Concerning Assyria 24 The LORD of hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.”
26 This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? – Comment: Does God swear? Not in the often heard highly expletive words which we hear too often. They are often blasphemous, purposeless and show the limited mentality of those who use them! But ‘swear’ as public officials do when being installed give an oath to obey someone or to do something mean something entirely different? Many who do so have no intention of keeping their oath or sometimes losing their commitment along the way! God when He gives His word carries it out. Mind You if we claim His words as a promise we must be careful if He has said an ‘if’. Often God gives us conditions that apply to our side of the issue! Note that this is not against the nation of Assyria but to those who are on ‘my’ land – here referring to the Jewish homeland!
Concerning Philistia 28 In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle: – The prophecy is not ephemeral but fixed in time!
29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent. – Just because you think you’ve won by breaking the back of you enemy, be careful the ‘mere snake’ will rise from the ‘dead’ as ‘a poisonous adder’!
30 And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay. – Even babies and the poor of my land will have plenty; you on the other hand will starve and die!
31 Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. – The coming smoke, almost certainly, refers to an invading army and there is no country in the Middle East now (nor has been for millennia) that is the land of the Phillistines, Philistia, a nation which is no more!
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.” – a cry of triumph!
Isaiah 55: 11 – “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”.
Prayer: Help me to realize that I am not smarter than You nor remotely as powerful as You. Comparing me, a mere ant, to an elephant, which You created, and also the stars, is even obviously absurd!
As I read it! 