Rod and serpent

At the end of his prophecy against Babylon and Assyria (chs. 13-14), Isaiah gives a warning to Philistia “in the year that King Ahaz died” (14:28). Philistia should not rejoice at the death of Ahaz, because the “rod” that has struck Philistia is broken. Ahaz is the rod who has been beating the Philistines, but now that rod is gone. That does not mean relief for Philistia, however.

As verse 29 goes on, the image turns from rods to serpents. That’s sensible, since the original rod that Yahweh used (the rod of Moses, used against the Egyptian cousins of the Philistines) was a rod that turned into a serpent. But this broken rod-serpent is not finished. From the roots of the broken serpent-rod comes a viper, just as a branch will spring up from the cut stump and root of Jesse. That viper that comes from the serpent-rod will be a flying seraph, and that flying rod-serpent-seraph will destroy the “root” of Philistine with famine. Ahaz’s roots are still fruitful, but Philistia’s roots are going to be completely destroyed.

What this means is that the flying seraph/burning one in chapter 14 is an image of the Davidic monarch, growing up like a fiery branch, a flash of lightning rising up from a dead stump.