God Uses Assyria For His Purposes

Justice, Righteousness, and God’s Judgment in Isaiah 10

Please turn with me in your scriptures to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 10. Once again, let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our study of his word. Our gracious and sovereign Lord, we ask that you would bless us now by the presence of your Spirit, that we might understand your truth as we look at this prophetic passage, as we make application to this day.

We ask that you would be with us, that you would bless your people, that you would edify the saints. All to your honor and glory, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Justice, righteousness. It is the very foundation of God's throne, according to the psalmist.

We speak much of it today, but we see very, very little of it, for our society no longer will even acknowledge a meaningful basis for defining the words. Justice and righteousness seems to be whatever the prevailing opinion or wind would tell us it is.

But scripture talks to us of a God who is righteous. And in fact, as he brings his judgments to bear in this world, we are told that those judgments are righteous judgments. In Isaiah chapter 10, we have an instance where God brings righteousness and judgment to bear against his people.

In fulfillment of the blessings and cursings of Deuteronomy chapters 28 and 29, where the people in entering into that covenant had accepted the terms of that covenant, which included blessings and cursings.

Blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience. God brings the Assyrians against his people as punishment. In these verses, hopefully, we will be able to hear and understand much that needs to be understood in our day and make personal application as well.

Let's look at just a portion of Isaiah chapter 10. Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune which they have prescribed to rob the needy of justice and to take what is right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless.

What will you do in the day of punishment in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? Without me, they shall bow down among the prisoners and they shall fall among the slain.

For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation and against the people of my wrath, I will give him charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey and to tread down like the mire of the streets.

Yet, he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off not a few nations. For he says, are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Kalno like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?

Therefore, it shall come to pass, and the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria in the glory of his haughty looks.

For he says, by the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent. Also, I have removed the boundaries of the people and have robbed their treasuries. So, I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth. And there was no one who moved his wing nor opened his mouth with even a peep.

Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood.

Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame.

It will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day, but it will consume the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, both soul and body. And they will be as when a sick man wastes away. Then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few a number that a child may write them.

And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped the house of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One, depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth.

The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. For though your people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

For the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. Amen. Well, in the few moments we have together, I want to try to drive a number of truths from this tremendous text.

But I will have to be brief, for the temptation will be great to stop and preach on a number of different points along the way. But there's much I wish to accomplish. We'll notice in the first four verses, once again, the concern of God in regards to righteousness.

Social Justice, Unrighteous Decrees, and Covenant Judgment

Sometimes those of us who hold firmly to the entire counsel of God react a little bit negatively to those who speak of social justice, because we've seen so many times, only in the past hundred years, the idea of social justice replace the gospel of Jesus Christ in many churches.

I know that, for example, in speaking to my parents, my parents had often said to me over the years that they remember days back in the olden days when you could go to a United Methodist Church and hear somebody preach the gospel.

You can't hear that in the United Methodist Church today. In fact, the largest, well, at least the most leading United Methodist seminary back in the 90s had a very qualified man apply to teach there.

And the only reason he wasn't able to teach was because he believed in the deity of Christ. That's how far that particular denomination has fallen. But there was a day when those good old-time Methodists could still call people to faith in Jesus Christ.

But what's happened? Well, the gospel has been replaced in those places with a gospel of social justice. And so sometimes, just as in a tug-of-war, when you pull against the opposite force, when you pull against the other side, I don't know if we would ever do that.

I'd want George on our side, but I want him right at the end. And we're pulling this direction. The problem is you can't remain balanced. You can't stay in the center. And sometimes we hear something like social justice, and that's what those liberals believe.

Well, no, I don't think Isaiah was a liberal. And Isaiah pronounces a woe upon those who decree unrighteous decrees. And I don't think that you can just simply say, oh, well, that was just the people of Israel.

God isn't really concerned when governments today decree unrighteous decrees. I don't believe you can say that. Because you see, those who are placed in positions of leadership, those in positions of authority, they are to represent the one who gave them that position.

And one thing we're going to learn from the Assyrians, they're going to be judged for the attitude of their heart because they were used by God. They were used by God to accomplish His purposes, yes. But then they're judged because of the attitude of their heart.

And so God uses nations. God uses leaders. And when they decree unrighteous decrees, God says, woe to you. If you wish to take what is right from the poor, if you wish to take widows that they may be their prey, that you rob the fatherless, the day of your punishment will come.

And God asks rhetorically, what will you do in the day of punishment and the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help and where will you leave your glory? Rhetorical questions that have no answer.

Because once the day of judgment comes, there will be no place to hide upon those who, in this instance, amongst his people, had decreed unrighteous decrees. One of the reasons that God's judgment came upon Israel.

There were many. There was the idolatry, the high places. There was, oh, it almost seems as if Israel worked to find how many different ways they could violate God's covenant. But the reality is that the only answer to the question is, well, the only thing you can do is either you will bow down among the prisoners.

And you think of, we've seen prisoners of war. We've seen those that are crouching, barely clothed, the defeated enemy. You will either bow down among the prisoners or you will be amongst the slain. There will be no place else to hide.

In other words, the judgment of the God's wrath will be complete when it comes against the people of Israel. That's exactly what we see when the Assyrians came against Israel. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Because the people themselves have not repented. And so, this oracle of coming doom based upon the unrighteousness of the people of Israel leads to verses 5 and following. Now, if you're thinking about this morning, then you know what the theme of our studies today has been.

We saw in Genesis chapter 50 this morning, the truth that God's absolute kingly sovereignty and man's responsibility walk hand in hand. That in the same events, you can have God's decree, and yet man is judged righteously for the attitudes of his heart in the activities that are his under that decree.

We saw that in regards to Joseph's brothers. And we saw that in this case of Joseph's brothers, Joseph recognized they meant evil against him. But in that very same action, God intended good. A direct parallel in the original language.

God was just as active in what took place in the selling of Joseph into Egypt as his brothers were, but for a different intention. And Isaiah chapter 10 provides us with very much another example. And one of the reasons I wanted to address this is that very often, you and I, when we respond to tragedy and difficulty in our lives, even other believers will say, well, why do you think God has a purpose in this?

Why do you think... Now, most believers will say that on a surface level, but there's clearly a difference between saying that and then consistently living in light of that and behaving in light of that.

And so when someone asks you, how can you say that God is sovereign over all things? He has a decree that he's working out. And yet we as individuals are responsible for our actions. You preach and teach as if we should be very careful about the things that we do.

And we should... I mean, aren't we just puppets on a string? What we saw this morning, Joseph affirmed the absolute sovereignty of God in every event, including the sinful actions of man. But I didn't read anything about puppets on a string.

I didn't read anything that was consistent with marionettes or robots or any of the other absurd accusations that are made. And here we have, I think, one of the clearest examples of this in Isaiah chapter 10.

Think about what we just read. Woe to Assyria. So this is another woe passage. We had woe in verse one. Now we have woe in verse five. Woe to Assyria. The rod of my anger and the staff in his hand is my indignation.

Now, when you think about a rod, you know, you think about, you know, we don't use rods much anymore. We use guns or knives or whatever. But you'll see the police will have those billy clubs or those things.

You can go like this and the whole thing comes out. And you can whack somebody with it. And it doesn't feel very good and put you on the ground pretty quick. That's the staff, the rod of God's anger. And notice what God says.

I, God, will send him, Assyria, against an ungodly nation. That's Israel. And against the people of my wrath, the people who my wrath is directed toward. I will give him charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Here comes the wrath, the judgment that was promised back in Deuteronomy. You break the covenant. Hundreds of years have passed. Prophets have been sent to you. Judgment is now coming. And he's going to use the Assyrians to do this.

But notice, yet he does not mean so. He, the Assyrian, does not mean to be the mechanism of God's wrath against the Israelites. Nor does his heart think so. Now, does that in any way, shape or form change the reality that God is using them in that way?

Of course not. So, what he's meaning to do and what his heart thinks so, that's one thing. But God's saying, I am using them to accomplish my purpose. It's so straightforward. It's so clear. It's right there on the page of Scripture.

And God knows what's in his heart. But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off not a few nations. And they certainly did. There have been few ancient powers in history that were as brutal as the Assyrians.

I mean, they set the standard for a long time. For he says, here's, God knows the attitude of the heart. He knows what fills the minds of these men. Are not my princes altogether kings? Unlike you folks.

Even my princes are higher than your kings. Is not Kalno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? Don't know about you, but I haven't been to either Kalno or Carchemish or Hamath or Arpad recently.

Most other people haven't either. But thankfully, we know what Samaria and Damascus are. In other words, these are cities that had been destroyed. They had stood before the Assyrian might and then they had had proven to them with great clarity.

The power of the Assyrian nation. And Samaria wasn't going to be any different. As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?

So, Samaria has fallen. Here comes this power moving south. And the point is, no one can stand against them. And the attitude of the heart of the king is, it's all me. No one can stop me. Now, you wouldn't expect the Assyrian king, being an idol worshipper, to really stop and reflect upon his own life and sit back and think about the sovereignty and providence of God.

Idol worshippers rarely do that. That doesn't change the responsibility of this man. He's made the image of God. He has religiously, or not so religiously, suppressed that knowledge all of his life. He's become arrogant.

But notice how he is judged. Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks.

Yes, I'm bringing him. Yes, I'm accomplishing my decree. I'm using him to punish my people. But I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria. Notice what the basis for the just and righteous punishment is.

It's the attitude of the heart, which, may I suggest, there is only one perfect judge or arbiter thereof. And there is nothing more frightening to me in our day and age than the government thinking that it's their turn to start judging the intentions of people's hearts.

Because you know what? They can't do that. With all their machines and everything else, they might be able to look inside our bodies, but they can't judge the heart. They don't know what the thoughts and intentions of the heart are.

And so it gets scary when I hear people say, we're going to pass these hate crimes laws because we're going to look into your heart and we're going to know what you were thinking. And so when you break the law and you're not thinking as we should think you should be thinking, then we're going to punish you more.

That's scary stuff. It's scary because we know they can't do it. What makes this very, very comforting is that God knows the thoughts and intentions of everyone's heart better than they know the thoughts and intentions.

And therefore his judgment, his punishing the fruit of the arrogant heart of the King of Assyria, the glory of his haughty looks, he knows exactly what was filling the heart of that man. And he can judge appropriately.

He knows what he has said in his heart. By the strength of my hand, I have done it. He refused to acknowledge God. He refused to acknowledge any good that he had came from God. By my wisdom, for I am prudent.

So since God gives to them success in the battlefield, well, then it must be my wisdom for I am prudent. I have removed the boundaries of the people. I have robbed their treasuries. I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people as one gathers eggs that are left. I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved his wing or opened his mouth with even a peep. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.

Arrogance of the heart of the man who does not see that everything he has comes from God. It is reprehensible to God when ancient kings or modern rulers behave in this fashion. It is reprehensible in God's sight when any human being takes the gifts that have been given to him or her, abuses them, and uses them to suppress the truth of God.

That's not a morally neutral act. That is sin. Now, I almost never get an amen when I say this. Not even here. But I am convinced, if someone would like to tell me otherwise, please explain to me where I'm wrong.

But when the brilliant scientist, the man with great learning in certain areas, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not so certain that modern men are nearly quite as bright as men of the past used to be.

We may have a whole lot more technology. We may have a whole lot more data available to us and gadgets and things like that, but I am not convinced that modern men are anywhere near as brilliant as men have been in the past.

I'll be perfectly honest with you. But take the brightest man that you have today. Let's go ahead and talk about a recent book by a man who is physically decrepit, diseased, but mentally brilliant. Stephen Hawking.

You know that he put a book out just recently basically saying, we've got it all figured out. There's no need for God anymore. We've got it all figured out. In fact, he even said there's no need for philosophy anymore either.

Science has figured it all out. Most Christians look at that and they'll go, well, we disagree. Well, I hope we would say we disagree anyways. I'm starting to wonder about some people who call themselves Christians.

But most of us say we disagree. But where we get uncomfortable is when I say this. What he said and what he's saying and what he's doing is sin. It's sin. It's not morally neutral. The brilliance of that man's mind is a gift from God and he is taking that and he is twisting that and he is suppressing the knowledge of God.

He's encouraging other people to suppress that knowledge of God and that is sin. There is no moral neutrality in this issue. But we're afraid to say it because, well, that's pretty radical. Well, claiming that Jesus Christ is the creator of all things, it's pretty radical too.

You see, these men were judged on the intentions of their hearts. God knows the intentions of the heart and this king, as powerful as he was, from the world's perspective, was just doing what was best for his nation.

God says it's sin. It's sin. It's not morally neutral. I don't care if he's a government official or a scientist or an artist. God will judge the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of every one of his creatures.

On that great day. The irony, the sarcasm of Isaiah I love. One of my favorite texts in the trial of the false god, Isaiah 40 -48, that tremendous ironic passage about the man who takes a block of wood and he cuts it in half and half of it he cooks his food and half of it he makes an idol and bows down and thanks the idol for his food.

The foolishness of idolatry. I love it. Here you have the same attitude. Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up.

Or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood. What's the whole point? We should see ourselves as instruments in the hand of God. And when you're placed in a position of great authority and power, you are no less an instrument in God's hand.

That's how we are to see ourselves. And that's how the king of Assyria, that's what he should have seen. He is the axe lifted by God to judge his people. But no. I did this. I did this. I did this. The sarcasm is well deserved.

For it goes to the very root of the problem of the fact that man is a creature denying his creator. And that is a fatal self-deception. It is a twisting of the creator-creation relationship that always results in the sin of idolatry.

The Remnant, the Mighty God, and Righteous Destruction

Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones. And under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So the light of Israel will be for a fire and his holy one for a flame.

And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars. And one day it will consume the glory of his forest, of his fruitful field, both soul and body. And they will be as when a sick man wastes away. Then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them.

God is going to take away the glory of the Assyrian. As a forest fire, remember that forest fire? How long ago? I'm sure Brother Callahan remembers exactly how long ago it was. We had that 472 ,000 acre forest fire.

We had the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world. And basically it pretty much all burned up. One shot. You could see it from space. It was amazing. And you can still see the results of it to this day, obviously.

Well that's what's being described here. A massive forest fire. The glory of the nation taken away. The rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them. God's going to bring judgment upon the people of Assyria.

And upon the leadership of Assyria. Even though he says, I'm bringing them. I'm bringing them for punishment. I will then punish them for the arrogance of their heart. There is compatibilism. There it is.

Straightforward. I've presented this to many people. And I just don't get responses to anybody who says otherwise. I just don't. I've tried. You know, you throw this type of thing out and people say, well, read my book.

Or something like that. It's about as far as they can get. But then you have the promise of redemption. It's a beautiful word in the Old Testament. It's the word remnant. Remnant. It never refers to people who are righteous in and of themselves.

It's a remnant of grace. And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel. Because remember, this chapter starts off, woe to you, false decrees, unrighteousness, etc., etc. But there's a remnant.

Such as have escaped the house of Jacob. Will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth. Remember, one of the things that Jeremiah, for example, warns the people against.

Don't trust in Egyptians. Don't trust in anybody but the Lord. They're always looking around for somebody because they really couldn't trust in their God. They will depend on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel in truth.

The remnant will return. The remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. And I just mention in passing for your own edification and for your own preparation to give an answer. Isaiah 10 .21. And you might want to mark that verse because that phrase, the mighty God, El Gabor, it's the very same phrase in Hebrew that's used in Isaiah chapter 9 when Jesus is described prophetically as the everlasting Father, the mighty God.

So sometimes those people who come knocking on your door on Saturday morning, you show them that text from Isaiah 9. Jesus is described as the mighty God. And they go, well, yes, yes, he is a mighty God.

He's not the almighty God. Well, then why is that very same phrase used one chapter over of? And you point them to verse 20. Yahweh, it will say Jehovah in their translation of the Bible. Just so you're aware of that, it's important to know that that is there.

That is a phrase that is used of God Himself and prophetically used with the coming Messiah. So very quickly, for though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return.

And then we have a phrase. I'll be honest, until preparation for this evening, I'm sure Pastor Fry can testify to this. You can work through a passage many, many times. And your mind is elsewhere. Your attention is elsewhere.

You can study a section fairly closely, and yet still years later you come back. It's one of two things. Either you've forgotten what you had learned before, or you just hadn't seen something before. And I was stopped in looking at this text in the original language by the last phrase of verse 22.

I really stopped and I pondered it. And I would invite you to maybe ponder it this evening or through the course of this week. The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. Now literally, as I translated it, I came up with the destruction that has been decreed or stated or set firmly.

It was just simply destruction announced, decreed, overflowing righteousness. Now normally, when you translate from any Semitic language, you have to provide connective verbal concepts and things like that.

And so, the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. And I stopped and started thinking, what does that mean? Think about what is the decreed destruction, judgment, annihilation, overflowing with righteousness?

The very same term in the Psalter is said to be the foundation of His throne. Righteousness is the foundation of Yahweh's throne. Righteousness. The same word group comes into the New Testament. Jesus Christ.

Our righteousness. Justification. Same group. And in the destruction of Israel, so that a remnant returns, the destruction that is decreed overflows with righteousness. Have you ever thought of God's providence in this way?

It's sometimes, for me anyways, useful to think in the lines of God's decree existing eternally. And when that decree interfaces with time, when it's shown in time, we see God's providence, His involvement in His creation.

It's difficult for us to, as time-bound creatures, to understand how something that is eternal can then interface with time. But the Bible presents to us God active in time. For us, that means He's got past, present, and future.

And we automatically start thinking of Him in that way because we're human beings and we're limited in that way. And we have to try to step back from that. And so when I think of that decree, bring about the kind of destruction that you see the Assyrians brought into northern Israel.

And that would be finished in toto by the Babylonians. Do we see it overflowing with righteousness? We should. We should. I remember how jarring it was for me the first time I read Jonathan Edwards. And his rather straightforward, and unfortunately this has become a bad word today, but puritanical.

Just simply being puritan. Which meant lots and lots of words and very long discussions, but normally pretty straightforward in what he said. No political correctness at all. When he would talk about how God will be glorified in the destruction of sinners.

And it was jarring. Mainly because I just had never really considered the consistency of everything God's Word says. But when God brings judgment against His people or against the Assyrians, it's righteous judgment.

It overflows with righteousness. The fact that it was delayed. The fact that opportunities for repentance were given. The fact that grace was a tribute. Doesn't change the fact that when judgment comes, it overflows with righteousness.

And that means you and I should never be embarrassed about what God says was righteous action on His part. In our day and age, we're put on the defensive all the time. Your God's genocidal. Your God wiped out the Amorites.

Sure did. And what amazes me is He didn't do it faster. Whenever anybody says, why do bad things happen to good people? Your first response should be, why do good things happen to anybody? Because there aren't any good people.

See, our land is smothering in a sin-denying, man-exalting humanism that is so arrogant that it thinks we can put God on trial for what He does in His own creation. And we absorb it. Whether we want to absorb it or not, we absorb it.

And we start thinking the way the world thinks. And we start feeling the pressure of the world's objections, even when they're based upon foolishness. The destruction decreed overflowing with righteousness.

That's how it should be seen. God's actions overflowing with righteousness. For Yahweh Elohim of hosts, the Lord God of hosts, will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. He will accomplish His purpose.

Now, from our perspective, we can look back and say, oh yes, He's preparing for the Messiah to come, and everything has to be in place, and the Romans have to come, and we see the Lord of history now in hindsight, but they couldn't see that then.

And yet, every reason, every reason to trust this God, and to see in His actions in time, His holiness and His righteousness. So here we have, and there's much more. One of the things I truly enjoy about how we do things here is, you know, we're working through Jeremiah, and it's not easy.

It is not easy to work through these texts, because you have to provide historical foundation. But it's so important, because this was the very seedbed of everything we have in the New Testament. The longer I study this, the more I am convinced that most of the foolishness, a large portion of the foolishness that we hear in preaching from the New Testament, is because the people preaching from the New Testament have no earthly idea what the Old Testament said.

And you cannot understand what the New Testament says, if you're ignorant of the Old Testament. Oh yeah, you can read and get a general idea, but the point is, the New Testament writers are constantly quoting from this book.

They expect you to know it. And there is so much revelation about God's decree, and God's holiness, and God's sovereignty, and God's power, that if people would just get that first, they would never misread the New Testament text the way they do.

Or at least, they wouldn't have any reason to. The revelation of God's character that is provided to us in the entirety of Scripture. All Scripture is theognostos. All Scripture is God-breathed. And it's only when we cut it up into little pieces that we don't understand.

So when someone comes to you, and you have responded to difficulty, trial, catastrophe, by acknowledging that your God is in sovereign control of all things, they say, how can you say that? How can you, on the one hand, confess His sovereignty, and on the other hand, act and live as if you are responsible for God for what you do?

And you say, because the Word of God teaches me to. And let me show you some places where it does. Let me show you how Joseph understood this in his own life. Let me show you how God illustrated this to the people of Israel and Assyria in Isaiah chapter 10.

And yeah, there's a couple other places we'll go to as well. Hopefully this is encouraging to you. To be willing to give an answer to those who ask you a reason for the hope that's within you, yet with gentleness and reverence, let's pray together.

Indeed, our sovereign God, we thank you for your Word and for its promises and for the example it lays forth for us. It's direct teaching that you are indeed the sovereign King who rules over all things.

And yet, you know the hearts, and you judge righteously on the basis of that. We know that what Joseph's brothers did was evil, and they were judged accordingly. We know that what the Assyrians did was evil, but they were judged accordingly.

And yet, in both, you have revealed your purposes, your kind, holy intention. Help us to be balanced. Help us to give an answer to those who would ask us, one that flows from your Word, that you might edify your people, you might build them up.

We thank you for this day. We ask that you would bless this following week of service. To your honor and glory, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.