Isaiah 10:15
Imagine your computer talking back to you. No, not just popping up with annoying dialogue boxes or mysterious system errors, but actually talking back to you. Telling you what to write in your word processing software. Redoing the numbers in your spreadsheet. Arguing with you about what Web sites to visit. How long would you endure such a computer before unplugging it and chucking it out with the trash? Not long!
A similar idea is part of the background for today's reading. Tools don't talk back to craftsmen, yet after the sovereign God used Assyria as an instrument of judgment, that nation would “talk back” and act as if they had accomplished everything by their own strength and ability. How long would God stand for such arrogance? Not long!
God chose Assyria as a tool with which to discipline and punish Israel. He was angry with His people because of the nation's faithlessness and idolatry. Despite various warnings, the people refused to return to the Lord, ignored their covenant obligations, and continued on in pride and self-sufficiency. Far from the stereotype that the God of the Old Testament was vengeful and spiteful, we read here of how many opportunities He gave them to change their ways, and of how blatantly and hardheartedly they rejected Him. His judgment of conquest by Assyria aimed to cleanse the nation of social injustice and oppression, of which the leaders and false prophets were particularly guilty.
Yet in time the Assyrians too would be ripe for judgment. They too would become proud, imagining that they had won their military victories and empire by their own power and wisdom. The Lord would correct that attitude, and the Assyrian army would be cut down like trees in the forest (10:33-34). During all of this, He would remain the same—sovereign and faithful. That's why a remnant of Israel would be preserved and would one day return to the land (10:20-21).
posted by I love Jesus! ! ! @ Wednesday, June 06, 2007
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