John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 10:7

"Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few." — Isaiah 10:7 (ASV)

Yet he will not think so. When wicked men vomit out their rage, they disturb weak minds, as if it were not in God's power to restrain their pride and fury. The Prophet therefore steps forth in advance to meet them and exhorts believers, whatever the excess to which wicked men indulge their insolence, to still feel that they are justly chastised by a secret judgment of God. He shows, as we recently noticed, that nothing will be farther from the intention of the Assyrians than to give their services to God and to be the ministers of his wrath; but we must also consider what their own motive of action is.

Many would be ready to object, “Why do you, being God’s herald, threaten us with the Assyrian; as if that savage beast would submit to execute the commandments of God?” He therefore replies that God works with such amazing skill that he brings men to yield obedience to him, even without their knowledge or will. “Although,” he says, “their attempts and plans are totally different, this will not prevent God from performing and carrying out, through them, whatever he has decreed.”

Many might likewise object that it was a strange subversion of order for God to place the elect people in subjection to the heathen nations; and that it was not just, however much the Jews had sinned, for their condition to be worse than that of those robbers who, on account of their wickedness and crimes, deserved the severest punishment.

The Prophet therefore threatens that the Assyrians also will have their turn and in due time will receive just punishment; and yet that it is not unreasonable for them to distress, plunder, devour, and slay other nations, because their own reward is reserved for them.

Besides, the Prophet soothes the grief of the godly and alleviates their anxiety and unease by declaring that God restrains the presumption of wicked men from carrying out whatever they please.

He therefore shows that, however madly wicked men may rage, God mitigates his own judgments from heaven, so as to provide for the salvation of his Church. And thus, though the Assyrian, like a wild beast, may be eager to seize his prey, the Prophet instructs them to lift up their eyes to God, whose decree is far beyond the reach of that blind fury.