24 The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, 25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26 This is the plan [m]devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
28 In the year that King Ahaz died this [n]oracle came:
Judgment on Philistia
29 “Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30 “[o]Those who are most helpless will eat,
And the needy will lie down in security;
I will [p]destroy your root with famine,
And it will kill off your survivors.
31 “Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
[q]Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
For smoke comes from the north,
And there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 “How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”
We see again two themes that have been repeated. In the first, as God reaches out his hand to Assyria, there is the rhetorical question, “Who can turn it back?” Of course, no one can. And yet, we find ourselves in a similar state of judgment, as Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death.” No different than the abhorrent Assyrians, our sin requires the same penalty.
How then can we possibly escape this fate? No one can turn back the hand of God, or at least none of us can. However, God himself had decreed, before the foundation of the earth, that his Son would be the one. Jesus would pay the price that would turn back the hand of the father. And though many tried to thwart that plan, including those angels fallen and cast out, none could turn back the decree of the Father.
And why would God do such a silly thing? Why would God create us with our free will so we could rebel against him and so require this ultimate sacrifice and suffering at His own hands? We find clues in the second theme, where Philistia is reminded of their doom. Amid the wreckage, the “most helpless will eat” and “the needy will lie down in security.”
God’s compassion is bigger than we can imagine. It is so great that it caused Him to plan for our redemption before we ever needed it. Before Adam and Eve fell, God already knew what his love for us would require, and He gave it freely. How then should we not give and sacrifice, and show how his love has changed our own hearts?
Nothing we do will change God’s desire to rescue the lost, the perishing. But will we be instruments of that rescue, or ineffectual bystanders? Let God’s love and grace flow through you, transforming not only your own heart, but that of those whom God puts in your path.