I
S A I A H
CHAP. X.
The
prophet, in this chapter, is dealing, I. With the proud oppressors of his
people at home, that abused their power, to pervert justice, whom he would
reckon with for their tyranny, ver. 1-4. II. With a threatening invader of his
people from abroad, Sennacherib king of Assyria, concerning whom observe, 1. The commission
given him to invade Judah, ver. 5, 6. 2. His pride and insolence in the
execution of that commission, ver. 7-11, 13, 14. 3. A rebuke given to his
haughtiness, and a threatening of his fall and ruin, when he had served the
purposes for which God raised him up, ver. 12, 15-19. 4. A promise of grace to
the people of God, to enable them to bear up under the affliction, and to get
good by it, ver. 20-23. 5. Great encouragement given to them not to fear this
threatening storm, but to hope that, though for the present all the country
was put into a great consternation by it, yet it would end well, in the
destruction of this formidable enemy, ver. 24-34. And this is intended to
quiet the minds of good people in reference to all the threatening efforts of
the wrath of the church's enemies. If God be for us, who can be against us?
None to do us any harm.
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The
Condemnation of Oppressors.
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B.
C. 740.
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1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous
decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the
poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob
the fatherless! 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation,
and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee
for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 4 Without me they
shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For
all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out
still.
Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both, that the
prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these
verses are to be joined with the close of the foregoing chapter, which is
probable enough, because the burden of that prophecy (for all this his
anger is not turned away) is repeated here (v. 4); if those of
Judah, they then show what was the particular design with which God brought
the Assyrian army upon them--to punish their magistrates for
mal-administration, which they could not legally be called to account for. To
them he speaks woes before he speaks comfort to God's own people. Here is,
I. The indictment drawn up against these oppressors, v. 1, 2. They are
charged, 1. With making wicked laws and edicts: They decree unrighteous
decrees, contrary to natural equity and the law of God: and what mischief
they prescribe those under them write it, enrol it, and put it
into the formality of a law. "Woe to the superior powers that devise and
decree these decrees! they are not too high to be under the divine check. And
woe to the inferior officers that draw them up, and enter them upon record--the
writers that write the grievousness, they are not too mean to be within
the divine cognizance. Principal and accessaries shall fall under the same
woe." Note, It is bad to do hurt, but it is worse to do it with design
and deliberation, to do wrong to many, and to involve many in the guilt of
doing wrong. 2. With perverting justice in the execution of the laws that were
made. No people had statutes and judgments to righteous as they had, and yet
corrupt judges found ways to turn aside the needy from judgment, to
hinder them from coming at their right and recovering what was their due,
because they were needy and poor, and such as they could get nothing by nor
expect any bribes from. 3. With enriching themselves by oppressing those that
lay at their mercy, whom they ought to have protected. They make widows'
houses and estates their prey, and they rob the fatherless of the
little that is left them, because they have no friend to appear for them. Not
to relieve them if they had wanted, not to right them if they were wronged,
would have been crime enough in men that had wealth and power; but to rob them
because on the side of the oppressors there was power, and the oppressed had
no comforter (Eccl. iv. 1), was such apiece of barbarity as one would think
none could ever be guilty of that had either the nature of a man or the name
of an Israelite.
II. A challenge given them with all their pride and power to outface the
judgments of God (v. 3): "What will you do? To whom will you
flee? You can trample upon the widows and fatherless; but what will you
do when God riseth up?" Job xxxi. 14. Great men, who tyrannise over
the poor, think they shall never be called to account for their tyranny, shall
never hear of it again, or fare the worse for it; but shall not God visit
for these things? Jer. v. 29. Will there not come a desolation upon those
that have made others desolate? Perhaps it may come from far, and
therefore may be long in coming; but it will come at last (reprieves are not
pardons), and coming from far, from a quarter whence it was least expected, it
will be the greater surprise and the more terrible. What will then become of
these unrighteous judges? Now they see their help in the gate (Job xxxi.
21); but to whom will they then flee for help? Note, 1. There is a day of
visitation coming, a day of enquiry and discovery, a searching day, which will
bring to light, to a true light, every man, and every man's work. 2. The day
of visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their
comforts and hopes will be lost and gone, and buried in ruin, and themselves
left desolate. 3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss, and will no
know what to do in the day of visitation and desolation. They cannot fly and
hide themselves, cannot fight it out and defend themselves; they have no
refuge in which either to shelter themselves from the present evil (to whom
will you flee for help?) or to secure to themselves better times
hereafter: "Where will you leave your glory, to find it again when
the storm is over?" The wealth they had got was their glory, and they had
no place of safety in which to deposit that, but they should certainly see it
flee away. If our souls be our glory, as they ought to be, and we make them
our chief care, we know where to leave them, and into whose hands to commit
them, even those of a faithful Creator. 4. It concerns us all seriously to
consider what we shall do in the day of visitation, in a day of affliction, in
the day of death and judgment, and to provide that we may do well.
III. Sentence passed upon them, by which they are doomed, some to imprisonment
and captivity (they shall bow down among the prisoners, or under
them--those that were most highly elevated in sin shall be most heavily
loaded and most deeply sunk in trouble), others to death: they shall fall
first, and so shall fall under the rest of the slain. Those that had trampled
upon the widows and fatherless shall themselves be trodden down, v. 4.
"This it will come to," says God, "without me, that is,
because you have deserted me and driven me away from you." Nothing but
utter ruin can be expected by those that live without God in the world, that
cast him behind their back, and so cast themselves out of his protection.
And yet, for all this, his anger is not turned away, which intimates
not only that God will proceed in his controversy with them, but that they
shall be in a continual dread of it; they shall, to their unspeakable terror,
see his hand still stretched out against them, and there shall remain nothing
but a fearful looking for of judgment.
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The
Pride of the King of Assyria; Sennacherib's Pride Rebuked; Destruction
of the
King of Assyria.
B. C. 740.
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5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the
staff in their hand is mine indignation. 6 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 take the prey, and to tread them down like
the mire of the streets. 7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth
his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off
nations not a few. 8 For he saith, Are not my princes
altogether kings? 9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is
not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? 10 As my
hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel
them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 11 Shall I not, as I have done
unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his
whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the
stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my
wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and
have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a
valiant man: 14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches
of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered
all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or
peeped. 15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth
therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?
as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or
as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones
leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a
fire. 17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy
One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one
day; 18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his
fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a
standard-bearer fainteth. 19 And the rest of the trees of his
forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser king of Assyria was
foretold in the foregoing chapter, and it had its accomplishment in the sixth
year of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 10. It was total and final, head and tail
were all cut off. Now the correction of the kingdom of Judah by Sennacherib
king of Assyria is foretold in this chapter; and this prediction was fulfilled
in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when that potent prince, encouraged by the
successes of his predecessor against the ten tribes, came up against all
the fenced cities of Judah and took them, and laid siege to Jerusalem (2
Kings xviii. 13, 17), in consequence of which we may well suppose Hezekiah and
his kingdom were greatly alarmed, though there was a good work of reformation
lately begun among them: but it ended well, in the confusion of the Assyrians
and the great encouragement of Hezekiah and his people in their return to God.
Now let us see here,
I. How God, in his sovereignty, deputed the king of Assyria to be his servant,
and made use of him as a mere tool to serve his own purposes with (v.
5, 6): "O Assyrian! know this, that thou art the rod of my
anger; and I will send thee to be a scourge to the people of my wrath."
Observe here, 1. How bad the character of the Jews was, though they appeared
very good. They were a hypocritical nation, that made a profession of
religion, and at this time particularly of reformation, but were not truly
religious, not truly reformed, not so good as they pretended to be now that
Hezekiah had brought goodness into fashion. When rulers are pious, and so
religion is in reputation, it is common for nations to be hypocritical. They
are a profane nation; so some read it. Hezekiah had in a great measure
cured them of their idolatry, and now they ran into profaneness; nay,
hypocrisy is profaneness: none profane the name of God so much as those who
are called by that name and call upon it, and yet live in sin. Being a profane
hypocritical nation, they are the people of God's wrath; they lie under his
wrath, and are likely to be consumed by it. Note, Hypocritical nations are the
people of God's wrath: nothing is more offensive to God than dissimulation in
religion. See what a change sin made: those that had been God's chosen and
hallowed people, above all people, had now become the people of his wrath.
See Amos iii. 2. 2. How mean the character of the Assyrian was, though he
appeared very great. He was but the rod of God's anger, an instrument
God was pleased to make use of for the chastening of his people, that, being
thus chastened of the Lord, they might not be condemned with the world.
Note, The tyrants of the world are but the tools of Providence. Men are God's
hand, his sword sometimes, to kill and slay (Ps. xvii. 13, 14), at other times
his rod to correct. The staff in their hand, wherewith they smite his
people, is his indignation; it is his wrath that puts the staff into
their hand and enables them to deal blows at pleasure among such as thought
themselves a match for them. Sometimes God makes an idolatrous nation, that
serves him not at all, a scourge to a hypocritical nation, that serves him not
in sincerity and truth. The Assyrian is called the rod of God's anger
because he is employed by him. (1.) From him his power is derived: I will
send him; I will give him a charge. Note, All the power that wicked men
have, though they often use it against God, they always receive from him.
Pilate could have no power against Christ unless it were given him from
above, John xix. 11. (2.) By him the exercise of that power is directed.
The Assyrian is to take the spoil and to take the prey, not to shed any
blood. We read not of any slain, but he is to plunder the country, rifle the
houses, drive away the cattle, strip the people of all their wealth and
ornaments, and tread them down like the mire of the streets. When God's
professing people wallow in the mire of sin it is just with God to suffer
their enemies to tread upon them like mire. But why must the Assyrian prevail
thus against them? Not that they might be ruined, but that they might be
thoroughly reformed.
II. See how the king of Assyria, in his pride, magnified himself as his own
master, and pretended to be absolute and above all control, to act purely
according to his own will and for his own honour. God ordained him for
judgment, even the mighty God established him for correction (Hab.
i. 12), to be an instrument of bringing his people to repentance, howbeit
he means not so, nor does his heart think so, v. 7.
1. He does not think that he is either God's servant or Israel's friend,
either that he can do no more than God will let him or that he shall
do no more than God will make to work for the good of his people. God designs
to correct his people for, and so to cure them of, their hypocrisy, and bring
them nearer to himself; but was that Sennacherib's design? No, it was the
furthest thing from his thoughts--he means not so. Note, (1.) The wise
God often makes even the sinful passions and projects of men subservient to
his own great and holy purposes. (2.) When God makes use of men as instruments
in his hand to do his work it is very common for him to mean one thing
and them to mean another, nay, for them to mean quite the contrary to
what he intends. What Joseph's brethren designed for hurt God overruled for
good, Gen. l. 20. See Mic. iv. 11, 12. Men have their ends and God has his,
but we are sure the counsel of the Lord shall stand. But what is it the
proud Assyrian aims at? The heart of kings is unsearchable, but God knew what
was in his heart.
2. He designs nothing but to destroy and to cut off nations not a few,
and to make himself master of them. [1.] He designs to gratify his own
cruelty; nothing will serve but to destroy and cut off. He hopes to regale
himself with blood and slaughter; that of particular persons will not suffice,
he must cut off nations. It is below him to deal by retail; he traffics in
murders by wholesale. Nations, and those not a few, must have but one neck,
which he will have the pleasure of cutting off. [2.] He designs to gratify his
own covetousness and ambition, to set up for a universal monarch, and to
gather unto him all nations, Hab. ii. 5. An insatiable desire of wealth
and dominion is that which carries him on in this undertaking.
3. The prophet here brings him in vaunting, and hectoring; and by his
general's letter to Hezekiah, written in his name, vainglory and arrogance
seem to have entered very far into the spirit and genius of the man. His
haughtiness and presumption are here described very largely, and his very
language copied out, partly to represent him as ridiculous and partly to
assure the people of God that he would be brought down; for that maxim
generally holds true, that pride goes before destruction. It also intimates
that God takes notice, and keeps an account, of all men's proud and haughty
words, with which they set heaven and earth at defiance. Those that speak great
swelling words of vanity shall hear of them again.
(1.) He boasts of the great things he had done to other nations. [1.] He had
made their kings his courtiers (v. 8): "My princes are
altogether kings. Those that are now my princes are such as have been
kings." Or he means that he had raised his throng to such a degree that
his servants, and those that were in command under him, were as great, and
lived in as much pomp, as the kings of other countries. Or those that were
absolute princes in their own dominions held their crowns under him, and did
him homage. This was a vainglorious boast; but how great is our God whom we
serve, who is indeed King of kings, and whose subjects are made to him kings!
Rev. i. 6. [2.] He had made himself master of their cities. He names several (v.
9) that were all alike reduced by him. Calno soon yielded as
Carchemish did, Hamath could not hold out any more than Arpad,
and Samaria had become his as well as Damascus. To support his
boasts he is obliged to bring the victories of his predecessor into the
account; for it was he that conquered Samaria, not Sennacherib. [3.] He had
been too hard for their idols, their tutelar gods, had found out the
kingdoms of the idols and found out ways to make them his own, v.
10. Their kingdoms took denomination from the idols they worshipped; the
Moabites are called the people of Chemosh (Jer. xlviii. 46), because
they imagined their gods were their patrons and protectors; and therefore
Sennacherib vainly imagined that every conquest of a kingdom was the conquest
of a god. [4.] He had enlarged his own dominions, and removed the bounds of
the people (v. 13), enclosing many large territories within the
limits of his own kingdom and shifting a great way further the ancient
land-marks which his fathers had set; he could not bear to be hemmed in so
closely, but must have more room to thrive. By his removing the border of
the people Mr. White understands his arbitrarily transplanting colonies
from place to place, which was the constant practice of the Assyrians in all
their conquests; and this is a probable interpretation. [5.] He had enriched
himself with their wealth, and brought it into his own exchequer: I have
robbed their treasures. In this he said truly, Great conquerors are often
no better than great robbers. [6.] He had mastered all the opposition he met
with: "I have put down the inhabitants as a valiant man. Those
that sat high, and thought they say firmly, I have humbled and made to come
down."
(2.) He boasts of the manner in which he had done them. [1.] That he had done
all this by his own policy and power (v. 13): "By the strength
of my hand, for I am valiant; and by my wisdom, for I am prudent;"
not by the permission of Providence and the blessing of God. He knows not that
it is God that makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his hand, but sacrifices
to his own net, Hab. i. 16. "This wealth is all gotten by my might
and the power of my hand," Deut. viii. 17. Downright atheism and
profaneness, as well as pride and vanity, are at the bottom of men's
attributing their prosperity and success thus to themselves and their own
conduct, and raising their own character upon it. [2.] That he had done all
this with a great deal of ease, and had made but a sport and diversion of it,
as if he had been taking birds' nests (v. 14): my hand has found as
a nest the riches of the people; and when he had found them there was no
more difficulty in taking them than in rifling a nest, nor any more reluctance
or regret within his own breast in destroying families and cities than in
destroying crows'-nests; killing children was no more to him than killing
birds. "As one gathers the eggs that are left in the nest by the
dam, so easily have I gathered all the earth." Like Alexander, he
thought he had conquered the world; and whatever prey he seized there was none
that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped, as birds do when
their nests are rifled. They durst not make any opposition, no, nor any
complaint; such awe did they stand in of this mighty conqueror. They were so
weak that they knew it was to no purpose to resist, and he was so arbitrary
that they knew it was to no purpose to complain. Strange that ever men who
were made to do good should take a pride and a pleasure in doing wrong, and
doing mischief to all about them without control, and should reckon that their
glory which is their shame! But their day will come to fall who thus
make themselves the terror of thy mighty, and much more of the feeble, in
the land of the living.
(3.) He threatens what he will do to Jerusalem, which he was now about to lay
siege to, v. 10, 11. He would master Jerusalem and her idols, as he had
subdued other places and their idols, particularly Samaria. [1.] He
blasphemously calls the God of Israel an idol, and sets him on a level
with the false gods of other nations, as if none were the true God but Mithras,
the sun, whom he worshipped. See how ignorant he was, and then we shall the
less wonder that he was so proud. [2.] He prefers the graven images of other
countries before those of Jerusalem and Samaria, when he might have known that
the worshippers of the God of Israel were expressly forbidden to make any
graven images, and if any did it must be by stealth, and therefore they could
not be so rich and pompous as those of other nations. If he means the ark and
the mercy-seat, he speaks like himself, very foolishly, and as one that judged
by the sight of the eye, and might therefore be easily deceived in matters of
spiritual concern. Those who make external pomp and splendour a mark of the
true church go by the same rule. [3.] Because he had conquered Samaria, he
concluded Jerusalem would fall of course: "Shall not I do so to
Jerusalem? can I not as easily, and may I not as justly?" But it did
not follow; for Jerusalem adhered to her God, whereas Samaria had forsaken
him.
III. See how God, in his justice, rebukes his pride and reads his doom. We
have heard what the great king, the king of Assyria, says, and how big he
talks. Let us now hear what the great God has to say by his servant the
prophet, and we shall find that, wherein he deals proudly, God is above him.
1. He shows the vanity of his insolent and audacious boasts (v. 15): Shall
the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify
itself against him that draws it? So absurd are the boasts of this proud
man. "O what a dust do I make!" said the fly upon the cart-wheel in
the fable. "What destruction do I make among the trees!" says the
axe. Two ways the axe may be said to boast itself against him that hews
with it:-- (1.) By way of resistance and opposition. Sennacherib
blasphemed God, insulted him, threatened to serve him as he had served the
gods of the nations; now this was as if the axe should fly in the face of him
that hews with it. The tool striving with the workman is no less absurd than
the clay striving with the potter; and as it is a thing not to be justified
that men should fight against God with the wit, and wealth, and power, which
he gives them, so it is a thing not to be suffered. But if men will be thus
proud and daring, and bid defiances to all that is just and sacred, let them
expect that God will reckon with them; the more insolent they are the surer
and sorer will their ruin be. (2.) By way of rivalship and competition. Shall
the axe take to itself the praise of the work it is employed in? So senseless,
so absurd was it for Sennacherib to say, By the strength of my hand I have
done it, and by my wisdom, v. 13. It is as if the rod, when it is
shaken, should boast that it guides the hand which shakes it; whereas, when
the staff is lifted up, is it not wood still? so the last clause may be
read. If it be an ensign of authority (as the nobles of the people carried
staves, Num. xxi. 18), if it be an instrument of service, either to support a
weak man or to correct a bad man, still it is wood, and can do nothing but as
it is directed by him that uses it. The psalmist prays that God would make the
nations to know that they were but men (Ps. ix. 20), the staff to know
that it is but wood.
2. He foretels his fall and ruin.
(1.) That when God had done his work by him he would then do his work upon
him, v. 12. For the comfort of the people of God in reference to
Sennacherib's invasion, though it was a dismal time with them, let them know,
[1.] That God designed to do good to Zion and Jerusalem by this providence.
There is a work to be done upon them, which God intends, and which he will
perform. Note, When God lets loose the enemies of his church and people, and
suffers them for a time to prevail, it is in order to the performing of some
great good work upon them; and, when that is done, then, and not till then, he
will work deliverance for them. When God brings his people into trouble it is
to try them (Dan. xi. 35), to bring sin to their remembrance and humble them
for it, and to awaken them to a sense of their duty, to teach them to pray and
to love and help one another; and this must be the fruit, even the taking
away of sin, ch. xxvii. 9. When these points are, in some measure,
gained by the affliction, it shall be removed, in mercy (Lev. xxvi. 41, 42),
otherwise not; for, as the word, so the rod shall accomplish that for which
God sends it. [2.] That when God had wrought this work of grace for his
people he would work a work of wrath and vengeance upon their invaders: I
will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria. His big
words are here said to come from his stout heart, and they are the fruit of
it; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Notice is
taken too of the glory of his high looks, for a proud look is the
indication of a proud spirit. The enemies of the church are commonly very high
and haughty; but, sooner or later, God will reckon for their haughtiness. He
glories in it as an incontestable proof of his power and sovereignty that he looks
upon proud men and abases them, Job xl. 11, &c.
(2.) That, how threatening soever this attempt was upon Zion and Jerusalem, it
should certainly be baffled, and broken, and come to nothing, and he should
not be able to bring to pass his enterprise, v. 16, 19. Observe,
[1.] Who it is that undertakes his destruction, and will be the author of it;
not Hezekiah, or his princes, or the militia of Judah and Jerusalem (what can
they do against such a potent force?), but God himself will do it, as the
Lord of hosts, and as the light of Israel. First, We are sure he
can do it, for he is the Lord of hosts, of all the hosts of heaven and
earth. All the creatures are at his command; he makes what use he pleases on
them. He is the Lord of the hosts both of Judah and of Assyria, and can give
the victory to which he pleases. Let us not fear the hosts of any enemy if we
have the Lord of hosts for us. Secondly, We have reason to hope he will
do it, for he is the light of Israel, and his Holy One. God is light;
in him are perfect brightness, purity, and happiness. He is light, for he is
the Holy One; his holiness is his glory. He is Israel's light, to direct and
counsel his people, to favour and countenance them, and so to gladden and
comfort them in the worst of times. He is their Holy One, for he is in
covenant with them; his holiness is engaged and employed for them. God's
holiness is the saints' comfort; they give thanks at the remembrance of
it, and with a great deal of pleasure call him their Holy One, Hab. i.
12.
[2.] How this destruction is represented. It shall be, First, As a
consumption of the body by a disease: The Lord shall send leanness among
his fatnesses, or his fat ones. His numerous army, that was like a
body covered with fatness, shall be diminished, and waste away, and become
like a skeleton. Secondly, As a consumption of buildings, or trees and
bushes, by fire: Under his glory, that very thing which he glories in, he
will kindle a burning, as the burning of a fire, which shall lay his army
in ruins as suddenly as a raging fire lays a stately house in ashes. Some make
it an allusion to the fire kindled under the sacrifices; for proud sinners
fall as sacrifices to divine justice. Observe, 1. How this fire shall be
kindled, v. 17. The same God that is a rejoicing light to those that
serve him faithfully will be a consuming fire to those that trifle with him or
rebel against him. The light of Israel shall be for a fire to the
Assyrians, as the same pillar of cloud was a light to the Israelites and a
terror to the Egyptians in the Red Sea. What can oppose, what can extinguish,
such a fire? 2. What desolation it shall make: it shall burn and devour its
thorns and briers, his officers and soldiers, which are of little worth,
and vexations to God's Israel, as thorns and briers, whose end is to be
burned, and which are easily and quickly consumed by a devouring fire. "Who
would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? They would be so far
from stopping the fire that they would inflame it. I would go through them
and burn them together (ch. xxvii. 4); they shall be devoured in
one day, all cut off in an instant." When they cried not only Peace and
safety, but Victory and triumph, then sudden destruction came; it came
surprisingly, and was completed in a little time. "Even the glory of
his forest (v. 18), the choice troops of his army, the veterans,
the troops of the household, the bravest regiments he had, that he was most
proud of and depended most upon, that he valued as men do their timber-trees
(the glory of their forest) or their fruit-trees (the glory of the Carmel),
shall be put as briers and thorns before the fire; they shall be consumed both
soul and body, entirely consumed, not only a limb burned, but life taken
away." Note, God is able to destroy both soul and body, and therefore we
should fear him more than man, who can but kill the body. Great armies before
him are but as great woods, which he can fell or fire when he pleases.
[3.] What would be the effect of this great slaughter. The prophet tells us, First,
That the army would hereby be reduced to a very small number: The rest of
the trees of his forest shall be few; very few shall escape the sword of
the destroying angel, so few that there needs no artist, no muster-master or
secretary of war, to take an account of them, for even a child may soon
reckon the numbers of them, and write the names of them. Secondly,
That those few who remained should be quite dispirited: They shall be as
when a standard-bearer fainteth. When he either falls or flees, and his
colours are taken by the enemy, this discourages the whole army, and puts them
all into confusion. Upon the whole matter we must say, Who is able to stand
before this great and holy Lord God?
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Encouragement
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20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no
more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel,
in truth. 21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of
Jacob, unto the mighty God. 22 For though thy people Israel be as
the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the
consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. 23 For the
Lord GOD
of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the
land.
The prophet had said (v. 12) that the Lord would perform his whole
work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, by Sennacherib's invading the
land. Now here we are told what that work should be, a twofold work:--
I. The conversion of some, to whom this providence should be sanctified and
yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, though for the present it was not
joyous, but grievous; these are but a remnant (v. 22), the remnant
of Israel (v. 20), the remnant of Jacob (v. 21), but
a very few in comparison with the vast numbers of the people of Israel, who
were as the sand of the sea. Note, Converting work is wrought but on a
remnant, who are distinguished from the rest and set apart for God. When we
see how populous Israel is, how numerous the members of the visible church
are, as the sand of the sea, and yet consider that of these a remnant only
shall be saved, that of the many that are called there are but few chosen, we
shall surely strive to enter in at the strait gate and fear lest we seem
to come short. This remnant of Israel are said to be such as had
escaped of the house of Jacob, such as escaped the corruptions of the
house of Jacob, and kept their integrity in times of common apostasy; and that
was a fair escape. And therefore they escape the desolations of that house,
and shall be preserved in safety in times of common calamity; and that also
will be a fair and narrow escape. Their lives shall be given them for a
prey, Jer. xlv. 5. The righteous scarcely are saved. Now, 1. This
remnant shall come off from all confidence in an arm of flesh, this providence
shall cure them of that: "They shall no more again stay upon him that
smote them, shall never depend upon the Assyrians, as they have done, for
help against their other enemies, finding that they are themselves their worst
enemies." Ictus piscator sapit--sufferings teach caution.
"They have now learned by dear-bought experience the folly of leaning
upon that staff as a stay to them which may perhaps prove a staff to beat
them." It is part of the covenant of a returning people (Hos. xiv. 3), Assyria
shall not save us. Note, By our afflictions we may learn not to make
creatures our confidence. 2. They shall come home to God, to the mighty God
(one of the names given to the Messiah, ch. ix. 6), to the Holy One of
Israel: "The remnant shall return (that was signified by the name
of the prophet's son, Shear-jashub, ch. vii. 3), even the
remnant of Jacob. They shall return, after the raising of the siege of
Jerusalem, not only to the quiet possession of their houses and lands, but to
God and to their duty; they shall repent, and pray, and seek his face, and
reform their lives." The remnant that escape are a returning remnant:
they shall return to God, and shall stay upon him. Note, Those only may with
comfort stay upon God that return to him; then may we have a humble confidence
in God when we make conscience of our duty to him. They shall stay upon the
Holy One of Israel, in truth, and not in pretence and profession only.
This promise of the conversion and salvation of a remnant of Israel is applied
by the apostle (Rom. ix. 27) to the remnant of the Jews which at the first
preaching of the gospel received and entertained it, and sufficiently proves
that it was no new thing for God to abandon to ruin a great many of the seed
of Abraham in full force and virtue; for so it was now. The number of the
children of Israel was as the sand of the sea (according to the
promise, Gen. xxii. 17), and yet only a remnant shall be saved.
II. The consumption of others: The Lord God of hosts shall make a
consumption, v. 23. This is not meant (as that v. 18) of the
consumption of the Assyrian army, but of the consumption of the estates and
families of many of the Jews by the Assyrian army. This is taken notice of to
magnify the power and goodness of God in the escape of the distinguished
remnant, and to let us know what shall become of those that will not return to
God; they shall be wasted away by this consumption, this general decay in
the midst of the land. Observe, 1. It is a consumption of God's own
making; he is the author of it. The Lord God of hosts, whom none can resist,
shall make this consumption. 2. It is decreed. It is not the product of
a sudden resolve, but was before ordained. It is determined, not only
that there shall be such a consumption, but it is cut out (so the word
is); it is particularly appointed how far it shall extend and how long it
shall continue, who shall be consumed by it and who not. 3. It is an
overflowing consumption, that shall overspread the land, and, like a mighty
torrent or inundation, bear down all before it. 4. Though it overflows, it is
not at random, but in righteousness, which signifies both wisdom and
equity. God will justly bring this consumption upon a provoking people, but he
will wisely and graciously set bounds to it. Hitherto it shall come, and no
further.
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Encouragement
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24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD
of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he
shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after
the manner of Egypt. 25 For yet a very little while, and the
indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. 26
And the LORD
of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian
at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall
he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 27 And it shall come to
pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy
shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed
because of the anointing. 28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to
Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages: 29 They are
gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is
afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. 30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter
of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. 31
Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against
the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33
Behold, the Lord, the LORD
of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall
be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. 34 And he
shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by
a mighty one.
The prophet, in his preaching, distinguishes between the precious and the
vile; for God in his providence, even in the same providence, does so. He
speaks terror, in Sennacherib's invasion, to the hypocrites, who were the people
of God's wrath, v. 6. But here he speaks comfort to the sincere,
who were the people of God's love. The judgment was sent for the sake of the
former; the deliverance was wrought for the sake of the latter. Here we have,
I. An exhortation to God's people not to be frightened at this threatening
calamity, nor to be put into any confusion or consternation by it. Let the
sinners in Zion be afraid (ch. xxxiii. 14): but O my people,
that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, v. 24. Note,
It is against the mind and will of God that his people, whatever may happen,
should give way to that fear which has torment and amazement. Those that dwell
in Zion, where God dwells and where his people attend him, and are employed in
his service, that are under the protection of the bulwarks that are round
about Zion (Ps. xlviii. 13), need not be afraid of any enemy. Let their
souls dwell at ease in God.
II. Considerations offered for the silencing of their fear.
1. The Assyrian shall do nothing against them but what God has appointed and
determined. They are here told before hand what he shall do, that it may be no
surprise to them: "He shall smite thee by the divine permission,
but it shall be only with a rod to correct thee, not with a sword to
wound and kill; nay, he shall but lift up his staff against thee,
threaten thee, and frighten thee, and shake the rod at thee, after the
manner of Egypt, as the Egyptians shook their staff against your fathers
at the Red Sea, when they said, We will pursue, we will overtake (Exod.
xv. 9), but could not reach to do them any hurt." Note, We should not be
frightened at those enemies that can do no more than frighten us.
2. The storm shall soon blow over (v. 25): Yet a very little
while--a little, little while (so the word is), and the indignation
shall cease, even my anger, which is the staff in their hand (v.
5), so that when that ceases they are disarmed and disabled to do any further
mischief. Note, God's anger against his people is but for a moment (Ps. xxx.
5), and when that ceases, and is turned away from us, we need not fear the
fury of any man, for it is impotent passion.
3. The enemy that threatens them shall himself be reckoned with. God's anger
against his people shall cease in the destruction of their enemies;
when he turns away his wrath from Israel he shall turn it against the
Assyrian; and the rod with which he corrected his people shall not only be
laid aside, but thrown into the fire. He lifted up his staff against
Zion, but God shall stir up a scourge for him (v. 26); he is a
terror to God's people, but God will be a terror to him. The destroying angel
shall be this scourge, which he can neither flee from nor contend with. The
prophet, for the encouragement of God's people, quotes precedents, and puts
them in mind of what God had done formerly against the enemies of his church,
who were very strong and formidable, but were brought to ruin. The destruction
of the Assyrian shall be, (1.) According to the slaughter of Midian
(which was effected by an invisible power, but effected suddenly, and it was a
total rout); and as, at the rock of Oreb, one of the princes of Midian,
after the battle, was slain, so shall Sennacherib be in the temple of his god
Nisroch, after the defeat of his forces, when he thinks the bitterness of
death is past. Compare with this Ps. lxxxiii. 11, Make their nobles like
Oreb and like Zeeb; and see how God's promises and his people's prayers
agree. (2.) As his rod was upon the sea, the Red Sea, as Moses' rod was
upon that, to divide it first for the escape of Israel and then to close it
again for the destruction of their pursuers, so shall his rod now be lifted
up, after the manner of Egypt, for the deliverance of Jerusalem and the
destruction of the Assyrian. Note, It is good to observe a resemblance between
God's latter and former appearances for his people, and against his and their
enemies.
4. They shall be wholly delivered from the power of the Assyrian, and from the
fear of it, v. 27. "They shall not only be eased of the Assyrian
army, which is now quartered upon them and which is a grievous yoke and burden
to them, but they shall no more pay that tribute to the king of Assyria which
before this invasion he exacted from them (2 Kings xviii. 14), shall be no
longer at his service, nor lie at his mercy, as they have done; nor shall he
ever again put the country under contribution." Some think it looks
further, to the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon; and
further yet, to the redemption of believers from the tyranny of sin and Satan.
The yoke shall not only be taken away, but it shall be destroyed. The
enemy shall no more recover his strength, to do the mischief he has done; and
this because of the anointing, for their sakes who were partakers of
the anointing. (1.) For Hezekiah's sake, who was the anointed of the Lord, who
had been an active reformer, and was dear to God. (2.) For David's sake. This
is particularly given as the reason why God would defend Jerusalem from
Sennacherib (ch. xxxvii. 35), For my own sake, and for my servant
David's sake. (3.) For his people Israel's sake, the good people among
them that had received the unction of divine grace. (4.) For the sake of the
Messiah, the Anointed of God, whom God had an eye to in all the deliverances
of the Old-Testament church, and hath still an eye to in all the favours he
shows to his people. It is for his sake that the yoke is broken, and that we
are made free indeed.
III. A description both of the terror of the enemy and the terror with which
many were struck by it, and the folly of both exposed, v. 28, to the
end. Here observe,
1. How formidable the Assyrians were and how daring and threatening they
affected to appear. Here is a particular description of the march of
Sennacherib, what course he steered, what swift advances he made: He has
come to Aiath, &c. "This and the other place he has made himself
master of, and has met with no opposition." At Michmash he has laid up
his carriages, as if he had no further occasion for his heavy artillery,
so easily was every place he came to reduced; or the store-cities of Judah,
which were fortified for that purpose, had now become his magazines. Some
remarkable pass, and an important one, he had taken: They have gone over
the passage.
2. How cowardly the men of
Judah
were, the degenerate seed of that lion's whelp. They were afraid; they fled
upon the first alarm, and did not offer to make any head against the enemy.
Their apostasy from God had dispirited them, so that one chased a thousand of
them. Instead of a valiant shout, to animate one another, nothing was heard by
lamentation, to discourage and weaken one another. And poor Anathoth, a
priests' city, that should have been a pattern of courage, shrieks louder than
any, v. 30. With respect to those that gathered themselves
together, it was not to fight, but to flee by consent, v. 31. This is
designed either, (1.) To show how fast the news of the enemy's progress flew
through the kingdom: He has come to Aiath, says one; nay, says another,
He has passed to Migron, &c. And yet, perhaps, it was not
altogether so bad as common fame represented it. But we must watch against the
fear, not only of evil things, but of evil tidings, which often make things
worse than really they are, Ps. cxii. 7. Or, (2.) To show what imminent danger
Jerusalem was in, when its enemies made so many bold advances towards it and
its friends could not make one bold stand to defend it. Note, The more daring
the church's enemies are, and the more dastardly those are that should appear
for her, the more will God be exalted in his own strength, when,
notwithstanding this, he works deliverance for her.
3. How impotent his attempt upon Jerusalem shall be: he shall remain at
Nob, whence he may see Mount Zion, and there he shall shake his hand
against it, v. 32. He shall threaten it, and that shall be all; it
shall be safe, and shall set him at defiance. The daughter of Jerusalem, to be
even with him, shall shake her head at him, ch. xxxvii. 22.
4. How fatal it would prove, in the issue, to himself. When he shakes his
hand at Jerusalem, and is about to lay hands on it, then is God's time to
appear against him; for Zion is the place of which God has said, This is my
rest for ever; therefore those who threaten it affront God himself. Then the
Lord shall lop the bough with terror and cut down the thickets of the forest,
v. 33, 34. (1.) The pride of the enemy shall be humbled, the boughs
that are lifted up on high shall be lopped off, the high and stately trees
shall be hewn down; that is, the haughty shall be humbled. Those that lift up
themselves in competition with God or opposition to him shall be abased. (2.)
The power of the enemy shall be broken: The thickets of the forest he shall
cut down. When the Assyrian soldiers were under their arms, and their
spears erect, they looked like a forest, like Lebanon; but, when in one night
they all became as dead corpses, the pikes were laid on the ground, and
Lebanon was of a sudden cut down by a mighty one, by the destroying
angel, who in a little time slew so many thousands of them: and, if this shall
be the exit of that proud invader, let not God's people be afraid of him. Who
art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die?
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