May 10, 2026, Isaiah 22:1-25
May 10, 2026, Isaiah 22:1-25
22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What do you mean that you
have gone up,
all of you, to the
housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous
city, exultant town?
Your slain are not slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 All your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were
captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far
away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction
of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day
of tumult
and trampling and confusion
in the valley of
vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the
mountains.
6 And Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and
horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the
shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took
their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of
the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of
the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower
pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem,
and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You
made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.
But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long
ago.
12 In that day the
Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and
mourning,
for baldness
and wearing sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and
slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking
wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The Lord of
hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of
hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household,
and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and
whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself,
you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in
the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently,
O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and
whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There
you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of
your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your
office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In
that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I
will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit
your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will
place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall
open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And
I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a
throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they
will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and
issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In
that day, declares the Lord of
hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it
will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for
the Lord has spoken.”
Isaiah 22 is a prophecy against Jerusalem ("Valley
of Vision") regarding an impending siege, likely by Assyria. It rebukes
the city for partying instead of repenting during a crisis, highlights reliance
on physical defenses over God, and predicts the downfall of the arrogant
steward Shebna, replacing him with the faithful Eliakim.
If you were stripped of your current title or
position (like Shebna), what would be left of your character?
Are you building a "tomb" for your own glory or
a "house" for others to find shelter?
Robin Adams
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