Isaiah 10:33 …and the haughty shall be humbled.
I love to ski and have skied since I was eight years old. Oftentimes, when you go skiing, you may be amazed at how well and fast little kids are skiing on the mountains. This little kid just streaks by you on the mountain, the snow is on fire, and you think, “How in the world could such a small kid ski so well and fast?” The answer is because he or she is a kid. They started skiing early. If you are six feet tall and you are skiing, gravity has six feet upon which to exert its power, and when you fall, you will get hurt. A kid who has a low center of gravity has nowhere to go; he is already down low. The old saying, “The bigger you are the harder you fall,” is true. It is true in life as well. Your attitude determines your altitude.
In Isaiah 10, God is humbling two groups of people. There were those who domestically had oppressed their own in Israel and those who were foreigners, namely Assyria, who tried to and did conquer Israel. You learn from both these groups that your attitude determines your altitude. First, the haughty will be humbled. In Isaiah 10:33 God says as much, “The haughty shall be humbled.” The Bible tells us in the New Testament that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The way God responds to us is the way we see Him and, therefore, ourselves and others. The haughty will be humbled.
The chapter begins by addressing those domestically, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed.” Any time the Lord of hosts says, “Woe,” to you, then you are in big trouble. There is a world of hurt coming. These were people inside the country who were taking advantage of and stepping on others, and God says, “What will you do in the day of judgment? What will you do in the day of visitation?” “Without me,” He goes on to say. It is so easy for us to get full of ourselves and not to realize the blessings and grace that God has put upon us.
When it came to those who were foreigners, verse 15 says “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?” The Assyrians were mighty, but they were merely a tool. Their boast would be as silly as an axe, a hammer, or a saw that is made of wood boasting against the one who is animating it. It is sheer folly. The Assyrians were saying, “Hey, this is like taking candy from a baby. It is not a problem.” The fact is, they were nothing more than a tool in God’s hands. They forgot who they were and Who God is.
So, the haughty will be humbled. Do you know anyone who likes to chop others down to size so they can gain stature themselves? Are you that person? All of us know people who do that, but we rarely recognize that in ourselves because the hardest person to see is self. But, God sees and knows me, and the haughty will be humbled.
Second, the humble will be helped. Verse 20 says, “And it shall come to pass in that day.” The wicked may be riding high for a long time and I may wonder why the wicked are prospering, but there is coming a day that the remnant of Israel “shall no more again stay upon him [Assyria] that smote them.” Assyria was an ally, not a friend. Israel was depending upon Assyria, which was merely a tool in God’s hands. It continues, “But shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.”
So, Israel needed to stay or depend upon God, not on the land. These people needed to return to God, not to their land. Assyria eventually was stopped cold and their leader, Sennacherib, died in a miraculous intervention of God. Verse 33 says, “Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.” Sometimes the bigger you are the harder you fall. When you are already low, you can’t be chopped down; you are already there. The bottom line is that when I see God accurately, I see myself as I really am and I treat others as I should treat them because my attitude determines my altitude. The haughty will be humbled, the humble will be helped, and God will be God.