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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 10:20 - 10:34
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The Redemption of the Remnant of Israel
v. 20. And it shall come to pass in that day, the time to which the entire Old Testament looked forward, the Messianic period, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, the true spiritual Israel, the people of God, whom He has chosen from among the nations, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, placing their confidence in Assyria, the nation to whom the kings of both Israel and Judah turned time and again, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth, making Him alone the full basis of their trust.
v. 21. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God, being converted to God in Jesus Christ, together with the elect from the heathen nations.
v. 22. For though thy people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a countless multitude, yet a remnant of them shall return, unfortunately only a remnant, the great mass being blinded and obdurate, Rom_9:27; the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness, literally, "destruction is firmly decided upon, righteousness coming along as a flood. " God's punitive justice overflows and submerges the unrepentant mass of the people in the judgment of destruction decreed upon it.
v. 23. For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, literally, "and that which is decreed," in the midst of all the land. There is no escaping the wrath of the Lord when once He sets the machinery of destruction in motion, when He begins to carry out His decree of everlasting punishment upon His enemies, for the judgment upon Israel is merely a preliminary act and the beginning of the Last Judgment.
v. 24. Therefore, because the Lord will judge and destroy the unbelieving world, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, in a call full of reassuring comfort, O My people that dwellest in Zion, the true Church of God, dwelling in His merciful presence, be not afraid of the Assyrian, the oppressor typifying all the enemies of the Lord and His Church; he shall smite thee with a rod, with tyrannical behavior, and shall lift up his staff against thee, like an overseer of slaves, after the manner of Egypt, when the children of Israel were in the house of bondage and suffered severely from their oppressors. In the midst of all these afflictions the believers should not let fear and terror possess their hearts.
v. 25. For yet a very little while, 1Pe_1:6, and the indignation shall cease, God's people being delivered from the enmity of the godless, and Mine anger in their destruction, rather, "My wrath has the object to destroy them," the enemies of His Church, to wear them down to nothing.
v. 26. And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, brandishing it over Assyria, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb, when Gideon's forces annihilated the army of the Midianites, Jdg_7:25; and as His rod was upon the sea, namely, when Moses stretched out his hand over the Red Sea and parted it for the safe passage of the children of Israel, Exo_14:26, so shall He lift it up after the manner of Egypt, lifting Assyria up and dashing it to pieces as He destroyed the forces of Pharaoh.
v. 27. And it shall come to pass in that day, in the time of the Messiah's reign, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck, the Lord Himself taking away the oppression of Assyria, of all the enemies of the Church, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing, rather, on account of the fat. The picture is that of an ox who becomes so fat and strong in spite of the yoke laid upon him that he breaks the yoke on his neck to pieces. Thus the Church is to overcome the world by strength from within. Thus the deliverance of the Church is described as it begins in and with Immanuel, and as it is completed on the Last Day, the day of redemption. The prophet now, in a very vivid picture, describes the progress of the Assyrians in attacking Jerusalem, and their complete destruction by Jehovah.
v. 28. He, the Assyrian and his army, is come to Aiath, hardly ten miles northeast of Jerusalem, he is passed to Migron, a hamlet still nearer to the capital; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages, leaving the baggage in order to move forward with greater speed;
v. 29. they are gone over the passage, a deep, rough ravine, now known as the Wady-es-Suweinit; they have taken up their lodging at Geba, rather, "Let Geba be our lodging!" halting only for the night; Ramah, the home of Samuel, is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled, its inhabitants forsaking their city in terror.
v. 30. Lift up thy voice, crying in consternation over the impending calamity, O daughter of Gallim, the inhabitants of another village in the path of the Assyrian army; cause it to be heard unto Laish, the shrieks of terror echoing far and wide through the country. O poor Anathoth! only three-fourths of an hour distant from Jerusalem and therefore bound to suffer from the enemies.
v. 31. Madmenah is removed, the people forsaking their homes; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
v. 32. As yet shall he remain at Nob that day, a hill to the north of Jerusalem, overlooking the city, which the enemy would reach that very day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, all ready for the attack which would surely bring ruin to the capital. Thus Assyria, typifying the army of the ungodly, the enemies of the Church, is here pictured as going forward to the attack with an irresistible force, and the doom of the city, of the Church of Christ, seems to be impending. But here the Lord interferes.
v. 33. Behold, the Lord, the All-powerful, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror, cutting them down as branches are felled with an ax; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled, all their plans being foiled at the very moment when they seemed to mature according to calculation.
v. 34. And He, the Lord in His avenging wrath, shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, with a sharp instrument of destruction, and Lebanon, the name under which all the hostile forces are comprehended, shall fall by a Mighty One, by Him who possesses the majesty of the almighty and eternal God, who is both the Defender and the Deliverer of His Church. It is He also, who on the last day will change the Church Militant into the Church Triumphant.