Isaiah 10:12-19 is our passage and arrogance is our theme. Though God plans to use the arrogant Assyrians to correct his people, he will not ignore their boasting. God humbles arrogant people.
God Addresses Arrogance
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. (Isaiah 10:12)
God wants Israel to know that when he gets done correcting them, it will be Assyria’s turn. He will humbled them. He often assures his people that their arrogant enemies will get what they deserve.
Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
For they will soon fade like the grass
and whither like the green herb…But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace. (Psalm 37:1-2, 11)
It’s tempting to envy and emulate arrogant people. They seem so confident and charismatic. Sometimes it seems like arrogance is required to get ahead in this world. But God means for his people to be meek and humble.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. (1 Peter 5:5-6)
The King of Assyria clothed himself in arrogance. He had an “arrogant heart” and a “boastful look in his eyes.”
Arrogance is Revealed in Speech and Perspective
For he says:
“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I remove the boundaries of peoples,
and plunder their treasures;
like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
My hand has found like a nest
the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing
or opened the mouth or chirped.” (Isaiah 10:13-14)
This is what arrogance sounds like. “Look what I did.” “It was like taking candy from a baby.” “I told that cashier ‘Not on my watch’ and made them get their manager.” “I saw through their nonsense and gave them a piece of my mind.” “All those idiots just don’t get it.”
Beware of people who boast about themselves. You know the type. (You might be the type.) When you get together, dialogue quickly shifts to monologue. They share the latest tales of their abilities and accomplishments, and the contrasting stupidity of everyone else.
What’s missing from this way of talking? What did the King of Assyria leave out? God. Even though God made the king successful, the king boasted as if he did it all on his own. God had warned Israel not to fall into this trap in Deuteronomy 8:11-20:
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Do not envy or emulate arrogant people who boast in their abilities and accomplishments as if God didn’t exist. If you have it, God gave it to you. When you did it, God enabled you. You know it because God showed you. There is no such thing as a self-made man because God is our Maker. No one pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps. You wouldn’t have bootstraps if God didn’t give them to you.
Don’t be arrogant. Be humble. Because God humbles arrogant people.
God Humbles Arrogant People
Therefore the Lord God of hosts
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land
the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down. (Isaiah 10:16-19)
You may be arrogant. You believe you are what you are because of your abilities and God had nothing to do with it. If this is true, confess your arrogance to God, receive forgiveness by trusting in Jesus as your Savior, turn from your pride, and embrace humility. If you don’t, your arrogance will lead you on a collision course with God’s humiliating judgment.
You may be saved, but still struggle with your old arrogance. If so, ask for God’s help to grow in humility. And if you’re feeling condemned, rest assured that your sins are removed from you as far as the east is from the west.
You may be unsure how to live humbly and meekly. Look to Jesus as your example. Remember that humility is not weakness; it’s worship. It isn’t low self-esteem; it’s high God-esteem. It isn’t a lack of confidence; it’s a confidence transfusion. Your self-confidence will decrease, but your God-confidence will increase. You’ll be more confident, but in God rather than yourself.
You may admire arrogant people. You may wonder if you should be more like them. Don’t be fooled. God does not think they are cool. Neither should you.
You may be frustrated by the apparent success of arrogant people. Remember, God will address and deal with arrogant people one day. Their day of reckoning will come.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:3-11)
