Read Is 10:12–27a, 33–34
Isa 10:12-19 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. (13) For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. (14) My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.” (15) Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! (16) Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. (17) The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. (18) The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. (19) The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

There is a double fulfillment at work here in today’s text from Isaiah. One points to a fulfillment in the time of Isaiah, the other to the last day when Christ returns. First we see how the Lord, the God of Hosts views the attitude towards the king of the Assyrians. The king is boastful and full of pride. He believes it was his skill, power and the like which has won him much of the earth he has conquered. But the Lord rebukes him accosting him and reminding he that he is simply the tool of the Lord’s wrath against his people Israel and Judah who have turned against faith in the Lord.

Because of his pride and arrogance the Lord is going to bring the king to ruin and of his reign who will tell of it. Of his descendents, do we even know, can we even tell who they are? And indeed, the Lord eventually brought about the ruin of the Assyrians. The Babylonians would take their place eventually, then the Persians and Medes, followed by the Greek and then the Romans. The Holy Roman empire, the Spaniards, French, English and Germans, the Russians, the Americans, the Chinese have all had their empires and they all thought their own hand, power, might and wisdom had gotten them where they were at some point in time and they likewise fall away. It is and was the Lord our God, Jesus Christ, who guides the fates of nations and empires. There are two more great kingdoms left to be brought to bear. It is our Lord who lifts both up. There is the kingdom of the World, which is always the same kingdom no matter the name, which is the original world kingdom, Babylon, which man thinks he creates and there is the kingdom of God which uses Babylon for Jesus’ own purposes and glory. In the end, as Isaiah says, (17) “The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.” Jesus is the Holy One who will defeat the kings of this world with the breath of his mouth and turn all those who fight against him and his Church into food for birds. (Rev. 19) But to those who trust in the gift of Jesus’ merits, righteousness, forgiveness and life, they are his Israel whom he gathers to himself eternally.

Lord Jesus Christ, may pride have no place in our minds nor in the minds of those who lead our country that we may continually give glory and praise to you for all temporal and eternal goods. Amen.