Isaiah 22:5-14 - The Valley of Vision: A Pronouncement Against Jerusalem
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Isaiah 22:1-14]
1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? 2 You who were full of noise, You boisterous town, you exultant city; Your slain were not slain with the sword, Nor did they die in battle. 3 All your rulers have fled together, And have been captured without the bow; All of you who were found were taken captive together, Though they had fled far away. 4 Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me, Let me weep bitterly, Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion In the valley of vision, A breaking down of walls And a crying to the mountain. 6 Elam took up the quiver With the chariots, infantry and horsemen; And Kir uncovered the shield. 7 Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate. 8 And He removed the defense of Judah. In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest, 9 And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool. 10 Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall. 11 And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago. 12 Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. 13 Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” 14 But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] The ESV Study Bible sums up the verses we just heard like this: “The people of Jerusalem are marked by mindless escapism and frantic self-salvation.”
We see the mindless escapism in Isaiah 22:1-4.
There the people are distracting themselves with celebrations on the roof tops instead of repenting of sin down on their knees.
We see the frantic self-salvation in vv. 5-14.
The day of the Lord has come for Judah…
…is this the day that God used Assyria to discipline Judah?
… or is this a vision of the day to come—the day in which God will use Babylon to overthrow His people?
Either way, when the day of the Lord comes, rather than turn to God, Judah turns to itself, and that will be its ruin.
[TURN] Self-salvation is a big seller in our day. Self-salvation says you get to be the hero. It says that you get the glory. It says that if you’re in trouble you have to pull yourself out of it.
There is some benefit to self-improvement, but in spiritual matters self-salvation won’t work.
Self is the problem.
Listening to self is what got Judah into this mess, and only listening to God would get them out.
That’s our big take away tonight: Only listening to God and doing what He says will save us.
[TS] To help us organize our thoughts, I want us to think about three WORDS as we study this passage tonight…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
WORD #1: JUDGEMENT (Isaiah 22:5-8a)
WORD #1: JUDGEMENT (Isaiah 22:5-8a)
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion In the valley of vision, A breaking down of walls And a crying to the mountain. 6 Elam took up the quiver With the chariots, infantry and horsemen; And Kir uncovered the shield. 7 Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate. 8 And He removed the defense of Judah. In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,
[EXP] In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens began his novel with these words…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...”
Perhaps in vv. 1-4, the people of Judah would have been saying, “It’s the best of times,” while Isaiah said, “It’s the worst of times,” but in vv. 5-14 everyone is in agreement—the best times are past; it is the worst of times; and so far as Isaiah can see, everyone is going direct the other way.
Isaiah 22:5 opens with “For the Lord GOD of hosts”.
This is YHWH-Sabaoth; sometimes the title is rendered “the LORD Almighty”.
It’s a title that designates God as King and Ruler.
It’s an intensive title describing God as all powerful.
It’s used again in v. 12 and in v. 14, so that God’s people are reminded throughout who they are dealing with—they are dealing with the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies (NLT).
The Lord GOD of hosts has brought a day of panic, subjugation, and confusion to the valley of vision.
The valley of vision refers to Jerusalem. It’s a sarcastic name that highlights Jerusalem’s refusal to acknowledge its sin and it’s refusal to look to God for salvation.
God brings panic, subjugation, and confusion to the people in Jerusalem because of this refusal.
This is a day of hysteria, a day of crushing defeat, a day of terror.
Jerusalem’s walls are broken down. If we look in v. 9, we see that it’s walls were breached in many places.
And without the wall to protect them, the people cry to the mountain.
Jerusalem’s inhabitants lift up their eyes to the mountains; From where shall their help come?
It will not come from the Lord for they refuse to look to Him.
Of course, their crying to the mountain could have a different meaning. As the NLT puts the end of v. 5, “The walls of Jerusalem have been broken, and cries of death echo from the mountainsides.”
Elam and Kir in v. 6 may have been a part of Assyria’s army when it laid siege to Jerusalem…
…or they may have been apart of Babylon’s army when it laid siege to Jerusalem…
…or Elam and Kir may simply serve as symbols of foreign invaders whom God used in the past and would use again in the future to judge His people.
These foreign invaders draw the bow, ready the chariots, infantry, and horsemen, and brandish the shield to do violence to Jerusalem.
In v. 7, the valley of vision is now a valley full of enemy chariots with enemy horsemen station at the entrance.
The walls are down.
Chariots, soldiers, and horsemen surround Jerusalem.
They control the entrance and exit.
Judah is done.
Or, in the language of v. 8, “God removed the defense of Judah.”
The word that the NASB translates as “defense” at the beginning of v. 8 is literally “covering.”
The ESV says, “(God) has taken away the covering of Judah...”
The NKJV says, “(God) removed the protection of Judah...”
That’s all it takes for the judgment of God to come crashing down on the unrepentant—God simply has to removes His protection and His judgment drops like a hammer.
[APP] In his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards said…
“Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God’s enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell.”
Just as it was easy for God to remove the covering over Judah and allow judgment to fall down on it, so it would be easy for God to cut or singe that single thread that keeps us from plunging into hell.
That single thread is the thread of His patience, but He will not be patient forever.
One day the Great Day of the Lord will come and the hammer of judgment will fall on all those who have refused to repent of sin and look to God for salvation.
There will be no defense against the Lord GOD of hosts on that day.
There will be no stopping His judgment.
[TS]…
WORD #2: PRIDE (Isaiah 22:8-11)
WORD #2: PRIDE (Isaiah 22:8-11)
8 And He removed the defense of Judah. In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest, 9 And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool. 10 Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall. 11 And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.
[EXP] Jerusalem’s response to the invading army is understandable from a human perspective.
When the city was under siege, they went to the house of the forest, which was the armory, and readied themselves with weapons.
When they saw the breaches in the walls, they tore down houses to repair them.
And because they knew that a siege would lead to unimaginable thirst, they collected waters and made a reservoir.
In 2 Chronicles 32:30, it says that King Hezekiah of Judah diverted the waters from the Gihon Spring outside Jerusalem to collection sites within the city wall to prepare for the Assyrian siege.
On the surface, all of this made complete sense, and there was nothing morally wrong with any of it, except that (as the end of v. 11 says) there was no dependence on God and no consideration of Him.
The people were busy storing up water, but they weren’t looking to the One who made the water; they weren’t calling on the One who created it long ago (NKJV).
In all of their preparations, they had refused to consult God.
[APP] Hebrews 9:27 says that “it is appointed for me to die once and after this comes judgment…”
Many people do everything they can to avoid dying—restrictive diets, strict health routines; some have bought into cryogenics; others are attempting to download their consciousnesses so that they might later be uploaded to a robotic body.
I once heard Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, talking about living longer, and he said that advances in medicine and medical care may incrementally increase lifespans to the point were people live for hundreds of years.
We know that before Noah’s flood and after Noah’s flood people did live for hundreds of years, but even if that were to happen again death is still undefeated.
The longest life recorded in the Bible was Methuselah at 969 years, but guess what happened at the end of his life—he died! And then he faced the judgment.
So, even if Elon is right, and we all start to live longer, we will still die at some point and still face the judgment at some point, and that means we had better look to God.
We had better consider Him.
We had better call on Him for salvation while we yet live.
For it is appointed to die once and face the judgment, and we do not want to face that judgment without having considered the LORD.
[TS]…
WORD #3: DEATH (Isaiah 22:12-14)
WORD #3: DEATH (Isaiah 22:12-14)
12 Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. 13 Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” 14 But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
[EXP] “In that day” refers to a previous day in which God called His people to tearful repentance.
It likely refers to the days before the Assyrian army came to lay siege to Jerusalem or to the days immediately after.
If it’s the days after, then it was a call for Judah’s repentance before an even greater day of judgment came in the form of Babylon.
In either case, the Lord GOD of hosts called his people to grieve their sin with the appropriate signs of mourning.
But instead of grieving and mourning, the people celebrated with joy and gladness.
They killed the cattle, slaughtered the sheep, ate meat and drank wine.
In essence, they had a cookout.
In Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the rejoicing and feasting happened after the prodigal repented, but here God’s prodigal people celebrate without repentance.
Why did they celebrate? Because they were hopeless. Their motto is there at the end of v. 13, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
The folks in Jerusalem were in hopeless despair, but instead of turning to God, they returned to mindless escapism.
Because they refused to look to God and kept bouncing between mindless escapism and self-salvation, these people would never be forgiven.
The language of Isaiah 22:14 is confusing in the NASB because it makes it sound like the people in Jerusalem would be forgiven once they died or their sin would be atoned for by their own deaths.
I think the idea is captured by the CSB, which has v. 14 as…
14 The Lord of Armies has directly revealed to me: “This iniquity will not be wiped out for you people as long as you live.” The Lord God of Armies has spoken.
Or as the NLT translation has it…
14 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has revealed this to me: “Till the day you die, you will never be forgiven for this sin.” That is the judgment of the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Because they refused to listen the Lord… because they refuse to look to Him and repent… the folks in Jerusalem would pay for their sin with their lives.
It was the worst of times, and they were all going direct the other way.
[APP] The sin that Judah was guilty of, is a sin that every human being struggles with. It’s the sin of self-indulgence and self-rescue.
First, we indulge the self by mindless escapism, but when life gets too real and enemies are at the gate, we turn to self-rescue.
But at some point we sense the futility of self-rescue and that leaves hopeless, so we adopt the attitude of ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’
In that way, that hopelessness leads us right back to self-indulgence, and the cycle goes round and round until we die OR UNTIL WE REPENT.
How do we do that?
We turn away from self-indulgence and self-rescue by indulging in God and depending on Him for rescue.
His way of rescue is through His Son Jesus Christ.
If we have trusted in Jesus for salvation, His death has atoned for our sin.
His perfection has been imputed to us.
His resurrection has guaranteed us eternal life.
This means we can never be hopeless if we have trusted in Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 15:32, the Apostle Paul said…
32 If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Paul’s quoting from Isaiah 22:13, but his point is that there’s always certain hope because Christ has been raised from the dead.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Only listening to God and doing what He says will save us.
And He has said that we are to repent of our sin and trust in Jesus.
[PRAYER]
