Today’s reading: Isaiah 10; James 1
I’m not entirely sure why, but the glimpse we get into the workings of God’s sovereignty in Isaiah 10 is just fascinating to me…
As Assyria is moving against Israel, God declares that they are the rod of his anger against Israel. This is not a random invasion of a weaker nation by a stronger nation, but is God judging Israel for her unfaithfulness to Him, and using Assyria to do it. He specifically says, “Against a godless nation I send him.” What’s so fascinating to me though is what God says next; that while Assyria is His instrument of judgment against Israel, they are not doing it for Him, but for their own selfish purposes, and so they will face His judgment next. Specifically, He says that Assyria believes it has defeated nations whose gods are greater than the gods of Israel, so Israel should be no problem. So God, in decreeing judgement on Assyria for moving against Israel, is ultimately defending His own glory as the God of Israel.
I don’t know why, but I just find this fascinating. An entire nation is actively being used by God to pursue His purposes, but despite the fact that He calls them the axe, saw, rod, or staff in His hands, they have no idea that any of their actions are on His behalf. This would almost be like Google, Facebook, or Apple funding a major Christian missions push without knowing it, but to really make the comparison accurate, they would have to think they were funding something nefarious and worthy of judgment.
I think part of why this is so interesting to me is that there would be no way to know Assyria was doing this at God’s behest if He hadn’t told us through Isaiah. There is no obvious fingerprint of God to point to in the Assyrian invasion other than that He said Israel would get invaded if they were unfaithful. So what else might He be up to that we are entirely unaware of? What moves is Yahweh, the cosmic chess master, preparing or playing that we have no way of knowing are ultimately building toward His plans for the culmination of human history?
Between the fact that we wouldn’t have any way to know where God has moved apart from Him telling us, and the fact that those working for Him without knowing it were still judged for their evil intentions, despite the fact that those intentions were being used by God, this whole scenario is just plain fascinating to me…
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