The God Who is Involved - Isaiah 10
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©Copyright February 20, 2022 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
This morning we turn to Isaiah 10 which is about God’s dealings with Assyria. It is uncertain whether this was written after the Assyrians capture of Israel and Syria or right before that happened. As we read today, we will zero in on the way God relates to Assyria and learn some things about the nature of God as it relates to our lives.
I feel the need to apologize to you even before we start. This text is going to stretch your brain today. In fact, it may stretch so much, you may feel it is going to tear. I had the same feeling as I worked on this. However, if we can even begin to grasp what the Bible is teaching us, these truths will be a source of strength throughout your life. Let’s dive into the text.
5 “What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.
I use it as a club to express my anger.
6 I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,
against a people with whom I am angry.
Assyria will plunder them,
trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
7 But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;
his mind does not work that way.
His plan is simply to destroy,
to cut down nation after nation.
8 He will say,
‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.
9 We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.
Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.
And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.
10 Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom
whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,
just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’ ”
The Providence of God
As in many passages, talking about the judgment of God on various nations, it is easy to find our eyes and our minds glazing over. It seems irrelevant to us because many of these nations no longer exist. But this passage tells us something important that we often miss.
In verse 5 God says Assyria is “the rod of God’s anger.” In other words, God chose to use Assyria to judge Israel. In verse 7 God says, “But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way.” What we see here is a doctrine called the Providence of God. It is one of the most comforting doctrines in the Bible. Please understand, this is not a doctrine that theologians dreamed up, it is simply a way of describing what a host of verses in the Bible is saying.
The Doctrine of Providence states, God is “hands on” in our existence. He will orchestrate events, impact circumstances, lead us in various directions, and at times even reign us in by His discipline of us. He uses the positive and negative circumstances of our lives to accomplish His purpose. This is so much so that we can say there are no “accidents” in the life of the believer. God ordains or allows whatever comes to pass and does it to help us achieve His purpose for our lives.
Unfortunately, people are somewhat uncomfortable with the notion of God being this involved in our lives. We would rather believe He shows up every now and again to adjust our course and bail us out. Sometimes, when bad things happen (from our perspective) we like to say, “Some things ‘just happen’.” We say this because we are uncomfortable with the thought that God might be involved in something tragic or painful. But I think most of us would say the Lord could have prevented it and didn’t. Which means He is involved either actively or passively.
In the book of Job, after Job lost everything (including his children) Job said, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Later he said to his wife, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” (Job 2:10)
The doctrine of providence is not fatalism. Fatalism says, all of life is scripted and we are just playing a part. We are not robots simply following a program. The doctrine of God’s providence holds two truths, that are constantly affirmed throughout the Bible, in tension.
1. God is in absolute control
2. We are responsible for the choices we make
This first truth, that God is in control is affirmed in many places. Here are a few of those places.
· Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails (Prov. 19:21)
· 17 For this has been decreed by the messengers;
it is commanded by the holy ones, so that everyone may know
that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world.
He gives them to anyone he chooses—
even to the lowliest of people.” (Daniel 4:17)
· “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?” (Lam 3:37)
· “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Pr 16:33)
· “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.” (Hebrews 1:3)
· “He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.“ (Colossians 1:17)
· “in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28
· “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me and at the last day I will raise them up.” John 6:44
My intention is not to bury you in scripture. I just want you to see this is a very prevalent doctrine in the Bible and yet, I suspect, in many congregations, it is never talked about. We talk about God being with us only when good things happen. From these verses we see God is involved in running the universe from the casting of lots (think “flipping a coin”) to the plans we make, to the things that happen daily, to the number of days we live on this earth. This leads us to the conclusion that everything that happens is in a sense, a part of God’s will.
This is illustrated perhaps most graphically in most of the Bible accounts. With Joseph, God used the jealousy of his brothers, their selling him into slavery, the charge of “rape” made against him, the dreams of the prisoners and the dream of Pharoah himself. And the timing in all these stories is perfect.
Gideon saw God involved in making a welcome mat wet or keeping it dry. God was involved in how the various men drank water out of the river. And He gave the Midianites a dream that set up Gideon’s battle.
When David was being chased by Saul, David and some others snuck into Saul’s camp at night. They took Saul’s spear and water jug and were undetected because we are told God had Saul’s army in a deep sleep.
In the book of Esther God uses a sequence of events (including a sleepless night for the King which led him to read the archive and to “just happen to” learn about the faithfulness of Mordecai). God is not mentioned in the entire book, but His fingerprints are everywhere.
I don’t know if God is causing every event in our lives, but I do believe He is in every significant event. We are fine with saying God brought us blessing, but somehow when bad things happen, we conclude that some things “just happen.” We might even say, “God had nothing to do with what happened.” Such comments deny the sovereign rule of God.
If we really believe that “all things work together for good for them that love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) then we have to believe that God has control over all circumstances of our lives. When we pray, we are asking God to intervene in the lives of people and circumstances. The point is, we instinctively know that God is over all things.
Most of us would say there came a time when we became aware of our need for a Savior. Someone came into our life at just the right time to point us to Jesus. We know we did not do this . . . God did it. Without His leading and intervention in our lives we would not be His followers today. But the question raised is: “Do we have any choice in the things that happen?” This leads to the other side of our tension.
The Responsibility of Man
There is another side to this issue and it is that somehow God exercises His providential rule without taking away man’s accountability for his/her actions. In other words, our choices are real choices (even though these choices may be used by God).
In our text listen to verses 12-14 of Isaiah 10,
12 After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. 13 He boasts,
“By my own powerful arm I have done this.
With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.
I have broken down the defenses of nations
and carried off their treasures.
I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
14 I have robbed their nests of riches
and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.
No one can even flap a wing against me
or utter a peep of protest.” (12-14)
God used Assyria as His tool to punish Israel but that did not free Assyria from responsibility for their attitudes and actions. God held them accountable for the things they did. He was going to judge them for their arrogance and barbarity. Assyria thought they were stronger than the God of Israel, and God declares He will show them how wrong they are.
So, God is working in the events of life to accomplish His purpose in us and in the world, but does not do so in a way that makes us merely puppets. We are responsible for our actions. Even in salvation, the Bible clearly tells us that God has chosen us for salvation, yet we still must make a real decision to follow Him. The Sovereignty and Providence of God are things that exist in tension with human responsibility. The tension will be gone as we stand before Him and no longer are limited by our “this world” thinking.
Like you, I have questions: Why do people die at a young age? Why do some people suffer with terrible diseases? Why does God allow believers to be martyred? Why do marriages end in divorce? Why are children allowed to be abused? I do not have answers to such questions but that does not mean there are no answers.
Isaiah 55:9 has these great words,
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
The end of Romans 11 has a similar statement,
33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
34 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?
36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
We are left to trust His wisdom and His work in us.
The Value of These Truths
When we can grasp this, the doctrine of God’s providence is one of the most comforting doctrines there is. It means no matter what happens, we don’t need to despair. Even in the bad circumstances God is either: trying to get our attention, deepening our faith, turning us from sin, leading us to where He wants us to be, or maybe using us to witness to or testify of His kindness, forgiveness and grace. We may not see what He is doing, but we have the confidence that every heartache is actually an opportunity to praise and trust the Lord.
Because God is sovereign over His creation, we know the promises He makes are promises He will keep. There is a real sense that when we worry, we are sinning because we are not trusting His governing wisdom and power. We must trust that god knows what He is doing, even when we do not. Author Jerry Bridges wrote perceptively,
If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control then we cannot trust Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited and His purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust Him. You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions. I may love you and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere, but if I do not have the power or ability to guard your valuables, you cannot truly entrust them to me.[1]
There is nothing that will hinder God’s plan and purpose for creation! Everything is under His guidance and control. We can trust that God will save us, preserve us, and eventually glorify us because of the truth that He is in control of all things.
Second, you are here for a reason. Since the Lord is working in our lives to accomplish His purpose, we know that there is something He wants us to do. We have a role to play. You may feel you are too young, too old, or too busy to serve Him. But the God who knows and directs all things has you just where you are, so God can work in and through you. We don’t always know what that plan is, but we can trust there is one. Look for ways that you can serve and honor the Lord and those around you. Don’t let yourself “off the hook” by concluding this doesn’t apply to you! God is at work in your life. Be open to the opportunities He gives you.
Third, you were not made by accident. We have all thought this at one time or another. We think we are defective. We don’t like our appearance, our IQ, our personality, our emotional challenges, and what we feel we lack in spiritual gifts. Since God is sovereign and doesn’t make mistakes . . . you are not a mistake! You may not feel valuable, but God made you who you are, and He did for a purpose. “You are God’s masterpiece.” To be critical of who we are is to in essence say: “God made a mistake!” God does not make mistakes.
Is it easy to understand the tension between God’s providence and our ability to choose freely? No, it is not. There are many painful things in the world, and these are the things we have trouble reconciling with this teaching. There are even good and wonderful things that leave us asking “why me Lord, what have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings I’ve known?”
Here is what I know: the Bible speaks of God’s sovereign rule. It tells us God is involved in even the little things. He does this not to creep us out, or even to control us. He intervenes because He wants us to be the people He created us to be. As parents, we try to do all kinds of things to help our children. Why wouldn’t God do the same?
The Bible affirms we are making real decisions that have actual consequences. We cannot simply sit passively waiting for God to do something. We must do what He tells us to do. We must work to be obedient and to make good decisions in life. If we do not do this, God will correct us. If we do follow His way, He will open doors for us.
Because of the doctrine of God’s Providence, I believe you are in this place today for a reason. It may be to learn more about Him, to encourage someone else, to teach someone else (by words or example), or maybe you are here to challenge you to get your life back on track. You might be here because God wants you to be part of His family. He wants you to embrace His forgiveness and new life. God wants you to know how He feels about you.
Sometimes we need to stretch our brains. We need to learn to think more deeply. Because when we do so, we discover gems of wisdom and truth that spur us on in living and strengthen us in the hard times. We draw comfort from the fact that we may not know the why of our circumstances, but we must always remember that God has a perfect plan. He has not abandoned us. He is right beside us leading us so we can be who He created us to be. Let us be grateful for the providence of God.
[1]Jerry Bridges, Trusting God (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1988), 37.