Devotional - 030510

As my church continues to preach through the book of Isaiah, this week the passage is Isaiah 9:8-10:34. The interest part about this particular section is the themes of judgment and preservation are intertwined. The Lord continues to bring judgment, not only to Israel, but also on Assyria. In 9:8-10:4, J. Alec Motyer offers this outline:

1. National disaster (8-12)
2. Political collapse (13-17)
3. Social anarchy (18-21)
4. Moral perversion (10:1-4)

These are the issues that Israel faced. Would Israel/Judah accept and live by the word of the Lord? The whole logic of Isaiah’s social analysis stems from this question. As we so often do not recognize that national and international consequences are preceded by spiritual causes.

The Judgment (10:5-15)

The Lord will use Assyria as His instrument of judgment, which emphasizes the relationship between heaven and earth and that the Lord has absolute sovereignty over both kingdoms.

The Remnant (10:16-34)

In the end, the Lord will bring security for the people of Zion (10:24-26) and destroy the Assyrian threat (10:27-34). Isaiah fleshes this out on a large scale in chapters 13-27. Ultimately, the purpose of judgment is restoration. The key passage is in 10:20, which says, “Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel” (NASB – emphasis added).

In spite of all the sin and misplaced trust at the end of chapter 9 and at the beginning of chapter 10, “…His hand is still stretched out” (9:21b). When I read this section in the book of Isaiah, a host of New Testament passages and ideas come to mind. First, the burden of the transgressions of His people was taken away by Christ’s work on the cross so that “where sin abounds, grace abounded all the more.”

In God’s eternal patience, and purpose, He provided redemption “which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,” “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus,” “because, as sin reigned in death (throughout human history), even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

So then, the passage in Isaiah is a beautiful picture of grace in the Old Testament. And as we read throughout human history, God’s eternal purpose unfolds and reveals itself until its ultimate expression comes in the glorious grace and the beauty of Christ.