Within the confines of Isaiah chapters 13 through 23 over a dozen nations (some small, others huge) are told of their not-so-bright futures! Individually, just as well say miraculously … impending judgment is pronounced!
And Isaiah 14 (our Bible Text for the third day now) fits into that context.
Today I’d like to show you how this amazing chapter ends. With two nations being selected by the Prophet, their dark prospects revealed. These two are “Assyria” and “Palestina.”
And surprisingly, the largest nation discussed (“Assyria”) is only the focus (the target) of Isaiah’s pen for 4 verses! While, for example “Babylon” deserved 45 verses!
Even extremely small “Palestina” (perhaps the land of the Philistines) gets 5 verses of wrath!
Truly God’s Saying in Isaiah 55:8-9 applies here: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Wow!
Now to our Text …
Assyria first. “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” Isaiah 14:24-27
God is going to bring Assyria “down!”
Godless (well, she had tons of gods and goddesses, but rejected the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) Assyria!
(I love that opening clause where God says, “What I even think … comes to pass!” In the King James Bible: “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass.” The Ultimate Power of God’s Thoughts!
In this light, let’s stop a second and thank God for Jeremiah 29:11 … “For I know the THOUGHTS that I THINK toward you, saith the LORD, THOUGHTS of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Glory to God!
This “breaking” of Assyria literally occurred during the days of King Hezekiah, that night the angel of the Lord massacred 185,000 enemy (Assyrian) soldiers, all poised to attack Jerusalem! (Read Isaiah 37:36.)
Here … as Assyria is demeaned, God is simultaneously exalted.
Assyria must decrease; God must increase! (I word it exactly this way in honor of John 3:30, where John the Baptist says of himself, concerning Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”)
Next comes “Palestina,” only a little sliver of land, of a nation. “In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.” Isaiah 14:28-32
History now tells us that Assyria (prior to her destruction) fulfilled the role of Palestina’s aggressor! (Essentially the land of the Biblical “Philistines.”) One Assyrian King after another attacked and sacked that land, virtually decimating its population. Tiglath-Pileser then Sargon then Sennacherib! (This proves that Isaiah is not a slave to “chronological order!” A number of his prophecies are “out of sequence.” But right on target theologically, spiritually!
And just as I commented on the opening Sentence of the Assyria Judgment, let me do so in regard to the Palestina Judgment. Read it again please: “In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina …”
This reminds me of Isaiah 6:1 … “In the year that king Uzziah died I (Isaiah) saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
When Uzziah (a good King) died … the Lord was apparent, God’s very Glory!
When Ahaz (a wicked King) died … Judgment was apparent, doom for the Philistines!
I find that pleasingly ironic!
Nine little verse at the end of Isaiah chapter 14 … and doom for two nations of the earth!
What a great God we serve!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Truly … “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Proverbs 21:1
Equally so … “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalm 75:6-7
Amen!