UNROLL
Evening below the City of David: a fresh breach in the stone wall, its stones fallen down the slope, a pool below holding still water, a calm sky over the ridge.

The nations judged

Isaiah 22

Jerusalem prepared for everything except God. What are you preparing for without Him?

25 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 22
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

The Valley of Vision

Isaiah
Evening over the crowded flat rooftops of Jerusalem: people standing on every roof looking out toward the hills, lamps lit, lanes busy below.

This is the burden against the Valley of Vision:

What ails you now,

that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

O city of commotion,

O town of revelry?

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Isaiah

Your slain did not die by the sword,

nor were they killed in battle.

Isaiah

All your rulers have fled together,

captured without a bow.

All your fugitives were captured together,

having fled to a distant place.

Isaiah

Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

Question

Quick question

The burdens have fallen on Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt and the desert peoples. Now comes a surprise.

Which city does Isaiah call ‘the Valley of Vision’ in chapter 22?

Isaiah

For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day

of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—

of breaking down the walls

and crying to the mountains.

Isaiah

Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen,

and Kir uncovers the shield.

Isaiah

Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the gates.

Isaiah

He has uncovered

the defenses of Judah.

Isaiah
Isaiah

On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.

Isaiah
Isaiah

On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts

called for weeping and wailing,

for shaven heads

and the wearing of sackcloth.

Isaiah

But look, there is joy and gladness,

butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine:

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

God

The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing:

“Until your dying day,

this sin of yours will never be atoned for,”

says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

Ten burdens

Babylon13:1–14:23Philistia,Moab14:28–16:14Damascus,Cush17–18Jerusalem22: the Valley ofVisionEgypt19–20Desert,Dumah,Arabia21Tyre23

Whiteboard

Burden after burden falls on the nations, and in the middle of the list, on Jerusalem. The same God judges His own people.

A Message for Shebna

God

This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace:

God
God

What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

God

Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land.

God

There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.

God

I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

God

On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

God
God

I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

God

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

Isaiah 22:22

God
God

I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

God

So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

God
The same wall at gray morning: the peg sheared off, its stub in the plaster, the jars and bowls fallen and broken in shards on the floor below.

In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

Lord Jesus, You hold the key of David. What You open no one can shut. I hang my whole weight on You, the One who will never give way. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 22

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A verse to carry with you

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

Isaiah 22:22

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