We are currently in the middle of a portion of Isaiah's prophecy in which he refers to Jerusalem as “the Valley of Vision”. As I mentioned last week, this was likely Isaiah's way of saying that Jerusalem, for him, was a dark low place and not a city build on a hill. They are not responding correctly to their situation. One of the signs of a heart that is far from God is the wrong response in the situation we find ourselves. In a culture focused on selfishness like ours we see this all the time at work, at home, and at church.
In that day othe Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 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.
Isaiah 22:12-14
The way to look to God was in repentance and changing our lives to submit to Him as Lord. Instead we often look to God as a big “rabbit's foot” or “talisman” while we do our own thing. It is wearying to Him to see us continually do what we want for ourselves and then hope that He is pleased with our decision. In fact, we expect Him to be thrilled with our allowing Him to have any input at all. You can spend your life repeatedly finding out that He is sovereign and omnipotent. You can take the attitude of those in Jerusalem and say, “Lets party because we may die tomorrow” as was stated in the recent movie, “The Bucket List”. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy of those in Jerusalem who didn't know God. They were convinced that if weapons (v. 8), defenses (v. 10), and engineering (v. 11) couldn't save them then nothing could. So they got what they asked for in their prophecy. The phrase in 14 is frightening in the finality of it. God tells Jerusalem, through Isaiah, that they are reprobate. God tells them that they will die in their sin and He will not pull them out of the fire. He'll keep His remnant by His power and because of His grace but Jerusalem is done for. God has pronounced them reprobate.
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 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? Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 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. I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.
Isaiah 22:15-19
Isaiah mentions two men by name in this portion of Scripture. Shebna was in charge under the King of Judah. His sin was his pride and the way he handled the stewardship that God had given. We are only stewards. You don't have anything to glory in of your own. He symbolizes the self sufficiency that is sinful. He assumed to own what wasn't his. That is a key flaw of a steward and the key sin we throw up in God's face each day. He wanted to leave a great legacy and had planned his funeral and tomb to show his importance. God said that he would be rolled up like a ball and cast away from Jerusalem. As a steward he was a shame to the King and he was an unfaithful servant. You don't own the blessings that God has given you and or one moment of the day. We can be truly unfaithful as stewards trusting in ourselves rather than God. God shows great grace in our lives as He leads us as a shepherd.
In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 22:20-25
In addition to the sin of trusting in your self is the sin of trusting in another person. Eliakim was a good steward but his stewardship became an excuse for others to trust in him rather than to trust in God. An individual is not sufficient for themselves or for others. The Lord of Hosts is to be trusted and no one else. God uses these two individuals to make this point because it was so critical to the fall of Jerusalem.
The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Be still, O inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you. And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.
Isaiah 23:1-3
Tyre and Sidon are in Lebanon. Both are ports and are about 25 miles apart. Tyre in particular has been shot up pretty badly over the last decades but at the time Isaiah prophesied, Tyre was a central trading city and really a hub for merchants in around the Mediterranean Sea. At the time it was like a prophecy that New York would fail as a port and city of merchants. Tyre had not been hostile to Judah and had been a “friend” of Solomon but they were not godly either. In fact, the marriages of Solomon to these people led to the worship of idols in Israel. Jezebel was a Sidonian and they did have an older history of being a thorn in Israel's side. The tribe of Asher was supposed to have taken the area but you know how that went. The ships of Tarshish would be the largest merchant ships of the region and they would find no port. Silence is the sign that commerce is broken in the port.
Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.” When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast! Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
Isaiah 23:4-8
These cities also viewed the sea as a means of protection. Like a moat. They had great pride in their security. The loss is so great that it is as though no children were ever raised there. Tyre was literally partly on an island and essentially siege proof until they tried the patience of Alexander the Great who scraped the city on the mainland into the water and built a causeway out to lay siege up close and personal. The causeway expanded over the centuries. It doesn't really look like an island anymore. The location of Tarshish is probably Spain. This is not the Tarsus of Paul.
The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint anymore. He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And he said: “You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest.” Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.
Isaiah 23:9-14
God explains why he judged Tyre and Sidon. They were very powerful and God chose to remove their power. Tarshish had a new found freedom and could now move about their countryside without fear of those who had ruled over them. The refugees are pictured as having nowhere to go. The warning is about the Assyrians and their military actions in the area that impacted Tyre and Sidon. The actions of the Assyrians, then Nebuchadnezzar, then Artaxerxes resulted in periodic attacks on this region from about 745 BC until 333 BC.
They lost joy, peace, tenure on the land, and eventually all security. Babylon the nation (Chaldeans) is used as an example of the Assyrian destruction to come for Tyre and Sidon. Tarshish is reminded that commerce is over although they can do as they please back home in Spain.
In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: “Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered.” At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.
Isaiah 23:15-18
This postscript applies to the time between Sennacherib's campaigns about 701 BC and 630 BC when the regained power and the Assyrians faded. Tyre has a “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” type advertising campaign to remind everyone how good it was when it was good and the city begins again to have commerce. In fact, the city is redeemed by God and used to generously provide material for rebuilding the Temple when the exile is over. This is a picture of you guys sitting in class. He redeemed you that you may be holy to the Lord. Remember your life is lived before the face of God.
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