Punish the fruit Isa 10:12

[mikew]

As I was studying Romans and checked on quotes from Isaiah, I could see that such passages were being fulfilled at the time of Paul's writing. This included Isaiah 10:22 about the sand of the sea and the remnant which then led me to look more at the context of chapter 10 to see what else was related to this remnant.

Hence verse 12 was examined.

Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

On first glance we could try to read this verse as saying that God would punish the king of Assyria. But on closer examination there are several phrases that form the whole picture especially when it is realized that the king of Assyria was already dead.

Here are the phrases to consider in a process :
king of Assyria
stout heart of the king of Assyria
fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria

1. King of Assyria
Why was the king of Assyria mentioned? It was cause he was the first of a sequence of empires and represented those empires. This then was the Assyrian, the Babylon, the Greek and the Roman empire. This is the essential reason Isaiah mentioned of the king of Assyria. God was addressing the political rule of these empires.

2. Stout heart of the king of Assyria
He ruled with pride and was placed into power to bring forth God's discipline of His people. But in pride, the Assyrian king went on to take over more countries than God prescribed for him. This is the "problem" of assigning earthly rulers to do tasks for God.

3. Fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria
The "fruit" of the pride of king of Assyria was to have several rulers and empires follow his example of ruling with pride and overuse of the power given by God. So the king of Babylon aquired the same pride. So did Alexander the Great.

God's punishment was against the "fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria" which meant that this succession of empires would be removed from its sort of political power. Such idea was also presented by the statue of Daniel 2, representing the political power of the sort held by these rulers and nations (Babylon, Mede-Persia, Greek, Roman).

When Christ came then He was starting to replace their political power with the kingdom of God as exercising influence over the nations, in a political sense. Jesus was the Rock cut out of the mountain without hands. (Dan 2:45) The Daniel 2 description of the dream then was a natural extension of the ideas presented in Isaiah 10 (and we should be observant of the earlier introduction of such ideas, the earlier prophecy followed by a later prophecy, given for clarification.)

(And the Isa 10:12 verse gets more interesting as its considered that the punishment of the world was to follow the destruction of Jerusalem.)

[Jess]

I may be wrong but wasn't Assyria in the process of defeating Israel and making Judah pay tribute during Isaiah's writing, hence the king of Assyria would still be alive? That wouldn't necessarily change your interpretation however. The idea that it is "the fruit of the arrogant heart" of the king, I think, is a good one. This could indeed be a judgment against Assyria, however. Assyria eventually fell and Babylon took over control of the region, deporting Judah in 586 B.C.

I guess I see it at face value saying that God was going to use Assyria as His instrument against Judah and when He was finished ("when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem") Assyria would also fall, primarily for the reason you stated, "the fruit of the arrogant heart of the King". Isaiah 10:13 ff suggest this. God sees the haughtiness and pride of Assyria as the pride of "the axe over the One who chops with it" or " the saw over the One who wields it".

Now, another possibility is that this passage also contains a potential secondary fulfillment during Christ's time or possible even at His second coming:

1. "When the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem" (when Christ completed His work at the cross) "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness" (this time the arrogant heart referring to unbelieving Israel who crucified Jesus and then eventually fell in 70 A.D.).

or...

2. "When the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem" (Mount Zion and Jerusalem representing the Church and all who eventually are united to Christ throughout the ages) "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness" (fruit of the arrogant heart representing those who have opposed the gospel and relied on their own works throughout all time).

Maybe all three?

In Him,

Jess

[mikew]

Thanks Jess for sharing.

Of course, in my original post I was presenting my idea to discover any weaknesses and also to see if someone else finds the concepts useful. The hard part of the passage and most of Isaiah is to figure out what was fulfilled before Christ and what was maybe in the first century. I'm still trying to get a better grasp on the style of Isaiah. There should be enough information in Isaiah to reveal which passages were fulfilled around Isaiah's time compared to those to be fulfilled with Christ.

There almost surely was a tight connection of the ideas and words of Isaiah 10 with the actual Assyrians of that time. And maybe also there was a fulfillment of Isaiah 10 at that time. But most of chapter 10 seems to take the events around Isaiah's lifetime as being an example and warning to Jews at the time of Christ.

I think my idea would have be expressed better if I emphasized that the idea of "fruit" was apparently about successors to the Assyrians' in showing pride. Their pride was in conquering cities or countries --when God only gave direction to affect Jerusalem. So the fruit wasn't found among the Assyrians, such as the soldiers or Assyrian rulers (though these rulers could be included as being some of the fruit or could be the whole fruit -- as an alternate thought).

Then when Isaiah spoke of the "work upon Zion and Jerusalem" he appeared to speak about cleaning Jerusalem of idolatry, as had been mentioned in verse 11.