Verse 4 again, without me. Well, God's presence means more than something, it means everything. What believer wants to be anywhere without the presence of God? I mean, that's how we define hell. Although Satan doesn't rule hell, that would be a reward. God rules hell too. But what's the benefit if you're there?
Really none. Precisely what Moses was saying, Lord, if you don't go with us, don't send us. I don't want to go without you. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 10 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. No amateur if you're able to sit through verse by verse through the book of Isaiah. And if you have your Bibles, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 10.
We will consider the hero judge this evening, and we'll get right to it. Verse 1, woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed, to rob the needy of justice, verse 2, and to take what is right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless, legalized government crimes. That's what this is. These are gangster governors, and they assume immunity, that they're going to get away with it. And they may get away with it for a lifetime. These two verses should be posted in every branch of the government.
The executive, the judicial, the legislative, every courthouse in the world ought to have these two verses from Isaiah. Their abuse of power abused people. It wasn't as though they were just, you know, making underhanded deals. They were hurting people. And the group hit the hardest by life were now hit the hardest by those who were supposed to be their shepherds.
So it's just wrong all the way around. Cowardly they were, preying on the defenseless. Verse 3, what will you do in the day of punishment and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your glory? So to whoever the prophet is addressing this to, it applies to anyone guilty of these crimes. In this chapter, once we get to verse 4, it really tunes in on to a period of time that deals with that time when Samaria has already fallen.
The first four verses could go with the previous chapter or they could stand independently. But here it's a haunting question, dodged by I think most people for most of their lives. They don't want to hear about what will you do in the day of punishment. The chilling reality of judgment on the wicked is that there's no alternative.
Once they're dead, there's no alternative left. Judgment is already sealed for them. Here in verse 3 where he says the desolation which will come from afar. Well for Judah and well for Israel, the northern kingdom, it was Assyria. For Judah it will be both Assyria and then it will be Babylon.
And that all brought upon themselves by themselves. And here's this righteous man Isaiah in the middle of it who is documenting not only the history but God's response to what is going on. There's a lot of suffering going on in Israel at the time that this man ministered. Even in the days of the good kings such as Hezekiah, a lot of suffering took place because they chose to infest the land with false beliefs and disrespect Yahweh. In verse 4 he says, without me they shall bow down among the prisoners and they shall fall among the slain for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still.
Well that happened to the northern kingdom and it won't be turned away from the southern kingdom. But that verse 4 again, without me. Well God's presence means more than something, it means everything. What believer wants to be anywhere without the presence of God? That's how we define hell. Although Satan doesn't rule hell, that would be a reward. God rules hell too. But what's the benefit if you're there?
Really none. Precisely what Moses was saying, Lord if you don't go with us, don't send us. I don't want to go without you. So that without me is a charged word from the prophet and he is telling the people that you're going to be defeated, you're going to be made prisoners as the Assyrians did to the north and much of the south because you are without me. The secret blessing of the believer is God's presence, a strength against any foe regardless of what the foe does. When Paul was beheaded God was with him and Paul knew it and so did the other martyrs. Stephen when he was being stoned he saw the Lord, he didn't see himself being forsaken by God, he saw God standing to receive him into heaven.
How you look at it makes all the difference. So Yahweh, not Assyria's gods, will hold them accountable. So the six things that they are guilty of here in these first four verses is making unjust laws, issuing oppressive decrees, depriving the poor, that is the weak and the feeble, the helpless, depriving them of their rights, God-given rights, taking away justice from the land, hurting widows, and robbing the fatherless.
They were stacking up the charges against themselves and they had no justification for it. What could they say in the presence of God for doing these things? Now verse five, the prophet explicitly turns his attention to the then world power and or that power in that region and there was nobody on earth that could take out Assyria at this time amongst the nations. So verse five, woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. Well according again to verse 11, the northern kingdom has already fallen. So he's addressing Assyria while Assyria is making raids in the south, in Judah, and there were three large raids.
The largest one was not a raid, it was a full-out invasion and so were some of the others, the other two. So they're being addressed now and God is saying that he used them to chasten Israel, that they were his staff in his hand for his indignation against Israel. God employed the idolatrous Assyrians to judge his people but he notifies them through the prophet that they're going to be judged also. Just because God is using them does not mean they are excused from the wickedness that they do. What a lesson to mankind today. God can use you and you still be very much wrong with him.
You still be very much going to hell. I'm not talking about those who've given their life to Christ. Humanity in general can do decent things. God has obligated himself to bless humanity in many ways or else humanity would fall apart. I mean, the first people that were created or procreation, you know, after Adam and Eve and the societies began to build, they had to be taught a lot of things.
They wouldn't be able to figure out and survive. God had to give knowledge in a special way way back then. And as time has gone forward, God has opened up knowledge to man when he is good and ready. And most of mankind traveled at the speed of horse for how many centuries?
Millennium. And now, you know, we're traveling at the speed of rockets. So, if you look at these things in history, you see that it was almost a door shut to human knowledge. And then God opened it up a little bit and the knowledge began to increase and look at us now, unlike ever before.
But most of humanity hasn't been this way as far as the technological advances. Anyway, Assyria was his rod, as he says, his club, his axe, and his saw. And they treated, we read that in verses 5, 15 and 24, but verse 6 tells us that they treated the Jews like mud in the streets.
God's keeping a record of that. God sent the Assyrians to judge Israel to take the spoil. What Assyria did was mock Yahweh and try to destroy as many human beings as they could. They were savages in that regard. They considered themselves conquerors.
And God said, no, you exceeded the privilege given to you. They plundered the land, we're told in verse 14, like a farmer gathers eggs. And so God's purpose to discipline, but Assyria, of course, went savage, as verse 7 will point out also. And then in verses 8 through 14, they boasted of their conquests while insulting Yahweh at the same time. So that's an overview.
We'll get some of the details. But look at it in history, what Isaiah is faced with. The kings of Assyria being God's instrument of punishment to a rebellious people. And if the Jews weren't punished for how they treated God, what would that say of God? They forced his hand. And God is blameless in his judgments.
He always is. Well, there's an unmentioned king in scripture from Assyria that speaks of defeating Ahab and forcing Jehu to pay him tribute. There is another Assyrian king, Pol, by name, who took tribute from Mahanaim, a king in the north. There's a third Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser.
He carried two and a half tribes into captivity from the east side of Jordan. There's a fourth Assyrian king, Shalomizer. He laid siege to Samaria, the northern kingdom's capital. Then a fifth king, Sargon, he took the capital.
Shalomizer having died. Then there's a sixth Assyrian king, Sennacherib. He took all the four to five cities of Judah, not Jerusalem, but all the other cities, from Hezekiah, a godly king, forced Hezekiah to buy safety, to pay off the Sennacherib from coming into Jerusalem. And then there's a seventh Assyrian king, Estradodon. He had Manasseh, who is not yet alive, brought as a prisoner to Babylon. And so there we see Assyria being used as a scourge on an idolatrous people, a people that were claiming Yahweh as God and yet worshipping and practicing all sorts of heinous, everything from ripping off the poor and taking advantage of widows to child sacrifice and other such things. So here Isaiah calls Assyria, their monarchs, the rod of God's anger.
But he's of course including, he's not leaving out an important part. And this would get to Assyria. He's not leaving out, oh, and by the way, God's going to deal with you and you know you deserve it. They wouldn't believe that.
They dismissed it. And the Babylonians will come along and fulfill these prophecies. We'll get about five chapters of Isaiah talking about Assyria judgment.
And that's why we're going to move through chapter 10 a little bit faster than normal. At least that's the plan because we're covering so much their coming judgment. In verse 6, God says, I will send him against an ungodly nation and against the people of my wrath. I will give him charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey and to tread them down like mire in the streets. God's going to allow this, but he didn't. This is something they wanted to do. Judah is considered the ungodly nation at this point for how they treated their Bibles.
If you got nothing else out of tonight's study, that is one thing that you should come away with. Judah is considered ungodly for how they treated their Bible. How many people claim to be Christians but are ungodly because of how they treat their Bible? They ignore it. They don't even read it.
Probably can't find it if it's in their house. There's whole religions that tout Jesus Christ. Just not interested in what his Bible has to say.
All of the northern kingdom, they had the law of Moses. Look how they treated it. They discarded it as though it was unimportant. Judah is doing the same thing. Not every single person. There's a remnant, Isaiah being one of them. But the multitudes, they trampled the word of God.
This is something going on to this day. Is that not a fair question to someone who claims to be a Christian and knows nothing of the Bible? You can say, consider how you treat God's word.
You just ignore it. Like you don't need it in life. God's view is the opposite of that. We want his presence. That was Isaiah was talking about. My presence being with you. Well, what can you know about the presence of God unless he tells you?
Well, if he doesn't tell you, if you don't listen to that, you're just making it up. And that is the definition of idolatry. Making up things about God. He despises that.
Especially when there's so much revelation available. In verse 7, yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so. But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off not a few nations. And so there God is saying, he's just a savage at this point. He doesn't think he's my instrument. He doesn't think that there's any problem with what he's doing.
There's a big problem with it. They saw themselves as conquerors, not instruments of God. Even though Isaiah's word was available to them. And they would have known it. We find that when we come to Jeremiah's ministry, we find Nebuchadnezzar knows what Jeremiah is saying. It's being reported to him. And that's why Jeremiah received such a nice treatment from the Babylonians when they finally do enter into Jerusalem. They take care of him.
Because they saw him call it like it was. Anyway, verse 8, for he says, are not my princes altogether kings? Now, what he is, is one of three things.
Well, two things on this one. The kings which he had conquered, they either became subject princes to the Assyrians, making them vassal kings. Or he's saying here that the Assyrian nobles are so wealthy and have enough power and dominion in their own territories that it's as though they were kings.
Either one fits. Both could be true. In verse 9, he mentions these cities, and I'm going to skip some verses just for time's sake, and the benefit of not having to mention these names. But the list of cities that are in verse 9 are cities that have already fallen to Assyria, and therefore Assyria was boasting of her invincibility. Well, we see this with people today, just boasting how, you know, man can do this and mankind can do that, and pretty soon man's going to have all this. Man's never going to stop sin.
It's never going to happen. And there'll always be wickedness and harm to others as a testimony to the Word of God. Verse 10, as my hand has found the kingdom of the idols whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols. And so there, verse 11 tells us that Samaria is already taken out. That's how I understand that verse, and I think most commentators do.
The infestation of carved images. Now, this could mean one of three things. Either Israel had fallen not only into idolatry, but into an inferior brand of idolatry. It's like, how do you belong to an inferior false religion, when by definition they're all inferior? And so there's just degrees, and there are. Some of you just scratch your head.
Look at the Branch Davidians, David Koresh. I mean, it's like, man, what were they thinking? It was another one. They killed themselves waiting for the spaceship to come, but first they mutilated themselves first.
This, I don't think it's 20 years old, that event episode. Anyway, this also could mean the Assyrians viewed Yahweh as an inferior deity, which they did. I think it means both, that they mocked the Jews and their idolatry. The Jews were, many of them, mingling Yahweh into their false religions, and the Assyrians just made mockery of all of it. Assyria thought her military victories were spiritual victories. So if they conquered a city, and they did many, they felt that's because their gods were better than the gods of the cities they conquered, and they lumped Yahweh in with that.
And that's what he's going to hold them accountable to also. During Isaiah's ministry in Jerusalem, it was filled with idols. It's far worse by the time Jeremiah comes along a hundred years later. Now, verse 12, we'll take verse 12 through 15. Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.
God is just sick of his face, as the nation goes. Verse 13, for he says, the Assyrians, by the strength of my hand, I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent. Also, I have removed the boundaries of the people and have robbed their treasuries, so I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. Verse 14, my hand has found like a nest of riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth, and there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.
In other words, it's like taking candy from a baby, going around conquering everybody. Verse 15, now is God's response. Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it, or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it, as if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood. And so the prophet is saying, Assyria, you're simply my instrument. And if you take a screwdriver and you tighten a screw, you don't praise the screwdriver.
Well, you know, to some degree it's like, thank you, I didn't have to use a stick, in that sense, of course. But it's you, you're the operator. You get the credit, not the screwdriver, and when you mix that up with God, you're guilty. And Assyria was doing that. God is saying, you're just an instrument.
This is not, I could have squashed you at any point, but instead I used you. You would think Babylon, who also had these writings, would have learned, and they did not. But God sent Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar.
All of the kings I mentioned from Assyria, we don't read of any of the prophets having the influence on them like Daniel had on Nebuchadnezzar. Anyway, mankind boasting is just setting him up for judgment to God. God owns all the knowledge. He could have withheld, you know, God allowed man to develop a steam engine, for example, to harness electricity.
God allowed those things, and he could have withheld them, and he has not. So the Assyrians, still accountable, verse 16, therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his glory he will kindle a burning, like a burning of a fire. Verse 17, so the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. Well, the judgment of the Holy One, we get that in Isaiah 37, we got it in Kings already, where God just wiped out 185,000 Assyrian troops and they never came back to the promised land again after that. And that's what's referenced there. We don't have time to read it, but the language about giving them leanness is in that description. Verse 18, and it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body, and they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
So the soul and the body, the internal and the external, it's an utter destruction of the whole army, a whole army demolished. Verse 19, then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
