Isaiah 10:15
Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
Isaiah 10:15 belongs to Isaiah's prophecy against Assyria. Its chapter is marked by strife, war, and wickedness, in contrast to the rest, peace, and righteousness described in Isaiah 11. It stands among the reproofs of great sins committed in Isaiah's day in chapters 10 to 12, which point forward to similar conditions in the last days and to the great deliverance at the coming of Christ.
The axe, saw, rod, and staff are powerless instruments in the hands of the one wielding them; they cannot act independently or exalt themselves above the one directing them, and cannot claim power or credit over the user. As an image of boastful human agents, the verse exposes and rebukes the presumption of instruments that boast as though their power were their own and act as though they were their own master.
A ruler with great dominion is only an instrument in God's hands with no power independent of Him; Nebuchadnezzar's authority came from God, so his high position did not lessen his duty to obey God but increased his responsibility to show loyalty to the Creator. Isaiah 10:10-23 is the decree of consumption that corresponds to the consuming process pictured by the worms in Isaiah 14, and in prophetic application this consumption is associated with the end of Papal oppression in 1798.