Please read the passage before reading the commentary
If the Lord sends you on a mission to correct a wrong or to prevent something negative from happening, beware. our acting punishment for God can easily turn into our thirst for revenge. God punishes to correct; we tend to punish to destroy or to satisfy our desire for mastery.
Assyria was sent by God to punish, but Assyria overstepped the mission and was bent on annihilating the people of Israel. This was not God’s plan. It was pride, arrogance, and the thrill of victory that moved Assyria beyond the reaches of God’s plan.
Peter the Apostle was something like Assyria. He has protested strongly that he would neve deny Jesus, but Jesus knew Peter better, that Peter would thoroughly deny Jesus in the garden. Not once, but three times, Peter denied that he knew Jesus.
At times we have the urge to correct others. If our correction boosts our egos and gives us feelings of superiority, then we are acting like the Assyrians, not on God’s behalf. We are the axe the Lord uses; we are the staff God uses, the instrument God uses for God’s work, not our work. We are the pencils, the ballpoint pens God uses for God’s work, not for ours. If we are good instruments, God’s messages are very legible; if we are not, it makes it hard to proclaim the message correctly.
So, are we Assyrians or good prophets like Isaiah?