Isaiah 20, 21, 22

So tonight we pick up in Isaiah again in Chapter 20. Here again the message is to the Jews and is regarding the Assyrians who were the world power at that time.

Isaiah 20:1–6 NKJV

1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”

- 6

So here we have a very brief chapter that begins with “Tartan” meaning the Commander in Chief of the Assyrian army taking the Philistine city of Ashdod.

Now the Philistines were in the promised land and were continually at war with the Jews. They were right there, bad neighbors so to speak. It would be like as if Mexico or Canada were taken out by China.

What would be the US response? Certainly we would be thinking we are next!

Verse 2 is remarkable as to what the Lord told Isaiah to do.

at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

How would you like that ministry? To walk around naked and shoe less as a sign. There is some discussion as to whether he was completely naked and as to whether it was for a period of time each day. Either way it was for 3 years!

It sees from the context that it was exactly as it reads. The word for naked is `arowm in Hebrew and means nude, either partially or totally:—naked.

Verses 3 & 4 speak to Gods purpose

Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, “so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

The point here is that Judah was considering asking the Egyptians and Ethiopians for help. God is saying, I am your help, your only help.

5 & 6 “Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. “And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”

There are battles that are to big for you. I am having one right now and God has let me know that He wants to fight my battles.

Collection story

Chapter 21:1 -10 are parenthetical and refer again to Babylon.

1 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.

​​As whirlwinds in the South pass through,

​​So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

2 ​​A distressing vision is declared to me;

​​The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,

​​And the plunderer plunders.

​​Go up, O Elam!

​​Besiege, O Media!

( is the key to ancient names)

​​All its sighing I have made to cease.​

3 ​​Therefore my loins are filled with pain;

​​Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.

(end times clue?)

​​I was distressed when I heard it;

​​I was dismayed when I saw it.

4 ​​My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;

​​The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 ​​Prepare the table,

​​Set a watchman in the tower,

​​Eat and drink.

​​Arise, you princes,

​​Anoint the shield!

(Possible sarcasm regarding the future fall of Babylon)

6 ​​For thus has the Lord said to me:

​​“Go, set a watchman,

​​Let him declare what he sees.”

7 ​​And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,

​​A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,

​​And he listened earnestly with great care.

8 ​​Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!

​​I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime;

​​I have sat at my post every night.

9 ​​And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”

​​Then he answered and said,

​​“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!

​​And all the carved images of her gods

​​He has broken to the ground.”

10 ​​Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!

​​That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts,

​​The God of Israel,

​​I have declared to you.

What is remarkable here is that the vision is of Babylon falling. Remember Babylon wasn’t a world power for more than 100 hundred in the future.

A burden against the Wilderness of the Sea: Babylon is called the Wilderness of the Sea because the great plain of Babylon was divided with lakes and marshes, so it was referred to as a "sea."

In Verse 2 he mentions Elam and Media which were ancient names for the Persians, modern Iran. This a vision of the Medo Persian empire who would take down Babylon.

Isaiah envisions the preparation, the fear, and the battle: ​​Therefore my loins are filled with pain;

​​Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.

​​I was distressed when I heard it;

​​I was dismayed when I saw it.

4 ​​My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;

​​The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 ​​Prepare the table,

​​Set a watchman in the tower,

​​Eat and drink.

​​Arise, you princes,

​​Anoint the shield!

The report comes to the watchman: Babylon is fallen, is fallen! This dramatic scene was fulfilled when the Medo-Persian Empire conquered Babylon, but it also has a prophetic application. describes the cry of an angel when God judges the world system, both commercial Babylon and spiritual Babylon: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!" The repetition of the phrase is fallen, is fallen connects the two passages.

The same panic and terror the people of Babylon felt when that great city was conquered by the Medes and Persians will be seen again. When the LORD strikes the world system, both spiritual Babylon and commercial Babylon, the world will be terrified and mourn the same way (). But God's people rejoice over the fall of Babylon ().

Isaiah continues with the Burden against Edom:

11 The burden against Dumah.

​​He calls to me out of Seir,

​​“Watchman, what of the night?

​​Watchman, what of the night?”

12 ​​The watchman said,

​​“The morning comes, and also the night.

​​If you will inquire, inquire;

​​Return! Come back!”

Dumah was another ancient name for the kingdom of Edom, in the mountainous region of Seir. The Edomites descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob (Israel). They settled in the land to the south-east of Israel, and were the sometimes enemies of Israel.

The vision is mostly mysterious and we are not sure of what it means.

Isaiah continues with the burden against Arabia:

13 The burden against Arabia.

​​In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,

​​O you traveling companies of Dedanites.

14 ​​O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

​​Bring water to him who is thirsty;

​​With their bread they met him who fled.

15 ​​For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,

​​From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.​

16 For thus the LORD has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, (contractual year, no more no less)all the glory of Kedar will fail; (second son of Ismael, Saddam Hussein and Mohammed said he was of Kedar, modern day Kuwait) 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.”

Isaiah pictures the refugees from an attack on Arabia. They are traveling companies of Dedanites; they are thirsty, and they need bread, because they fled from the swords and from the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

We continue in Chapter 22, the burden against Jerusalem

1 The burden against the Valley of Vision.

Valley of Vision is an Idiom for Jerusalem

​​What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,

2 ​​You who are full of noise,

​​A tumultuous city, a joyous city?

(Sort of a confusion, a fatalistic ignorance of reality)

​​Your slain men are not slain with the sword,

​​Nor dead in battle.

(They did not die in Battle, a glorious death, they were starved to death in a seige)

3 ​​All your rulers have fled together;

​​They are captured by the archers.

​​All who are found in you are bound together;

​​They have fled from afar.

4 ​​Therefore I said, “Look away from me,

​​I will weep bitterly;

​​Do not labor to comfort me

​​Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

5 ​​For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity

​​By the Lord GOD of hosts

​​In the Valley of Vision—

​​Breaking down the walls

​​And of crying to the mountain.

6 ​​Elam bore the quiver

​​With chariots of men and horsemen,

​​And Kir uncovered the shield.

7 ​​It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys

​​Shall be full of chariots,

​​And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

8 ​​He removed the protection of Judah.

​​You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest;

9 ​​You also saw the damage to the city of David,

​​That it was great;

​​And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10 ​​You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,

​​And the houses you broke down

​​To fortify the wall.

11 ​​You also made a reservoir between the two walls

​​For the water of the old pool.

​​But you did not look to its Maker,

​​Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

Judah made preparations for a siege and war but never “looked to it’s Maker”. Ultimately, God had removed His protection. With God we are unbeatable without Him we are dead already.

12 ​​And in that day the Lord GOD of hosts

​​Called for weeping and for mourning,

​​For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

13 ​​But instead, joy and gladness,

​​Slaying oxen and killing sheep,

​​Eating meat and drinking wine:

​​“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning: Instead of preparing Jerusalem for an attack, they should have turned their hearts in humble repentance to the LORD. Instead of humbly seeking the LORD, the people of Jerusalem had both a confidence in their own preparation (joy and gladness), and a fatalistic outlook toward the future ("Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"). This seems to be the attitude of millennials today. There is no hope because they don’t know Jesus.

14 ​​Then it was revealed in my hearing by the LORD of hosts,

​​“Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you,

​​Even to your death,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

God is saying there is no atonement and thus no hope.

Now Isaiah moves to judgement against an individual, Shebna.

15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts:

​​“Go, proceed to this steward,

​​To Shebna, who is over the house, and say:

Shebna, who is over the house: Shebna was a servant of King Hezekiah, both a steward … over the house and a scribe (, ). These were both positions of honor and responsibility. Shebna was one of King Hezekiah's chief assistants.

Hezekiah was a good king but not all of his servants were.

16 ​‘​What have you here, and whom have you here,

​​That you have hewn a sepulcher here,

​​As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high,

​​Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?

Shebna was a man with a big ego. He was all about himself and promoting himself.

17 ​​Indeed, the LORD will throw you away violently,

​​O mighty man,

​​And will surely seize you.

18 ​​He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball

​​Into a large country;

​​There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots

​​Shall be the shame of your master’s house.

19 ​​So I will drive you out of your office,

​​And from your position he will pull you down.

Shebna will be replaced by Eliakim. The place of Eliakim the son of Hilkiah before Hezekiah is somewhat obscure in the Scriptures; he is only mentioned in six passages, and the only description of him is that he was over the household (, and , ). But Eliakim was famous in heaven!

20 ​‘​Then it shall be in that day,

​​That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;

21 ​​I will clothe him with your robe

​​And strengthen him with your belt;

​​I will commit your responsibility into his hand.

​​He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem

​​And to the house of Judah.

These next verses should sound familiar.

22 ​​The key of the house of David

​​I will lay on his shoulder;

​​So he shall open, and no one shall shut;

​​And he shall shut, and no one shall open.

23 ​​I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place,

​​And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Because Eliakim is the LORD's servant, the LORD will give him great authority: The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. In that day, the chief royal steward would have the large master key of the palace fastened to the shoulder of his tunic. The key was a picture and demonstration of the authority of the chief steward. Here, the LORD gives Eliakim the authority to open and shut as the LORD's representative, which no man can oppose.

In this, Eliakim becomes a prophecy of the Messiah, because Jesus told us this passage spoke of Himself: These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens." () Jesus is the one with the keys of Hades and of Death (), who has all authority both in heaven and on earth. Jesus delegates this authority as it pleases Him ().​

24 ‘They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers.

Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the “peg”. He is the One on whom we all are supported. Both great and small.

Now, Isaiah moves back to Shebna and prophesies his removal.

25 In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the LORD has spoken.’ ”