Bible Study: August 31, 2022

Okay, so tonight we're going to go into chapter 10, but I'll bring us up to speed on what we were last week as we continue to move through these series of chapters where God is really responding to King Ahaz's lack of faith or even response to God. You remember that the four kings that Isaiah lived under, Ahaz was the one who just simply outright rejected God. Even though God gave him the opportunity, remember in chapter 7, it said, any sign you want Ahaz, any sign you ask for I'll give you to show you that I'm with you and that I'm with Judah, you just have to follow me. Ahaz would not do it. So then God begins this series of five chapters where he does give signs that he is with his people. In chapter 7, he goes right into ultimately the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah coming to earth. That is the ultimate sign that God is with his people, that he will deliver, that he will provide salvation. In chapter 8, he brings up a man you will again, God with us.

In chapter 9, we read it again when he talks about Jesus Christ coming. We saw in chapter 9, beginning last time, that there was the series of comments that would intersperse chapter 9, where God would say beginning in verse after what he says, the warning that he gives to Israel in verse 8, and he says, for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And we talked about all those times where God will issue this warning to people. For instance, if we look back at chapter 9 verses 8 through 12 there, it talks about a time where these specific prophecies would be fulfilled. And it happened back at the time of ancient Israel, but we also have seen, and it's been documented by some, not in the church, that these very same things that occurred in chapters 8 through 12 also occurred at the time of the 9-11 attack in New York at Ground Zero there. And so you can go back and look at that and see if it's and look at that. It's pretty striking when you read the evidence and we see how it's all put together and and interesting, but we talked about dual prophecies and how God would predict, God would prophesy what would happen in the time of ancient Israel and Judah. We see some short-term prophecies and we see that they have been fulfilled. We talked about that. So one of the proofs of the Bible is fulfilled prophecy and how some of those prophecies pertain to the later punishment of God's people when they air and when they turn from Him. So 8 to 12 is a warning for them, a warning for us. 9-11 could be seen as a warning to God's people.

It's the first time there was an attack on the American soil. It's kind of like a warning that God is withdrawing His blessing. As we look back, as we go on through chapter 9, there is the next series there. It talks about how there will be problems and consequences to pay for Israel, modern-day Israel and ancient Israel and Judah turning from God, and that the punishment won't just be on the poor people or on the common people, but it'll be on everyone, the leaders who turn people away from God, the leaders who, as it puts there, cause the people to air. Everyone, everyone will suffer the punishment, is what God says. Then in verse 18, He talks about how this wickedness burns. It just devours the country, it just devours the nation. And you know, that's kind of what we see today. It's just like sin upon sin upon sin, and you wonder, where is it going to stop? What other perverse or vile or wicked thing can man devise? But it just seems to catch fire and it just descends very quickly like fires do, right? It just kind of burns and fires spread quickly, and you see that happening in a nation that moves further and further and further away from God. At the end of chapter 9 then, when we ended last week, again, He said, for all this His anchor is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. So then we begin chapter 10, where He talks about some of the things that go on with His people, the nations that He calls His.

Ancient Israel, ancient Judah, and of course, modern Judah and modern-day Israel as well, and we know where they are. So in chapter 10 and verse 1, He talks about the things that happen in the country. You know, for God gave His righteous law that He wanted people to follow, and if they followed, He would bless them. Ancient Israel, ancient Judah was blessed.

Modern-day Israel, modern-day Judah has been blessed when they acknowledged God, not perfectly because He didn't open their mind to understand all of the Bible, but at least they acknowledged God and looked at the principles of the Bible. But then He says He will withdraw those blessings as they turn against God and do things the opposite of what God says. And that's what He's saying in verse 1 here of chapter 10. He says, Woke to those who decree unrighteous decrees.

It's laws that are different than the Bible, that go against what God's law is, really go against even what common sense is in so many cases. And we begin to see that happening in our world today when we look at some of the extremes that are out there. You know, I always tend to go back because it boggles my mind this gender identity that they have, that even children have the right to decree, you know, I want to be this sex instead of this sex, and parents can be prosecuted or have the kid taken away from them, I guess. And the government allows some kind of transition surgery and treatment to begin. It's like that is an unrighteous decree.

There is no way you can look at that and look at anything in the Bible and think that God would possibly support that. Other things as well, but we see the country, you know, moving into those situations. Woke to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune. You know, what that means is what the laws they do are not to the benefit of the population anymore.

It's more to their benefit. You know, it's leaders of the land are supposed to be for the people, looking out for them, you know, making sure they're taking care of leading them into a way that would lead to peace, prosperity, and security. But sometimes, you know, you look around and say they write misfortune. Again, I can, I guess I can editorialize a little bit. And as we see some of the things going on, even in our nation today, when we look at something as simple as gas prices, and understand that there is, you know, America has been blessed with an endless, if I can use that word, supply of energy, and yet that doesn't happen. We shut off all that. Gas prices, gas prices increase. And it's like, well, what's what's going on all in the name of whatever it is that people have in mind, and appears to be something far different than what is in it for the good of the people. They write misfortune. They write misfortune is what it is. They, they are prescribing it and leading the country or leading their people down and, and, and, and not a good path. Who write misfortune, which they have prescribed? Why do they do it? To rob the needy of justice. You know, there hasn't been a time in my lifetime that justice anymore is dependent on who appointed the judge that you may go before, right? Anymore when you hear about this and this happening, you see, you see edicts like, this judge was a, this presidential appointee, this judge was a, this presidential appointee, and it's like, oh, it's no longer justice for justice. It's who appointed who, what side are you on? And so, you know, you have, you rob the needy of justice. And so it's, it's become, it's become more of a political game in, in, in the worst possible degree. Rob the needy of justice to take what is right from the poor of my people. It'll be an, it'll end up being, as God said back in chapter nine, everyone, everyone that pays. The leaders may think that they will be, you know, that they won't be able, they won't suffer any of the consequences of what they're doing, that they'll be above it all, they'll continue to have their wealth and their resources and their fine life, but God says no, it will be everyone.

He repeats that again here in chapter nine, that they will live, you know, as the kings of old did, on the backs of the other people in their kingdoms, and everything will be fine for them while the rest of the people just sort of, you know, march, march to their orders. They will take what is right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless.

You know, I think we've talked about this before, but as you read through Jeremiah and really all the books in the Bible, you see what, what God continually says, you know, watch out for the poor, watch out for the needy, watch out for the widow, watch out for the fatherless. And yet, you know, whenever anyone turns against them and uses them as prey, and uses them as as a tool to enrich themselves, God draws the line there so many times. That's where he says, you know, when you start doing that, and it's all about you and how you can make yourself rich on the back of other people and use them, that's the line that God, God often draws and says the society has gone far, far, far beyond what he ever wanted it to, because that natural affection that should be there among people has just just disappeared. So with that, as he says, you know, this is, this is what's going on. Here's the type of laws that are being prescribed in your land. Here's what's really happening as your leaders make these decrees and make these decisions that don't really benefit anyone except themselves or whatever plan they have in mind, which the populace may not fully understand what that plan is and where it's leading. And so then God asks a question in verse three of those leaders. Remember, it's woe to those who to creed unrighteous decrees. What will you do in the day of punishment? What's going to happen to you when the country falls, when the punishment comes, because for every action there is a consequence? So God asks them, what will you do in the day of punishment? The desolation, which will come from afar. What will you do? Where will you be? Do you think you're going to be exempt from it? Where will you flee for help? Who are you going to run to? Are you going to run to Assyria like Ahaz did? Remember what Ahaz did? He, in the face of Syria and the house of Israel coming against him, he ran to Assyria for help. God never thought about turning to God. He went to Assyria for help, and all Assyria did was go in and plunder him, turned his back on him. So God is asking the same thing of the leaders today.

To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? Where will you do? What's going to happen to you? Well, God's already answered that in verse 14 of chapter 9 of Isaiah. He will cut off head and tail from Israel, palm branch and bulrush. They will all suffer everyone's punishment. Everyone will feel it. The wealthy and the leaders won't be exempt. Verse 4, without me, you know, Israel will learn, right? And God's people who has blessed the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Without me, they will bow down among the prisoners, and they will fall among the slain. That's a pronouncement on those who decree these unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune for other people. Without me, they never, they never turned to me. They forgot that I was the one who was providing everything for them. Without me, they will bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. They'll be captive. They may die. Whatever God's will is, but they will suffer. They will suffer the consequences of what they have brought on and how they have led the nation so far down in a path away from God. I think back in, I think it's Ezekiel 6, maybe the Ezekiel 7, I think it's Ezekiel 6, where it says that Israel in that day, and usually when we see in that day, talks about a time ahead of us yet, you know, before this, a return of Jesus Christ, that it says Israel will loathe themselves. They'll have this awareness of what have we done. Look what we have destroyed. And as they're in captivity, as they're, you know, being executed or set up for execution, as they're being judged, and as they've lost everything they thought they were building up for themselves, it will occur to them. The very tough realization we're the ones who did this. We did it to everyone, and we did it to ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves. That's got to be a very sick and a very empty feeling that people have. And when the Bible uses the word loathe, it doesn't use words loosely, but they will loathe themselves for what they have done. So, first four verses of verse 10, or chapter 10, we have this, we have these things happening in a nation that is about to go into some punishment that the first 10 chapters of Isaiah talk about over and over and over again.

In response, remember, to Ahaz's refusal to acknowledge God, answer Him, or turn to Him in any way. Ahaz is a type of the nation that just simply will not acknowledge God or even look to Him. And so, whenever you see that attitude in Israel or a nation, you're going to see these same consequences. God has a pattern. God looks at these things, especially where His people are concerned. And when he wrote in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, I think it is, about the curses that will come upon a nation that turns from Him, we see that that happened with Israel and Judah.

And we see the prophecies, and we see the direction of where the world is going today, where this will lead us. So at the end of verse 4, in chapter 10, as we get through this first section, again it says, for all this, His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. You know, God's still there. The punishment isn't over. He keeps warning. He keeps talking about it. And then in verse 5, He says, woe to Assyria. Woe to Assyria. Now, Assyria, we've talked about Assyria. You know, they were a cruel nation. They were never really a world-ruling power. The Bible talks about the four world-ruling powers in Daniel 2, beginning with the Babylonians, then the Medes, then the Greeks, and then the Roman Empire that extends all the way to the return of Jesus Christ. But the Assyrians were never a world-ruling empire, but they were an empire, and they were cruel, or they were vicious, and everyone feared the Assyrians. They had absolutely, I mean, they devised ways to make people suffer in ways I guess we couldn't even imagine.

You know, it is kind of amazing when you look at how some people just, how can the body hurt? How can we hurt the body? It's not enough to kill them. Let's make sure that they experience the full extent of pain, and Assyria is one of those nations. When people heard about Assyria camping at their doorstep, they they trembled. They were afraid. They just shut up. Whatever you want, King Sennacherib or, what is it, the police, whatever, Tigloth police, or whatever you want, we'll give. We just don't want to submit ourselves to your your cruelty. But God says woe to Assyria, and he says woe to Assyria there, because later on we're going to see what happens to Assyria.

God is going to use Assyria as a tool to punish Israel and as a tool to punish Judah. So it says woe to Assyria, and God says the rod of my anger. I'm going to use them. Israel has departed from me. Israel, they'll suffer the consequences. Judah is going to. Israel will actually fall to Assyria. We've talked about that in the last few chapters, which they did in 720 BC during the time of King Ahaz. Judah would be troubled by Assyria, but Judah would never fall to Assyria. We'll talk about that here in a little bit, but God says woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. So God, we see throughout the Bible, he will use other nations to punish his people when they depart from him. Assyria is that tool, now, a most feared nation in the world at that time, and God will use them to punish his people.

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, because God is angry. God is angry with Israel. He is angry with Judah for rejecting and turning from him. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff, like the rod, in whose hand is my indignation. I will use them to punish my people.

Verse 6, I will sense him against an ungodly nation and against the people of my wrath.

Well, we know from chapter 1 on that we've been reading who God is upset with, who God is angry with, is his people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have turned against him from the very beginning. We even talked about the vineyard where he said, I've done everything right for the vineyard. I've provided everything that they need.

And yet, the vineyard that should have brought forth a bumper crop of grapes has brought forth sour grapes. And God said, what more can I do for them? And so we have this extending here now, as God repeats these prophecies to his people. I will send Assyria against an ungodly nation.

That means turned away from God. I will send him against the people of my wrath.

I will give him charge. I will let him seize the spoil, take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. So Israel was taken captive. Israel was was defeated by Assyria.

Israel was taken out of their land. They were taken over to Assyria. They became captives there.

They lost their kingdom. God tried to use Israel as an example to Judah, you know, during all the time of Jeremiah preaching and during his 40 years, even in the Isaiah's time where he's preaching to the kings of Judah, you know, look what happens. You know, Ahaz, you've seen Assyria or you've seen Israel fall just as God said they would. Just turn back. God kept telling Judah, turn back, turn back.

They wouldn't. Now, interesting in verse 6, says, I will give Assyria charge to seize the spoil.

Now, remember that remember that God, Isaiah, Isaiah had two sons. Remember that?

In chapter 8, we saw Meher, Shalel, Hashbaz, and his name was kind of a repetitive name, but it meant to speed the spoil. Speed the spoil. I remember Meher, I had memorized that day, Meher, Shalel, Hashbaz, was one of them, and then he also had another son whose name meant a remnant will remain. We'll get to him a little bit later, but here in verse 6, the commentaries, I think, rightly indicate that when God says to seize the spoil, remember Isaiah had those two sons. They kind of spelled what was going to happen to Judah. One, there will be a remnant that will remain.

Another one, they will come in and seize the spoil. Seize the spoil. We have that here again.

Maybe as the people of Israel, if they understood that Isaiah had the son, they would be, look what's happening. Exactly what God said is what's happening here. I'll give him charge to seize the spoil, take the pray, and it tread them down like the mire of the streets.

So not a pretty picture for Israel.

Okay, verse 7. Yet he doesn't mean so, nor does his heart think so.

Interesting verses there to come right on the top of it. Yet, and it's talking about Assyria, Assyria doesn't mean so. Now, it's an interesting way to put that, but you know what God is saying there is it wasn't a serious idea to go in and invade Israel. It wasn't a serious idea to go in and threaten and trouble Judah. God just told us. It was my idea.

I'm the one who, remember, I'm the one who says in verse chapter 7, I think it is, you know, I whistled. I whistled and Assyria came. Assyria was the rod of my anger. I put the thought in his head. I'm the one who directed him to go in and punish those nations. So what he's saying here, it wasn't Assyria. It wasn't just by chance that Assyria decided I'll go attack Israel, I'll go attack Judah. It was God's idea. It was punishment that God had designed. So Assyria didn't mean so, is what it's saying there in that verse. God put it in his mind. You know, you might remember, you know, in the book of Jeremiah where God prophesied that the Babylonians, they'll come from the north and they'll conquer. They'll conquer Judah if the nation doesn't turn back.

And for 40 years, Jeremiah prophesied Judah. Babylon came in. Babylon was the rod of God's anger. He allowed Judah to be captured and defeated by the Babylonians. He's the one who's doing this. He uses other nations to punish his people when they turn from him. And so as we look ahead, we're going to talk a little bit about some dual prophecy here. Well, because later on in the chapter, we're going to see in that day, in that day, some things happen that never happened to ancient Israel. So we know there's another part of this prophecy that applies to people of Israel in the time that the modern day Israel before the return of Jesus Christ. We'll talk about that a little bit and talk about, you know, what some of the experts out there, not just people in the church, but some of the experts out there who say, you know, who say who modern day Assyria is.

Where are the descendants of Assyria today? What happened to them after they lost their kingdom to the Babylonians? Where did they migrate to? And it can be an eye-opening thing to us, as we see, as we see some of that come together. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. So I go back to verse seven here. Let me make sure I'm on the right screen here.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm looking for any hands that are up as I look up there, too. Okay, so Assyria doesn't mean to do it. It's God's intention that Assyria comes. His heart doesn't think so. It didn't enter his mind, but it is, God says. It is in his heart to destroy. They are a cruel nation.

I will let them do what they do. They are cruel. It is in their heart to destroy, make people miserable, and absolutely just capture and destroy whatever comes in their path, and cut off not a few names. So God knows what Assyria is capable of. He's not going to stop them from doing it. He's going to use them as a tool to punish Israel and Judah. For he, this is speaking of Assyria, he said some boastful talking going on here by the king of Assyria, who maybe thinks that it was by his power and his might that he was able to conquer Israel and threaten Judah. No, no, we're going to see that. That's not the case. For he, Assyria, says, aren't my princes altogether kings? Isn't Calno like Karkamesh? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria, remember Samaria is the king kingdom or the capital of Israel. It's been conquered. Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Didn't all these nations, didn't all these cities, these great cities of these times, didn't they fall to me? Why are you any different? Jerusalem, why are you any different? Judah, aren't my princes like kings? They're the cream of the crop. They're like the kings of these nations that we've conquered in the mall. Verse 10, as my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols whose carved images excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria. As they have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols? So he says, you know what, all these lands we've conquered, all these cities we've conquered, they all had their idols. They all had their gods they bowed down to. Those gods weren't able to stand up against me. That's what Assyria, the king of Assyria, sang there. So Samaria, you know, Israel, was their god able to stand up against me? No, their god didn't say them. Jerusalem, don't look to them. That can't be where you look to.

It sounds very familiar when you have a king that becomes so prideful what God is going to do to them. He'll use them. He'll use them as a tool, but the consequences of their actions and attitudes are coming as well. Now let's keep our finger there in Isaiah 10. Let's go back to 2 Kings, and we'll see actually where this occurred here in history. In 2 Kings, in 2 Kings 18, and verse 28.

Now this happens, yeah, during the time of King Hezekiah here.

2 Kings 18 and verse 28. Rav Shaka here is the king of Assyria in verse 28.

Then Rav Shaka stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, saying, so he wanted the people of Jerusalem to hear him directly. He wasn't going through an interpreter.

A loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, saying, hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

Thus says the king, don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand. Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the eternal, saying, he will surely deliver us.

This city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Don't listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me by a present and come out to me, and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree.

See how he's using the words, how clever Satan is? I mean, the very words of the prophecy that God says in that day, people will sit under their own fig tree and eat from their vine.

Here's the king of Assyria saying the same words back to Jerusalem. Every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die.

So He's painting a picture. Just bow down to me, just bow down to me, Jerusalem, just bow down to me, Judah. I'll make your life great. Your God promised you something, I can promise you much more, is what He's saying here, that you may live and not die. But don't listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephravaeum and Hina and Iva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? Pretty convincing, right? Pretty convincing words. And if you know the reputation of Assyria and He's promising these things, just come out and bring me a gift. Just bow down to me.

Kind of like probably the same words that the serpent used on Adam and Eve. Just take of that fruit and everything will good will be yours. Just like at the time of the end when the mark of the beast is just bow down to me. Just bow down to me and everything everything will be good.

The same enticing, enticing words. Well, verse 36, good for Judah in this case, we see that the people just stayed still. They listened and they did not heed what Rav Shaka said. Yes, Dave? Yes, sir. I was just going to say it also reminded me of when Satan tried to attempt Jesus, you know? Same MO. Just bow down to me and I'll give you the world.

You're absolutely right. You are absolutely right. That's an excellent example.

Yep, I mean, those those clever words. When you hear those clever words, you know, take the lesson here. Don't bow down to them. That's the clever words of not our God speaking. That's the words of Satan talking. So we see that very same thing happen there in you know, out there in 2 Kings 18. You know, we have this very prideful king that that is there.

And he has, he does have a kingdom. So I'm going to kind of share with you right now just a map of what we can, you know, what the kingdom of Assyria looked like. And I'm going to give you two maps. I like the first one I'm going to show you better, but I think it's inaccurate in a little bit of place here. So there you is. Is that showing up on your screen?

So there's the Assyrian Empire. You can see some of those cities that we talked about up there and just to the left of the middle, Karkamesh. You see Jerusalem and Samaria down there below the middle of the screen there where it says Israel and Judah. You see, you know, you see Ur, right?

Ur, we know that from Bible days. You see Nineveh up there about in the middle of the yellow.

That's supposed to be showing the kingdom of Assyria. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.

We're going to look a little bit at the book of Nahum later because Nahum is a book we almost never turned to in the Bible, but it is a prophecy about Assyria and Nineveh. When every see Nineveh is talking about the Assyrian Empire, God has quite a prophecy there that relates to what we're reading here in Isaiah 10. We'll look at that a little bit later.

Where I think this is inaccurate, if indeed that yellow was supposed to indicate the Assyrian Empire, Jerusalem was never part of the Assyrian Empire. It might be that that little red circle around Jerusalem is what they're trying to indicate, but it looks like Jerusalem was conquered by Assyria. It never was. So let me put up this other map that is more accurate in what it's depicting.

Yeah, there you can see, there you can see, and you can see down there, that Jerusalem is not part of the Assyrian Empire. Same countries showing you can see the original Assyria and how they've spanned out some of those cities that King Rabshakah is talking about there. Qarkimash, Hamath, Damascus. We're going to see a little bit later about Tyre, not Tyre, but I'll talk about Syria as well. So you can kind of see what their empire was. It was a mighty empire, but was it a world-ruling empire? There's a lot of places there, the known world at that time, that Assyria never did conquer. You can see Babylon in that map in the green there. Later on, it was Babylon that conquered the Assyrian Empire and became the first world-ruling empire. Yeah, Sherri, do you have your hand up? I'm just wondering, because the Samaria being in there, isn't that part of Israel? Yeah, but remember Israel did fall. Israel did fall to Assyria, 720 BC. There's the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, so that's appropriate in that map. Okay, thank you. So there's Assyria. Let me stop to share on that. We'll go back to Isaiah. Let me look at my nose here for a moment, make sure I'm not missing some verses I wanted to return to.

Yeah, okay, so let's go back to chapter 10, then.

So we have Assyria boasting about all these things, the king of Syria. I've defeated all these great cities. I've defeated all those gods that they had, including the god of Samaria, and the Assyrian king knew well that the god Israel claimed was the same god, the Judah claim, so he's making the point. Samaria and Israel weren't able to stand against me. Why would you think that you could? And so in verse 12, God hears all these words, and they're offensive to God and the right sense of the word. You don't challenge God and say, I'm greater than you without drawing a response. So in verse 12, therefore it says, therefore, because you said all these things with all these things you've done, I'm the one who gave you the rod to punish Judah and Israel, but you're claiming that it was all about you, therefore it shall come well before we even do that. You know what? There are some other examples in the Bible that are like that, where who can think of another king that boasted about how great they were, and then God had to humble them. Anyone remember? Very famous king. Never could measure. Absolutely, yeah. Remember that? He was right. Look what my hand has done, but look what my hand has done, and what was his punishment? Anyone remember that? For boasting about that?

Seven years to be an animal. Absolutely, yeah. Kind of hard to imagine that, right? So, but it certainly did humble him, but again, he never did turn completely to God, either, though he knew God, he never did yield to him. There's another little minor prophet here in Obadiah, where God talks about pride as well. Of course, in Proverbs, yeah, though the very timeless proverbs of pride comes before a fall, pride goes before destruction. That applies to us individually, too. If we let ourselves get full of ourselves and think we're doing all these great things, we can pretty much know that there will be humbling and a tremendous fall that comes before us, as it has been for nations and other individuals. But here in Little Book of Obadiah, just one chapter long, it comes right after Hamish. Okay, I'll just read a couple verses there. It's talking about Edom, and Edom, of course, is these Middle Eastern powers, but it says, Behold, God speaking in verse 2, Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You will be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the cluffs of the rock, whose habitation is high, you who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground. Of course, in this case, they think they have this great habitat and no one can attack them. They can't be attacked at all. They can't be brought down. Kind of can remind you of America, because those oceans that we had on both sides for years and years did protect us pretty well until 9-11.

Who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Eternal.

So we always have to be on our guard to not allow pride to overtake us. We have to continually be humble. God only listens to a humble heart. Now, He will take the opportunity—I shouldn't say opportunity—He will take the measures to correct us. We need to take the opportunity to listen to when that comes. Or if others tell us, you're getting a little full of yourself, you're taking too much credit to yourself, or you're beginning to act a little arrogant or whatever, we should be listening to those things and taking those as a warning and examining ourselves. Mr. Shaby?

Yes, sir. This is Ted. That seems to be the big problem that's going on in the United States, among other places today. We've seen that we've had so much success in our history from the time of the revolution to World War II and other things like that. As God says, back over here in Isaiah, Americans start taking credit for all their success and everything, until today we believe we can do anything and get as perverse as we want to do. There's no limit to what we can do. So, if anything describes a nation that is prideful or anything that really describes the United States, and it seems like God is warning the United States that for all your pride, you're going to come to the great punishment as well. Yep, I would agree. There's a lot of people who think America is just too big to fail, right? Just too important, too rich, and too much of a cog in the world to ever fail.

But, you know, we'll watch what happens in the years ahead.

Okay, so, yeah, let's go back to Isaiah 10. Verse 12, then, it says, Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Eternal has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem. What is all his work? He wants to bring Judah to their knees. He wants them to turn to him.

Always, God says, I'm punishing you because you've turned away from me. And the punishment that comes is simply as I turn back to me. Just turn back to me. The same thing that God wants of us. His desires that all will come to repentance. These things don't have to come upon you if we would just yield to God when that warning comes and not continue to provoke him by our actions. 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 lords. So he used Assyria to punish Judah and Israel, but they took it way too far. They would take it way too far. They thought too much of themselves. And so God says, and now I'm going to punish Assyria. And so in verse 13, he says, why? Here's what the king of Assyria says, verse 13, by the strength of my hand, I've done it. You know, whenever we use that word, I, over and over and over again, boy, we met her stop and pause. And you know, wives, if you hear husbands and my wife sitting right next to me, I keep saying, if you ever hear me saying, I, I, I, stop me. It's we, we, it's God who's done it. And God works through us to do two of the things, right?

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 I have robbed their treasuries. So he's recounting all these things that he did to Judah, but he keeps saying, I, God said, it wasn't you. I allowed you to do that. I'm the one who put the thought into your mind. I'm the one who opened those boundaries.

I'm the one who put it in your mind to rob the treasuries. Now we can go back. I think we might have looked at this already, but let's go back and see that that's actually recorded in 2 Chronicles 18. So when the, when the king is talking about these things, we have the actual history here of when that happened in 2 Chronicles, no, 2 Chronicles 28. 2 Chronicles 28 and verse 19.

Yeah, remember, we did this a few weeks back when we were talking about King Ahaz and how he just completely always turned against God. And it says in verse 19, for the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel, for he had encouraged moral decline in Judah and had been continually unfaithful to God. Okay, well, we can kind of see that going on in our world today, right? Leads people, encourages the moral decline of the people. Also Tiglith, Peleser, king of Assyria, came to him and distressed him and did not assist Ahaz, right?

Ahaz took part of the treasures from the house of the Lord, from the house of the king, from the leaders, and he gave it to the king of Assyria. But the king of Assyria didn't help him. He said the same thing, just give me a gift and I'll be there by your side. Ahaz gave it over to him. Assyria just took it, didn't help him. Now, at the time of his distress, King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to God.

This is that King Ahaz. He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, etc., etc. So again, you know, things were going bad and Ahaz never got it. Maybe I need to turn to God. Things get continually worse, but he never did. He continued to go further and further away from God. Sometimes we could do the same things, like the snowball beginning, right? We have a financial crisis, we do something not right.

I'll give you an example. Sometimes we run into a financial crisis at home and we have this second tide that's sitting there waiting for the Feast of Tabernacles. It's like, oh, I could use that money to fix my refrigerator, fix my car, whatever it is. And we take from what God said, set aside to keep his feast, and then boom! Trouble after trouble after trouble comes, right? Because we don't do what God says. We don't turn to him.

We don't look to him and trust him to provide. We take matters into our own hands. We can do it. We can do it in health as well. Whoops! That didn't work, so I'll seek this remedy and I'll seek that remedy, and I'll protect myself this way rather than maybe allowing ourselves to completely have faith in God to do these things. And we just go further and further and further until the time we were just completely enmeshed with, you know, eight, ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty different medications we take, because we're just looking to fix something that God could heal if we would just complete faith in him.

So, I mean, there's these snowball effects we do. We don't do maybe the same thing Ahab's did, but we can do the same thing as we go farther and further and forget more and more about faith and more and more about faith in the world as opposed to God.

So, I got myself off on a tangent here that I mean to get. Oh, okay, so we were in 2 Chronicles 28. We'll go back to Isaiah 10 here, because we have the king of Assyria saying all these haughty things that God is listing here in verse 13. He goes on in Isaiah 10 and in verse 14, you know, it says, My hand. Again, you know, remember it was Satan that is in Isaiah 14 when we get to it and Ezekiel 28, maybe vice versa, on the chapters there, but, I, I, I will ascend into heaven.

My hand has done this. I will be like the Most High. So, whenever you see I, I, I, I, I, you know, and if you see someone doing it, you might just say, look, take a little closer look at those capital I's there. My hand has found like a nest, the 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. Remember that?

Yeah, just a minute, Dale. That king of Assyria when he was making all those things and, and the people would just be afraid. And so he says, you know what, they're all afraid of me. They're all afraid of me. They don't even respond.

Okay, Dale. Yeah, yeah, it just reminds me, you know, of the word I, when Moses struck the rock, and he, you know, most high, he said, most high, get this part of for you, you, you bunch of rebels.

Absolutely. That's a very good example. Yeah. Yep. Mr. Shaby? Yes. This also reminds me, if you think about it in reading about what the arrogance of Lucifer at the original, when it started showing that he was starting to have these problems, he started using the big I for himself and talking about all these things as well. Absolutely. The big I should be used sparingly.

If it's used too much, it says something. Okay. Verse 15. Okay, so God, God now responding to Assyria's king's words. Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it?

Well, I mean, when we're down chopping down that tree, it's not the axe doing it, right? It's us doing it. Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? Or 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?

So God is saying, he's again drawing picture, Assyria was my tool. I did it, God said, not Assyria, not the king. He had no right to take that upon himself and say, look what I did.

Now I have circled in my Bible Jeremiah 5120. Let's let me see what Jeremiah 5120 says here.

5120.

Okay, yeah, this is talking about, really, through Jeremiah, God kind of repeating the same things that he said there in verse 20. He says, you, you know, speaking of a nation, you are my battle axe and weapons of war, for with you I will break the nation in pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms. With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider. With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider. And going on like that over and over again. With you I will do it. With you I will punish the nation. So it's kind of the same thing. God, again, using nations to punish those who deserve and by the consequences of their actions deserve that, deserve that punishment. So, okay, verse 16. God now is going to pronounce the sentence, if you will, on a series.

It says, therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, verse 16 of Isaiah 10, therefore the Lord of hosts will send leanness among Assyria's bat ones. Well, they were a rich nation. They were a rich nation.

They had plenty, but he says what's coming upon them is some leanness. There's going to be some famine. There's going to be some disease. There's going to be some decrease in their numbers. They're a very fat, wealthy, well populated nation, but they're going to see some hard times come upon them in famine, pestilence war, the whole nine yards of what's going to come on them. Often that is the punishment that God sends. Indeed, that did happen to Assyria. We can see after they taunted Jerusalem and Judah, therefore the Lord will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So again, if we go back to 2 Kings, we see what happened back then to the king of Assyria. In 2 Kings 19, 2 Kings 19, and verse 35. 2 Kings 19, 35.

Yeah, 2 Kings 19, 35. It came to pass on a certain night that the angel or messenger of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. That's one night. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained at Nineveh. And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisrock, his god, that his sons Dremelak and Shrizzar struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Ezra edd and reigned in his place. So the king of Assyria and Assyria was brought low exactly as God had said. So as these prophecies were occurring, and as Isaiah was writing, and then we see the history of these, that they see these prophecies fulfilled. And all of a sudden 185,000. That's not even the type of carnage that we hear about at wars today, right? It's much less than that, but 185,000 in one night, and not by the hand of Judah. It just happened by the hand of God. So we go back to Isaiah 10, and in verse 17 draws an analogy to God that we have seen in Isaiah before that we also see in the New Testament. So the light of Israel. Now the light of Israel would be God, right? God is light, Jesus Christ is light. 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. Now that means, you know, speaking of that 185,000 and maybe referring to that, when he talks about briars and thorns, it's the common. It's the common people. It's the little thing right there, the armies, right?

I'll devour that in one day. It might make us think ahead to the time of Christ's return when that everyone is gathered in Armageddon and Christ descends and literally in a split second all the armies are decimated. There is no match against Jesus Christ when he is like a flame. He instantly devours. No one, no group of people, no accumulation of weapons, no matter how powerful they are, can stand against God.

We saw that same analogy back in Isaiah. Isaiah 5, I believe it was.

Yeah, Isaiah 5 verse 24 says, therefore as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rotten as and their blossom will asound like dust because they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. And there's a place in the New Testament where it says, our God is a consuming fire.

Anyone knows where it says that? In Hebrews 12, it's kind of a warning to his people who, you know, have been called, who have followed him, and then willfully turn against him after they've tasted the goodness of God. And it says at the end of a chapter there, our God is a consuming fire. Anyone know where that is?

It's in Hebrews 12, right? Hebrews 12.

I'm sorry, Alex, well, what was that?

I guess it's Hebrews 1031.

1031, okay. I did the wrong chapter. If you use 1031.

Yeah, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Okay, that's following, you know, when people will turn away from God. I think Hebrews 12, does it say something to, let me, near the end. Okay, Hebrews 1229 says, for our God, our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. We don't want to turn against God.

Okay, so we see these analogies that appear in the Old Testament that continue right into the New Testament. Okay, where were we here? Okay, we were in verse 17.

Yeah, we should move through the next few verses here pretty quickly. What time do we have here?

Okay, yeah, I want to get to the duality of prophecy here. Okay, okay, verse 18 of Isaiah 10.

And it will consume the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, both soul and body. Now, his forest is the Assyrian army, his troops, his everything about him. 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. Then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them, that a child may write them. You know, again, when you look at the history of Assyria, that's what happened. Let us, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you, you can look ahead in Isaiah 37.

It talks about this king of Assyria again, and it specifically mentions again in Isaiah 37, the 185,000 who were killed in one night. But let's go to the little book of Nahum, the one that we very seldom ever turn to. And just read a few verses out of there. With the background that we have now had in Isaiah 10, the book of Nahum begins to take on new meaning to us.

We see what God is talking about as he pronounces, you know, pronounces this on the kingdom of Nineveh, which is the capital of Assyria. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna read, I think, most of chapter one here.

I'm just gonna read through it, but think about what we've read, what we know about Assyria, and Nineveh, and their kings, and how this comes up out. Then you can take the time to read chapter two and three, because when I'm done with chapter one, I'm going to go right over to the, I'm going to go right over to the last two verses of Nahum three and show the conclusion of the, of the story here. But it might be an interesting study, you know, after this one to go to Nahum, with all this fresh in our minds to see what this little book is about. Okay, Nahum one, first one, the burden, the burden or the oracle against Nineveh, against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Alkishite. God is jealous and the eternal avengents. He avenges and is furious. He will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. You know, slow to anger. Sometimes it looks like, oh, oh, he's not going to punish the wicked get away with everything. We read that many times in the book of Proverbs. No, God will never acquit the wicked, but he will be patient. Then in his own time, they will reap what they sown. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Talked about using nations, he can use weather and the world to to exact his vengeance or punishment on on a people. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers, Bayshen and Carmel wither and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before him. The hills melt and the earth heaves at his presence.

Yes, the world and all who dwell in it. God could command all those forces, is what he's saying, much like he commanded his Syria to come and punish Israel and Judah. Who can stand before his indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. But with an overflowing flood, he will make an utter end of his place and darkness will pursue his enemies. What do you conspire against the eternal? He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time. From Assyria, I've got noted there, for while tangled like thorns and while drunken like drunkards, they shall be devoured like stubble fully dry. From you comes forth one who plots evil against the eternal, a wicked counselor.

Verse 12 thus says the eternal, though they are safe, and likewise many, yet in this manner they will be cut down when he passes through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

For now I will break off his yoke from you and burst your bonds apart.

The Lord has given a command concerning you. Your name shall be perpetuated.

Now he's talking about Assyria no longer. Out of the house of your gods, I will cut off the carved image and the molded image. I will dig your grave, for you are vile. Behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace. O Judah, keep your appointed feasts.

See what God is saying? Worship me the way I want to be worshipped, Judah, people of God. O Judah, keep your appointed feasts. Perform your vows, for the wicked one shall no more pass through you.

He is utterly cut off. Now that's a prophecy for the future, but let me go to verses 18 and 19 here in Nahum 3. And again, as you read through the others, you will see, as we've been through chapter 10, what this book is talking about. Now talking about Assyria in verse 18, your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, your nobles rest in the dust. Your peoples are scattered on the mountains and no one gathers them. Your injury has no healing. Your wound is severe. All who hear news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually.

And I dare say, when the kingdom of Assyria fell to Babylon, there was probably relief among all the nations all around, as they all felt the terror and the, well, the terror and the fierceness of the Assyrian kingdom. So you read the book of Nahum. You see this history of Assyria, because God did use them as a tool, and He will use Assyria as a tool again to punish Israel, because as we come back to Isaiah 10 and we move into verse 20, yeah, we're not going to get all through the book, all through chapter 10, but that's okay. We'll get through verse 23 anyway, I think. Okay, verse 20 of Isaiah 10. It shall come to pass in that day, okay, in that day. When you see in that day, pause and think, okay, this is for a future time.

Because usually when you see that phrase, it means a future time. This hasn't happened yet.

That's the remnant of Israel. Now remember Isaiah's first son, I've forgotten his name, I've forgotten his name, but it's back here in the first few chapters here.

Well, you can look it up. The first son's name means there are remnant remains, right?

And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as the escaped of the house of Jacob, now Israel is separate from Judah. That's the kingdom, the household of Israel, the northern ten tribes, and as such of escape to the house of Jacob will never again depend on him who defeated them. They will depend on the Lord. Now, the remnant of Israel, you know, Assyria didn't decimate the house of Israel. They let them all astray. I mean, they took them all captive. They came, they lost the land. They took them off to Assyria, but they never, they were never completely decimated. In fact, God kept making the promises over and over again. I will not completely destroy you. You remember even back in Isaiah 6, it talks about the remnant of Israel when God was calling Isaiah and sent him out to, you know, give a witness to the nations of these prophecies. And in verse 11 of Isaiah 6, it says, when Isaiah said, how long am I going to prophesy this? How long will these prophecies go on? And God says, until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate. That never happened in ancient Israel. When ancient Israel was conquered, the other nations of Syria, Babylon, all those who came into Israel, and they settled it there. They didn't desolate the land. They wanted the land.

They wanted the richness of it. The Lord is removed, far away, verse 12, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, verse 13, but yet a tenth will be in it and will return and be for consuming. A tenth. And so we talked about that, that remnant of Israel that will survive and that God will bring back when Jesus Christ returns and put him back in the promised land the first time Israel will have been back in the promised land since the time they lost it.

And so that's the remnant of Israel that we're talking about here. That happens in the future, right? In verse 20, they will depend on the Lord, the last part of verse 20, the Holy One of Israel, and notice, in truth, in truth, what will they be living in in that day? Jerusalem will be a city of truths. They will be living in truth. They don't live in truth today. They never have lived in truth from the time that they were taken captive. So we notice this is super time. The remnant will return, verse 21, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. That doesn't happen until the return of Jesus Christ. For through your people, or though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will return. The destruction to creed shall overflow with righteousness, meaning that, you know, what God has said is going to happen. God is ultimately just. And so what he has to creed, it will overflow with justice. They will understand why the punishment came, but God will not just completely destroy Israel. For the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. It's determined. Here in this book of Isaiah, we've read in chapter 45 and verse 55, what God says will happen, really does happen. When a word goes forth from his mouth, it's not going to return to him void. It will happen. And the prophecies that have already been fulfilled in the Bible prove that. It's one of the proofs of the Bible, the prophecies that are there for the remaining time before Jesus Christ returns. We can see the writing on the wall as we see those. And we know that God uses God works in patterns. And so as Assyria conquered Israel one time, oops, as Assyria conquered Israel one time, it may be, and I'm going to say may, likely be that they are the ones who conquer Israel and leave them a captive again. As it says in Ezekiel 6 and 7, which are clearly end time prophecies because it has never happened in history. So this comes from the UCG Bible commentary. I just lifted it from here. So we might ask then, who are the Assyrians today? If God used Assyria to punish Israel back then, and there are many prophecies that indicate Assyria will be a tool in God's hand again, who are these Assyrians? Where are they today? Do they exist? Let's just read through this and you can look at the, you know, if you don't know that UCG has a Bible commentary, you can go to ucg.org, type in Bible commentary in the search bar.

You're going to see something that's a little, a little hard to navigate. When you hit in search, it's going to give you all these options. Just look down the list until you see Bible commentary, hit Bible commentary, and you can go to any book of the Old Testament. You can see the commentaries there. So this comes from Isaiah 10. The ancient Israelites who were taken into Assyrian captivity eventually migrated into Northwest Europe. We know that. Likewise, the Assyrians, after their empire fell in 612 BC, migrated into Europe behind them. The Roman naturalist Pliny the owner located the Assyrians north of the Black Sea in his day, the first century AD. You've got the reference there. A few hundred years later, Jerome, one of the post-Nysene Catholic fathers, applied Psalms 83.8 to the Germanic tribes invading Western Europe along the Rhine.

For as-a-s-s-u-r, the Assyrian also is joined with them. And of the Germanic peoples, Smith's classical dictionary states, there can be no doubt that they, the Assyrians, migrated into Europe from the Caucasus and the countries around the Black and Caspian Seas. Indeed, a significant portion of the Germanic people of Central Europe today appear to be descended from the Assyrians of old. And so, I'm going to leave it at that. Leave it at that. Just something to contemplate.

And, you know, as we put together and look at the prophecies of Isaiah here in the first 10 chapters, we'll conclude chapter 10 next week and get into chapter 11. At the end of chapter 10, there's the very hopeful, very hopeful reminder then there is a Messiah coming. First part of chapter 11 talks again about the coming Messiah, as God reminds throughout these five chapters of 7 to 12, 7 to 9, 10 to 6 chapters of 7 to 12, the Messiah will come, the Messiah will come, the Messiah will bring salvation. So, let me end there for tonight.