NOTES for Isa 10:15

Assyria, against which this prediction of Isaiah is directed, was a countryextremely unattractive. It is the first military-fascist State in history, havingpracticed in massive scales the genocide and the forceful removal of peoples.The plunders and the destruction of the defenseless became the base of thepolitics(policy) of this “ne plus ultra” militarized power. "God's scourge"– was called like this in the antiquity not only the locusts, but also bandsAssyrians. When at the end of the 7th century before. J.C. , Assyriafell under the strikes of Babylon, the prophet Nahum said: "all that hear thebruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thywickedness passed continually?".

And here is, on the words of the Assyrian king "have I gathered all theearth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.", theprophet Isaiah announces God's word. "Shall the axe boast itselfagainst him that heweth therewith?", - says theLord. This haughty and proud power, who thought that the whole world is subjectto him, turns out only an instrument into the hands of real Master. And theLord says that for the cruelty and violence, for the thief and the murderer theLight of Israel, His Saint becomes the fire, becomes the flame, which willdestroy any top and lofty. It is a very important image - the Light of God thatbecomes a flame for any sin.

By intuition we expect two actions from God: the salvation of the goods (we)and the punishment of the bad (the Assyrians, the Muslims, the Jews, thebourgeois, the Catholics, the cyclists, the pedestrians). But God in Hisinfinite Wisdom makes only one action: He comes. And all the farther depends onpeople themselves. If the Light of Israel will become for you a light openingthe way to life or a gobbling up fire, depends on your will and your morality.