Isaiah 17:12

"Ah, the uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. At eventide, behold, terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that despoil us, and the lot of them that rob us."

What a profound blessing appears here! All of the atrocities coming upon the nations to be assaulted and devastated by Assyria is due to have a sequel. God will speak to them also, and "rebuke them."

The figure of the great flood of waters that emerges here ties in perfectly with the prophecy already given in Isaiah 8:5-8; and no one should miss the point that it is Assyria, no one else, who is the object of this magnificent prophecy. What a shame that Payne did not even mention it; and what an incredible error that Peake dated it after the exile. No orthodox critic could possibly maintain his standing with peers if he admitted any such thing as predictive prophecy! Today, thank God, the great majority of commentators accept this remarkable prophecy as a genuine prediction of the destruction of Sennacherib's army before the walls of Jerusalem in that terminal invasion of his near the end of the eighth century B.C. (701 B.C.):

Isaiah 17:12-14 refer to the destruction of Sennacherib's army.[11]

These verses were especially fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib's army.[12]

God's promise that he would rebuke the Assyrians in a night of plague and destruction.[13]

This vividly and graphically describes the coming of the Assyrians. God is in control. He uses nations to accomplish his purpose, and then brings them to an end. It became clear when Sennacherib's army was destroyed before Jerusalem.[14]

This judgment of the Assyrians was to begin in the evening and end before morning.[15]

It is so applicable to the invasion by Sennacherib and to his overthrow by the angel of Jehovah that by common consent of interpreters it has been regarded as referring to it.[16]

As a matter of fact, most of the critics do not dare to refer this passage to anything else. How then do they reconcile the obvious truth with their inaccurate and unbelieving premise that "there is no such thing as predictive prophecy"? Kelley spelled it out like this: "Most scholars prefer to date the passage just after 701 B.C. and to identify the foe as the Assyrian Army!"[17] Any Proof? Certainly not! Furthermore, such adjusters of Bible dates to conform to their infidel rules are not scientific in their application of such rules. For example, Isaiah prophesied two graves for Jesus in Isaiah 53, but do they date that chapter in the first century? Of course not. Why? To do so would expose the inaccuracy of their rule! No reasonable person can suppose for an instant that if Isaiah's remarkable prophecy of Sennacherib's destruction had been nothing more than a reference to it "after the event happened," that his words would have been treasured for twenty-seven centuries afterwards!.

There is one other thing that should be said here. Homer Hailey, after speaking of the remarkable deliverances in past times which God provided for his people, asked this question:

Is there any reason today for God's people to worry that Humanism, Communism, Zionism, and all other Gogs and Magogs that try to destroy God's work may ultimately prove successful?[18]

To ask such a question thoughtfully is to know the answer. We would like to make a specific application of it. Is there any danger, really, that Satan with his flood of corrupt Bibles and Testaments, with his armies of infidel commentators, with his "river of lies" flowing out of the printing presses all over the world, will Satan ever be able to take the true word of God away from men?

Here is the answer:

"I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head; and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth: and he cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth!" (Revelation 10:1-3).

That little book in the hand of the Rainbow Angel is God's word; and all of the followers of Satan who ever lived, all of them put together can never erase a single line of it. As our Lord said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away!"