REVELRY OR REPENTANCE?
Opening Prayer
As I come to you today, Father, with thanksgiving and praise, help me that my actions would reflect your faithful loving kindness and show others who you are.
Read ISAIAH 22
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A Prophecy About Jerusalem
22 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[a] 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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 22:23 Or throne
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.’1 Ask God to help you see new truths in his Word today.
Think Further
Our reading today is part of a series of prophecies against the nations in the eighth century BC – Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt. Now, however, Isaiah’s prophetic glare turns to Judah and, in particular, to Jerusalem, called the ‘Valley of Vision’ (vv. 1, 5) because the city was situated in a valley surrounded by mountains.2 What attracted God’s judgment?
The people were spiritually oblivious – reveling when they should have been repenting (vv. 12–14). Isaiah may have been thinking of when the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, suddenly retreated from Jerusalem,3 which should have been an opportunity for the people to turn to God. Today, we have the same opportunity to turn to God in a wider sense because, as Peter reminds us, ‘The Lord … is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’4
How have you responded to the times when God has delivered you? Isaiah challenges us to be even more spiritually perceptive. Instead of merely refraining from thoughtless behavior, turning to God should also cause us actively to pursue his priorities – concern for justice and care for the poor. Turning to God must affect our hearts and actions.
The leaders were spiritually ineffective – (vv. 15–25). Shebna is focused on his own status and legacy (v. 16) rather than his God-given responsibilities. Even Eliakim, who starts off well, falters and is removed (v. 25). Ironically, the key to being an effective leader is learning to be a follower of what God says, which requires trust in times of pressure and uncertainty. The implication is that God is sovereign over leaders in any age, a truth that should give us hope as we pray for God to intervene in the troubling situations of our day.
Apply
Has God ever dramatically intervened in your life? Take time to thank him for what happened and to ask him for help to apply what you learned.
Closing prayer
Almighty God, please raise up leaders for our churches and nation that seek your will, who follow you with integrity, justice, and mercy. Help ours to be a nation that brings you glory.
1 Ps 119:18 2 Ps 125:1,2 3 Isa 37:36,37 4 2 Pet 3:9
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