TRUST WORTHY God’s Remnant: God is faithful in the midst of our trials

24 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

Rashi

Therefore—Since I know that Hezekiah and his company will return to him. Aternatively, לָכֵן is an expression of an oath. לָכֵן indeed.

Thus says the Lord . . . be not afraid . . . the Assyrians when they strike with the rod—With the “rod” of his mouth will he insult and deride you through Rabshakeh.

And lift up their staff against you to frighten you, the way they did to the Egyptians. It may alternatively be explained: With the rod does he smite you i.e., who has smitten you until now with the rod and has become accustomed to bearing their staff and their fright against you as the Egyptians did. Rabbi Joseph told me this in the name of Rabbi Menahem.

And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, ISA 4:3

Rashi

And he who is left among them will settle in Zion.

And whoever remains anywhere, shall dwell in Jerusalem.

Will be called holy—All of them will be righteous. Now lest you say that the righteous who died prior to this day have lost their honor, the Scripture states: “anyone who has been recorded for life,” in the hereafter, will be in Jerusalem. In this manner, Jonathan translates it.

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. REV 3:5

12 Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

Rashi

Do not call conspiracy—You of Hezekiah’s company, even though they (sic) are fewer than Shebna’s company, you shall not say: We decide according to the many (Exo 23:2. See Rashi ad loc.).

To all that this people that is with Shebna, says, for this is a conspiracy of the wicked and is not counted, and so it is as regards the ten tribes, who formed an alliance with the kings of Egypt.

And do not fear what they fear i.e., what this people fears, for they say to you to fear Sennacherib and to make peace with him.

Do not fear . . . nor be in dread—Do not say that he is strong. So did Jonathan translate: Do not say strong.

Sanhedrin 26a:23

Hezekiah was afraid. He said: Perhaps, God forbid, the opinion of the Holy One, blessed be he, will follow the majority; and since the majority have submitted to the Assyrians, even those who have not submitted will also be submitted into their hands. The prophet Isaiah then came and said to him: “Say not: A conspiracy, concerning all of which this people say: A conspiracy” (Isa 8:12). Meaning, it is a conspiracy of wicked people, and a conspiracy of wicked people is not counted. Therefore, although they are many, they are not considered the majority.

And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once. LUK 21:9

John Gill

And when you hear of wars and tumults—Or seditions and tumults; “wars” may design the wars of the Romans, against the Jews; and the “tumults,” or seditions, the internal troubles among themselves:

Do not be terrified—As if the destruction of the nation, city, and temple, would be at once:

For these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once—Or “immediately.” The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions leave out this last word, and read, as in (See Gill on Mat 24:6).

13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ISA 8:12-13

John Gill

But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy—Christ, Immanuel, God with us, the Lord of the armies above and below, of angels and of men, God over all, the true Jehovah, who is sanctified by his people, when they declare him to be so; as the Targum paraphrases it,

“the Lord of hosts, him shall you say is holy”;

for they cannot make him so, nor can he receive any holiness from them, nor does he need any; but they celebrate the perfection of his holiness, and ascribe it to him; yea, they sanctify him, by ascribing their holiness to him; by looking to him as their sanctification, and by deriving and expecting every degree and measure of holiness from him, to complete theirs; by exercising faith upon him, and showing a regard to his commands and ordinances:

Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread—That is, the object of fear and dread; not of a servile fear and dread, but of a holy reverence and godly fear; such a fear as is the grace of the covenant, which flows from the goodness of God, and has that for its object, and is influenced by it; see Hos 3:5 where the same Lord, Messiah, David the king, is meant, as here. See 1Pe 3:15.

25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.” ISA 10:24-25

Rashi

For in very few days . . . my fury will come to an end—My fury, which was given as the staff into the hand of Assyria, as he said above, “The staff in their hands is my fury” (v. 5).

And my anger that became a rod, shall return.

Will be directed to their destruction—Heb. (עַל-תַּבְלִיתָם). Comp. Lev 20:12 “they have committed a disgrace (תֶּבֶל),” i.e., because of the insults and blasphemies which the servants of the king of Assyria blasphemed me.

And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 2KI 19:35

Sanhedrin 94b:2

Pharaoh blasphemed God, as it is written that he said to Moses and Aaron: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exo 5:2) The Holy One, blessed be he, himself exacted retribution from him, as it is written: “The Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea” (Exo 14:27), and it is written: “You have trodden through the sea with your horses” (Hab 3:15). Sennacherib blasphemed God by means of an agent, as it is written: “By your messengers you have mocked the Lord” (2Ki 19:23). The Holy One, blessed be he, exacted retribution from him by means of an agent, as it is written: “Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians” (2Ki 19:35).

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;

though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. PSA 37:10

Rashi

In just a little while—When you wait a little longer, you will see that the wicked will be no more.

Though you look carefully at his place—Though you look carefully at the place where he was, he will not be there, because he has died and has perished.

2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. MAT 24:42-44

3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 1TH 5:2-3

God assured Israel that his fury would end, and Assyria—the tool he used to bring judgment (Isa 10:15)—would also receive his judgment for their sins. He extended his grace to his people by preserving his relationship with them through trials and tribulations. He is the same with us. In his faithfulness, God preserves his relationship with us even as we go through life’s trials. He assures us of his presence and strength through everything we experience, and he will make us better through it, though we may not understand it at the time. How have you taken comfort in God’s faithfulness during trials? Even when you were faithless, how have you experienced his faithfulness (2Ti 2:13)?

Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,

or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?

As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,

or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! ISA 10:15

Rashi

Shall the axe boast—The Holy One, blessed be he, says: You should not have boasted about this, since you are merely like my axe, and I am hewing with you; I visit retribution upon my enemies. You are the saw, and I am he who wields it. Now is it customary for the saw to boast over him who wields it? מַשּׂוֹר is dolodojjre in O.F., a small axe.

As if a rod should wield him who lifts it—As if a rod was raising itself and the hand of him who was raising it. Is it not so that a rod does not wield itself but the man?

As if a staff should lift him who is not wood—It is not wood that raises it, but it is the man who raises it.

13 Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!

Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,

Rashi

Confront him—The enemy.

Subdue him—Beat his legs, and he will kneel and fall.

Deliver my soul from every wicked man who is your sword, for you give him the power to rule, to requite those who are bound to you.

14 from men by your hand, O Lord,

from men of the world whose portion is in this life.

You fill their womb with treasure;

they are satisfied with children,

and they leave their abundance to their infants. PSA 17:13-14

19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

20 But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. LUK 12:19-21

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ROM 9:20-21

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself. 2TI 2:13

God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? NUM 23:19

Rashi

God is not man, that he should lie—He has already promised them to bring them to and give them possession of the land of the seven peoples, and you think to kill them in the wilderness? (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:1)

הַהוּא—Read this in the form of a question: Has he said—And the Targum renders, “who later change his mind.” They reconsider and change their minds.

And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret. 1SA 15:29

Rashi

And also the Glory of Israel will not lie—And if you will say, “I will repent of my sin before him,” it will no longer avail to take the kingship from the one to whom it was given, for the Holy One, blessed is he, who is the Glory of Israel, will not lie by not giving the good to whom he said to give it.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. MAT 24:35