The Arrogant Axe in the Master's Hand Text: Isaiah 10:5-19
Introduction: The Doctrine of Instruments
We live in a world that is allergic to the sovereignty of God. Men want to be the captains of their own ships, the masters of their own fate, and the authors of their own stories. And when a man believes this about himself, he will naturally believe it about the nations. He will look at the rise and fall of empires as a grand, chaotic story of human ambition, military might, and political maneuvering. He will see a Sennacherib, a Nebuchadnezzar, a Caesar, or a modern head of state, and he will see a man who is, for all practical purposes, in charge.
But the Word of God crashes into this flimsy worldview with the force of a battering ram. The Scriptures teach us what we might call the doctrine of instruments. This doctrine states that God is the sovereign Lord of history, and He uses men and nations, both righteous and wicked, as tools in His hands to accomplish His purposes. He is the carpenter; they are the hammer. He is the woodsman; they are the axe. He is the surgeon, and sometimes, the scalpel He uses to discipline His own people is a very wicked and sharp-edged nation.
This is a hard truth, but it is a glorious one. It means that history is not a meaningless cycle of violence. It is not, as the pagan said, a tale told by an idiot. It is a story, and it has an Author, and He is working all things together for the good of His people and the glory of His name. But this doctrine has a sharp corollary. The instrument must never forget that it is an instrument. The axe must never boast against the one who wields it. When the tool becomes arrogant, when it begins to think that the power resides in itself, the Master will not only set it aside, He will cast it into the fire.
This is precisely the situation Isaiah addresses in our text. God had designated the brutal, bloodthirsty Assyrian empire as the rod of His anger to discipline a wayward Israel. But Assyria, in its pride, mistook God's permission for its own prowess. It thought it was the master, not the tool. And so, God announces that after He is finished using the axe to prune His vineyard, He will turn and judge the arrogant axe. This passage is a profound lesson in the absolute sovereignty of God, the nature of human responsibility, and the inevitable judgment that falls on all creaturely pride.
The Text
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And command it against the people of My fury To capture spoil and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. But it does not intend to act in this way, And it does not think in its heart in this way, Rather, what is in its heart is to destroy And to cut off many nations. For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his eyes which are raised high.” For he has said, “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, And my hand reached for the wealth of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.” Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to magnify itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a rod wielding those who lift it, Or like a staff lifting him who is not wood. Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And He will bring to an end the glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down.
(Isaiah 10:5-19 LSB)
The Divine Commission and the Wicked Intention (vv. 5-7)
The passage opens with a startling declaration of God's absolute control over the geopolitical landscape.
"Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And command it against the people of My fury To capture spoil and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets." (Isaiah 10:5-6)
God begins with a "Woe," a declaration of judgment. But notice the paradox. He is pronouncing a woe on the very instrument He is about to use. Assyria is a tool, a "rod," a "staff." The power it wields is not its own; it is God's "anger" and "indignation." God is the one who sends them, who commands them. The target is Israel, described here as a "godless nation" and "the people of My fury." This is a terrifying thing. When God's own covenant people become so corrupt, He will use the pagans to discipline them, to trample them like mud.
This is the doctrine of divine providence in its starkest form. God is not a nervous spectator in the sky, wringing His hands over the choices of evil men. He is the sovereign who ordains, governs, and directs their actions to fulfill His holy purposes. He sent Assyria. This doesn't make God the author of sin, but it does make Him the author of the plot. The Assyrians are acting according to their own wicked desires, but their actions are fitting into a much larger, divine script.
But verse 7 introduces the crucial distinction between God's purpose and man's intent.
"But it does not intend to act in this way, And it does not think in its heart in this way, Rather, what is in its heart is to destroy And to cut off many nations." (Isaiah 10:7)
Assyria has no thought of serving Yahweh. The king of Assyria isn't waking up in the morning and saying, "How can I be a tool for the God of Israel's disciplinary purposes today?" Not at all. His heart is filled with his own lust for power, conquest, and destruction. He is driven by greed and pride. This is the mystery of concurrence: God's sovereign will and man's responsible, sinful will operating at the same time. Joseph's brothers intended to harm him, but God intended it for good (Genesis 50:20). The Romans and the Jews intended to murder Jesus, but they did only what God's hand and plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:27-28). Assyria is morally culpable for its wicked intentions, even as God uses those intentions to achieve His righteous ends.
The Blasphemous Boast of the Tool (vv. 8-11)
The prophet now gives us a direct quotation from the heart of the Assyrian king, and it is dripping with arrogance.
"For it says, 'Are not my princes all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?'" (Isaiah 10:8-11)
The king's logic is entirely man-centered and materialistic. He boasts of his power; his subordinate commanders are as powerful as other nation's kings. He boasts of his conquests, rattling off a list of defeated cities as if they were notches on his belt. His worldview is fundamentally pagan. He sees the world as a contest between various gods, and he measures their strength by the military success of their people.
His fatal mistake is to lump Yahweh, the God of Israel, in with all the other petty idols of the nations. He reasons that since his military might has already overwhelmed the gods of other nations, including the gods of Samaria (the northern kingdom of Israel), then the God of Jerusalem will be no different. He sees the idols in Jerusalem and Samaria and assumes that is the sum total of Israel's God. He cannot conceive of the transcendent Creator who is using him. He is looking at the world through the wrong end of the telescope and sees himself as the biggest thing in the universe. This is the essence of blasphemy: to reduce the infinite Creator to the level of a finite creature and then to exalt yourself above Him.
The Master's Rebuke (vv. 12-15)
Now God responds. The pivot in this passage is verse 12. It is one of the clearest statements of God's sovereign timing in all of Scripture.
"So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, 'I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his eyes which are raised high.'" (Isaiah 10:12)
God has a "work" to do on His people. This is a work of chastisement, of purification, of discipline. And God will see it through to completion. The Assyrians will not be stopped one moment too soon, nor will they be allowed to go one step too far. But once God's purpose for the rod is complete, His attention will turn to the rod itself. The charge against Assyria is pride: the "arrogant heart" and the "pomp of his eyes." Pride is the original sin, the root of all rebellion. It is the creature telling the Creator, "I am the center."
Verses 13 and 14 give us another direct quote from the king, elaborating on his pride. He attributes his success to his own "power," "wisdom," and "understanding." He sees himself as a self-made man, a globalist who removes boundaries, a plunderer who gathers the wealth of nations as easily as a man gathers eggs from an unguarded nest. The world is silent and helpless before him. There is not a chirp of protest. This is the delusion of every tyrant. They believe their own press releases.
Then comes God's devastating, rhetorical question in verse 15, which exposes the utter absurdity of Assyria's pride.
"Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to magnify itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a rod wielding those who lift it, Or like a staff lifting him who is not wood." (Isaiah 10:15)
This is divine sarcasm. The image is comical. Imagine an axe in the woodshed, puffing out its chest and telling the lumberjack, "Look at all the trees I have felled!" Imagine a saw bragging about its sharp teeth to the carpenter. The tool has forgotten its place. It has forgotten that all its motion, all its power, all its effectiveness comes from the hand that holds it. For the rod to wield the man, for the staff to lift the one who is not wood, is a complete inversion of reality. It is ontological rebellion. And this is precisely what every proud man, and every proud nation, does. They take the credit that belongs to God alone.
The Consuming Fire of Judgment (vv. 16-19)
Because of this pride, judgment is not just certain; it is specific and catastrophic.
"Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day." (Isaiah 10:16-17)
The punishment is tailored to the sin. Assyria boasted in its "stout warriors," so God will send a "wasting disease." Assyria boasted in its "glory," so God will kindle a fire "under his glory." The very God of Israel, who is a "light" to His people, will become a consuming "fire" and a "flame" to His enemies. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. The same gospel that is an aroma of life to some is an aroma of death to others. The same God who is a refuge for the humble is a terror to the proud.
The judgment will be swift and total. It will happen "in a single day," a direct reference to the historical event where the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night (Isaiah 37:36). The Assyrian army is compared to thorns and briars, fit only for burning.
The imagery of destruction continues:
"And He will bring to an end the glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down." (Isaiah 10:18-19)
The "glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard" represents the entire Assyrian military and civil infrastructure. God's judgment will be comprehensive, affecting "both soul and body." The empire will be so decimated that its remnant, the few remaining "trees," will be so few that a small child could count them. This is a picture of utter humiliation. The mighty empire that boasted of its innumerable princes and armies will be reduced to a pathetic, countable few.
Conclusion: The Comfort of Sovereignty
What are we to take from this? First, we must take profound comfort in the absolute sovereignty of God. Our world is filled with arrogant powers that, like Assyria, boast in their own strength and defy the living God. Secular governments, godless ideologies, and Christ-hating cultural movements seem to be carrying the day. They are trampling the church like mud in the streets. But we must remember that they are nothing more than an axe in the hand of our God. He has sent them. He has a purpose in their temporary ascendancy, a purpose of chastising and purifying His people.
Second, we must understand that their leash is short. God has a timetable. When He has completed His work on us, His church, He will turn His attention to them. Their pride guarantees their downfall. Every secularist boast, every blasphemous Supreme Court decision, every drag queen story hour is simply another verse in their long, arrogant speech that God is recording. And the woe is coming. The fire is being kindled.
Finally, this passage calls us to humility. We must never be the arrogant axe. As individuals, as families, as churches, we must never attribute our successes, our growth, or our victories to our own wisdom or strength. All that we have is a gift. All that we accomplish is by His grace. We are instruments in His hand, and the highest glory of the instrument is not to be praised, but to be useful to the Master. Let us therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, trusting in His sovereign plan, knowing that in due time He will lift us up, and He will bring every proud thing low.