The Implications of the Promise:
The Chastener will be Punished

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 10:26

²⁶And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt.  

Isaiah continues his discussion of what is coming by comparing the coming chastening to Israel’s past by speaking of Midian.  Just as he mentioned the chastening under Egypt as illustrative of the fact the chastening will be temporary, so now he uses Midian to underscore the truth that the one doing the chastening, in this case Assyria will be punished severely for their part in the process.

And the LORD of hosts shall stir up - Or shall raise up that which shall rove as a scourge to him. Note that once again Isaiah is using the “military” name for God that emphasizes His strength and power and His ability to do as He has said He will do.  God is stronger than the Assyrians and His desire cannot be frustrated or prevented by them.  “Stir up” is a word that means to arouse, awake or incite and is used of everything from people and nations, to character qualities, to inanimate objects.  By far the most significant use of this word is in the causative with God as its subject. Here one sees the active involvement of God in history. He is not aloof or passive. He is not simply a spectator. He is in complete charge, manipulating his plan. All his actions are purposeful. Events do not happen by chance. This emphasis is clearly discernible in the OT passages which use this verb in the causative with God as subject. Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, was stirred up by the Lord against the tribes in the Transjordan area (1 Chr 5:26). He aroused the Babylonians against Jerusalem (Ezk 23:22). Then he stirred up the Medes against Babylon (Isa 13:17; Jer 50:9, 11; 51:11).

Again it was the Lord who incited Cyrus to allow the Jewish exiles to return to Judah (2 Chr 36:22; Ezr 1:1) and who in turn urged the exiles to return (Joel 3:7). When apathy had overtaken the returned exiles, the Lord agitated Zerubbabel and Joshua through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to carry the construction of the second temple to its completion (Hag 1:14).

God is portrayed as active in history and in His world - something that we are all too often wont to deny in this day age.  We make God into a passive watcher and responder to the events that His creatures perpetrate.  This is not the God of the Bible and in particular, not the God of Isaiah!

A scourge for him - That is, that which shall punish him. The scourge, or rod, is used to denote severe punishment of any kind. The nature of this punishment is immediately specified.

According to the slaughter of Midian - That is, as the Midianites were punished. There is reference here, doubtless, to the discomfiture and slaughter of the Midianites by Gideon, as recorded in Judg. 7:24-25. That was signal and entire; and the prophet means to say, that the destruction of the Assyrian would be also signal and total. The country of Midian, or Madian, was on the east side of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea; but it extended also north along the desert of mount Seir to the country of the Moabites; (Isa. 60:6).

At the rock of Oreb - At this rock, Gideon killed the two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb (Judg. 7:25); and from this circumstance, probably, the name was given to the rock: (Lev. 11:15; Deut. 14:14). It was on the east side of the Jordan. As complete as Gideon’s victory was over the Midianites at that time, so also will the victory of God be over the Assyrians.  This is regardless of the fact that the Assyrians were of a far greater force than the Midianites and represented a far greater threat.

And as his rod … - That is, as God punished the Egyptians in the Red Sea. The “His” here is the rod of Moses, the rod of God that was used to divide the Red Sea and to allow the Israelites to pass through and then brought the sea crashing back down on the Egyptian army to judge them for Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness in refusing to submit to God.

So shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt - As God overthrew the Egyptians in the Red Sea, so shall he overthrow and destroy the Assyrian. By these two comparisons, therefore, the prophet represents the complete destruction of the Assyrian army. In both of these cases, the enemies of the Jews had been completely overthrown, and so it would be in regard to the hosts of the Assyrian.  

It is important to note that neither the Egyptians nor the Midianites were much of a power on the world or on the local scene after these affairs - Egypt all but disappears from world affairs for some centuries after the Red Sea matter and the Midianites are at best a second rate threat after this.  God is entirely capable of dealing with His enemies - thoroughly and fully and of His own power!  He doesn’t need our help or out cooperation to get the job finished.  What He desires if for us to, as Moses commanded the people, “Be still and see the deliverance of God”.

Hence we infer that the Lord hath displayed his power in defending his Church, in order that, when our affairs are in the most desperate state, we may remain steadfastly in the faith, and, relying on his grace, we still may cherish a pleasing hope. By means and in ways that are unexpected he often delivers his Church, as he did by the hands of Gideon and Moses. We ought always, therefore, to call to remembrance those benefits, that we may be excited more and more to confidence and perseverance.

Hence we ought also to infer that all the afflictions which we endure are the Lord’s rods with which he chastises us; and yet he does not permit Satan or his agents to inflict deadly chastisements upon us. On the other hand, an awful destruction awaits our enemies, as we see in the Midianites and Egyptians. It is therefore no small consolation that, when we compare our condition with theirs, we see them, for a time indeed, in all the madness of joy and of wickedness insulting the children of God, but at the same time learn what a dreadful sentence has been pronounced against them; for they are devoted to deadly and everlasting destruction.