Isaiah 10: With Upraised Hand

The tenth chapter of Isaiah brings to a head the theme introduced starting in 9:8.  Well-deserved punishment is coming upon the nation of Israel.  Four times (9:12, 9:17, 9,21, 10:4) we hear that God faces His people with a threatening "upraised hand" because they simply refuse to learn the lesson of His discipline and yield to His correction.

God's mind is made up - the Israelites must be punished for their egregious sins.  His decision is firm and complete, extending to everyone in the nation, even upon those He would normally favor with compassion.  "Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and the widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness.  Yet for all of this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised" (9:17).

After describing the sufferings and deprivations that will come upon the people, Isaiah turns in verse 5 to specifically condemn God's chosen vessel of punishment: the Assyrians.  The Assyrians believe they aren't merely to punish the other nations, but to destroy them.  Because they have looked upon themselves with pride not as an instrument in the Lord's hand but as responsible for their own success and enjoying the cruelty they have been inflicting, God speaks through the prophet.  Isaiah speaks a message of warning against the oppressors!  "Woe to the Assyrians, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!" (vs. 5)  The next fifteen verses detail the Lord's case against the Assyrians and contain a sentence of coming judgment upon them.

As is often the case in prophecies that talk about the trauma of exile occurring to Israel and Judah, there is a corresponding promise of a remnant.  The destruction will not be total, but a small segment of the population will be spared.  "A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God" (vs. 21).  God promises them that their time of punishment will come to an end and that those who punished them will be punished instead!  "Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction" (vs. 25).  The chapter ends on the positive note of Israel's enemies being judged instead of Israel herself!