Think on these questions as you dwell in Isaiah 10:20-34:

1. In this passage, Isaiah draws upon the historical example of God's deliverance from Egypt to provide comfort to the people facing the Assyrian threat. How can reflecting on God's past acts of deliverance strengthen our trust in His sovereignty during times of difficulty?

2. The concept of God's discipline is highlighted in the passage, emphasizing that God's purpose in punishment is ultimately to lead His people to repentance and faithfulness. How can we apply this understanding of discipline to our own lives and view challenging circumstances as opportunities for growth and transformation?

3. The imagery of God cutting down the lofty and bringing down the proud nations underscores His ultimate power and control over human affairs. How does recognizing God's supremacy over the plans and ambitions of humanity impact our perspective on the challenges and uncertainties we face in life?

Transcript:

We should have known what to expect when we came to the Book of Isaiah. It's a prophetic book. It speaks of judgment, but it just keeps coming at us. Even when it talks about the judgment of Judah and of Israel, it then rebounds and there's a reversal where God is judging those that He used to judge Judah and Israel. There's judgment after judgment after judgment here. We see here, as we look at this text, that God is giving comfort to His people. He's saying, Yes, I am coming in judgment, but there will be a judgment on those that I used and those who came in and overtook you. But he's also talking about this idea of a remnant. And we see here that God tells the people, those of you who dwell on Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian. They're going to come in. They're going to do these things. They're going to oppressed you, just as the Egyptians did. Now, understand the significance of this here, in that what is Isaiah doing? He's pointing back to the past, a past they all knew. He's pointing back to a time when God displayed His power, even though Egypt seemed to be more powerful.

That's the idea that's coming out here, is we keep seeing these past events being drawn out by Isaiah. God is saying to them, Hey, in a little while, my fury will come to an end with you, and then I'm going to direct my anger another way. The idea here is that just as the Israelis were taken out of Egypt and God led them by His mighty hand, He's going to do the same thing here. He says that, And the Lord of Hosts will wield against him a whip, as when he struck Midian with the rock of Orab, and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did at Egypt. Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to write this, is using this familiar imagery from the stories from the past to give the people comfort that God is ultimately in control in this remnant of people will come back and they will be restored. This is an important idea. We're going to come back to this a little bit, but ultimately, what are we seeing? We're seeing that God is more powerful than the plans of man, than these swords of man, the armies of the kingdoms.

We see in verse 33 and 34, Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lock the bowes with terrifying power. The gradient height will be hewned down, and the lofty will be brought low. Notice reversal language here again. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one. God is ultimately in control. Well, it may seem he is not in control because the Assyrians are coming in, doing these things. God is the one who is in control, and he ultimately has power over them. But what I want to see as we think about this, we've seen a lot of judgment, but what do we have here? We have this idea of this remnant of Israel return, that faithfulful will return. And we see that punishment of God to these people who are being unfaithful, that they're deserving of this punishment. We've seen that multiple times here in Isaiah. But we see that purpose of this punishment isn't to punish for punishments. Goal is repentance. The goal is to bring them back. The goal is to make them faithful. That is the purpose of punishment. If you're a parent, you don't want to punish just for punishment's sake.

You want your kids to change. You want them to understand why it was wrong. You want them to stop. That is the same thing with the punishment, the discipline of the law. As we think about this, and we think about what all these stories of judgment mean for you and I as we look at them? We're not going to be judged in this way, but we do experience the discipline of the law. But the goal of that discipline is not to punish us, just punish. The goal of discipline is to disciple us, to cause us to return to God, to cause us to repent, to desire to be faithful, to come to Him in repentance and in faith and put our trust in Him instead of ourselves. So may we do that? May we understand that when we see that God is disciplining us, that we are experiencing these things. May we understand? May we turn away from our sin and instead turn in faith and in repentance to God and trust in Him alone.