Studying Scripture is not always easy and straightforward. There is always one meaning (with many applications), but occasionally it requires substantial work to understand that meaning. Sometimes, you cannot fully discern certain phrases or words. That should not shake our confidence in God’s Word though.
I ran across just such an incident last week. Keep reading for a little “insider baseball.”
In Isaiah 14:29, the text reads, “…the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.”
Even the experts are divided on exactly who Isaiah is referring to.
One option is Assyria. Assyria does appear in this passage (v. 31). This wicked nation “comes out of the north.” That reference lends credibility to it bring Assyria in v. 29 as well. Another point in favor of Assyria is that fact that elsewhere in Isaiah, he speaks about how the Assyrians “strike with a rod” (10:24). Further evidence comes in Isaiah 20:1, where Isaiah records Assyria attacking the Philistine city of Ashdod. The question is who exactly is “the rod” that was broken? Since this oracle can be precisely dated to Ahaz’s death (715BC), a look at the history of Assyrian kings of that period yields some interesting results. In the time immediately preceding Ahaz’s death, we find two Assyrian kings—Tiglath-Pileser III (727BC) and Shalmeneser V (722BC)—that died as well.
Either could be “the rod.” In addition to the rod, we also encounter a snake in this passage. When the Bible speaks of a snake, our minds immediately return to Gen. 3:15. There, we find the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman locked in an epic struggle that will climax at the cross. The Genesis 3 serpent serves as a type for every evil, worldly ruler throughout all human history, so it fits that an Assyrian ruler would be pictured as a snake and would give rise to further snakes (adder, flying, fiery serpent).
A second option is that “the rod” is the house of David. Throughout history, the house of David consistently bested the Philistines in battle. Of course, the most famous of those victories occurred when David’s defeated the Philistine giant, Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Ahaz was a king in the line of David, so this idea fits, and given the prescription about Ahaz’s death in v. 28, it suggests a compelling case. On the other hand, the serpent language does not seem to fit as well. Since the snake metaphor in the Bible is most notably a reference to Satan (cf. Gen. 3:15), it seems odd to ascribe that language to the House of David. Experts who prefer this view argue that the snake imagery points back to Numbers 21 and the bronze serpent as it did in the preceding oracle.
Two reasonable cases. Nothing definitive. In my study, I had to make a choice. The first option was more compelling, and that is what I presented on Sunday, although if you were listening closely, I did not camp on that point or make too much of it. It is entirely possible that if you were following along in the study notes of your Bible, you noticed that different commentators made a different choice. The truth is no one knows for absolute certainty.
This uncertainty should not shake our confidence in Scripture. Whoever the rod and the snake are, the meaning of the passage remains unchanged. God’s people are being warned about the danger of foreign alliances. The Lord is the only safe harbor in the storms of life.