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6 I will
send [shalach] him against an hypocritical [chaneph] nation, [gowy] and against
the people [`am] of my wrath [`ebrah] will I give him a charge, [tsavah] to take [shalal] the spoil,
[shalal] and to take [bazaz] the prey, [baz] and to
tread them down [suwm][mirmac] like the mire [chomer] of
the streets. [chuwts] KJV-Interlinear
6 I send it
against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To
capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the
streets. NASB
Send, 'shalach,' means to send, to appoint, to bring, to conduct.
And it is God who is causing Assyria to invade and attack Samaria. But how is that?
Give him charge, 'tsavah,' means to appoint, constitute, to give permission, to send with authority.
To spoil and to tread down, is the action of an invading army against an inferior enemy.
In time of war, diplomats are not sent in ahead of the invading army to negotiate a settlement. That time has already passed and it is now the army's turn to resolve whatever the problem is or has been.
Prior to the declaration of war, it is the diplomats who conduct and pursue solutions. When that fails, then the diplomats or ambassadors are called home and the next step is to send in the army. The invasion is preceded with a bombardment and then followed by the invasion. This has been the pattern of national war confrontation for the history of humanity.
Sometimes solutions are achieved, and sometimes solutions were never intended to be achieved, depending on the integrity, or lack of it, of the parties. With evil nations, payment of tribute is sometimes acceptable, but that cost often times gets bigger and bigger and then is refused and the evil party demanding the payment sends in his army.
This is the pattern of Christianity and how God deals with Satan as well. Satan is given chance after chance to accept truth, but of course he never will. Satan uses all of his resources to turn the world into total evil and finally there will come a last straw and God will call home all of his diplomats. That is the Rapture.
What happens next is the prophecy of the Tribulation, wherein total chaos and violence occurs throughout that seven year period, and as many as possible are saved, and then finally the ultimate invasion of Christs' second-advent occurs resulting in the total and complete annihilation of Satan and all evil. And then the establishment of Gods kingdom, on this earth will occur. Satan is de-throned and imprisoned for a period of 1000 years.
But I am a bit off subject here.
That is the pattern of nations and war.
When war occurs, then the time of diplomacy is over and most likely not desired by the invading army as far as evil is concerned, and things get real ugly for the nation being invaded. Death and destruction and looting and the taking of all spoils and such becomes their immediate agenda.
And God, through His perfect foreknowledge, due to the divine decrees, knows the nature of Samaria and of all nations, and God knows what is coming in terms of failed national relations. Therefore, God permits the invasion, as it relates to the divine decrees, which is nothing more than the result of the thoughts and actions of peoples in those nations.
This is necessary in order the prune out the evil within a nation in order to preserve that nation. You have to cut out the dead wood on a plant, so to speak, in order to restore that plant to health.
Now know this. God did not send Assyria an email instructing them to invade Samaria. No such conversation occurred. They may well have read the prophecies of Isaiah and presumed that it applied to them, but even that is irrelevant, as God did not speak directly to them. Nor does it legitimize their invasion and leave them as unaccountable for their sins and activity in that invasion.
All evil gets its due judgment, and even though Assyria may seem to be getting off easy, they will receive their just punishment in due course. There has never been justification for evil and never will be. But learn to distinguish the difference between Gods permissive will and Gods application of justice, and Gods many devices for the control of history.
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