian to chasten His people because of their sins. Yet the Assyrian had no idea what God was doing. His heart was full of pride, and he was bent on destroying and subduing nations. He never saw that he was only God's instrument to carry out His will against the nations because of their evil.
"Tread them down like the mire" sounds unlimited. It is not. God fixes both how long the rod strikes and how hard.
Their rescue from Babylon taught them a lesson. The Lord may use the wicked for a time as a rod of anger on His people. But He will not let that rod rest or remain on them. He will argue with His rod. He gives it a measured length as well as a measured severity. In His grace He remembers that the spirit might fail under an oppression that lasts too long.
Serving God's purpose is no protection. The empire that carried out the sentence comes under sentence itself.
God employs the pride and wickedness of the wicked for the chastisement of His people, and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches. Some tie it to Samaria in Isaiah's own day. Others say that invasion only pictured something later.
He uses them as the "rod of His anger" against His rebellious people, to break them down because of their apostasy. But this invasion is ruthless and defies God. So He judges them in turn and destroys them, after He has used it to carry out His work of judgment on the Jews and Jerusalem. (See Isaiah 10:5-34. It describes an invasion that was partly fulfilled long ago under Sennacherib. But the prophecy goes far beyond that, to this invasion at the time of the end. The old Assyrian invasion is a picture of it.)
- Cause. God names the sin: hypocrisy. Lips near God, hearts far off. One writer traces it from Isaiah's day to the crowds who heard Jesus.
- Charge. The invasion is God's errand before it is Assyria's ambition. He sends, He commands, and He keeps it all under strict control.
- Blindness. The rod never knows it is a rod. Assyria marched for plunder and pride, and never knew whose will it was carrying out.
- Limit. God measures how hard the rod strikes and how long. He knows the spirit can fail under oppression that lasts too long.
- Reversal. God destroys the instrument afterwards. The rod that lifted itself against the hand holding it gets broken. Assyria's story ends, not Israel's.
But he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; for it is in his heart to extirpate and cut off nations not a few.
God calls the invading empire His own rod, then in the same breath says the man swinging it has no such thought in his mind. This verse opens up that gap between God's charge and the conqueror's ambition. It raises the hardest question here: if God sent him, can God still judge him?
The verse turns on a contrast. God used Assyria to beat down the pride of His people. The king wanted only conquest — and he did not get all he wanted.
The Lord used him as a means of beating down the pride of Israel. "But he does not so intend." He only seeks to gratify his own pride… But surely if the Lord chastises the faults of His people, He will not fail to punish the overbearing wickedness of His enemies. "But it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few."… This he valued, and would have liked yet more, but God did not allow the Assyrian to have all he wished. Supreme dominion was his ambition; but Babylon was given it by the sovereign will of God.
What "his heart" was set on had a target: Jerusalem. He meant to treat it as he had treated the nations around it. Events showed who set the limits.
But the Assyrian himself did not realize this, and so "he does not so intend," but meant to ravage Jerusalem as well as Samaria, doing to them what he had already done to many of the surrounding peoples. As we know from the historical Scriptures, though he distressed and threatened Jerusalem he did not take it… He was only like an axe or a rod in the hand of the Lord and could not dictate to the One who wielded him.
Because his intention was his own, his guilt was his own. The order of events matters: first the chastening, then the reckoning.
God employs the pride and wickedness of the wicked for the chastisement of His people; and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
This is not true of one empire only. Powers that hate God still serve designs they know nothing about.
God can use any instruments He will to carry out His purposes… The Assyrian of old, and the beast and ten kings, though hating and blaspheming God, are just His tools, with no knowledge or will of their own, to carry out His unfailing designs.
The verse has a direct use for anyone under attack. It tells you where to take the trouble first. The attacker's motive is not the whole story.
When enemies rise up against us our first appeal should be to God as to why He has permitted it. The enemies themselves may have no thought of God, but they may still be His instruments for the discipline of His people. The cruel Assyrian was the rod of the Lord's anger toward Israel — "he does not so intend"… The Hebrew Christians were ready to faint under their sufferings. Those sufferings seemed to come from the persecution of the ungodly; but they were also the Father's gracious chastening. "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:1-13).
Commentators see this passage looking on to the Assyrian's final work, not only his ancient one. The last stroke of the rod is also the end of the anger.
But now, from verse 5, we come to a very important change. The Assyrian destroyer comes into view again. The Holy Spirit has his final work mainly in view, for this is the great disaster and last trouble of Jacob… The indignation ends, and so does the Lord's anger, in their destruction. His anger now is turned away and His arm stretched out no more. The rod should be broken and the whip destroyed, because the chastening work is done.
- The rod — God sent Assyria to beat down the pride of His people. The conqueror did it with no thought of serving God.
- The heart — His own aim was conquest without limit. He did not get it. Supreme dominion went elsewhere by God's will.
- The wood — An axe cannot give orders to the arm that swings it; he could threaten Jerusalem but not take it.
- The reckoning — God uses the rod first and breaks it afterwards. He judges a man's pride even when that man's violence served His purpose.
- The comfort — Enemies with no thought of God are still tools in His hand. So take the trouble to God first. His chastening yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
For he saith, Are not my princes all kings?
These words are not God's. They are the boast of the king of Assyria, and the prophet repeats them as evidence against him. He is counting his conquests and the rank of the men who serve him. And he does it at the very moment God is using him to discipline Israel.
The chapter opens with God calling Assyria the rod of His anger. One writer ties this to the prophet Habakkuk, who struggled with the same thing.
In Isaiah's day the power of Assyria was threatening all the nations. God had taken that people up as the rod of His anger to discipline many nations that were far from Him — Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. This disturbed Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans God was going to use to discipline them were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk. God may use an evil nation to discipline His faithless people, but only under His strict supervision and control.
The boast is about rank. The officers under him are not mere generals; every one of them rules territory that once had its own throne. William Kelly reads this as the ambition of a man who wanted the top place in the world — and shows that God set a limit on it.
But be sure of this: if the Lord disciplines the faults of His people, He will not fail to punish the overbearing wickedness of His enemies. "But it is in his heart to cut off and destroy nations not a few. For he says, Are not my commanders all kings?" He valued this, and would have liked more. But God did not allow the Assyrian to have all he wished. Supreme dominion was his ambition, but God in His sovereign will gave that place to Babylon.
The verse begins with "For he says." What follows is the king's own account of his success, and God has no place in it.
Verse 5 of this chapter tells us why God allowed this powerful and destructive nation to attack His people. They were proud of their great victories. Yet they were only the rod of God's anger, and the power they used was only the instrument that displayed God's indignation. God sent the Assyrian to discipline His people because of their sins. But the Assyrian had no idea what God was doing.
From verse 8 the boast runs on into a roll-call of captured cities and a conclusion: if Samaria fell, Jerusalem will fall too. Kelly reads the whole speech as one unit and gives its verdict in a sentence.
But he did not own God… His own doom is therefore sealed.
Years afterwards an Assyrian officer stood outside Jerusalem and used exactly this reasoning on the people listening from the wall. Writers note the flaw in it.
He tried hard to direct their minds away from the Lord to other things, such as the gods of the nations. Had any of them been able to deliver a nation from the hand of the king of Assyria? What about the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? And what about Samaria? All of these had fallen into slavery to Assyria. The answer is simple. None of those nations was depending on the only true God.
One writer holds that the Assyrian of this chapter points beyond the empire of Isaiah's own day.
As so often in Old Testament prophecy, there is a final fulfilment as well as a nearer one, and this is surely the case here… So "the Assyrian," whom we are now to consider, has a double application. He is the great power of that day, centred in Nineveh. He is also that "king of the North," which was Assyria, whom we read of in the last days.
- Rod lifted. God took up a cruel empire as the rod of His anger against His own faithless people — but only under His strict supervision and control.
- Rod boasting. This verse is the rod talking: his officers are kings, and God is nowhere in his account of his success.
- Rod blind. He was proud of his victories and had no idea what God was doing through him.
- Rod limited. He wanted supreme dominion. God refused it and gave that place to Babylon by His sovereign will.
- Rod judged. He refused to own God, and so sealed his own doom — and writers see the same figure rise again as the king of the North in the last days.
Is not Calno as Karkemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?
Isaiah 10:9 is the boast of a conqueror listing the cities he has crushed. Each name is meant to prove that resistance is useless. The question is whether Jerusalem belongs on that list — and whether the man saying it knew who had put the sword in his hand.
The speaker is Assyria. The chapter has already called him a tool in God's hand, and commentators read his boast as the tool taking credit for the work.
The Lord used him to beat down the pride of Israel. "But he means not so." He only seeks to gratify his own pride. If only Israel had stood for their true boast, Jehovah Himself, and humbly looked to Him to plead their cause. But no, they sought what the Gentiles sought; and their God gave them up to the haughty and cruel foe. But if the Lord corrects the faults of His people, He will certainly punish the overbearing wickedness of His enemies too.
Even the empire he wanted was not his to take. Kelly notes that supreme rule was his ambition, but God in His sovereign will gave that place to Babylon.
The six names are real places, most of them north and east of Israel. Calno appears elsewhere as Calneh, a name that goes back to Genesis.
Calneh was far to the east, a very ancient city that lasted a long time. (Compare Genesis 10:10 and Isaiah 10:9.) Hamath was a Canaanite kingdom north of the land.
A dated list of Assyrian conquests fixes when several of these names fell.
738 — Arpad, Calno, Carchemish and Damascus taken by Tiglath-pileser III
Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, is the last name in the list — and that is the point of the whole boast. If Samaria fell like Damascus, the Assyrian reasons, Jerusalem will fall like Samaria.
But the Assyrian himself did not realise this. And so "he means not so." He intended to ravage Jerusalem as well as Samaria, doing to them what he had already done to many of the peoples around him. As we know from the historical Scriptures, though he distressed and threatened Jerusalem he did not take it. As verse 12 shows, God would use him to do to Jerusalem what He intended. Then God would punish and humble him. He was only like an axe or a rod in the hand of the Lord and could not dictate to the One who wielded him.
Treating Jerusalem as one more pagan capital was more than a military mistake. One writer sets the Assyrian's words beside those of other nations who struck at Israel.
Even if the Lord had used them as a rod on His people, they should have carried out their commission with a sense of what Israel was, or had been. They should have acted in the spirit of the sailors and the shipmaster who threw Jonah into the sea. But this was not so. The Assyrian had once said, "Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols?" The Chaldean had "brought the vessels of the house of God into the treasure-house of his god." And now the Edomite "entered into the gate of God's people in the day of their calamity."
The boast did not stay on Isaiah's page. Commentators trace the same words on later lips.
Verses 9-14 give his words as prophecy. They are the words that Rabshakeh, the servant of Sennacherib, spoke, and that the king wrote in his letter to Hezekiah. The same boastful spirit that marked Sennacherib then would later mark Antiochus Epiphanes, as prophesied in Daniel 8:10-12; And it would appear in full in the king of the north in the last days (Daniel 8:19-25).
For the people under the blow, the comfort is not that the rod is soft but that God holds it.
Though the Lord may for a season use the wicked as a rod of anger on His people, He will not let that rod rest or remain on them. He will deal with His rod. He gives it a measured length as well as a measured severity, remembering in grace that the spirit might fail under an oppression that lasts too long. Indeed He will end His indignation on Israel by the destruction of that rod.
- Rod. Assyria was a tool God used to beat down Israel's pride — but he did not mean it that way; he was only feeding his own pride.
- Roll-call. The six names were real conquests. Calno was an ancient city far to the east, Hamath a Canaanite kingdom to the north; Tiglath-pileser III took Arpad, Calno, Carchemish and Damascus.
- Reasoning. From that list he concluded Jerusalem was next, intending to do to her what he had done to the peoples around.
- Wrong. He should have acted with some sense of what Israel was. Instead he treated God's city as one more idol-town. He threatened Jerusalem, but he never took it.
- Broken. The rod has a measured severity and a measured length, and God ends the chastening by destroying the rod.
As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, -- and their graven images exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
These words are not Isaiah's own. They are the boast of the Assyrian king. He lists the kingdoms he has already taken and counts Jerusalem's images as no stronger than theirs. So why does God let such a mouth speak at all — and what becomes of the speaker?
God had already called the Assyrian His rod. The empire that frightened every nation was itself a tool in someone else's hand.
In Isaiah's day the power of Assyria was threatening all the nations. God had taken that people up as the rod of His anger to chastise many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them.
This is not a general picture of pride. Commentators name the speaker behind verses 9–14, and say the same boast returns later.
God addresses the Assyrian, or speaks of him, as "the rod of My anger, and the staff in their hand is My indignation" (Isa. 10:5). He was the rod God used to chastise His people in the past, as the history of the kings records. God will use him for the same purpose again in days still to come. The words the prophecy puts in his mouth in verses 9–14 are the words spoken by Rabshakeh, the servant of Sennacherib, and by the king in his letter to Hezekiah. The same boastful spirit that marked Sennacherib then would later mark Antiochus Epiphanes, as prophesied in Daniel 8:10-12. It will appear in full in the king of the north in the last days.
The boast only works if the God of Jerusalem is one more idol. That is exactly how the Assyrian's spokesman saw Him.
Rabshakeh could not tell the difference between the idols and the Lord. To him the Lord was only an idol, one out of many. Hezekiah had broken down all the idols, so he assumed they were simply different forms of the Lord's worship. That was the pagan idea of God.
Put the two side by side and the boast collapses.
He had no idea that the gods of the nations, including his own, were only helpless idols. The God of Israel, unlike them, created all things.
God had one purpose in this attack. The Assyrian had another.
That is, the Lord used him as a means of beating down the pride of Israel. "But he does not so intend." He only seeks to gratify his own pride. If only Israel had stood by their true boast, the Lord Himself, and looked to Him in humility to plead their cause! But no, they wanted what the nations wanted, and their God gave them up to a proud and cruel enemy. Yet if the Lord chastises the faults of His people, He will surely punish the arrogant wickedness of His enemies too.
Being useful to God is not the same as being safe with God.
God uses the pride and wickedness of evil men to chastise His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
The rod does not stay forever. God decides how long it lasts.
The Lord may use wicked people for a time as a rod of anger on His own people. But He will not let that rod stay on them. He will contend with that rod. He sets a limit to how long it lasts and to how hard it strikes, remembering in His grace that their spirit might fail under too long an oppression. In the end He will finish His anger against Israel by destroying that rod.
- Rod, not ruler. The Assyrian counts up the kingdoms he has conquered, but he is only a rod in God's hand. God keeps him under strict control.
- Rod misreads itself. He counts the God of Jerusalem as one more carved image. He is treating the Creator of all things as a helpless idol.
- Rod finds an opening. Israel wanted what the nations wanted instead of boasting in the Lord, so God gave them up to the enemy.
- Rod is broken. God uses the pride of the wicked to chastise His people. Then He destroys the instrument that glorified itself against Him.
- Rod is measured. God limits how hard the rod strikes and how long it lasts. He remembers how much His people can bear.
-- shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her images?
The Assyrian king ends his boast with cold arithmetic. He has already crushed Samaria, so in his mind Jerusalem must fall next. Behind the swagger is one question: is the God of Israel just one more local god on a conqueror's list?
These words come from a longer speech. God was using the man who spoke them, and he did not know it. One writer sets the boast against the task God gave him — and against Israel's own failure.
The Lord used him to beat down the pride of Israel. But he does not mean it that way. He only wants to satisfy his own pride. If only Israel had held to their true boast, Jehovah Himself! If only they had humbly looked to Him to plead their cause! But no. They wanted what the nations wanted, and their God gave them up to the proud and cruel enemy. Yet if the Lord chastises the faults of His people, He will certainly not fail to punish the overbearing wickedness of His enemies.
Another writer traces what happens to such an instrument afterwards.
God employs the pride and wickedness of the wicked for the chastisement of His people; and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
The force of the boast rests on treating Jerusalem's worship as one more local religion. Rabshakeh, the Assyrian king's servant, spoke the same taunt. One writer explains how he thought about Jehovah, the God of Israel.
Rabshakeh could not tell the difference between the idols and Jehovah. To him, Jehovah was only an idol — one out of many. Hezekiah had broken down all the idols, so he imagined that they were different forms of Jehovah's worship. That was the pagan idea of God.
That miscalculation was shared across the Assyrian court. Writing on Nahum, another source describes the same slide from claiming God's backing to sneering at Him.
At first he said that Jehovah had sent him. Then he treated the God of Israel as no better than the pagan gods, who had not been able to protect their worshippers.
Attacking that city was never only a military move. One writer explains why.
To lay hands on Israel, and to show this contempt and hatred of Zion, is a bold act. It shows contempt and defiance of God Himself, because God was with Israel. That is true of the Assyrian, of Babylon, of Edom, and of any other… Even if the Lord had used them as His rod on His people, they should have carried out their task with a sense of what Israel was or had been.
The boast did not hang in the air. God answered it, and a prophet delivered the answer.
Pride gives him his only language… The Lord God was angry. He pronounces a burden on him, and Nahum delivers it. "The Lord is a jealous God and an avenger."
One writer names the men who spoke these words, then follows the same boastful tone forward.
Rabshakeh, the servant of Sennacherib, spoke the words the prophecy gives to the Assyrian in verses 9-14, and the king wrote them in his letter to Hezekiah. The same boastful spirit marked Sennacherib then. Later it marked Antiochus Epiphanes, as Daniel 8:10-12 foretold. And it will appear in full in the king of the north in the last days.
- Rod. God did use Assyria to chastise His people. The conquests behind this boast came from a commission the conqueror never understood.
- Pride. The rod took credit for the hand. He meant only his own pride, and the list of fallen cities was his proof.
- Blunder. His fatal error was one word: "idols." He could not tell the God of Israel apart from carved images. So he assumed Jerusalem would fall like the rest.
- Insult. Because God was with that people, hitting Jerusalem was open defiance of God Himself — not just another siege.
- Answer. God chastises His people, then breaks the rod. The boast drew out Nahum's burden, and the same proud voice returns in later prophecy.
And it shall come to pass, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stoutness of heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
Assyria was the tool God picked up to strike His own guilty people. This verse says what happens to the tool afterwards: God finishes His work on Mount Zion first, then punishes the proud king who carried it out.
Assyria's power over Israel was real, but God had lent it. One writer states the pattern, then points to a later example:
God uses the pride and wickedness of the wicked to discipline His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian is God's rod to strike Israel, yet he glorifies himself against God, and God breaks the rod. In the same way, Napoleon Bonaparte struck all the peoples of the Roman empire in the early nineteenth century. He was in the wrong, and afterwards he was struck himself.
God's charge to the Assyrian and the Assyrian's own plan were two different things, and that gap is why judgment follows.
The Assyrian was first used as a rod to chastise Israel. "Ho, Assyrian, the rod of my anger... I will send him against a godless nation, and against the people of my wrath I will give him a charge, to take the spoil and to seize the plunder... But he does not mean so, neither does his heart think so; it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." But he did not acknowledge God... His own doom is therefore sealed.
The order in the verse matters. The Assyrian is not judged while the work on Jerusalem is still running.
Israel is blessed, but the Assyrian is not yet judged. Israel had been wrong, but the Assyrian had been merciless. God had dealt with Israel. Now He must deal with their foes, as Isaiah 10:12 tells us.
Not the conquest — the heart behind it, and the speech that came out of it. God weighs why a man does what he does:
God takes into account not only what men do, but their purpose in doing it. Jehu carried out the judgment of the Lord on the house of Ahab... But he carried out the Lord's just judgments with harshness, and for his own selfish reasons. That was far from acceptable... Assyria was the rod of His anger, by which He chastised Israel. But the rod boasted itself against the One who lifted it up.
The verses that follow spell the boast out — "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom" — and God answers it with a question about tools:
He is only an axe and a saw in the hand of God; a staff and a rod wielded by God to do His will. After God has used the Assyrian as His instrument He "will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field."
One writer reads the verse as God's direct word to the empire, a limit set on how far a chosen instrument may go:
God, so to speak, says to this mighty power: I am using you to discipline My straying people. But if you lift yourself up against Me, I must bring you down.
Several commentators take the opening clause as proof that this punishment has not yet happened. The test is simple and checkable:
God uses this rod for the chastisement of His guilty people Israel. But in the end God judges this proud enemy. With that judgment His anger against Israel comes to a close... Now the Lord has clearly not yet finished His whole work on Mount Zion and Jerusalem. So this punishment of the Assyrian is certainly still future.
William Kelly places this blow at the end of the line:
Does this not seem to show that this is the Lord's last act of judgment connected with the blessing of Israel?
- Rod. God lifted Assyria as the rod of His anger against His own people. Its success was a charge given to it, not a strength it owned.
- Rod's own heart. The tool did not mean what God meant. It planned to destroy nations for its own sake, and that gap seals its doom.
- Rod judged by motive. God weighs not only what men do, but why they do it. Jehu did the right work for selfish reasons, and God did not accept it.
- Rod broken last. God finishes His work on Zion and Jerusalem first. Only then does He turn on the merciless foe. Correcting His people and judging their enemy are two different acts.
- Rod still standing. The work on Zion and Jerusalem is not yet finished. So writers here read this punishment as still ahead, and one of them as the last act of judgment before Israel's blessing.