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"AHA, THE ASSYRIAN, THE ROD FOR MY
ANGER, AND THE STICK THAT IS IN THEIR
HAND FOR MY DENUNCIATION!" (Isaiah 10:5).
THE MEANING OF THE "ASSYRIAN"
AND OF GOD'S "WHIP" AGAINST "HIM".
By means of a
"wasting disease" members of the composite "Assyrian"
will be brought to an end by Almighty God. (Isaiah 10:16,22
NEB
&
footnote). |
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Among members of this composite
"Assyrian" are those who use political expediency to remove spiritual
boundaries in order to plunder the people. "Assyrian" types exist
within every nation. (10:12-14 NEB & NWT).
This composite "Assyrian" is sent
by Almighty God
against Godless and apostate people, "a people who rouse My wrath",
and are commanded by Him to "spoil and plunder at will" and to
"trample them down like mud in the streets".
(10:6 NEB & NWT). |
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But because "lawless are the
plans" of the "Assyrian", his thought is to go further,
removing national frontiers and wiping out nation after nation! That is why it
is written: "When the Lord has finished all that He means to do on Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem, He will punish the king of Assyria for this fruit of his
pride and for his arrogance and vainglory, because he said: By my own
might I have acted and in my own wisdom I have laid my schemes".
(10:12,13 NEB).
So the Lord of Hosts declares: "Is the axe to boast over the Woodman? Is the saw to decry the Sawyer? 'Twould be like a club swinging Him who lifted it,
a staff brandishing a man!" (10:15 Moffatt).
Almighty God used the Nazi
"Assyrian" against apostate Jews during the 1939-45 World War in which
6,000,000 were exterminated. But the arrogance and vainglory of the
"Assyrian" worldwide has led to the extension of national boundaries by
force, colonization of indigenous peoples, and the exploitation of their
national resources. So Almighty God is about to send upon "fat ones"
of the "Assyrian" a "wasting disease" and
"under his glory" the burning of a Spirit "fire" within
them "even from the soul clear to the flesh". (10:16 18). All those with the "mark" of the political "wild beast"
will be judged by the "instrument of final destruction, justice in full
flood; wasting with sickness, yet overflowing with righteousness".
(10:22 NEB & footnote)
(Rev 13:16,17). This means that an all-pervading Spirit will be sent from God
upon them. A "fever like fire shall burn" within them that will
lead to their eventual deaths, reducing them to so few "that a child may
count them one by one." (10:16,19
NEB).
This will be God's "whip" brandished over them! (10:26
NEB).
Beloved people of God shall no
longer suffer under the "yoke" of the "Assyrian".
(10:27 NEB).
In fact, "they must become the captors of those holding them captive, and
they must have in subjection those who were driving them to work." (14:2
&
25).
THIS HAS NEVER BEFORE TAKEN PLACE !
The inhabitants of Iran and Iraq,
descendants of the Persian and Assyrian empires, are currently plundering and
desolating each other by war "because of the oil". (10:27). This
war is for dominance of the Persian Gulf. Rivalry between the kingdoms of
Assyria and Persia has existed since the beginning of recorded history. (A successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's oil reserves and make Iraq the
dominant power in the Persian Gulf).
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