You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord ['Adonay] hath performed [batsa`] his whole work [ma`aseh]
upon mount [har] Zion [Tsiyown] and on Jerusalem, [Yaruwshalaim] I will punish [paqad] the
fruit [pariy] of the stout [godel] heart [lebab] of the king [melek] of Assyria, ['Ashshuwr] and
the glory [tiph'arah] of his high [ruwm] looks. [`ayin] KJV-Interlinear
12 So it
will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on
Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of
the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness." NASB
God has but one plan and one purpose. Man has many plans and many purposes.
Gods plan has a beginning, middle and end, with an objective that started from the beginning and has never changed.
Mans plans change constantly with circumstances and sin.
Gods plan is for all to be saved, for all to grow up in their spiritual life, for all to live with Him in heaven for the rest of eternity.
During history, God has to apply discipline or judgment in order to preserve and perpetuate humanity in history.
This is necessary so that all people who will believe in Christ and so that all people who will grow up in their spiritual lives, throughout history, will have that opportunity. During history there will be many assaults by evil, to end history, or to redirect it such that people and even generations will not have access to God, Christ, doctrine or anything of truth. God does not permit that to happen.
When a chosen nation goes spiritually negative, when a chosen people go spiritually negative, when any aspect of His plan is placed in jeopardy by the negative aspects of those people, then they are met with discipline and redirection of their own, back to doctrine. This is in order to preserve and keep Gods plan moving forward toward success for everyone.
Both Jerusalem and Samaria were drifting away from truth. They had drifted so far, that strong discipline was needed in order to bring those countries and peoples back to God and doctrine.
God uses many tools in order to apply discipline and judgment.
And in this case, God used their neighbor, Assyria, who itself was evil and ruthless and had its eyes on the several neighbors including Jerusalem and Samaria for their own lustful desires. Had Assyria had its eyes on truth, then its invasion would have been more of a legal and criminal prosecution action, and not a lust driven, and theft of loot action for itself.
By comparison in our current world, Iraq for example was evil and guilty of many things. They were invaded and thumped pretty hard in order to remove an evil leadership and criminal element and restored to some semblance of a civil nation.
By comparison when Iraq invaded its neighbor Kuwait, they invaded with the intention of stealing whatever they could and killing whomever they will and so forth.
In the past, Hitler wanted world domination and the Allies removed that evil and restored national sovereignty.
That is the difference between national aggression for truth and aggression for evil.
Evil drives evil intentions. Truth drives correction and restoration of order and freedom and self-determination opportunities.
The leadership of Assyria, and not just one leader, but several leaders, were driven by sin. They could have listened to truth and brought back Israel to its senses. But they were not interested in truth or order, but in their own evil conquests.
Once God had brought the necessary discipline to Israel, then He turned His attention to Assyria and dealt with them in accordance with their evil ways.
Assyria was arrogant to the maximum and driven by its arrogant lusts for power and wealth and so forth.
Israel fell prey to Assyria because they turned away from truth. Truth is the foundation for ones own survival in life. Truth teaches the ways of evil, the ways of ones own security or planning against evil, the ways of ones preparation for life.
Why do you place locks on your doors? Why do you attend school? Why does a nation have a military? Why do you learn right from wrong? These and many many more concepts, are a part of truth, not to mention the obvious truth of salvation and doctrinal instruction. Establishment principles, scientific laws, and much more are an integral part of truth.
When truth is rejected, authority is rejected, establishment is rejected, common sense is rejected, and evil invades to destroy.
No one gets away with anything. Even when evil falls prey to evil, both parties get their due punishment sooner or later.
To receive notice of each days Bible Study, please go to my twitter page and sign up.
