The history of the Assyrian in relation to God’s people Israel is pregnant with instruction of the ways of God, but the prophecies regarding that great and ancient people not only tell of the judgment that has already been carried out, but of what shall yet be the end just before, and during, the millennial reign of Christ. Just before Christ’s reign of peace and righteousness there will be the divine judgment on the prince of Rosh and his armies, a great confederation of nations that will bear the features of the ancient Assyrian that assailed God’s people and reviled their God.
The Prophecy of Isaiah
A number of Isaiah’s prophecies deal with the Assyrian, especially in relation to Israel and Judah. The first prophecy in this book is found in Isaiah 7, in which God, through the prophet, pronounces His judgment on the confederate kings of Syria and Israel, who “went up toward Jerusalem to war against it” (verse 1). God assured Ahaz that this unholy alliance would not stand, but He also said to Ahaz, “The Lord shall bring upon thee…the king of Assyria” (verse 17). Instead of relying on Jehovah to deal with these two kings who made war with him, Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria saying, “I am thy servant and thy son; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me” (2 Kings 16:7). It was no doubt on account of this lack of confidence in God, and because of his idolatry, that God foretold of the coming against Judah of the king of Assyria.
The Egyptians and the Assyrians would both be used of God to punish His people, but the Assyrian would be the chief instrument (7:18–20). Jehovah would use the Assyrian as a man uses a razor, and would make desolate the land that once flowed with milk and honey. Although Jerusalem escaped, in the mercy of God, the ravages of Sennacherib, who “came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them” (Isa. 36:1). So that this prophecy was fulfilled very soon after, though there may be the complete fulfilment in the last days, before the coming of the Lord.
Isaiah 8. Between the prophecy of the overthrow of Israel and Syria, and the prophecy concerning Judah’s judgment at the hand of the Assyrian, in chapter 7, there had been the announcement of the coming of Emmanuel. In chapter 8 there was another prophecy regarding the removal of “the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria” by the king of Assyria, and also of the Assyrian passing through Judah, to fill the breadth of the land of Immanuel (verses 4–8). As a sign of what would shortly take place, the Lord directs the prophet to call his child that would be born, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means “Swift for spoil hasty for prey,” depicting the ravenous character of the Assyrian.
How very different is the character of Immanuel, “God with us,” to the character of the Assyrian. Immanuel was to come in the Person of Jesus, expressing the sovereign goodness of God to His erring people Israel, and offering them salvation from all their foes. With the rejection of Messiah, there would be the judgment of Israel in government, but also the chastening of the remnant of Israel in preparation for the reception of the Lord Jesus at His coming again. What happened to Israel and Judah, at the time of Israel’s being led captive, and in the days of Hezekiah, foreshadows God’s dealings with Israel just before Christ’s kingdom is introduced.
Isaiah 10. In verse 5 of this chapter we learn the reason of God allowing this powerful and ravaging nation to assail His people. Although proud of their great victories, they were but the rod of God’s anger, and the power they exercised was but the instrument to manifest God’s indignation. God sent the Assyrian to chasten His people because of their sins, but the Assyrian was quite ignorant of what God was doing. The heart of the Assyrian was full of pride, and he was bent on destroying and subduing nations, altogether unaware that he was but God’s instrument to carry out His will against the nations because of their evil doings.
Because he attributed his victories to himself, God would “punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria,” after he had performed God’s work in government “upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem” (verse 12). A remnant of Israel would escape the judgment, and return to God (verses 20–22), and to them God says, “O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod…for yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction” (verses 24-25). This happened in the days of Hezekiah, yet it was but the foreshadowing of what will take place in the time of the end.
The Lord knew all that would transpire, and His intense interest in every detail is recorded in verses 28-32, in which the progress of the Assyrian is traced from Aiath till he shakes his “hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.” When written it was a prophecy, but it has been fulfilled, yet only in part, for it marks the progress of the last Assyrian, and also describes his end, as the destruction of the Assyrian armies, and the death of Sennacherib are described later in this book. The Lord who used, and will use, the Assyrian, Himself humbles the proud nation and its king (verses 33-34).
Isaiah 11. After writing of Messiah as “a rod of the stem of Jesse, a Branch…out of his roots,” the features of the Lord’s coming kingdom are mentioned, “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious” (verses 1-10). “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria…and from the islands of the sea” (verse 11). This is a remarkable prophecy, which passes over the return of the remnant of Judah from Babylon, and looks forward to the recovery of the ten tribes from Assyria where they were led captive by Tilgath-pileser and Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria (2 Kings 15:29; 17:3–7). On the return of the remnant “there shall be an highway…from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt” (verse 16).
Isaiah 14. Before Babylon had anything to do with Israel, God foretold their judgment at the hands of the Medes (13:17–19), and continues with this subject in chapter 14, in which God speaks of His purpose “that is purposed upon the whole earth” (verse 26). In relation to this purpose, God said regarding the Assyrian, “As I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders” (verses 24, 25).
Here is a prophecy in relation to God’s purpose “upon the whole earth,” and that takes us down to the time of the end. There was indeed the downfall of Sennacherib, and the slaughter of his army in the land of Israel, in the days of king Hezekiah, but this was only the partial fulfilment of the divine judgment on the Assyrian, and on the great confederation from the north that shall be lured to its judgment, as given in some detail in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Russia and its allies at the end will have all the ravenous features that have been in evidence in the Assyrian as he came into the holy land to carry out God’s judgment, but which he attributed to himself, and because of this brought upon himself the judgment of God.
Isaiah 19. Although God used the Assyrians and the Egyptians in His governmental dealings with Israel, there will be an end to His judgments, and there will be blessing for them in the time of Christ’s reign, and this is brought before us in this chapter, where Jehovah says, “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance” (verses 24-25). How very wonderful are God’s ways, and how blessed that those who read and value the word of God can take account of the passing events in the light of what shall take place in the end.
Isaiah 20. From this chapter we learn that God not only uses the Assyrian as the scourge of His people Israel, to chastise them for their sins, but He also uses this same power to punish the careless Ethiopian and the proud Egyptian. The Philistine also, who relied on the help of Ethiopia and Egypt, felt the lash of the scourge of God, when Tartan, the general of Sargon the king of Assyria, took Ashdod. Sargon was the successor to Shalmaneser, who took the ten tribes captive, but Sargon does not seem to have assailed Judah at the time of his assaults on Ashdod, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Isaiah 23. In pronouncing His judgment on Tyre, an ancient city, the Lord shows that He would use a comparatively new power, even the Chaldeans, of whom Jehovah says, “this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness” (verse 13). Although Babel was the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom, it was not until the days of Nebuchadnezzar that it became a world power to execute God’s judgment upon the nations.
Isaiah 27. Again the Lord speaks of the regathering of His people Israel in the last days, when He says, “It shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (verse 13). This “great trumpet” seems to have in mind the bringing back of the ten tribes from the lands of their captivity, but the “great sound of a trumpet” sounded by the angels (Matt. 24:31), to God’s elect in the extremities of the earth would seem to refer to the calling back to the land of the remnant of Judah, the two tribes.
Isaiah 30. At the close of this chapter the Lord is coming in judgment, and “His glorious voice shall be heard,” a voice that will bring salvation for His people Israel, and judgment for the Assyrian. The Assyrian would appear to be the last leader of the enemies of God’s people, who invade the land after the land is at rest, and for him “Tophet is ordained of old” (verses 31–33). “The king,” the antichrist, of whom the Lord spoke while on earth as one coming in his own name, and of whom other writers in both Old and New Testaments speak, will also come to a similar end, Tophet being prepared for him also.
Isaiah 31. Again, in verse 8 of this chapter the judgment of God on the Assyrian is predicted in the words, “Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.” It was not the sword of a strong man or of a mean man that destroyed the army of Sennacherib, but the angel sent by Jehovah. So also shall it be at “that day,” the day when the last Assyrian perishes on the mountains of Israel, for the Lord Himself will intervene for the salvation of His people and the destruction of Gog and his confederate forces.
Isaiah 36–38. The proud Assyrian had led the ten tribes into captivity, and had subdued many kingdoms. In His government, the Lord had allowed Sennacherib to take the fenced cities of Judah, and to reach to the very gates of Jerusalem, where his emissaries reviled Hezekiah and the God of Israel. The history had already been given in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, but it is found again in Isaiah to show the place of the Assyrian in the scope of prophecy, for what is presented in this book traces God’s ways with His people until the time when they are brought into millennial blessing, and what is seen in the different kings of Assyria not only presents to us their history, but also the marks of the last Assyrian, and the judgment of God on those who imagined they were doing their own will.
God’s judgment on Sennacherib and his armies foreshadows what will take place at the end, when the last Assyrian invades the holy land. The smiting of “a hundred and fourscore and five thousand” in the camp of the Assyrians by the angel of the Lord (Isa. 37:36) foretells the awful slaughter of the hosts of Gog, when God pleads “against him with pestilence and with blood” (Ezek. 38:22), and when seven months are needed to bury the dead (Ezek. 39:12).
If God had a controversy with His people it was no excuse for the Assyrian to oppress them without cause (52:4), to lake them “away for nought,” and to make them howl while ruling over them, so as to blaspheme the Name of the Lord (verse 5). Because of this, apart from His own counsel regarding His people Israel, God will send Salvation to Israel, and bring gladness to Jerusalem and Zion (verses 6–10).
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In the prophecy of Isaiah the Lord shows the Assyrian to be the rod of His anger for the chastisement of His wayward people. Not only does He allow the Assyrian to invade the land, but also to lead the ten tribes into captivity. Judah also suffers at the hand of this proud oppressor, who vainly imagines that he is doing his own will, and who finds pleasure in afflicting the people who are loved of God. For his vanity, and cruel pleasure, the Assyrian must suffer in the government of God, and this is brought clearly before us in the different chapters of Isaiah, where the government of God in Isaiah’s days clearly foreshadows God’s ways in the end of days, when the last Assyrian shall swoop down upon the pleasant land, only to meet his doom, and the destruction of all the confederate armies that have joined against the Lord and His beloved people.
Jeremiah’s Prophecy
Jehovah could not forget that Judah, through Ahaz the king, had sought the help of the king of Assyria, then made an altar for another god after visiting the king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:7, 10–13). Referring to this, the Lord said to Jerusalem and Judah, “what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?” (Jer. 2:18). Then in verse 36 the Lord said, “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast of Assyria.” The Assyrians, for whose help Ahaz sent, and to whom Israel became servants, fell upon Judah in the days of the son of Ahaz, which surely made Judah ashamed of those in whom they had placed their confidence.
Poor Israel had suffered for their sins in God’s government, but He was not indifferent to the vanity and arrogance of the nations that were His instruments for the punishment of His people. We learn this in Jeremiah 1:17-18. Israel is seen as “a scattered sheep,” and Assyria and Babylon as lions devouring him. God had already dealt with Assyria: He would soon deal with the king of Babylon also.
The Lord again recalls, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, how His people had allied themselves with Egypt and Assyria for temporal relief, instead of relying on Him (v. 6). Here it is the confession of the remnant. First they confess their own sins, then they add, “Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities” (verses 7). Even in the days of Jeremiah there was a godly remnant for whom the prophet speaks, just as there will be those in the last days, crying to God in the midst of their trials as the nation is suffering before the Lord comes to intervene on their behalf.
Ezekiel’s Prophecy
When Ezekiel wrote his prophecy there was still a remnant of Judah in the land. King Jehoiachin was in captivity in Babylon, but his uncle Zedekiah reigned in Jerusalem, but God was about to pour out His judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, and lead the people into captivity. God gives His reasons for His judgments, and said through Ezekiel to His people, “Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians” (16:28). Jehovah bewailed the idolatry of the people He had brought out of Egypt, and blessed so lavishly in a land flowing with milk and honey. Spite of all the Lord’s goodness in meeting all their needs, and in protecting them from their foes, poor Israel and Judah turned to the idols of the nations round about, and to the false worship of the nations used for their chastisement. The idolatry of both Israel and Judah is traced to its source in Egypt, but brought out specially in relation to the Assyrians in the days before the captivity of Samaria and Jerusalem (Ezek. 23:1–23).
In chapter 31 the downfall of Egypt is prophesied, and is likened to the downfall of Assyria. These were great nations at the time of God’s judgment on His wayward people, but, on account of their vanity, God dealt with them also in judgment. God had exalted Assyria to a place of distinction among the nations, but he attributed his exaltation to his own prowess, so God humbled him with His judgments. The same fate awaited Egypt, and for the same reasons. For long both these nations have been weak when compared with the great nations of the world, but even now we see them rising up again to take their place in the events of the last days in relation to God’s people Israel.
Hosea’s Prophecy
Hosea prophesied in the days of the four kings of Judah in whose reigns Isaiah also prophesied, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isa. 1:1; Hosea 1:1). Like Isaiah, Hosea has much to say of the Assyrian. In chapter 5 the prophet writes, “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). It was while Uzziah reigned over Judah that Menahem was king of Israel, and “gave Pul a thousand talents of silver…to confirm the kingdom in his hand” (2 Kings 15:19). What a grave departure from Jehovah for Israel to seek the aid of the king of Assyria in the time of trouble instead of turning to Jehovah.
In Hosea 7:11 it is written, “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.” The ten tribes are before the prophet, and he tells of their coming captivity, “Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria” (Hosea 9:3). It is similar in Hosea 8:9, “For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass by himself;” only here it would seem to be one of the reasons for the captivity; Israel relied on Assyria instead of Jehovah, so Jehovah allowed him to be a captive to the nation on whom he had relied.
Again, in Hosea 10:6 God foretells of the glory of Israel being removed to Assyria. God brought Israel from Egypt, and though some returned there, the nation, or what remained of it, came under the rule of the king of Assyria, and were led captive there (Hosea 11:5). It was with deep sorrow that God punished His people, and He would not destroy them, and after His judgments had brought them to “tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of Assyria,” He would “place them in their houses” in their own land (Hosea 11:8–11). It was a very solemn departure from God that Ephraim should “make a covenant with the Assyrians” and carry their oil to Egypt (Hosea 12:1). From these Scriptures we see the place occupied by Assyria in God’s dealings with His people, but also the bright prospect that awaits Israel of coming back to the land from Assyria (See also Isa. 11:11).
Micah’s Prophecy
Like Isaiah and Hosea, Micah prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, that is at the time the kings of Assyria were invading the land of Israel. Micah has not very much to say regarding the Assyrian, but he brings in Messiah as the One who shall deal with him. In chapter 5 the rejection of the Judge of Israel is clearly foretold (verse 1), as is also the place of His birth (verse 2), a Scripture well known to the chief priests and scribes when the Lord came into the world (Matt. 2:4–6). The grace and glory of the Lord in the time of His kingdom is brought out in verse 4, where He is seen standing and feeding His people “in the strength of the Lord,” and when He shall “be great unto the ends of the earth.”
At the end, as shown in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the Assyrian shall come into the land of God’s people for the last time. Had not Messiah been with them their hearts would be full of dread with such mighty armies descending upon them, but the prophet can say, “This Man shall be Peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces” (verse 5). What confidence God’s people will have when Messiah is with them, providing for their defence in the “seven shepherds, and eight principal men.” The rod of the Shepherd will protect them, and His staff will sustain them; and the wisdom of the Man of Peace will direct them.
Not content with the destruction of the invading armies, “They shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof” (verse 6). The Lord, with His chosen instruments, will carry out His final judgments before bringing peace to this troubled world, and He smites the lands where first the lawlessness of man, in relation to the nations, first reared its head, through Nimrod and Assyria (Gen. 10:9–11).
Zephaniah’s Prophecy
This prophecy was in the days of good king Josiah, days of revival, when the divine judgment, long since prophesied, was delayed because of the piety of the king. It is a very solemn prophecy that first tells of the awful judgments to be poured upon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zeph. 1), then of what awaits the provinces of the Philistines (Zeph. 2:4–7), Moab and Ammon (Zeph. 2:8–11), and “Ye Ethiopians also” (Zeph. 2:12). Although several nations are singled out for special mention, the “great day of the Lord” will “bring distress upon men” generally (Zeph. 1:14–17), “for He will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen” (Zeph. 2:11).
Assyria and its capital city Nineveh have a special mention in the judgments of God, for “He will stretch out His hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness…This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, the said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me” (Zeph. 2:13–15). History is the witness that the judgment pronounced by God through Zephaniah has been carried out. Proud Nineveh had long forgotten the warning of Jonah, given of God more than two hundred years before the days of Zephaniah, and the judgment pronounced then, but long delayed, was ultimately executed.
Zechariah’s Prophecy
At the end of Zechariah 10 the regathering of Israel is very clearly foretold. The house of Judah is to be strengthened by the Lord, and He will save the house of Joseph. While in far countries they will remember Jehovah their God, and He “will hiss for them, and gather them” for He has redeemed them (verses 8-9). Redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, their Messiah whom they once refused, God “will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria” into their own land (verse 10).
It will be a time of affliction and judgment, “and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away” (verse 11), for Israel shall no more be afflicted and come under the rule of the nations, for Christ shall be their King, and Israel shall be blessed under Him.
Nahum’s Prophecy
The Book of Nahum is “The burden of Nineveh.” The opening verses bring out the anger of a jealous and revenging God, one slow to anger, but great in power who, when His time of patience is over, will deal with all His enemies. For those who trust Him, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble,” when His judgments fall upon those who are His adversaries. Nineveh, the expression of the world in its vanity and pride, the centre of evil and opposition to the people of God, imagined evil against the Lord Himself, and so invited His displeasure and its own doom. In God’s sight it was “the bloody city!” and “full of lies and robbery,” and notorious for its corruption and witchcraft. God would expose its nakedness, make it filthy and a gazing-stock.
What Nahum predicted was fulfilled, but the prophecy also served to bring out what would happen at the end. Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, has long since ceased to exist, but the judgment on Nineveh describes what will befall the nation bearing the character of the Assyrian, and perhaps also his territory, in the last days.
The Book of Jonah
The command of the Lord to Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me” (Jonah 1:2), was evidently given nearly 150 years before the prophecy of Nahum. Both books are entirely given up to God’s dealings with Nineveh. The Book of Jonah teaches that God is long-suffering and merciful, and that where there is repentance God will stay His judgment, but the book of Nahum teaches that the God who sees the end from the beginning will carry out the judgment He pronounced when He considers the time of His patience is ended.
Nineveh was indeed wicked, but the preaching of Jonah brought the repentance that gave pleasure to God. The king caused a decree to be published that every one show the signs of repentance, but also “let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands” (Jonah 3:7-8). There were to be the works meet for repentance. Through God’s mercy Nineveh was spared, and His judgment postponed. From the consideration of God’s ways with Nineveh in these prophecies we learn not only of His dealings with that particular city and nation, but also of His government with the world, and with individuals. God delights in mercy, but He is a righteous God, and if evil is not given up the time of His judgment will surely come.
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