Scripture Daily

Context No. 1843 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 10:12-19: in context

12Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks. 13For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers. 14My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.” 15Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood. 16Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire. 17The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day. 18He will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints. 19The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child could write their number.

God had used Assyria as a rod to discipline his people; but Assyria's king, forgetting he was only an instrument, boasted: by the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of peoples and plundered their treasures. And God answers his arrogance with a question: shall the ax boast against the one who chops with it? Shall the saw magnify itself over the one who wields it? As if a rod could wield the one who lifts it. For his pride, God will bring Assyria low.

God's rebuke of Assyria comes in an image that exposes the folly of a certain kind of pride: shall the ax boast against the one who chops with it? Assyria had been a tool in God's hand, used by him to accomplish his purposes; and instead of recognizing this, the king boasted as if he had done it all himself, by his own strength and wisdom. It was, God says, as absurd as an ax congratulating itself on the tree it felled, forgetting the hand that swung it, or a saw exalting itself over the carpenter. The tool takes credit for what the wielder accomplished through it. There is a warning here against a pride we easily fall into: taking credit for what God accomplishes through us. Whatever we do that is good or fruitful, whatever success we have, whatever we build or achieve, we do as instruments in God's hand; the strength, the gifts, the opportunities, the very breath by which we act are his. And the constant temptation is to forget this, to boast, like Assyria, by the strength of my hand and my wisdom I have done it, as if we were the source of our own success rather than tools in the hand of another. It is the folly of the ax boasting against the one who chops with it. The remedy is to remember what we are: instruments, through whom God works, dependent on him for everything we accomplish. Apart from me, Jesus said, you can do nothing; every good thing we do is God working through us. To keep this in view is to be freed from the ax's absurd pride, and to give the credit where it belongs, to the hand that wields us, not to the tool. When we succeed, the honest and accurate response is not the boast of the self-made, but the humility of the instrument: not by my strength, but by the God who works through me. The ax has nothing to boast of against the one who swings it.

When I do something good or fruitful, or have some success, am I tempted to boast like Assyria, by the strength of my hand and my wisdom I have done it, taking credit as if I were the source, or can I remember that I am an instrument in God's hand, the ax that has nothing to boast of against the one who wields it, and give the credit to the God who works through me?

Sources