Page 29 - Isaiah Student Worktext

That’s the part that so many struggle with. Our image is that God will never leave us, never forsake us,
will forgive us unlimited numbers of times. But this image says that He is always at the ready to unleash
His wrath. Both are true…

God is a passionate God. He rejoices over the repentance of a single sinner. And while we are told that
He is ‘slow to anger’, His anger is nonetheless fierce.

V. 13-17 When God does visit His wrath upon the people, they are always called on to search their
hearts and lives for the sins that brought the judgment upon them.

James 4: 9-10 tells us that we are to be mournful and weep, be humbled, because of our sin. In Israel’s
case, there was no such humility.

He vows to cut off the head and tail of Israel…all leaders. V. 16 says it is the leaders who have caused
the people to err.

We often look to the young as the promise of the future. God says He finds no joy in them, because
even they have been trained in evil.

V. 18-19 ‘Metastasize’ is one of the most dreaded words in our language. It usually refers to a cancer
that has spread.

Sin metastasizes, too. Wickedness burns, it spreads from one person to another, it becomes so common
place that no one thinks of it as a bad thing any longer.

It begins in V. 18 by devouring the briers and thorns, which sounds like a good thing. But then it spreads
to the forest and eventually consumes even the people. It will get to the point where even family
members are ignored.

V. 20-21 Eating your own flesh is probably an extension of the idea of brother to brother conflict.
Manasseh and Ephraim, named for brothers, the sons of Joseph, will devour each other.

Chapter 10 - Main Idea: God uses Assyria to punish Israel, then He judges
Assyria for doing it, because of their motives.

V. 1-2 Notice again the ‘woe’ prescribed to those who ‘rob’ the poor and widows
and the needy of justice. We’re only on Chapter 10 and this has come up in Isaiah many times.

V. 3-4 The Day of punishment or Judgment is coming. To whom will we turn, if we have ignored the
Lord all this time? Those who come from afar refers to the ones they have turned to in the past, in this
case, Assyria. There will be no consolation from them.

Without ‘Me’, without the Lord, we will be imprisoned. And the passage ends with God’s anger still on
display, BUT He is also still stretching out His hand.

V. 5-6 God literally assigned Assyria to go after His disobedient people. And yet, at the same time, He
holds them accountable for their crimes against His people. This has been and continues to be a

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