Chapter 10 - Another Warning of Judgment

We come now to the end of chapter 10 of Isaiah. This is another judgment on Assyria - but with a difference.

Isaiah 10:27 (HCSB) On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because of fatness.

"On that day" - should draw our attention to the end of days, when the final judgment comes on the nations. The previous section speaks of the paradise we'll have in Jesus; this section builds on that. The burden will from the shoulders of God's covenant people, the heavy yoke will be removed, broken "because of fatness." There is a lack of consensus as to what the Hebrew word behind "fatness" means; it shows up as prosperity, anointing, and fat. Is the yoke broken because God's people are "fat" - rich? Is this wealth temporal or spiritual? Yet those who inherit the kingdom are poor in spirit.

We DO know, the heavy yoke is removed and broken.  Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden light (Matt 11:30) - both of these, burden and yoke, are mentioned in Isaiah 10:7. The apostles said the Mosaic Law was a heavy yoke that no man could bear (Acts 15:5 & 10). In Christ, the heavy yoke is broken and the burden thereof removed; we take His yoke which is light, as is His burden. This is the change between the Old and New Covenants.

Isaiah 10:28-32 (HCSB) Assyria has come to Aiath and has gone through Migron, storing his equipment at Michmash. They crossed over at the ford, saying, “We will spend the night at Geba.” The people of Ramah are trembling; those at Gibeah of Saul have fled. Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Anathoth is miserable. Madmenah has fled. The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge. Today he will stand at Nob, shaking his fist at the mountain of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Historians tell us Assyria never took this route in battle; that it actually represents the route "as the crow flies." It seems this describes the spiritual battle waged against the people of God, typified by ethnic Israel's arch enemy. The list of small villages along this route include Jeremiah's home town of Anathoth and Nob is northeast of Jerusalem, where Saul took out revenge on the priests (1 Sam 22:11-23) for aiding David (1 Sam 21:1-9). This is where, Isaiah said, Assyria will stand, shaking his fist at Jerusalem. This typifies the enemy of the saints, who shakes his fist at the temple of God - His saints. For we are the New Jerusalem that will come down to the new earth on that day.

Isaiah 10:33-34 (HCSB) Look, the Lord GOD of Hosts will chop off the branches with terrifying power, and the tall ⌊trees⌋ will be cut down, the high ⌊trees⌋ felled. He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.

I will give you a scene from the gospel. Matthew 3:1-2 & 7-10 (HCSB) In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” ... When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the place of his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

In Isaiah we see the Lord ready to cut down tall trees and clear the thickets with His ax. John picks up on this and tells the self-righteous Jews that they have no basis for boasting, for God has the ax in His raised up hand, ready to cut down the tall trees at the root. And every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and burned.

So it will be on that day, when the Lord Jesus returns with shout and the sound of the trumpet. Are you built on the Rock or do you yet stand on the sand of your own righteousness? There remains only one sure refuge on that day. Christ Jesus - it is He!