Look to the LORD
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
In Isaiah
Book of prophecy
The First 39 Chapters have lots of Judgement.
Recent chapters have said a lot about other nations, but now we have an Oracle About Jerusalem.
The other nations have been been proud, they have been haughty, they have not humbled themselves before God,
Surely is will be different in Judah, right?
These are the people of God, those in a covenant with God! They are the chosen nation. Surely they will be different from the nations around them?
about 700BC. This passage fits best as being during the reign of Hezekiah. It makes the most sense of the details.
The Day of the LORD Comes
The Day of the LORD Comes
22:1-8a
The Day of the LORD is a motif that appears regularly in prophetic literature.
The Day of the LORD is most often a specter of God's full justice, but it is also a day of deliverance.
Now even though the Day is Judgement Day, there are smaller “days” that prefigure the Last Day.
In this case, it is very much about judgment and the ruin of the people on some future, coming day.
Isaiah 22:1–2 (ESV)
The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town?
The oracle starts with a confusing name: Valley of Vision. Jerusalem is known a a mountain, how can it be a valley? Perhaps it is ironic and pejorative - they should be a majestic mountain, but they can’t see what’s coming.
The people have all gone up on their rooftop to party! They often had flat rooves. Remember that their houses were probably only a few rooms, and the average person didn’t have the wealth to have whole rooms for rest and gathering. Every part of their small house was functional. But the roof was like a patio where you would go up in the cool evening to relax, or in this case, have a party!
These guys were probably celebrating the fact that Sennacherib king of Assyria had not defeated Jerusalem. They were saved!
But the oracle says, you’ve got nothing to celebrate - your destruction is still coming. You might not been defeated this time but, you defeat is coming, see next verses:
Isaiah 22:2–3 (ESV)
Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.
Their leaders will leave the people high and dry. They will split when the going is good.
Firstly this took place metaphorically when the leaders of Jerusalem tried to do things their own way and secure peace with Assyria by paying them off. They would rather be vassals to a foreign power than to repent and turn to the lord - the people are abandonded to the enemy, they were captured, without needing to use weapons.
More literally this would be fulfilled a bit over a century later when Babylon would besiege Jerusalem. When the walls were breached all the men of war tried to sneak out at night. Babylonians pursued, and the King was captured near Jericho. Jerusalem was routed, Jerusalem fell to Babylon.
This is bad news! Judah is going to be captured. Unsurprisingly Isaiah interjects with a lament:
Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
Naturally he is saddened and distressed by the fall of his nation.
There’s no way to console a person for the fall of their people, the destruction of their hometown.
Imagine if you were in his shoes?
But he must be a faithful prophet and declare the devastating news:
For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.
Who’s day is it? The Lord has a day. The Lord is bringing the coming day of wrath on the people.
It is Adoni YHWH Sabbaoth - The Lord YHWH of Hosts. This name of God magnifies his power and authority.
He is bringing destruction against the proud people. The tumult of triumph will instead be a tumult of battle, the walls will come down, defenses will be destroyed.
Isaiah 22:6–9 (ESV)
And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates. He has taken away the covering of Judah.
Where once the place was full of exaltation, now it is full of battle.
Elam was from the other side of Babylon. It is quite likley that when Babylon came to Jerusalem they had hired mercenaries from Elam to fight.
People from a distant nation will come and assult Jerusalem, and it is as though God has stripped off their clothing and left them defenseless.
This is their just deserts - for their pride, for their abominations, for their disloyalty,
We deserve the same. We have been the same, as individuals and as a nation.
There is a Day Coming. The great and final day - the day of Judgment.
God will overthrow all earthly powers. He will judge the Living and the dead.
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
Preparations Without the LORD are Pointless
Preparations Without the LORD are Pointless
22:8b-14
When you make plans, it makes sense to consider the big things right? You don’t hide your best defense/offense?
When Jerusalem defended against Assyria, they did it despite the Lord:
Isaiah 22:8–11 (ESV)
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
Hall of the Forrest was basically an armoury built by Solomon
Hezekiah is well known for his building project, tunneling a redirect for the Gihon spring to the pool of Siloam.
He also demolished houses and use the materials to reinforce the walls - presumably because there was a coming invasion and they didn’t have time to go quarry for more.
But they busied theselves with all this activity and forgot the LORD!
They did not look to the Lord!
In our activities we must look to the lord
As a family/personal life
As a church
as a nation
We should be repentant people, humbly looking to God. That’s what God called Jerusalem to:
In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
God called for repentance with the threat of destruction, but instead instead they focus on worldly pleasures to the end!
They say - live it up while you can! Sound like anybody you know?
The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
There was no way to atone for this sin, not least because the temple would be destroyed.
We have a way of atoning for even our worst sins! Jesus!
Looking to our own weapons, our own defenses will be useless if the Lord does not come to our aid.
All the work in the world is a waste unless we look to the lord in repentance for our sins.
Get the Right Man for the Job
Get the Right Man for the Job
22:15-25
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?
We found a tomb just like this!
Shebna was self serving.
Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.
God will get rid of him and replace him.
In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”
Shebna was a dodgy guy, replaced by a better guy, but even he wasn’t good enough
Illustrate: US election. One better than the other, but who we really need is even grater than that!
So What?
So What?
Day of the LORD is coming
Preparations withot the Lord are pointless - repent and look
Get the right man for the Job
