Page 30 - Isaiah Student Worktext

dilemma for us today. Similar to Judas, who was pre-ordained to betray Jesus and was then and still is
being held accountable for it.

God uses wicked people. God is still in control, but it’s still difficult for us to understand how a just God
allows wickedness—but wickedness will be punished in the end. God is the ultimate ruler of all nations,
even the most wicked.

Think of this: have any of us ever done anything wicked? Does He still use us? If we are believers, we
are held accountable for our wickedness, but since we are believers, Christ has covered our sins.

For Assyria, their plan was to continue in their wickedness, but God only allowed them to go so far.

In other scripture passages there are ‘avenging angels’ of the Lord who are sent specifically to destroy,
as in the Book of Revelation. Assyria was not like that…they were simply a tool who thought they were
in control, but they were not.

V. 8-11 The Assyrians believed that they were all kings, they believed that this list of cities that they had
conquered was just the beginning.

The lesson for us here is that arrogance, claiming credit for that which God has done (He allowed us to
take our first breath this morning, so He gets credit for all that we may have done) will lead to
destruction.

V. 12-14 Once God had taught a lesson to Israel, He will turn His punishment upon the one He used as
punisher. He will ‘rob’ their treasuries, He will remove their boundaries, He will gather their riches like
one gathering eggs.

V. 15 Assyria was the ‘ax’ that God wielded against Israel. Now the ax was bragging about what it had
done.

V. 16-19 goes into more detail about God’s plan for Assyria. Leanness, fire, briers and thorns, wasting
away like a sick man. The ‘trees of the forest’ is symbolic for the warriors they have, and they will be so
few that a child could count or write them.

V. 20-23 Now God turns to the remnant, those who have escaped the wrath of God in the form of the
Assyrians. These ones who are left will recognize that their confidence, their dependence, is upon God
alone. We know that this won’t last, and probably not even to the next generation.

Our confidence needs to be, not in the strength of our army or the wisdom of our worldly leaders, but in
God alone.

In V. 22 we hear the echo of the promise to Abraham, that his descendants would be as the sands of the
sea. Now only a portion, a fraction remains.

In reality, at any given point in Israel’s history, only a small portion of the nation were genuine believers.
God’s destruction came not only for the Assyrians, but also for unbelieving, disobedient Jews.

29