NOTES for Isa 10:5-7
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.