Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—September 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

September 17, Isaiah 10

For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. - Isaiah 10:22

Pride has been our problem since the garden of Eden. Our tendency to exalt ourselves may show up in a variety of costumes. Like Adam and Eve, we all have sinned through pride when we've thought our will was better for us than God's will. I hope neither you nor I have thought, as Israel did in Isaiah 9, that we can escape disciplinary actions and overcome obstacles that God himself puts in our path. Or maybe we’ve been tempted to exhibit our pride in the way Assyria did in Isaiah 10. The ruthless and powerful Assyrians were on the fast track to becoming a vast empire as they gobbled up lesser nations around them. They talked like Nebuchanezzar would a few years later about himself in Babylon, when they said, “I have succeeded by my own hand and wisdom." We're on dangerous ground when we convince ourselves that we are self-made wonders. Whatever the mask or flavor, underneath is the bitter, deadly root of pride.

God used the Assyrians as his razor, to punish nations who disobeyed and disregarded him. He gave the northern kingdom of Israel into their hands. In their bloodlust, they went beyond God's intention and became smug and arrogant in their power. But they were not the only tool in God's toolbox of nations. He had raised them and he would raise up others for his purposes. The Assyrians would fall before they could take Jerusalem. Their fall would come through divine intervention, not military action. God told them through Isaiah that the axe can't boast over the one who chops wood with it, and the saw can't exalt itself over the one who wields it. Assyria's fierce military force would be wiped out supernaturally in a night and Jerusalem would be spared. God humbles the proud, whether the pride is in an individual or a nation.

Chapter 10 begins with another stanza and repeated chorus of God's judgment against Israel. He had pronounced judgment against them in Chapter 9 for their arrogance, their error, and their wickedness. The fourth stanza was a denunciation of their rampant oppression and injustice. God asked some penetrating questions to those who had grown rich by preying on the helpless ones around them: "What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?" That reminds me of God's rebuke of the foolish rich man in Luke: "This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

God's judgment against these sinful nations was both decreed and deserved. He is altogether righteous in punishing disobedient, prideful people and nations. But because his judgment and his righteousness are both perfect, God would still spare a remnant of Abraham's descendants so the promises God made to Abraham could be fulfilled. Out of the smoke and terror of conquest and captivity, a much smaller remnant of the nation would return. And through them and their succeeding generations, the promised Messiah would come.

We should examine our own lives and see how Satan tempts us to exalt ourselves in pride against God. Does he tempt us to think we are self-sufficient? Does he entice us to think of how free and powerful we are to do as we please? Does he suggest that our will and desires to please ourselves are just as good if not better than God’s will and desire for us? Remember that Satan's own downfall was pride, and he will use it to take you down into condemnation with him if he can. Let's not fall for it.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.