Exposition by Max A Forsythe
In the last few weeks we have considered the coming end and judgment of several powerful and pagan nations: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Egypt, Edom and Arabia. Having revealed the terrible consequences in store for her neighbors, Isaiah now turns his attention to showing God's chosen people their end as well. We may appreciate that in this showing, God's people will learn that in reality they are no better than any of the wicked, and that the course of history may just as certainly affect and afflict them in the same manner as all of the others.
Our passage in chapter twenty-two begins with a title: "An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision". In this title, we are to understand the blessed nature of God's Covenant with Israel. The Valley of Vision is indicative of that special relationship between the God of heaven and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These people, of all the peoples of the world have had a special revelation of God's self to their patriarchs, prophets and kings. Of all people they should know to separate themselves from paganism.
As Isaiah has rehearsed the doom of the pagan cultures surrounding the civilized city of Jerusalem, he has pointed out the justification for their timely destruction. In the opening verse, there is an element of irony addressed to all of those who would claim the Name of God. "What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, ...?"
After all, aren't you different, he is hinting. If you belong to God and honor Him in your life, what have you to worry? "What troubles you now?", he asks. How timely is this question of the prophet. Have you been troubled lately for some unknown purpose? If you have, please be assured that you are not alone. Over a third of us in this congregation that I know of, have been bothered by physical, material, emotional or spiritual concerns recently! "What troubles you now?", Isaiah may well ask you and me? Some may well answer: "I don't know!", others may be more specific and earnestly desire a change in their condition! One thing that I have prayerfully considered is the relationship between our studies together and your personal reactions to the Word that is regularly preached. I have always noticed that the use of the prophets in a regular systematized study slowly begins to create personal concerns that have not been always common for you.
Whenever such concerns begin to surface in our conscience, which may in time require some personal change, our very being comfortable in a life of sin may be challenged. "What troubles you now?", is a profound question that we must all wrestle with since the Lord God Almighty has opened our eyes so that we may see and comprehend His only Son. Isaiah goes on from this essential question to give, as Edward J Young would have it, a generic prophecy concerning the future of God's people during the years of Isaiah's ministry. In other words, the following description of Judah's future may be just as apt during the Assyrian troubles as later when the Babylonians would come.
The real cause of Isaiah's concern is the mind set of God's people who react to God's dealing with the nations in the wrong attitude. In verse two we see that Jerusalem is a town full of commotion, there is tumult and revelry. Right in the midst of the city set upon a hill as a light to the nations, there are notorious problems. Is there something of an Olympic fascination with Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerringan here? If you saw any broadcasts from the rural villages of Norway, would not tumult and revelry well describe the last month or more? Well may we hope for an end to the shark feeding frenzy of the News Media in this particular subject. However, at a much smaller level, there are many people who would play out their own minor versions of the soap opera lifestyle in complete ignorance of the God of heaven. Just wait as the Lord deals with those who will not be bothered to hear His Word and obey His commands.
Those who will die will not die by the sword and many will be taken away in captivity when the enemy comes. Your leaders will be captured even as they flee from battle. Specifically all of these prophecies were fulfilled in various ways in the conquering of Judah. When Jerusalem was besieged, there was starvation, over two hundred thousand of the rural people were killed or taken captive. Later King Zedekiah was captured near Jericho with his escort trying to flee Jerusalem and the promised land.
In verse four we see that these future events are too much for the prophet to contemplate. This vision of the destruction of God's own people along with an earlier compassion for the Babylonians causes grief that cannot be consoled. How much may we grieve over the plight of God's own Church in our day? Many former strong and evangelical denominations and congregations have been ruined. The God of heaven has been ignored! Well may a night of weeping be spent considering the tragic spiritual state of affairs in our day and age.
Like Isaiah we must raise ourselves from our personal troubles and know full well that the tumult of the worldly in Jerusalem will be met with the tumult, trampling and terror of God's personal judgment. Assyria will come to the promised land, just as judgment will come to our nation, our land and people in our own century. Derek Thomas observes on this portion of Isaiah that just as Judah refused to learn the essential lessons of God's judgment of the nations, so have modern people refused to learn from the world wide devastation of the wars in our own century.
There has been no general turning to God as several continents have been turned upside down and millions were swept away. You know, when you consider the recorded history of man, there does not appear to be any century more bloody than our own. But people have not learned; like the Judeans in verses nine to eleven people have turned away from God and depended on other means. Look at what the Judeans turn to: The Armory known as the Palace of the Forest, the impregnable walls of Zion, and the difficult public works project of providing a certain source of water in times of siege.
In verse twelve we see that through the message of Isaiah the people were to weep and to wail, to tear out their hair and put on sackcloth as they contemplated the destructions of their neighbors. But what did they do instead? Look at the charge against Judah in verse thirteen. How very worldly was their life view. "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!"
Are you sincerely troubled by what you see in the world today? That is well, we ought to weep as the worldly go their way to destruction. The horrors of their hellish future deserve our prayerful attention. Yes, we may have our personal trials and troubles laid on our hearts by our heavenly father. These may very well weigh heavily upon us. But let us be thankful that these troubles are not for us for an eternity as they will be for the wicked. Let us not turn our backs upon these troubles and turn to joy and revelry as the Judeans did in Isaiah's time. No indeed, let us make the troubles of our hearts a matter of prayer, praying that as the Lord's will is worked out in the providence of History we may see His hand and know His face even as we love His Son. Even as we grieve for the wicked and the lost may we hope that some few will meet our God and our Christ before it is too late. Amen.
Resources Used:
Ellis, Charles..
The Wells of Salvation.
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentary Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
06 March 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.