Today you should read: Isaiah 10
The last half of Isaiah 9 is all about God’s coming judgment on Israel. It picks up immediately in Isaiah 10, describing the sorrow that awaits those who commit injustices against their own people.
Israel, like the southern kingdom of Judah, had committed grave injustices against its own people. They were accused by God of being unjust to the poor, denying them basic human rights. Israel preyed on widows and took advantage of orphans. Judgment was coming. Assyria, a mighty kingdom to the northeast of Israel, would invade and destroy soon.
This then goes on to establish that it was God that sent Assyria to punish the people of Israel, and that Assyria will be punished by God also for being proud and arrogant. God was in control of the entire situation.
But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way. Isaiah 10:7
The Lord also gives the people of Israel hope that after the coming judgment of their people and then the judgment of Assyria, a remnant will be left in Israel: a people who “will faithfully trust the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.”
In that day the Lord will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders. Isaiah 10:27
What does this mean for us?
Like the faithful remnant of Israel, we can trust that God is in control of what is going on around us. He is Sovereign. We can trust that God is going to use circumstances to refine us and make us into who He wants us to be.
We can also rejoice in the fact that the Lord has broken the yoke of slavery and lifted it from our shoulders! Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.
God is in control, and God is able and willing to give you rest.
By: Lucas Taylor — West Campus Pastoral Ministry Apprentice
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