“After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. He boasts, “By my own powerful arm I have done this. With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it. I have broken down the defences of nations and carried off their treasures. I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops, and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
The Lord will consume Assyria’s glory like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land; it will waste away like sick people in a plague. Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive— so few that a child could count them!”
Isaiah 10:12-13, 16, 18-19 NLT
In the short term, the king of Assyria and his armies would be successful, but only until they have achieved God’s purposes in the judgement of His people. The Assyrians had no clue at all about why they are being so successful in battles: instead, their king claimed, with pride and arrogance, that it was all about his “powerful arm” and his “shrewd wisdom” and planning. It seems that it was not only the Israelites being conquered, as there were other nations overrun by the Assyrian armies as well.
There were three Old Testament prophets who prophesied about the Assyrians and their capital city, Nineveh. Jonah’s ministry took place between 790 and 750 BC, and as we know, he was given the message, “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are” (Jonah 1:2). We know the outcome – “When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). Why did He do this? Apart from showing His mercy and compassion to a foreign nation, it was perhaps because God could see a time when He would need the Assyrians to do His bidding.
Isaiah’s ministry took place after King Uzziah died in 740 BC. We have previously considered the applicable verses in Isaiah 6, where we read, “Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me””. What a dramatic and effective call, but Isaiah responded in a time when the people of Judah were coming under God’s judgment for their wickedness and refusal to turn to God. It was about 680 BC when Isaiah ceased his prophetic ministry.
Then we have the prophet Nahum, who ministered between 663 and 612 BC. His book commences, “This message concerning Nineveh came as a vision to Nahum, who lived in Elkosh”, and it continues for three chapters. We read, “This is what the Lord says: “Though the Assyrians have many allies, they will be destroyed and disappear. O my people, I have punished you before, but I will not punish you again” (Nahum 1:12).
The rise and fall of the Assyrians occurred in accordance with the prophetic messages of faithful men, and this serves as a warning to proud and arrogant leaders today. As soon as a leader starts to claim that his success in battle or some other occasion is due to his “shrewd wisdom” and his “powerful arm,” pride and arrogance abound, and a laugh can be heard in the Heavens. Psalm 2:2, “The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one”. But the Lord’s response is, “But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury” (Psalm 2:4-5).
Today, we pilgrims can look back over the past century or two and can see how seemingly unstoppable, powerful men have come to grief because of their evil ways. We consider men such as Hitler, whose dream of the Third Reich dissipated with Germany’s defeat in the Second World War, and whose life ended by suicide in his Berlin bunker. Then there was a king in the Bible called Nebuchadnezzar, and with pride and arrogance, and “as he looked out across the city, he said, ‘Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendour’” (Daniel 4:30). He next finds himself living out God’s punishment, eating grass in a field. There are consequences to pride and arrogance.
Lessons for us pilgrims from these verses in Isaiah include the importance of never minimising God and His power and strength. Our proud and arrogant leaders may think that they succeed by their own efforts, but in reality, God looks on and patiently gives them time to see the error of their ways. And one day they will be called to account for their thoughts and actions. But we thank God for our Christian lawmakers, who introduce salt and light into dark places. We pilgrims must continually pray for our government and political leaders that God will guide them in all that they do.
Dear Father God. As our nation grows darker, we pray that we shine brighter, bringing Your light to bear wherever we find ourselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 