Looking To The Creator

Isaiah’s Oracle Against Jerusalem

Amen. Please turn to Isaiah chapter 22. We're going to continue in Isaiah today, a longer oracle today. We won't be doing the whole thing. Longer oracle, but still somewhat enigmatic. Once again, not addressed to a particular people by name, although obviously to the people of Jerusalem.

When you're ready, please stand for the reading of God's word. We're going to read Isaiah 22 all the way down to verse 11. The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops?

You who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town, your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. All your leaders have fled together, without the bow they were captured. All of you who are found were captured, though they had fled far away.

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. 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, and Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

Your choice's valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates. He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the house of the forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many.

You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 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.

Looking to the Lord Rather Than to Ourselves

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for your word. We thank you for this oracle from your prophet Isaiah. I ask that as we listen to these inspired words, as we consider them and meditate on them together today, that we would understand everything that you have for us and that by your Spirit you would transform us, that you would open our eyes, that you would make us more like your Son.

God, I pray that you would accomplish everything that you intend to accomplish through your word and that you would do so mightily. In Jesus' name, amen. So we have all these different oracles to all these different nations, and here we have one against the people of Israel, one against the people of Jerusalem.

Very surprising, all these statements, the judgment against all the nations, and here near the end we see Israel included among all those nations. Now God speaks to these people particularly because of their privileged position, having oracles from prophets, having God's word.

These are people who above all else should know what the Lord is doing, who above all others should be able to look to the Lord, see what He's doing, be able to trust in the Lord rather than trusting in themselves.

And that's what makes what they're doing so very wrong, is that they have not trusted in the Lord as they ought. They are not looking to the Lord, they are instead looking to themselves. So I want us to consider this oracle and the repentance it calls us to, to not look to ourselves but to look to the Lord.

If you think, well, I already look to the Lord, I already have the word of God, so did these very people, and it's a call to every single one of us to consider whether or not we are truly looking to the Lord or just looking to ourselves.

Verse 1 here begins with this title, the oracle concerning the valley of vision. Now hopefully you heard later on when we read, it spoke of this valley, it spoke of it in chapter, or verse 5, of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, and it says, he has taken away the covering of Judah, and then in verse 10, speaking of the houses of Jerusalem.

It's very clear that what this is talking about is Jerusalem, that we've had all these different oracles to these nations, and now Judah as a nation, specifically Jerusalem as its capital city, is being addressed, and it is spoken of as a valley of vision.

Now the notion of vision should be, I guess, a little more obvious than why it's called a valley. Jerusalem is a place where many prophets have gone through. Many prophets have given visions. God has given them visions, and they have spoke these to the people.

God's Word has been present in Jerusalem more powerfully than it really has been anywhere else during that time, and there's a certain expectation God has of the people who receive His Word, but it speaks of this as a valley of vision.

Now this is surprising, because Jerusalem, you read all through Scripture, and what is it usually referred to? It's referred to as a mountain. It is the mountain of Zion, high and lifted up, God sitting at the top of His hill, the people ascending towards the Lord to worship Him, but here it is spoken of as a valley.

It is not the mountain it ought to be, but it is the valley, far from God, having not looked to Him, having not ascended the hill as they ought, but having looked away from Him, gone far, far from Him.

So we need to consider the privileged position we have today, being people who are hearing the Word of God, most of us being Christian, receiving God's Word for maybe much of our lives, and then even beyond that, we live in a nation where God's Word is more present than it is in many nations.

We are in a very privileged position to hear the Word of the Lord, and so we have such a standing that we ought to, we ought to be looking to the Lord, and yet this temptation remains constantly to look away from the Lord, to look to ourselves for answers, to not consider what God is doing, but to only consider what we ourselves are doing.

When we see trials, we do not see God's hand at work, but we see ourselves and what we need to do, and we need not turn to Him, the only one who can truly save. And so we see some of the repercussions of such a mindset here in this passage.

It says, "'What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town?'. Now as you go through and you read this oracle, you realize that it speaks of much destruction.

So why are the people shouting and celebrating? Well, you have a little insight into this in the passage after the one that we're looking at today, where it says, "'In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth.

Behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'". Now this is a very common mindset that people have. People do not know what to do beyond what they can do, right?

So they try their best in life and they realize that that's not going to save them from death. And so what do they do? They just ignore the looming problem of death. Now people are not so stupid to know that death, or to think that death is not coming.

They all know that it's coming. And yet they very consciously ignore this, right? They say, well, let's just be happy and pretend like that isn't happening. Let's pretend like everything is just fine the way it is.

No, all these calls to repentance, all these calls to look to God, they are calls to look to Him. Yet people so often instead would rather just ignore the truth, look to themselves, and when they find no true answers there, decide to ignore that looming problem of death, that looming issue that no one can account for apart from God's help.

Only He is above life and death. There's nothing that we can do. And it is quite surprising to me just how many people have this mindset, you know, this mindset of, well, you have to laugh or else you'd cry.

You know, you hear people say that and sometimes it kind of makes sense. But when it comes to the matter of your own life, what will happen to your soul after death, that's no matter that you can laugh about.

That is of the utmost seriousness. So to just ignore the problem of death and to just, you know, enjoy life, do the best you can with it, that's no answer. And that is a very foolish position to be in.

You can see how foolish it is as you read this, people celebrating as they're about to die. But that's what happens day after day in most of the homes across anywhere. Continues on, your slain are not slain with a sword or dead in battle.

Verse three, all your leaders have fled together. Without bow, they were captured. All of you who are found were captured, though they had fled far away. So God explains the destruction that has come on the city.

Now, maybe it's worthwhile to take a step back and just and figure out, well, what destruction is it talking about? There are actually a lot of theories about this. Pretty common one is that this is talking about Assyria coming against the nation in Jerusalem.

Now, this could be some assault of Assyria that's not that well recorded, or it could be the one that is well recorded in Scripture and elsewhere that happened in 701. Now, there are several reasons why I don't think it's either of those.

The first one, you know, there's not a lot of details that it would line up with. The second one, the whole point of this is that they have not looked to the Lord and trusted in the Lord. But if you see what happens, Hezekiah does turn to the Lord.

He does trust in the Lord. So it's not a very good description of this second assault of Assyria. And then beyond that, you have other questions. Well, why is it describing it as though it's going to be this great destruction if Assyria never ultimately conquers Jerusalem?

You know, in fact, they were destroyed before even reaching the gate. And why is Elam and Kir, why are they mentioned if they aren't allies of Assyria? So I think that the better answer to this is this is prophetically talking about Babylon coming in after some time later after Assyria when, if you read scripture, Hezekiah had pointed to all the things that he had done and not given glory to God.

And then God said that he would send Babylon against him. I think that's a much more fitting scenario for this. Anyway, different people have different takes. But I understand this to be referring to, prophetically referring to something that has not happened yet.

This is talking about the assault of Babylon. Much later. So it says, your leaders have fled together. Without bow, they were captured. So it has cowardly leaders running away, all being captured, even without, you know, advanced weaponry.

The slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. In other words, you know, they haven't even had to lift a sword against you. You know, the siege itself has been enough to kill off people. If you're not familiar with what siege warfare is, basically, you get soldiers to be outside the gate and then people can't go in and out to get supplies.

They slowly starve to death. And we just see a picture here of people being defenseless without the Lord. These trials, these trials that God gave his people are all calls to look to him, to consider him.

And they are not considering him. You ought to, as you consider your own trials, consider God's purposes in them. You know, it's very easy to not consider the Lord, to try to try to figure out your trials on your own.

Or here's another mindset that's a little better than that, but still not good enough to say, oh, well, here's this trial. God, this trial has come upon me from afar. I need your help to fix it. OK, that's that's a step in the right direction.

But here's the problem with that is it doesn't recognize that even the trial itself comes from the Lord. How about this? How about this prayer? God, you have sent this trial for your purposes that I might trust in you.

I ask that you would accomplish what you wish to accomplish through this trial. God is the author of all history. He has brought about every trial. He has brought about these enemies on Jerusalem. He brings about your trials.

We ought not to just look to ourselves as the answer, and we ought not to only look to God as the answer, but not also look to him as the source of the trials, the one who is accomplishing his purposes through the trials.

Do not do not fail to pick up these tips to read God's providence. You know, this book, this book is a handbook and reading the providence of God. We can't do that perfectly, but there are many things it tells us, like, for example, that every trial comes from the Lord.

This is something that we can know that God has his purposes to produce in people patience for his own children, for those who are not but may be called. He has brought them about to bring them to repentance.

Do not miss those calls to repentance. Do not miss those calls to trust in the Lord or to trust more deeply in him. It continues on in verse four. Isaiah says that he can't be consoled. Don't look at me.

Don't try to comfort me. I can't be consoled. I know that this destruction is coming. And there is a great destruction coming. There is a great destruction coming over all the world. When Jesus Christ returns, every last one of his enemies will be defeated.

And it does no good to ignore this, to ignore God's calls to repentance, to turn and look to him. We ought not to ignore these things. You know, some people, I've encountered people who acknowledge that the Bible says that many will suffer eternal judgment, will suffer an eternal punishment.

But they seem to think that it would be right to hope or to hope and pray that it won't be that way, that maybe God will change his mind through what he's been revealed. There is no hope that he will change his mind.

There will be many that suffer an eternal judgment. Our mission is not to hope and pray that God would change his mind about something that he has stated as a certainty. But our mission is to look to the Lord and to call others to look to him for repentance.

The Day of Tumult and the Siege of Jerusalem

In verse five. 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 and to Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen and Kerr uncovered the shield.

Your choices' valleys were full of chariots and the horsemen took their stands at the gate. He is taken away at the covering of Judah. So this, just simply describing that punishment that Israel was under, that Judah was under.

God sending, battering down of walls, sending enemies. You have here the mentions of Elam and Kerr, which are, Elam refers to, is a city in Persia, or sorry, I think it's more of a province in Persia.

And then Kerr, it's uncertain what Kerr is, but it might be a city in Media. And these at the time were, later on they become enemies of Babylon and they end up conquering Babylon, but for a time they were allies of Babylon.

And so I believe that's why they're mentioned here. But why would, why would God mention Elam and Kerr and not just directly mention Babylon? I believe there's an answer for that too. And that is, if you remember the previous chapter in verse 2, it said, a stern vision is told to me, the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O Elam, and lay siege, O Medea, all the signs she has caused I bring to an end. So there was a mention of Elam and Media just prior to this. And we've talked about before how I'm not sure when these different oracles are written, but certainly as they were arranged, they were arranged with a purpose.

And I think that there's once again purpose in this being so close to that previous oracle that mentioned Elam and Media. The idea being that those powers that are so great that they could even conquer Babylon, they will be at work in this assault of Babylon on you.

So it's to, it's to heighten this picture of judgment to speak of these particular nations. And once again, he speaks of them as a valley of vision, making it clear what he's talking about. He's not talking about something else, but he is talking particularly about the people of Jerusalem.

Their choices valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stands at the gate, at the gates, you know, beginning siege warfare. He has taken away the covering of Judah, the covering of Judah, Judah's protection.

You know, there is a covering over every single person who lives on this earth. God is very merciful. He has granted common grace across the world. So the people live, and they don't, and they don't immediately die.

See, the problem with that covering that Judah had is that it was part of a conditional covenant. The covenant was of this nature. If you obey me, if you follow my ways, then you will have that covering, and you won't be destroyed.

If you disobey me, if you go against my ways, you will not have that covering, and you will be destroyed. The grace that people have now, this common grace, this covering that people have generally in the world, it is not even a conditional covenant.

There is no covenant. So God could, at any moment, take it away. There's no amount of obedience that can keep that covering fixed. There's nothing that can save apart from God's mercy. So what we need is not a lack of covenant, as most people in this world have.

What we need is not a conditional covenant like Judah had. What we need is an unconditional covenant, and God has provided this in Jesus Christ. You see, the way the new covenant works is that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, his perfect righteousness, his perfect obedience is credited to your account so that you can stand before God perfectly justified, and there's nothing that can take that away.

This accounting does not last as long as you are holy. It lasts as long as Christ is holy. You see, once again, this is a call to look to him. That covering, it comes from the Lord. It is a divine protection, right?

We cannot create some kind of force field around us that can keep the calamities from happening. Calamities that happen in this world are too large for any of us to stop them. We need the Lord, and the Lord has provided much, much mercy through different means, through common grace, through covenants.

But what we need is something that is firm and steadfast and eternal. And the only thing that is that is the new covenant made the blood of Jesus Christ. And this is what we find when we look to the Lord.

When we look to ourselves, we do not find that. We find something that is much more temporary, something that does not last. And we, you know, even as a Christian, you can look at yourself and you can try to find your assurance there, but that will not last.

You will not find any comfort from that. It is only as you turn to the Lord and as you look to him that you will find assurance of your salvation. So it says, This is primarily referring to Hezekiah's activities of having fortified the city.

Now, when Assyria assaulted, he trusted in the Lord. But later on, he pointed to himself as being the source of all of Jerusalem's prosperity. And so the Lord said that he would send Babylon against the nation.

In that moment, he did not look to the Lord. He did not see him who planned it long ago. What is the what is the it here? Well, it's seems that one of the things it could refer to is Jerusalem. God planned Jerusalem long ago.

God established Jerusalem. Hezekiah or others of the of the country could modify the city, could improve it. But ultimately, Jerusalem comes from the Lord. Our own standing, wherever we are, our situation in life, ultimately, it comes from the Lord.

So no matter how much you improve it, if you are not looking to the one who has placed you where he has placed you, you're looking too low. The other the other thing is the situation, the situation that Jerusalem is in.

If they did not look to the Lord who planned that situation, but just consider the situation on its own, not in the framing that it should be understood as being something that comes from the Lord, they will not understand it rightly.

They will look to themselves. They will go about their own creative solutions, but they will all fall short. You know, if you ever contemplate creativity, think about this. If the Lord has created ex nihilo, if you don't know what that means, that means from nothing.

God has created from nothing. Our creativity is of a much is of a far lesser order. Our creativity is taking things that God has already created and recombining them in different ways. Take the most advanced technology you can think of.

And that's just taking little pieces of God's world and putting them together in a way that he already understood they could be put together. You take any kind of art and what is it? It's depictions of things that God created.

And if it's abstract art, well, those are colors that God created and shapes that God created and so on. We have a different order of creativity than the kind God does. He is the one who not just formed and molded things, but he is the one that brought things forth from nothing.

It is only by looking to him that we can have any kind of assurance that we will be seen through, that we can have any kind of certainty that we will be that we will be victorious at the end of life, resting with our Savior and not in utter destruction.

Consider this in your own life as you go about your trials, look to the Lord, do not just look to yourself for answers and do not fail to remember that the trials themselves have come from the Lord. And as we as a church go through what we go through here, as we encounter trials, we ought to be doing the same thing as we are trying to accomplish work.

We must remember whose hand our situation comes from, whose hand, from whose hand come all things. You know, especially as these upcoming years, we want to really focus on evangelism. You know, there's, it's very, it'd be very easy for us to just out of our own hard work, try to accomplish that.

But we have to remember that this is of the Lord. And so one of the ways that we can best express that is coming to him in prayer at these meetings. I think these prayer meetings are some of the most important things that we will be doing because we will be coming to the Lord who is the one who can accomplish those things, right?

Because we can't accomplish any of that, only the Lord can. And as we come together as a body, asking that he would give us success as a body and accomplishing the great commission that he has given, then we will be putting everything in the proper framing.

We will not be looking to ourselves, but we will be looking to the Lord. We will not be a valley of vision. People who have been given every reason and every opportunity to acknowledge what's going on and failing to miss it.

But we will be a mountain of vision. We'll be the great Zion that God has called us to be. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for your word. Once again, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ.

Who came and died and rose again. And out of your great mercy in him, we can have eternal life. I pray that you would renew that assurance in us that as we look to you, as we look to him and see you, that we would no longer look to ourselves.

That we would not be distracted by the things of this world, but that in faith we would turn to you. Knowing that every trial has come from you, and every answer that can be given comes from you. In Jesus' name, amen.