Sunday, November 2, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Isaiah 10-18
Key Verse
Isaiah 13:22 — “And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.”
Devotional Thought
Assyria is coming. That is the dread that hangs over Isaiah 10 like a storm cloud over the horizon. The prophet has already pronounced woe upon the judges and legislators of Judah who “decree unrighteous decrees,” who turn aside the needy from judgment and make widows their prey. But now God reveals the instrument of His discipline: the Assyrian, “the rod of mine anger.” The empire that had already swallowed Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus is marching toward Jerusalem. The king of Assyria boasts, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent.” He thinks himself a conqueror; God calls him an axe that has forgotten the hand that swings it. “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?”
Yet even as the axe falls, a shoot springs up from a stump. Isaiah 11 turns our eyes from the felled forest of Assyria to the “rod out of the stem of Jesse”—a Branch on whom the Spirit of the LORD rests, who judges the poor with righteousness, before whom the wolf dwells with the lamb and a little child leads them. This is the promised King, the ensign for the Gentiles, the One who makes a highway for the remnant from Assyria as once from Egypt. And then, like a doxology bursting from a heart that has seen too much judgment to remain silent, Isaiah 12 sings: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song.”
But chapters 13 and 14 turn the cup of wrath toward Babylon. The day of the LORD comes “cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,” stars refusing their light, the earth shaken from her place. And at the center of that ruin stands a figure whose pride is older than Babylon: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” The one who said in his heart, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High,” is brought down to the sides of the pit. Every empire that deifies itself—Assyria, Babylon, and every power since—hears the same verdict.
We read this in November, as the year’s light shortens and the leaves fall. It is a fitting season to remember that pride is a forest the LORD will cut down with iron, and that judgment begins at the house of God. But it is also a season to remember the Branch. The stump of Jesse looked dead—a nation under Assyrian threat, a throne under Babylon’s shadow, a people who would one day hang their harps by the rivers of a foreign land. Yet God’s promise does not depend on the strength of the axe or the boasts of the king. It depends on the anointing. “The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” And so the remnant returns, not because it deserves to, but because the Holy One of Israel is faithful.
Reflection
- Where in your own life—your finances, your reputation, your plans—are you quietly boasting like the axe, crediting your own hand and wisdom for what God has done?
- The remnant in Isaiah 10:20 “shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD.” What false refuge have you been leaning on that God is asking you to release?
Prayer
O Lord of hosts, we confess that we are quick to boast like the axe and slow to remember the hand that swings it. Cut down the pride in us that would ascend above the clouds and make ourselves like the Most High. But do not leave us as stumps—let the Branch of Jesse grow in us, Your Spirit resting upon us with wisdom and understanding, counsel and might. We praise You, for though You were angry, Your anger is turned away, and You have comforted us. Behold, God is our salvation; we will trust and not be afraid. Make us of that remnant who stay upon the LORD in truth. Amen.