No. 13. >> Great question, Josh. And thank you for your insights, Professor Lessing. Now where do we go from here? What is the next critical idea in the writings of Isaiah? >>DR. R. REED LESSING: The next major issue we want to discuss in our course on the prophet Isaiah is in Chapter 10. And in Chapter 10 we have mention of in Verse 5 that Assyria is the rod of Yahweh's anger. What's this all about? We can simply put it this way and then we'll unpack the statement: The agent of judgement is judged. You may remember when we were looking back at our brief look at the book of Judges where God sent in foreign armies to humble, discipline, shape, form his people. Because they were whoring literally after Canaanite gods and goddesses. The same is true within the life and times of Isaiah. As we saw this in one of our slides where prophets come along. The people have broken the sinaitic covenant. So God sends in Egyptians or Babylonians. But in the case of what we're discussing now, God sends Assyrians. And the metaphor used in Chapter 10 of Isaiah as well as Chapter 11 as well as Chapter 6 Verse 13 is this metaphor of a tree. We've looked at that already. That Judah and Israel are this, you know, huge tree. And God is going to cut them down. But there's always hope for a stump. That a shoot will come out. That's in 6:13 and 11:1. But in Chapter 10, especially at Verses 5 and following, Isaiah speaks about this foreign army of Assyria also getting judged, as well. Just because God uses them doesn't mean that they are somehow off the hook. Let's look specifically at these truths. So the devastation rocked by Assyria was authorized by God. They are his instrument. That's Verse 5. The rod of Yahweh's anger. Assyria was not an independent political force. Yahweh is the one who, quote, raises a signal for a nation far away. That's Isaiah 5 Verse 26. God is behind all of this. He has plans. Plans for all the nations of the world. And those plans are not defeated. We see that specifically stated by Isaiah in Chapter 14 Verses 24 through 27. So these events of God bringing Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib against his people are for the purposes of refining them. Not completely wiping them out. Refining is a key idea already stated in Chapter 1 Verse 25. Not wiping them out. A theme we're beginning to hear quite often now regarding a remnant. A remnant will return. And that's Chapter 8 Verse 1, that very giving of Isaiah's sons name. Not Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, that's speed the prey, hasten the spoil. But Shear-Jashub, a remnant will return. Assyria, you see, will have to account for her action and unbelief. And in Isaiah Chapter 10 Verses 28 through 34, we have the depiction of God's judgement on Assyria. So what does this mean? It means that God is the God of Judah and Israel. But God is also the God of the nations as we are already beginning to embrace in a deeper way in our study of Isaiah. God is the cosmic God who can raise up nations and deliberately use them and then judge them. Well, how did all this actually transpire historically? God used Assyria to humble, to destroy, the ten northern tribes in 721 BC. But then this agent of judgement was judged. And the prophet Nahum prophesies Assyria and Nineveh's downfall. Nineveh being the capital city of Assyria. In 612 BC, the Babylonians under one Nabopolassar, the father of King Nebuchadnezzar, came and destroyed Nineveh. And brought an end to the rule and reign of Assyria. Truly in Isaiah Chapter. 10 the agent of judgement is judged. Because Yahweh is the king of all the nations.