Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it? (Isaiah 10:15)

 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it? (Isaiah 10:15)

The Bible asks such simple questions that it makes one feel a little dumb to answer. “Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?” Of course not. That would be ridiculous. Except we do it all the time, acting as if we are in charge, when instead we are merely instruments in the Lord’s hand. 

The context in Isaiah 10 has to do with the ancient nation Assyria. A list of “woes” had been pronounced against ungodliness in chapters 9 and early 10, with the last “woe” against Assyria, who had been selected by God to act as the instrument of judgment against Israel (Samaria). The judgment would be severe, and yet the Assyrians were to act with restraint. Instead, their plan, not God’s, was to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel. And so the word picture: Assyria, the axe, was boasting over and against the God who was the master of the axe.

We’ve seen this kind of metaphor before. Jeremiah was sent to the potter’s house, who took a ruined clump of clay and was re-working it into something useful. “Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:5–6 ESV)

We are not mere, inanimate objects. We have thoughts and feelings. We assign value, whether accurately or not, and decide what is just (again, whether accurately or not). What we don’t do so well is remember that there is only one Creator, and we are His creatures. He has made us in His image, and yet we are still His subjects. We are made for His glory. We are to live according to His design. We are to obey His Word. We are to submit to His Lordship.

And so when we object against God that He is not doing things as we would like; when we get “mad” at God for messing up our plans; when we resent Him because He has not honored our priorities - we are totally out of line. We have missed the Big Principle, the Essential Rule of the universe: God is God, and I am not.

I can imagine a hammer, or a saw, or an axe, complaining that they are not being used properly, according to design. Of course, they can’t, because they are just tools. But we can complain. Except for one thing: our design is to be used by God as He sees fit, so there really is no room for complaining. He is God, and I am not.