Isaiah 10:12
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord ['Adonay] hath performed [batsa`] his
whole work [ma`aseh] upon mount [har] Zion [Tsiyown] and on
Jerusalem, [Yaruwshalaim] I will punish [paqad] the fruit [pariy] of the
stout [godel] heart [lebab] of the king [melek] of
Assyria, ['Ashshuwr] and the glory [tiph'arah] of his high [ruwm] looks. [`ayin] KJV-Interlinear
12 So it will
be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on
Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of
the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness." NASB
God has but one plan and
one purpose. Man has many plans and many
purposes.
Gods plan has a
beginning, middle and end, with an objective that started from the beginning
and has never changed.
Mans plans change constantly
with circumstances and sin.
Gods plan is for all to
be saved, for all to grow up in their spiritual life, for all to live with Him in
heaven for the rest of eternity.
During history, God has
to apply discipline or judgment in order to preserve and perpetuate humanity in
history.
This is necessary so that
all people who will believe in Christ and so that all people who will grow up
in their spiritual lives, throughout history, will have that opportunity. During history there will be many assaults by
evil, to end history, or to redirect it such that people and even generations
will not have access to God, Christ, doctrine or anything of truth. God does not permit that to happen.
When a chosen nation goes
spiritually negative, when a chosen people go spiritually negative, when any
aspect of His plan is placed in jeopardy by the negative aspects of those
people, then they are met with discipline and redirection of their own, back to
doctrine. This is in order to preserve
and keep Gods plan moving forward toward success for everyone.
Both Jerusalem and
Samaria were drifting away from truth. They had drifted so far, that strong
discipline was needed in order to bring those countries and peoples back to God
and doctrine.
God uses many tools in
order to apply discipline and judgment.
And in this case, God
used their neighbor, Assyria, who itself was evil and ruthless and had its eyes
on the several neighbors including Jerusalem and Samaria for their own lustful
desires. Had Assyria had its eyes on
truth, then its invasion would have been more of a legal and criminal prosecution
action, and not a lust driven, and theft of loot action for itself.
By comparison in our
current world, Iraq for example was evil and guilty of many things. They were
invaded and thumped pretty hard in order to remove an evil leadership and
criminal element and restored to some semblance of a civil nation.
By comparison when Iraq
invaded its neighbor Kuwait, they invaded with the intention of stealing whatever
they could and killing whomever they will and so forth.
In the past, Hitler
wanted world domination and the Allies removed that evil and restored national
sovereignty.
That is the difference between
national aggression for truth and aggression for evil.
Evil drives evil
intentions. Truth drives correction and restoration of order and freedom and self-determination
opportunities.
The leadership of
Assyria, and not just one leader, but several leaders, were driven by sin. They could have listened to truth and brought
back Israel to its senses. But they were
not interested in truth or order, but in their own evil conquests.
Once God had brought the
necessary discipline to Israel, then He turned His attention to Assyria and
dealt with them in accordance with their evil ways.
Assyria was arrogant to
the maximum and driven by its arrogant lusts for power and wealth and so forth.
Israel fell prey to
Assyria because they turned away from truth.
Truth is the foundation for ones own survival in life. Truth teaches the ways of evil, the ways of
ones own security or planning against evil, the ways of ones preparation for
life.
Why do you place locks on
your doors? Why do you attend school? Why does a nation have a military? Why do you learn right from wrong? These and many many more concepts, are a part
of truth, not to mention the obvious truth of salvation and doctrinal
instruction. Establishment principles,
scientific laws, and much more are an integral part of truth.
When truth is rejected,
authority is rejected, establishment is rejected, common sense is rejected, and
evil invades to destroy.
No one gets away with
anything. Even when evil falls prey to
evil, both parties get their due punishment sooner or later.
