Introduction:
The Empire of Assyria was on the move as nation after nation fell before their power. They were a fierce and cruel nation that brought fear and trepidation and alarm into those they were conquering. In the Bible the kings of Assyria and of Babylon were types of the Antichrist who will come with his armies against the nation of Israel in these last of the last days. In the time of Isaiah the northern kingdom of the people of Israel with its capital city at Samaria had fallen to the Assyrians in 722BC. The southern kingdom of the people of Israel called Judah with its capital at Jerusalem was also under threat by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in the time of the prophet Isaiah.
In Isaiah chapters 36-37 we have a detailed account of the whole situation where the Assyrian army had invaded Judah, conquered the armed fortresses in the land, and were right at the gates of Jerusalem. The king of Assyria was a boastful wicked despotic tyrant who boasted that no other ‘gods’ of the nations had been able to stand against him and went on to boast that not even the God of Israel would not stop him and that they were not to rely upon Him (Isaiah 36:4-7, 18-20; 37:9-13). This will be the same scenario with the Antichrist when he comes against Israel (Daniel 11:36-37).
Sennacherib taunted the people of God by saying that Egypt, upon whom they had been relying upon for help, would not come, because they had fallen to the Assyrians. Sennacherib went on to deride the LORD before the people at Jerusalem. However, when King Hezekiah, a godly king, turned to the prophet Isaiah that they might seek the LORD, and the people also encouraged to do the same, the LORD intervened big time when the Angel of the LORD (the pre-existent Messiah before His incarnation) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.
When the Assyrian king and the rest of the surviving Assyrians woke up in the morning and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere Sennacherib and the survivors “with their tails between their legs” returned to Nineveh and stayed there and one day when Sennacherib was worshipping in the demonic temple of the ‘god’ Nishroch the Assyrian king was cut down with the sword (Isaiah 37:36-38). His ‘god’ could not save him! So it will be with the Antichrist who will boast that he is God, the Messiah our Lord Jesus will overthrow him and his armies with him with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Today Israel as a nation is under threat of being invaded and destroyed by its implacable Islamic neighbours in the Middle-East region by their enemies on all sides and the western nations for the most part are not coming to the defence of Israel except America. The UN, the EU, NATO are watching from the sidelines the events occurring in Israel and the surrounding Islamic nations hell-bent on the annihilation of God’s covenant people. With the elections coming up in America in November it may come to the point where America may well have an incompetent President who will not support Israel? If this happens then God still knows what He is doing.
The LORD is using applied pressure by allowing Israel’s immediate enemies to oppress and attack them, not to destroy His people, but to bring them back to the Messiah our Lord Jesus our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for their sins, and for the sins of the whole world. It will take the time of Jacob’s trouble to bring this reconciliation about but it will happen and in that day All Israel will be saved! (Jeremiah 30:1-10a) (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Romans 11:25-27). God will save the remnant chosen by His grace because His gifts and call are irrevocable (Romans 11:1-5, 29).
Having said this, it is God who by His divine wisdom and absolute power changes times and seasons and sets up kings and deposes them” (Daniel 2:20-21a). God Himself is all foreknowing and in that perfect foreknowledge foresees everything, and knows everything there is to know about the universe and even beyond that because in eternity there is no past, present and future time frames with Him, because He has always existed and will always exist being the everlasting Triune God. He also knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart and deep mind of every human being living on earth (1 Samuel 16:7).
In these troubled times it is greatly encouraging to know that God in His absolute sovereignty and foreknowledge still has everything under control and that nothing happens that He does not permit to happen.
As Isaiah also writes; “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it” (Isaiah 46:9-11).
In Isaiah chapter 31 we see the king of Judah and the people of Jerusalem facing a foreign army that they could not resist and were told by the LORD through the prophet Isaiah not to lean upon the Egyptians for support, but to rely totally upon Him alone to deliver them from their implacable, malevolent and despotic enemies hell bent of their destruction. Lets’ now look at the text…
Isaiah Chapter 31 : Exposition:
(Vs. 1-2) “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. Yet He too is wise and can bring disaster; He does not take back His words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers.
In the Bible Egypt is used as a metaphor for the world. We know from the Torah that Israel’s kings were not to go down to Egypt for horses which were used in battle. Moses writes; “But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again” (Deuteronomy 17:16) In the ancient world , superiority usually belonged to those kings who had a great number of horses and chariots.
In order to fight military power with military power Judah relied on the forces that Egypt would be able to provide to fight against the power of Assyria. In Judah it became proverbial that the opposite of reliance only upon the LORD was the reliance on horses and chariots (Psalm 20:7).
Today we see the leaders of Israel looking to the Egypt of this world for their armaments to help in defending the people of Israel. There is no doubt that the hand of the LORD is preventing Israel to be overrun by its enemies at present as Israel fights against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the various terrorists enclaves in Syria and Iraq and of course these antagonistic terrorist organization are backed financially and militarily by Iran. Now with the elimination of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran Hezbollah commander Faud Shukr in Beirut by Israel Iran have vowed vengeance with an all-out attack on Israel.
As I write on 6.8.2024 there is an expectancy in Israel and the other nations of an impending retaliatory strike from Iran and it’s proxies to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Faud Shukr in Beirut, and if this all-out attack happens the world may well find itself on the verge of WW3? In Israel there are those who are looking to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for their protection, and we have seen the hand of the LORD turning aside many missiles. However, we see that some missiles are hitting their intended targets which have caused several tragedies including young children and teenagers playing soccer on a field hit by a rocket from Hezbollah killing and wounding dozens including spectators watching the game.
As we see the nations gathering against Israel do we see its leaders, looking only to the LORD, or still, by and large, relying upon the ‘Egypt’ of this world for armaments with which to continue fighting their enemies surrounding them on all sides? Even support from America, Israel’s greatest ally, deploying more warships able to shoot down ballistic missiles to keep Iran and its proxies in check may be affected by the elections in the US coming up in November this year. As we will see later in this chapter the LORD went to the defence of Israel in the time of Isaiah and God will do the same thing for Israel once He has them where He wants them in order for them to cry out to Him to deliver them from their enemies. We see this scenario played out in Jeremiah 30:1-1-10a.
God must bring the nation to the point where they will only look to the Holy One of Israel and not to any other nation for help. God is a supernatural God and nothing is too hard for Him and what is impossible with man is possible with God. In His first coming the Messiah was rejected by the nation. In His Second Coming He will be gladly welcomed because their situation will be a dark and dire one that only the Triune God, the Holy One of Israel can remedy.
When it came to wisdom for king Hezekiah and Judah’s leaders it was the LORD who could impart it including the wisdom as to how to engage and to fight the enemy which we see happening with David in the Bible when He sought the LORD to find out His strategy for victory (1 Samuel 30:8) (2 Samuel 5:19).
God’s wisdom is wiser than man’s wisdom, and at all times He knows what needs to be done, how it should be done, when it should be done, where it should be done, and by whom it should be done. Here the LORD says that according to His perfect, just and righteous wisdom He can bring disaster and turn against His people as well as upon their enemies if Israel persisted in leaning on the pagan nations for support. God’s people were to remember that that all who do not look to Him alone for their protection have abandoned the Holy One of Israel who is supremely powerful to put down human incentives and all powers that oppose Him. When God speaks it comes to pass. With the Assyrians “breathing down their necks” the people of Judah had to look only to the LORD for their deliverance, and it is the same for Israel’s leaders today.
Just as the king of Assyria and his huge army attacked Jerusalem so the Antichrist and his vast army will also attack Jerusalem. At this time all nations will have turned against Israel but the LORD will come to their aid at the last moment and the nations will be devastated by His return. God never takes back His Word because forever it is settled in heaven in eternity (Psalm 119:89).
It is greatly encouraging to know that God always honours His Word and fulfils it in the lives of all those who look to Him alone in their hour of crisis. This kind of faith pleases Him and He rewards it (Hebrews 11:6). Hezekiah and his cabinet and the people needed to come back to relying only upon the LORD but it would take the impending conquest of the Assyrians upon Jerusalem. It is the same today for the Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and His Cabinet in the Knesset. God is seeking to get their attention but are they listening? Let’s continue…
(Vs.3) “But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together.
The leaders of the nations are mortal and their armaments and weapons of war are not as powerful as God’s might and power is. This was the same for the Egyptians with their horses and chariots which did not save them in the end from the Assyrians and so Egypt would not be able to save the people of Judah. Furthermore, the LORD once more told them that He would stretch out His all- powerful hand towards those from Egypt and towards those who relied upon Egypt, so that both would perish together. Having said this, because of His blood covenant cut with Abraham and with his descendants, God would rise up to defend and to protect Israel.
The New Everlasting Covenant cut in the blood of Messiah was made was with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, and not with a Gentile Church (Jeremiah 31:31). The Body of Messiah is spiritually grafted into the Olive Tree representing the Commonwealth of Israel and share in the blessings guaranteed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to their offspring (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:15-18) (Romans 4:16-25; 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22). So then the LORD now encouraged His people in the face of their impending doom at the hands of Assyria and their King Sennacherib.
(Vs.4-5) “This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey — and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour — so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. “Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; He will shield it and deliver it, He will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”
God can and does protect His people because of His blood covenant made with Abraham and both his physical and spiritual descendants which He can never annul or break. Isaiah likened the LORD’s ability to a lion intent on getting its prey even when many shepherds make a loud noise to scare it off, and to birds hovering overhead, intent on scaring away a would be intruder to protect their young in the nest. The LORD is as strong as a lion that destroys its enemies and caring like a bird as He protects Judah. Through His servant Isaiah the LORD said that He would be a shield, a deliverer and a rescuer that would save Judah in their hour of extremity which He did when he judged the Assyrians and their king Sennacherib.
The same is true for Israel in the future when it looks like the nation will be destroyed by the armies of Antichrist, the LORD will shield the city once again and send the Messiah back for the Jewish people to experience His salvation and to destroy all of the enemy armies arrayed against Jerusalem and to inaugurate His Messianic Millennial Kingdom with its Headquarters at Jerusalem. Then the LORD addressed the people of Judah about their need to repent, as repentance always precedes the LORD’s blessing (Isaiah 55:6-8) (Acts 3:19). And so we read…
(Vs.6-7) “Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.”
Right through the scriptures in both Testaments we see that the blessings of God are not automatic, but have a condition attached to them, and that is one of repentance, a genuine sorrow for sin accompanied by a willingness to ask for His forgiveness and cleansing, and to turn away from those things in our lives that do not please Him. A little boy in a Sunday school class was asked a question by his teacher. “What is repentance?” the little boy replied; “To be so sorry for what you have been doing that you stop doing it.” While we do not have the power to repent we can seek the LORD for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience that will lead us to the place of repentance (Romans 2:4). Israel’s revolt was great because they were chasing after other ’gods’ which was an insult to the One and only true and Living Triune God. Idolatry was the No 1 issue addressed in the Ten Commandments given to Moses by the LORD.
Worshipping idols was the worship of demons, a very serious matter for the people of the southern kingdom of Judah as it had been for the northern kingdom Israel (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20). The idolatry of God’s people had caused Him to bring the Assyrians against His people, not to destroy them because of His covenant made with the nation of Israel, but to bring about their repentance, however, God would not do the repenting for them, they would have to do that themselves. The LORD was saying to Judah that the future belongs to those who repent by returning to Him in faith and turning from the idols and pagan lifestyles and practices of the pagan nations.
The same is true for Israel as well as for Christendom. Idolatry takes many forms. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives or enables us to give Him second place. Personal relationships regulated according to God’s Word are not wrong in themselves, neither is having money, success, a house or a nice car to drive, or to pursue a career, or to have savings in the bank, or to have a favourite sport, however, when any of these things are given priority over the LORD then it becomes an idol. It also needs to be said that when with God’s help we do give up something or some pursuit that is displeasing to God He will replace it with something far better.
We can often try to fight against these temptations of the flesh to embrace idols in our own strength, however, another way to go is to acknowledge before the LORD our powerlessness against them and to ask Him to change our desires so that we will lose interest in them, and desire only those things He desires for us. It takes time, patience, endurance and persistence and trusting in Him to honour His Word, and if we do not give up then the LORD, who knows how to deliver the godly in a time of trial, will come with a great deliverance. As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:8-9). Spiritual victories are never short cuts, but come after sometimes a prolonged battle with the flesh and with the principalities and powers of spiritual wickedness in high places.
Temptations to sin will always come, and we spend our lives repenting, not over the same sin again and again, but when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something we have done in thought, word or deed we are to be quick to confess it. When we confess it the burden of it is lifted by the blessed Holy Spirit and we are cleaned of it by the blood of Messiah (Psalm 32:3-5) (1 John 1:9). As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
When an unsaved person comes to the end of their life, if they are honest before they go into eternity, they will have a sorrow that contemplates their soon demise in this world and their future destiny in eternity. However, when a saved man or woman come to the end of their life on earth, and who has lived in His will for their life, will have no sorrow concerning their future destiny in eternity. There will be sorrow about leaving loved ones of course, this is natural, but at the same time knowing the peace of God that transcends all human understanding, having their minds fixed and garrisoned by the Messiah our Lord Jesus, and knowing that they have served in the will of God in their generation and are going to their eternal reward.
Repentance is an ongoing practice in the life of every born again, blood redeemed child of God, because we do sin, as we have our sinful nature to contend with and propensity to give in to temptation when confronted with it, and the demands of the fleshly fallen human nature with its passions and desires on the inside of us that are constantly at war with the desires of the new nature within us in the person of the blessed Holy Spirit. This conflict will continue throughout our life down here on earth until we go to be with the Lord or are raptured, either way in the end we win!!! (Galatians 5:16-18).
For the people of Judah, God’s deliverance would surely come, and it would come on the basis of their repentance shown in destroying the idols which they had been worshipping. God had arranged for the Assyrians to attack the southern kingdom of Judah as He had done to the northern kingdom of Israel. However, unlike the king of Israel and the city of Samaria in the north who did not repent and felt the wrath of the Assyrians, the people of the southern kingdom of Judah did repent before the LORD and He spared the city of Jerusalem from the tyranny of the Assyrians and even arranging the assassination of their king Sennacherib. Through Isaiah the LORD predicted the fall of Assyria and the fall of Sennacherib and his armies which foreshadows the fall of the antichrist and his armies that will have attacked and besieged Jerusalem at the very end of this present age (Daniel 11:45). And so we read…
(Vs.8-9) “Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labour. Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.”
In the years 612-609 the empire of Assyria fell to the Babylonian Empire. It was a fall engineered by the LORD using the Babylonian armies. In scripture we see the LORD using foreign armies to accomplish His purposes. In the case of Assyria Isaiah tells us that God was in their downfall as an empire. In the prophet Nahum the fall of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria is spelled out in detail. There are many other instances in the Old Testament scriptures where we see God judging nations. We are told in scripture that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne (Psalm 89:14), and He dispenses these divine attributes according to His infinitely perfect will.
It is also written in scripture; “The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. The wicked will return to Sheol (Hell)—all the nations who forget God” (Psalm 9:17). Also elsewhere Isaiah actually describes the state of all the pagan kings in Sheol who are very much alive and in continual torment and anguish, and the ones who are joined by the Antichrist himself who has been physically killed by the Messiah at His Second Coming (Isaiah 14:9-12).
Those Assyrians who survived the Babylonian invasion and conquest of Assyria saw their young men who had survived put into forced labour. The Babylonians were just as fierce as or even fiercer than the Assyrians and the fall of Nineveh had infused terror into the Assyrian people and the Assyrian fortresses garrisoned in Assyria. The Assyrian commanders were fierce, however, at the sight of the Babylonian war banners and standards they were in panic. While God used foreign nations to bring His people back to Himself, once He had used those pagan nations for His purposes, He got rid of them because in Jerusalem, the city where He has put His name forever, His fire of purity and holiness was in Zion, the people of God collectively amongst whom He dwelt, and whose furnace of refining was in Jerusalem. His refining fire was purifying His people and yet destroying their enemies.
In the very near future when Israel has its back to the wall in desperation, as the Israelites did at the Red Sea in the time of Moses, the people of Israel will cry out to the LORD and in their extremity He will send back the Messiah our Lord Jesus who will completely destroy the antichrist and his armies that have sought to completely eradicate Israel, as Pharaoh wanted to do at the Red Sea and where he and the Egyptian armies were all drowned. Like the kings of Assyria and Babylon, who were types of the future Antichrist, so were the Pharaohs of Egypt that sought to kill off the Israelites. In scripture Egypt metaphorically is a type of the world and Pharaoh metaphorically a type of the god of this world Satan.
Indeed when it looks like Israel is finished they will call out to the LORD and when they see the Messiah descending in the clouds with great glory they will cry out “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” and He affirmed this on earth when He said to the people in Jerusalem who were for the most part rejecting Him; “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”(Matthew 23:37-39)
That day is coming for Israel and fast approaching. God has His faithful remnant in Israel today and many who are saved are witnessing to their fellow Jews. Others who are yet to be saved are also part of the remnant chosen by the foreknowing grace of God (Romans 11:5). The orthodox religious Jews by and large today in Israel are still persecuting the Messianic assemblies as they persecuted the first century body of Messiah and as their forefathers did to the Old Testament prophets as we see recorded in the Bible. However God is going to change things, and that dramatically when Israel encounters their Messiah who was pierced for their sins and who will bring about in them tears of repentance and joy for so great a salvation (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). In that day when the cry of the Israelites ascends to heaven and to the ears of God, in that day the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. “Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; He will shield it and deliver it, He will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” Amen!!!
