Next, we explore the relationship between God’s servant and his contemporary, an end-time “king of Assyria” who resembles the ancient kings of Assyria and Babylon. While Israel’s God is not an angry God, he nevertheless uses this archtyrant as his instrument of visiting the world’s wicked people with the consequences of not repenting of evildoing after being warned.
The tyrant is God’s “rod” of “anger” and “staff” of “wrath”
Isaiah 10:5–7Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger!
He is a staff—my wrath in their hand.
I will commission him against a godless nation,
appoint him over the people
[deserving] of my vengeance,
to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil,
to tread underfoot like mud in the streets.
Nevertheless, it shall not seem so to him;
this shall not be what he has in mind.
His purpose shall be to annihilate
and to exterminate nations not a few.
Isaiah 10:24–25O my people who inhabit Zion,
be not afraid of the Assyrians,
though they strike you with the rod
or raise their staff over you,
as did the Egyptians.
For my anger will very soon come to an end;
my wrath will become their undoing.
Isaiah 14:4–7How the tyrant has met his end
and tyranny ceased!
Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked,
the rod of those who ruled—
him who with unerring blows
struck down the nations in anger,
who subdued peoples in his wrath
by relentless oppression.
Now the whole earth is at rest and at peace;
there is jubilant celebration
The tyrant is God’s “anger,” “wrath,” “vengeance,” “rage,” and “fury”
Isaiah 13:9, 13The Day of Jehovah shall come
as a cruel outburst of anger and wrath
to make the earth a desolation,
that sinners may be annihilated from it. . . .
I will cause disturbance in the heavens
when the earth is jolted out of place
by the anger of Jehovah of Hosts
in the day of his blazing wrath.
Isaiah 59:17–18He clothed himself with vengeance for a garment
and wrapped himself in fury as in a robe.
According to what they deserve, he will repay them:
wrath upon his adversaries,
reprisals upon his enemies;
to the isles he will render retribution.
Isaiah 34:1–2Come near, you nations, and hear!
Pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth give heed, and all who are upon it,
the world, and all who spring from it.
Jehovah’s rage is upon all nations,
his fury upon all their hosts;
he has doomed them,
consigned them to the slaughter.
The tyrant is a “hand,” “ensign,” and “voice”
Isaiah 5:24–26For they have despised the law of Jehovah of Hosts
and reviled the words of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the anger of Jehovah is kindled
against his people:
he draws back his hand against them
and strikes them;
the mountains quake, and their corpses
lie like litter about the streets.Yet for all this his anger is not abated;
his hand is upraised still.
He raises an ensign to distant nations
and summons them from beyond the horizon.
Forthwith they come, swiftly and speedily.
Isaiah 13:1–5Raise the ensign on a barren mountain;
sound the voice among them!
Beckon them with the hand to advance
into the precincts of the elite.
I have charged my holy ones,
called out my valiant ones:
my anger is not upon those who take pride in me.Hark! A tumult on the mountains,
as of a vast multitude.
Hark! An uproar among kingdoms,
as of nations assembling:
Jehovah of Hosts is marshaling an army for war.
They come from a distant land beyond the horizon—
Jehovah and the instruments of his wrath—
to cause destruction throughout the earth.
Isaiah 51:17, 20Rouse yourself; awaken and rise up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from Jehovah’s hand
the cup of his wrath,
drinking to the dregs the bowl of stupor. . . .
Your children lie in a faint at the corner of every street,
taken in a net like buffalo.
They have their fill of the wrath of Jehovah,
of your God’s angry rebuke.
The tyrant is God’s “fire” and “sword”
Isaiah 66:15–16See, Jehovah comes with fire,
his chariots like a whirlwind,
to retaliate in furious anger,
to rebuke with conflagrations of fire.
For with fire and with his sword shall Jehovah
execute judgment on all flesh,
and those slain by Jehovah shall be many.
Isaiah 9:17–19Yet for all this his anger is not abated;
his hand is upraised still.
Wickedness shall be set ablaze like a fire,
and briars and thorns shall it consume;
it shall ignite the jungle forests,
and they shall billow upward
in mushrooming clouds of smoke.
At the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts
the earth is scorched,
and people are but fuel for the fire.
Isaiah 42:24–25They have no desire to walk in his ways
or obey his law.
So in the heat of his anger
he pours out on them the violence of war,
till it envelopes them in flames—
yet they remain unaware—
till it sets them on fire;
yet they take it not to heart.
Isaiah 34:5When my sword drinks its fill in the heavens,
it shall come down on Edom in judgment,
on the people I have sentenced to damnation.
The tyrant is “Sea” and “River”—a new Flood
Isaiah 8:7–8My Lord will cause to come up over them
the great and mighty waters of the River—
the king of Assyria in all his glory.
He will rise up over all his channels
and overflow all his banks.
He will sweep into Judea [like] a flood
and, passing through, reach the very neck.
Isaiah 27:12In that day Jehovah will thresh out [his harvest]
from the torrent of the River to the streams of Egypt.
Isaiah 28:2My Lord has in store one mighty and strong:
as a ravaging hailstorm sweeping down,
or like an inundating deluge of mighty waters,
he will hurl them to the ground by his hand.
Isaiah 5:30He shall be stirred up against them in that day,
even as the Sea is stirred up.
And should one look to the land,
there [too] shall be a distressing gloom,
for the daylight shall be darkened
by an overhanging mist.
The servant is God’s “hand,” “ensign,” and “trumpet”
Isaiah 11:10–12In that day the sprig of Jesse,
who stands for an ensign to the peoples,
shall be sought by the nations,
and his rest shall be glorious.
In that day my Lord will again raise his hand
to reclaim the remnant of his people—
those who shall be left out of Assyria,
Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
and the islands of the sea.He will raise the ensign to the nations
and assemble the exiled of Israel;
he will gather the scattered of Judah
from the four directions of the earth.
Isaiah 49:22–23Thus says my Lord Jehovah:
I will lift up my hand to the nations,
raise my ensign to the peoples;
and they will bring your sons in their bosoms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings shall be your foster fathers,
queens your nursing mothers.
Isaiah 18:3All you who live in the world,
you inhabitants of the earth,
look to the ensign
when it is lifted up in the mountains;
heed the trumpet when it is sounded!
Isaiah 27:13In that day a loud trumpet shall sound,
and they who were lost in the land of Assyria
and they who were outcasts in the land of Egypt
shall come and bow down to Jehovah
in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
The servant is God’s “fire” and “sword,” “arm,” “voice,” “light,” and “staff”
Isaiah 31:8–9Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man;
a sword not of mortals shall devour them:
before that sword they shall waste away
and their young men melt;
their captain shall expire in terror
and their officers shrink from the ensign,
says Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 30:30–32Jehovah will cause his voice to resound,
and make visible his arm descending in furious rage,
with flashes of devouring fire,
explosive discharges and pounding hail.
At the voice of Jehovah
the Assyrians will be terror-stricken,
they who used to strike with the rod.
At every sweep of the staff of authority,
when Jehovah lowers it upon them,
they will be fought in mortal combat.
Isaiah 49:6He said: It is too small a thing
for you to be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore those preserved of Israel.
I will also appoint you to be a light to the Gentiles,
that my salvation may be to the end of the earth.
Isaiah 10:16–17Therefore will the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts,
send a consumption into his fertile lands,
and cause a fire to flare up like a burning hearth,
to undermine his glory:
the light of Israel will be the fire
and their Holy One the flame,
and it shall burn up and devour
his briars and thorns in a single day.
The servant is God’s “covenant” and “light”
The tyrant is “darkness” and “death”
Isaiah 42:6–7I Jehovah have rightfully called you
and will grasp you by the hand;
I have created you and appointed you
to be a covenant for the people,
a light to the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from confinement
and from prison those who sit in darkness.
Isaiah 49:8–9I have created you and appointed you
to be a covenant of the people,
to restore the Land
and reapportion the desolate estates,
to say to the captives, Come forth!
and to those in darkness, Show yourselves!
They shall feed along the way
and find pasture on all barren heights.
Isaiah 9:2The people walking in darkness
have seen a bright light;
on the inhabitants of the land
of the shadow of Death
has the light dawned.
Isaiah 60:1–3Arise, shine, your light has dawned;
the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you!
Although darkness covers the earth,
and a thick mist the peoples,
upon you Jehovah will shine;
over you his glory shall be visible.
Nations will come to your light,
their kings to the brightness of your dawn.
The tyrant destroys, the servant saves
Isaiah 63:2–6Why are you clothed in red, your garments
like those who tread [grapes] in the winepress?
Alone I have trodden out a vatful;
of the nations no one was with me.
I trod them down in my anger;
in my wrath I trampled them.
Their lifeblood spattered my garments,
and I have stained my whole attire.For I had resolved on a day of vengeance,
and the year of my redeemed had come.
I glanced around, but none would lend help;
I glared, but no one would assist.
So my own arm brought about salvation for me,
and my wrath, it assisted me.
I trod nations underfoot in my anger;
I made them drunk by my rage
when I cast their glory to the ground.
Isaiah 11:4He will judge the poor with righteousness,
and with equity arbitrate for the lowly in the land;
he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked.
Isaiah 66:14Your heart shall rejoice to see it,
your limbs flourish like sprouting grass,
when the hand of Jehovah
shall be manifest among his servants
and his rage among his enemies.
God punishes the tyrant—his “axe” and “saw”
Isaiah 10:12–15But when my Lord has fully accomplished his work
in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
he will punish the king of Assyria
for his notorious boasting and infamous conceit,
because he said,
I have done it by my own ability
and shrewdness, for I am ingenious.I have done away with the borders of nations,
I have ravaged their reserves,
I have vastly reduced the inhabitants.
I have impounded the wealth of peoples like a nest,
and I have gathered up the whole world
as one gathers abandoned eggs;
not one flapped its wings,
or opened its mouth to utter a peep.Shall an axe exalt itself
above the one who hews with it,
or a saw vaunt itself
over him who handles it?
As though the rod wielded him who lifts it up!
As though the staff held up the one
who is not made of wood!
Isaiah 9:4–5You have smashed the yoke
that burdened them,
the staff of submission,
the rod of those who subjected them,
as in the Day of Midian.
The servant wields power over “Sea” and “River”
Isaiah 10:26–27Jehovah of Hosts will raise the whip against them,
as when he struck the Midianites
at the Rock of Oreb.
His staff is over the Sea,
and he will lift it over them
as he did to the Egyptians.
In that day their burdens shall be lifted
from your shoulders,
their yoke [removed] from your neck.
Isaiah 11:15–16Jehovah will dry up the tongue
of the Egyptian Sea by his mighty wind;
he will extend his hand over the River
and smite it into seven streams
to provide a way on foot.
And there shall be a pathway out of Assyria
for the remnant of his people who shall be left,
as there was for Israel
when it came up from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 43:16–17Thus says Jehovah—
who provides a way in the Sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who dispatches chariots and horses,
armies of men in full strength;
they lie down as one, to rise no more,
they flicker and die, snuffed out like a wick.
Isaiah 43:2When you cross the waters, I will be with you;
[when you traverse] the rivers,
you shall not be overwhelmed.
Though you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned;
its flame shall not consume you.
The way is prepared for the coming of “salvation”
Isaiah 62:10–11Pass on, go through gates;
prepare the way for the people!
Excavate, pave a highway cleared of stones;
raise the ensign to the nations!
Jehovah has made proclamation to the end of the earth:
Tell the Daughter of Zion,
See, your Salvation comes,
his reward with him, his work preceding him.
Isaiah 52:7, 10How comely upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger announcing peace,
who brings tidings of good,
who heralds salvation,
saying to Zion, Your God reigns! . . .
Jehovah has bared his holy arm
in the eyes of all nations,
that all ends of the earth may see
our God’s salvation.
Isaiah 12:1–3In that day you will say,
I praise you, O Jehovah.
Although you have been angry with me,
your anger is turned away
and you have consoled me.
In the God of my salvation I will trust without fear;
for Jehovah was my strength and my song
when he became my salvation.
Then shall you rejoice in drawing water
from the fountains of salvation.