Isaiah 10:7

Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. HOWBEIT HE MEANETH NOT SO - He is only thinking of his own schemes, while God is overruling them to His purposes. NEITHER DOTH HIS HEART THINK SO - intend so. Sinners' plans are no less culpable, though they by them unconsciously fulfill God's designs (; ). So Joseph's brethren (; ). The sinners' motive, not the result (which depends on God), will be the test in judgment. BUT (IT IS) IN HIS HEART TO DESTROY AND CUT OFF NATIONS NOT A FEW. Sennacherib's ambition was not c...

7._Yet he will not think so. _(161) When wicked men vomit out their rage, they disturb weak minds, as if it were not in the power of God to restrain their pride and fury. The Prophet therefore steps forth beforehand to meet them, and exhorts believers, whatever may be the excess to which wicked men indulge their insolence, still to feel that they are justly chastised by a secret judgment of God. He shows, as we lately noticed, that nothing will be farther from the intention of the Assyrians than to give their services to God, and to be the ministers of his wrath; but we must also consider what is their own motive of action. Many would be ready to object, “Why dost thou, being God’s herald, threaten us with the Assyrian; as if that savage beast would submit to execute the commandments of God?” He therefore replies, that God works with such amazing skill that he brings men to yield obedien...

5-19 See what a change sin made. The king of Assyria, in his pride, thought to act by his own will. The tyrants of the world are tools of Providence. God designs to correct his people for their hypocrisy, and bring them nearer to him; but is that Sennacherib's design? No; he designs to gratify his own covetousness and ambition. The Assyrian boasts what great things he has done to other nations, by his own policy and power. He knows not that it is God who makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his hand. He had done all this with ease; none moved the wing, or cried as birds do when their nests are rifled. Because he conquered Samaria, he thinks Jerusalem would fall of course. It was lamentable that Jerusalem should have set up graven images, and we cannot wonder that she was excelled in them by the heathen. But is it not equally foolish for Christians to emulate the people of the w...

HOWBEIT HE MEANETH NOT SO - It is not his purpose to be the instrument, in the hand of God, of executing his designs. He has a different plan; a plan of his own which he intends to accomplish. NEITHER DOTH HIS HEART THINK SO - He does not intend or design it. The “heart” here, is put to express “purpose, or will.” IT IS “IN HIS HEART TO CUT OFF NATIONS - Utterly to destroy or to annihilate their political existence. NOT A FEW - The ambitious purpose of Sennacherib was not confined to Judea. His plan was also to invade and to conquer Egypt; and the destruction of Judea, was only a part of his scheme; Isaiah 20:1. This is a most remarkable instance of the supremacy which God asserts over the purposes of wicked people. Sennacherib forme

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 10:1 The prophecy begun in Isaiah 9:8 terminates with this stanza, which contains a warning against injustice and oppression, addressed to Israel and Judah equally, and accompanied by the threat of a "day of desolation," when those who have refused to make God their Refuge will have no resource, but to go into captivity with the "prisoners," or to perish with the "slain." A foreign conquest, accompanied by slaughter, and the deportation of captives, is not obscurely intimated. ISAIAH 10:1 WOE UNTO THEM THAT DECREE UNRIGHTEOUS DECREES (comp. Isaiah 1:17

HOWBEIT HE MEANETH NOT SO, NEITHER DOTH HIS HEART THINK SO,.... His purposes, intentions, and thoughts, were not as the Lord's; he did not imagine that he was only the rod of his anger, and the staff of his indignation, a minister of his wrath, and the executioner of his vengeance; he thought he was his own lord and master, and acted by his own power, and according to his own will, and was not under the direction and restraints of another; his intention was not to chastise and correct the people of the Jews, but utterly to destroy them, and not them only, but many other nations; as follows: BUT [IT IS] IN HIS HEART TO DESTROY AND CUT OFF NATIONS, NOT A FEW; not the nation of the Jews only, but many others, and so establish an universal monarchy; and what flushed him with hope and expectation of success were the magnificence of his princes, and the conquests he had already made....

CHAPTER 10 The Assyrian, His invasion of Immanuel's land, and His end 1. _The first four verses belong to the preceding chapter. A description of the Assyrian enemy (Isaiah 10:5)_ 2. _The overthrow of his army announced (Isaiah 10:12)_ 3. _The punishment (Isaiah 10:16)_ 4. _The return of the remnant (Isaiah 10:20)_ 5. _The faithful remnant comforted (Isaiah 10:24)_ 6. The Assyrians march against Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:28

ASSYRIA'S BOASTFULNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This prophecy, so far as it is Isaiah's, must be later than the capture of Carchemish in 717 and before Sennacherib's invasion in 701. Narrower limits cannot be fixed. Non-Isaianic material appears to be present in it. ISAIAH 10:5. Assyria is Yahweh's rod to smite any nation that has aroused His anger, but, inspired by lust of blood, plans to exterminate many peoples, and boastfully thinks to destroy Jerusalem with her divine nonentities, less powerful than those of cities she has seized. So, when she has served His purpose, He will punish her boastfulness in ascribing her conquests to her own wisdom and might. She has abolished the boundaries of subject peoples, merging them in her empire; plundered their treasures and abased their rulers, robbing the nations as a man takes the eggs from a nest abandoned by the panic-stricken birds, n

HE MEANETH NOT SO. will not mean. The blindness of the instrument emphasizes the truth of the prophecy. THINK SO. so intend....

Jehovah's plan contrasted with Assyria's purpose....