NOTES for Isa 10:1-34

Assyria, which crushed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also threatens the Southern Kingdom. But for the prophet it is clear: although Asshur has become the instrument of God's wrath against Israel, his days are numbered. Nevertheless Judah too is threatened with collapse, for failure to fulfill God's will, expressed in the Law, takes the people out of relationship with God. Trust in God becomes the criterion by which the Remnant will be chosen: the small part of the people that has preserved faith.

Trust will show itself with special force in the hour of trial, during the Assyrian military raids and the unrest in the kingdom. But those who believe in the Creator of heaven and earth know that He will not abandon His people. How terrible that the remnant will be so small! Yet in the end everything depends on each individual heart.

The main theme of Isaiah's preaching offered to us by today's reading is the theme of the remnant (vv. 20-23). This concept later became key for the entire Old Testament messianic tradition. In fact, Isaiah already understood perfectly well that those who had preserved faithfulness to God, the Covenant, and the Torah were a minority in Israel. And all the disasters that befell the country and the people, including the Assyrian invasion about which the prophet warns his compatriots (vv. 5-6), were conditioned precisely by this.

The issue is not even whether the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah accept Isaiah's own words or not. After all, in essence the prophet demands nothing special of them. He only reminds them of the need to observe the Torah, including when public and political life are involved (vv. 1-4). But, as history shows, this is exactly what turns out to be practically impossible both in Isaiah's time and today. It is not that living in accordance with the law given by God is impossible in principle: God would hardly have demanded the impossible from His people through the mouth of His prophet. But in that case one would have to live in a completely different way, so different that a person accustomed to the present order of things is afraid even to think about such a life. So afraid that even the disasters and catastrophes that overtake him seem less frightening than this possible other life, and a person is ready to do anything at all just to avoid turning to God, to the only One who could help (Isa. 9:13).

This stubbornness is not accidental, because when one turns to God, one must be ready to answer His call and follow His law; otherwise all religiosity remains mere appearance. In peaceful and calm times it is still possible to remain in illusions, to speak about one's own religiosity without seriously thinking about following the Torah. But in times of disaster and catastrophe these illusions quickly dissipate, and outward religiosity disappears like smoke. Only those remain faithful who were faithful to God even in peaceful times, keeping the commandments He gave and following His law. The Assyrian invasion, like any other national catastrophe, does not essentially change anything in the spiritual state of the people. And certainly no military defeat or other social cataclysm can be the cause of a spiritual crisis; it can only be its consequence.

Isaiah, of course, understands perfectly well that the people of God are destroyed not by the Assyrians, but by apostasy, forgetfulness of God, and violation of the Torah. But the faithful who were among the people before the Assyrian invasion and defeat do not disappear anywhere; on the contrary, their faithfulness becomes still more visible against the background of general apostasy. It is no accident that Isaiah perceives the day of disaster as the "day of visitation," that is, as the day of God's judgment (v. 3), because precisely on the day of Judgment everything falls into place, all masks drop, and what is hidden becomes manifest. And without such judgment, the coming of the messianic Kingdom is impossible. That is the Kingdom whose coming completes earthly history.

The prophecy about Assyria reveals the meaning of historical upheavals that occurred not only in ancient times. It helps us see the deep essence of many events in later centuries.

The great empire, devouring its neighbors and in Isaiah's days looming over Judah, had grown used to relying on its power. It considered its military successes, and not only its military successes, to be exclusively its own achievement. Its kings and commanders, in principle, could acknowledge their successes as a gift from above, but what did not fit into their consciousness was that their victories and greatness were not at all a sign of God's favor.

But the Bible gives us the right to conclude that the Lord, seeing that people desire what cannot benefit them, nevertheless allows things to happen according to their desires. To those who do not understand what is better for them, yet claim such understanding, He lets them see and experience what will happen if what they so passionately wanted comes about.

At the same time, He Himself does not allow the final destruction of erring humanity and can turn even the most monstrous situation toward good. But those who wanted evil will still have to answer for their deeds.

But where is the famous freedom? Here is, God says that Assyrian – is nothingelse than God's instrument, and it is in itself nothing. If man (or a group ofmen, people, the State) can be axe or saw in the hands of God, without evenknowing that himself, - then where is the freedom? Probably, we can resolvethis problem like this. Strength and reason are in nature are good. And anygood can be only from God. All that is good in Assyrian, all that gives it thepossibility of conquering the other nations, is given by God. And that is whyGod can allow to use His gifts - or to take them back, if the one, to whom they[gifts] were giving, take the credit for everything and acts against His will.

How curious. What, then, has become of that celebrated freedom? The Lord says that Assyria is nothing but an instrument of God and is nothing in itself. If a person (or a group of people, a nation, or a state) can be an axe or a saw in God’s hands without even knowing it, then where is freedom?

Perhaps this puzzle can be solved as follows. Strength and reason are good by their very nature, and every good thing can come only from God. Everything good in Assyria, everything that enables it to conquer other nations, was given by God. Therefore the Lord may allow His gifts to be used—or take them away if the one to whom they were given claims all the credit and acts against His will.

The water spoken of in the words of the Proverbs of Solomon becomes, in Christ's words, the water of life. The "strange fountain" is everything that captivates our heart and distracts our mind. Everything that keeps us from following Christ. Water washed every living thing from the face of the earth in the flood. And, as Isaiah says: "...the remnant of the house of Jacob will rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth." Can it be that only through upheavals of such scale can a person turn to God?

We know of cases when great grief or joy allowed a person to discover God in this world. But following Him, the daily labor, becomes inconvenient for us; we do not understand and do not see God. And weak in heart and will, we follow pleasures and entertainments that are pleasant but not useful for our soul. And all the more we assist evil works. All the more we are on the side of what will bring the world to the Second Coming.

But the Power and Glory of Christ have been revealed to us; He suffered for us, He took our sins upon Himself. And not to understand the price, not to see how the world around us changes if we strive to be with Christ, how much more joyful and full our own life becomes, this is our experience of the fall. Our experience of resisting Christ, unworthy and destructive.

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.