SEEKING STRENGTH
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Father, help me to hear from you and grow in my understanding of you as I read your Word today.
Read ISAIAH 22
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Isaiah
Isaiah 22
1 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs,
2 you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
3 All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.”
5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.
6 Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.
8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.
9 You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool.
10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.
11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.
12 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”
14 The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
15 This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator:
16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?
17 “Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man.
18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master’s house.
19 I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.
20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.
22 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.
23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor for the house of his father.
24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.
25 “In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.
Reflect
Think back with thanksgiving to a time when you sensed God directing you, and the positive outcome he brought about.The last verse of today’s reading speaks of a terrible sin the people of Judah have committed. What is this sin?
We begin to see hints of it from verse 8 onward. Jerusalem has been attacked—perhaps Isaiah is prophetically foreseeing the destruction of the city in King Zedekiah’s day (see 2 Kings 25)—and the people are taking steps to defend themselves and to store drinking water in case of a siege. What is wrong with this?
The clue comes in verse 11. They made all their plans to protect themselves, but they forgot to look to God. All through their history, he had been giving them victory in battle, even against overwhelming odds. Yet they didn’t seek him in this crisis, but relied on their own strength and ingenuity.
This breaks God’s heart. He longs for his people to look to him in times of need. He has not changed, and neither have we. We still try to live independently of him, only crying out when things are desperate. Let us hear his heart cry, echoing down the ages, and choose to rely on him, even when we think we don’t need to.
Apply
Might there be places where you feel so up to a task that you are neglecting to seek God for his direction and help?
Closing prayer
Lord God, help me to remember my dependence on you and my need to look to you for help. Thank you for your readiness to enable me and provide what you know I need.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2026 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.