Like most of Isaiah, the excerpt used for today (Isaiah 10:5‑7, 13‑16) makes more sense (at least to me) when I read the whole chapter. It is the time of the Assyrian invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah. The “he” the Lord refers to is the Assyrian king. The Lord has sent/allowed the Assyrians to plunder, seize loot, and tread the people down, because the people have become impious. But the Assyrians had a more destructive objective – to make an end to the nation. And so, the Lord warns (in verse 12, which is not included in today’s reading) that the Assyrians soon will be punished.
The Assyrian king is guilty of boastfulness, of pride, of arrogance. God reveals that it is God’s power that allowed the plundering to occur, not the Assyrian’s own power. God promises to send the invader “leanness” and, in following verses, that Israel’s power will wax again and be a fire that consumes his (the Assyrian invader’s) “briers and his thorns” in a single day. As the psalmist reminds us (Psalm 94), “The Lord will not abandon his people” even though they be trampled down and murdered – the Lord will not abandon his inheritance.
Like everything in Scripture, I think today’s reading from Isaiah can be interpreted as relevant for events today. Perhaps God is warning us about the proper use of the gifts that we have received. God sent the Assyrians on a mission, even though the Assyrians may not have perceived that they were being sent. The Assyrians overstepped their bounds, misused their powers, and do not act in accordance with God’s will. We, too, have been sent on a mission in this life, even though we may not know what that mission is. We, too, have received powers that are to be used to fulfill that mission. And we, too, can misuse those powers and overstep our charge, our limits, our calling. We, too, can be boastful, and proud and arrogant, and think that we do the things we do of our own power and not that of God.
In the Gospel (Matthew 11:25-27) Jesus again holds up children to be our examples. We tend to be like the Assyrians and be boastful and proud of our own abilities and forget that all comes from God. That is why children are such a wonderful example of pure faith. They trust, they believe, they are guileless, they are honest and loyal, they accept their powerlessness, they live in the now – at least until we teach them not to trust, teach them to challenge, to scheme, to shade the truth, to divide their allegiances, to grasp and control, to fret about tomorrow. As we lose our own innocence, we layer calluses of indifference and complications over our childlike nature. We lose our understanding of the mysteries that Jesus says are revealed to the childlike as we believe in our own powers of self-determination and action. Perhaps it would be a gift to live life backwards, as did Merlyn in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, where, as we age, we become more childlike.
My prayer today is for the grace to keep listening for God to tell me what my true mission is so I can use my powers to fulfill it, and to seek a childlike attitude to trust in God’s plan.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!