Isaiah 10:12, commentary and pictures

When the Lord has finished his whole work of chastening upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will punish the proud boasting and high looks of the king of Assyria. Assyria was only the rod of his indignation, permitted for a time to afflict and tread down his people and to carry out his purpose through trouble, for even the greatest king rules only under God's authority. Its victories did not make it righteous, for its own aim was to destroy and conquer, and its arrogance must itself be judged, for judgment begins with his own people before it falls on the wicked. Assyria stands for the oppressing power that afflicts God's people through successive kingdoms to the close of the controversy, and its punishment marks the end of the appointed indignation when the yoke is broken and the remnant is recovered. That consuming judgment is also applied to the fall of the papal king of Mystery Babylon in 1798, punished by a gradual consuming through the spreading light of Bible truth that continues until its destruction, after which God's downtrodden people enter eternal rest at the coming of conquering Jesus.

Meaning and Historical Setting

When the Lord has performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He punishes the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks. That punishment comes after the appointed work is complete and marks the end of the indignation and the time of the decree, when the period of subjection closes, the yoke is broken, and the remnant is recovered. God for a time uses Assyria to afflict Zion and accomplish His purpose through trouble.

Assyria serves as the instrument of His indignation and chastisement against Zion and Jerusalem, allowed to tread down His people until that work is done. Even a great king stands under God's authority and is not a source of power in himself, but an instrument in God's hands. The proud high looks of the king are one with the boastful power described in Daniel's prophecies.

Assyria's success did not make it righteous or religious. Though wielded in God's anger against a hypocritical nation, its own aim was to destroy and conquer, and its pride and arrogance do not exempt it from judgment. The order itself teaches that God's final judgment begins with His own people before judgment falls on the wicked. The verse belongs to a historical account of an Assyrian king's deeds in Judah that does not identify the king by name, which led critics to call the invasion and the king ideal rather than historical.

The chapter to which the verse belongs is marked by strife, war, and wickedness, while the next chapter turns to the rest, peace, and righteousness of Christ's kingdom. The reproofs of sin in chapters 10-12, given in Isaiah's time, also point to similar conditions in the last days and to the great deliverance at Christ's coming.

Prophecy and Final Fulfillment

Assyria stands for the power that afflicts God's people, and after the Lord finishes His whole work upon Zion and Jerusalem He punishes its proud ruler for arrogance at the time of the decree and the final indignation. Its later successors are the nations that rule God's church at the close of its controversy, and their punishment marks the end of that period of subjection. The final successor in Assyria's line is the Roman kingdom, which completes the period of oppression and of allowing God's people to be trodden down. The punishment falls at the end of the indignation and appointed period of subjection, when the yoke is broken and the remnant is recovered. The king's proud high looks are the boastful power described in Daniel's prophecies.

The consuming judgment decreed in the surrounding passage is synchronized with the consuming of the Papal king of Mystery Babylon, whose fall in 1798 ends the treading-under-foot oppression of God's people. The verse belongs among the prophecies of Babylon's fall, showing that after the Lord completes His work on Mount Zion and Jerusalem He punishes the proud-hearted, arrogant king who served as His instrument of anger against a hypocritical nation while aiming only to destroy and conquer. Applied to the Papacy, its proud power and dominion are punished through a gradual consuming process that begins before the end and continues until its destruction. The means of that consuming is the light of biblical truth spreading through the Reformation and through the later translation and circulation of the Bible and the opening of Daniel's and John's prophecies.

God carries His own purpose forward through proud, war-making rulers who do not know His charge, just as He did through Assyria, and that purpose stands and grows brighter through wars and commotions until His whole work upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem is accomplished. When that work is finished His downtrodden people will find long-looked-for eternal rest in a chosen place of rest, glory, beauty and endless joy, which is the throne of conquering Jesus coming to bring a calm, peaceful, eternal day bright as morning without clouds. The ambition, gathered and gathering hosts, and angry war-preparing and war-clashing powers of bloody rulers are tokens that those last preparations are rapidly progressing. They call for patient waiting with loins girded and lamps burning.