Isaiah - Chapter 10

[Isaiah 10:1] WOE TO THOSE WHO DECREE INIQUITOUS DECREES, AND THE WRITERS WHO KEEP WRITING OPPRESSION,                      

“THE WRITERS” Journalists, media people, etc. Yesterday I was browsing through some popular books on psychology and sociology etc. You can get a lot of insights and useful infromation from these type of works BUT if you take them too seriously you are liable to end uop with a perverted and untrue view of life and of the people around you.

[Isaiah 10:2] TO TURN ASIDE THE NEEDY FROM JUSTICE AND TO ROB THE POOR OF MY PEOPLE OF THEIR RIGHT, THAT WIDOWS MAY BE THEIR SPOIL, AND THAT THEY MAY MAKE THE FATHERLESS THEIR PREY!                      
“WIDOWS MAY BE THEIR SPOIL” Sometimes the policies of governmental agencies and other authorities ends up in effectively emasculating the male. The women are the ones who suffer most as a consequence.

[Isaiah 10:3] WHAT WILL YOU DO ON THE DAY OF PUNISHMENT, IN THE STORM WHICH WILL COME FROM AFAR? TO WHOM WILL YOU FLEE FOR HELP, AND WHERE WILL YOU LEAVE YOUR WEALTH?                      
You can only do so much no matter who you are. The bottom line is that sooner or later we all have to give a personal accounting for our actions before God.

[Isaiah 10:4] NOTHING REMAINS BUT TO CROUCH AMONG THE PRISONERS OR FALL AMONG THE SLAIN. FOR ALL THIS HIS ANGER IS NOT TURNED AWAY AND HIS HAND IS STRETCHED OUT STILL.                      
Faced with a merciless enemy the choices are: To pretend to be dead or to have been taken prisoner in order that you not be slaughtered or tortured or both. Assyrian illustrations reveal a sadistic pleasure in inf;icting pain upon the captives, mutilating and raping and killing with torture. Paine reveals that Hilter considered the gaschambers too easy a death for the Jews. Towards the end the nazis would leave lime in the railway cattletrucks into which Jews were crowded and leave them there for a few days and then take out the bodies. They began to no longer bother even driving them to the gas chambers. People who criticise the Allies for not bombing the gas chambers underestimate the determination of the nazis who would not have been stopped or even slowed down by such action. Even so there wasa lot the Allies could have done and did not do.  There did exist strong Jew-hating elements amongst the Allies and this should not be denied.  On the other hand it should not be denied that at some level the Allies were fighting to free the world from Nazi tyranny and in the eyes of the public this included freeing the world from Nazi persecution of the Jews. The determination of Britain to fight was what won the war. The historian A.J.P. Taylor says that the Nazi persecution of the Jews before the war was the major factor in strengthening British public opinion against Germany. In other words despite everything that can be said Protection of the Jews was a factor in the determination of the British populace to fight Hitler.

 [Isaiah 10:5] AH, ASSYRIA, THE ROD OF MY ANGER, THE STAFF OF MY FURY!
Assyria is a means of punishment.

[Isaiah 10:6] AGAINST A GODLESS NATION I SEND HIM, AND AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF MY WRATH I COMMAND HIM, TO TAKE SPOIL AND SEIZE PLUNDER, AND TO TREAD THEM DOWN LIKE THE MIRE OF THE STREETS.                      
“A GODLESS NATION” this is Israel. If we deny God then He will not be there for us when we need Him.

[Isaiah 10:7] BUT HE DOES NOT SO INTEND, AND HIS MIND DOES NOT SO THINK; BUT IT IS IN HIS MIND TO DESTROY, AND TO CUT OFF NATIONS NOT A FEW;             
“NOT SO INTEND” Assyria is not aware of his own evil impulse and of the obvious destructive results of his actions.

                     

[Isaiah 10:8] FOR HE SAYS: "ARE NOT MY COMMANDERS ALL KINGS?                      

[Isaiah 10:9] IS NOT CALNO LIKE CARCHEMISH? IS NOT HAMATH LIKE ARPAD? IS NOT SAMARIA LIKE DAMASCUS?   

[Isaiah 10:10] AS MY HAND HAS REACHED TO THE KINGDOMS OF THE IDOLS WHOSE GRAVEN IMAGES WERE GREATER THAN THOSE OF JERUSALEM AND SAMARIA,
Both Judah (Jerusalem) and the Ten tribes (Samaria) committed idolatry,                     
Alternately both worshipped the True God to a degree but the King of Assyriadid not distinguish between the God of Israel and other gods.

[Isaiah 10:11] SHALL I NOT DO TO JERUSALEM AND HER IDOLS AS I HAVE DONE TO SAMARIA AND HER IMAGES?"                     
“SAMARIA AND HER IMAGES”: the golden bull calf and other idols.  Even when they went into exile the Israelite Cimbrians carried a metal statue of a bull around with them in their wanderings.

[Isaiah 10:12] WHEN THE LORD HAS FINISHED ALL HIS WORK ON MOUNT ZION AND ON JERUSALEM HE WILL  PUNISH THE ARROGANT BOASTING OF THE KING OF ASSYRIA AND HIS HAUGHTY PRIDE.                      

[Isaiah 10:13] FOR HE SAYS: "BY THE STRENGTH OF MY HAND I HAVE DONE IT, AND BY MY WISDOM, FOR I HAVE UNDERSTANDING; I HAVE REMOVED THE BOUNDARIES OF PEOPLES, AND HAVE PLUNDERED THEIR TREASURES; LIKE A BULL I HAVE BROUGHT DOWN THOSE WHO SAT ON THRONES.                      

[Isaiah 10:14] MY HAND HAS FOUND LIKE A NEST THE WEALTH OF THE PEOPLES; AND AS MEN GATHER EGGS THAT HAVE BEEN FORSAKEN SO I HAVE GATHERED ALL THE EARTH; AND THERE WAS NONE THAT MOVED A WING, OR OPENED THE MOUTH, OR CHIRPED."                      

[Isaiah 10:15] SHALL THE AXE VAUNT ITSELF OVER HIM WHO HEWS WITH IT, OR THE SAW MAGNIFY ITSELF AGAINST  HIM WHO WIELDS IT? AS IF A ROD SHOULD WIELD HIM WHO LIFTS IT, OR AS IF A STAFF SHOULD LIFT HIM WHO IS NOT WOOD!                      
The King of Assyria was only a tool in the hand of the Almighty but he did not acknowledge it.

[Isaiah 10:16] THEREFORE THE LORD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, WILL SEND WASTING SICKNESS AMONG HIS STOUT WARRIORS, AND UNDER HIS GLORY A BURNING WILL BE KINDLED, LIKE THE BURNING OF FIRE.                      

[Isaiah 10:17] THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL WILL BECOME A FIRE, AND HIS HOLY ONE A FLAME; AND IT WILL BURN AND DEVOUR HIS THORNS AND BRIERS IN ONE DAY.                     

[Isaiah 10:18] THE GLORY OF HIS FOREST AND OF HIS FRUITFUL LAND THE LORD WILL DESTROY, BOTH SOUL AND BODY, AND IT WILL BE AS WHEN A SICK MAN WASTES AWAY.                      

[Isaiah 10:19] THE REMNANT OF THE TREES OF HIS FOREST WILL BE SO FEW THAT A CHILD CAN WRITE THEM DOWN.                      

[Isaiah 10:20] IN THAT DAY THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL AND THE SURVIVORS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB WILL NO MORE LEAN UPON HIM THAT SMOTE THEM, BUT WILL LEAN UPON THE LORD, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, IN TRUTH.                      
“NO MORE LEAN UPON HIM THAT SMOTE THEM” people often have a masochistic pull to revere and tolerate those who oppress them. Notice how some leftwing Israelis sympathize with Arabs or how the Movies in the USA glorigy Mafia men and other criminals who spend their lives doing evil and exploiting the weak and vulnerable.

“THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL AND THE SURVIVORS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB” They will be one people.

[Isaiah 10:21] A REMNANT WILL RETURN, THE REMNANT OF JACOB, TO THE MIGHTY GOD.       
They shall return to the True one God of Israel.               

[Isaiah 10:22] 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.                      
“BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA” they will be exceedingly numerous towards the end times.
DESTRUCTION- a great calamity may take place. Only a few may survive. Our survival or the survival of our descendants isdependent on our deeds and intentions. We should endeavor to improve ourselves and influence for good those we can.

[Isaiah 10:23] FOR THE LORD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, WILL MAKE A FULL END, AS DECREED, IN THE MIDST OF ALL THE EARTH.                      

[Isaiah 10:24] THEREFORE THUS SAYS THE LORD, THE LORD OF HOSTS: "O MY PEOPLE, WHO DWELL IN ZION, BE NOT AFRAID OF THE ASSYRIANS WHEN THEY SMITE WITH THE ROD AND LIFT UP THEIR STAFF AGAINST YOU AS THE EGYPTIANS DID.
Some identify the Assyrians with Germany. Craig White has written well on this.  There was a tradition that the Assyrians settled in West Germany.   Assyrians or Assyrian agents also settled in Bavaria and Austria.                 

[Isaiah 10:25] FOR IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE MY INDIGNATION WILL COME TO AN END, AND MY ANGER WILL BE   DIRECTED TO THEIR DESTRUCTION.
In Ancient Times it was the Scythian-Israelites who finally brought about the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. This was after the Assyrians had destroyed the Northern Kingdom and exiled all its inhabitants.

[Isaiah 10:26] AND THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL WIELD AGAINST THEM A SCOURGE, AS WHEN HE SMOTE MIDIAN AT THE ROCK OF OREB; AND HIS ROD WILL BE OVER THE SEA, AND HE WILL LIFT IT AS HE DID IN EGYPT.                      

[Isaiah 10:27] AND IN THAT DAY HIS BURDEN WILL DEPART FROM YOUR SHOULDER, AND HIS YOKE WILL BE DESTROYED FROM YOUR NECK." HE HAS GONE UP FROM RIMMON,                      

[Isaiah 10:28] HE HAS COME TO AIATH; HE HAS PASSED THROUGH MIGRON, AT MICHMASH HE STORES HIS BAGGAGE;                      

[Isaiah 10:29] THEY HAVE CROSSED OVER THE PASS, AT GEBA THEY LODGE FOR THE NIGHT; RAMAH TREMBLES, GIBE-AH OF SAUL HAS FLED.                      

[Isaiah 10:30] CRY ALOUD, O DAUGHTER OF GALLIM! HEARKEN, O LAISHAH! ANSWER HER, O ANATHOTH!                      

[Isaiah 10:31] MADMENAH IS IN FLIGHT, THE INHABITANTS OF GEBIM FLEE FOR SAFETY.                      

[Isaiah 10:32] THIS VERY DAY HE WILL HALT AT NOB, HE WILL SHAKE HIS FIST AT THE MOUNT OF THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, THE HILL OF JERUSALEM.                      

[Isaiah 10:33] BEHOLD, THE LORD, THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL LOP THE BOUGHS WITH TERRIFYING POWER; THE GREAT IN HEIGHT WILL BE HEWN DOWN, AND THE LOFTY WILL BE BROUGHT LOW.                      

[Isaiah 10:34] HE WILL CUT DOWN THE THICKETS OF THE FOREST WITH AN AXE, AND LEBANON WITH ITS MAJESTIC TREES WILL FALL.                      
Albion is a name for Britain. It is derived from the name Lebanon.

Chapter Eleven
HOme