Book of Isaiah chapter 22 this
evening. Chapter 22 verses 1 through 14. The burden of the valley of vision.
Now I want to point out before we even read this that this is
Jerusalem. Which is referred to as the Valley
of Vision here. And of course this is a prophecy.
We know, we saw that word burden before. This is a prophecy of
woe upon them. Trouble. Affliction from the
Lord. We always, in all of these chapters
in Isaiah, we've seen the same reason why God sends affliction.
It's because of our sin and it's also It also results in the salvation
of his people. So as we read this passage 1
through 14, listen for the gospel. Listen for God's dealings with
his people. Listen for us. We're predictable,
aren't we? It's not about ancient Israel. This is about us. We'll see ourselves
and we'll see God's judgment against sin and God's salvation,
the way he deals with his people. So the burden of the valley of
vision, what aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up
to the housetops? Thou that art full of stirs,
a tumultuous city, a joyous city, thy slain men are not slain with
the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers are fled together.
They are bound by the archers. All that are found in thee are
bound together, which have fled from far. Therefore said I, look
away from me, I will weep bitterly. Labor not to comfort me because
of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For it is a day
of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity by the Lord
God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls
and of crying to the mountains. And Elam bared the quiver with
chariots of men and horsemen and Kerr uncovered the shield
And it shall come to pass that thy choicest valley shall be
full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in a ray
at the gate. And he discovered the covering
of Judah, and at its look in that day to the armor of the
house of the forest. You have seen also the breaches
of the city of David, that they are many, and you gathered together
the waters of the lower pool, and you have numbered the houses
of Jerusalem. and the houses have you broken
down to fortify the wall. You have made also a ditch between
the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you have not
looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him
that fashioned it long ago. And in that day did the Lord
God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness
and to girding with sackcloth, and behold joy and gladness.
slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed
in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, surely this iniquity shall not
be purged from you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts. Now no question this is judgment
upon the ungodly, but also we see it in a beautiful picture
of the salvation of the elect. The valley of vision, as I said,
is Jerusalem. And in order to understand the
language of this passage, let's think about what this is all
about. Let's look at the general picture
here. This is a prophecy from God of the sin of his people,
clearly, and what's going to happen as a result of it. Very
simple. God's going to deal with it.
Deal with them. God loves his people. God's people
are wretched sinners. So what's God going to do about
it? Well, let's find out. The question is the same question
that our Lord asks Saul of Tarsus. Look at verse 1, the question
here. What aileth thee now? What's your problem? What's the
matter with you? Verse 2, you're a city full of stirs, full of
business, full of noise, full of joy. You're a glad and boisterous
and busy and happening city. But something's wrong now. You're
all up on your rooftops watching, looking, weeping. What happened? What aileth thee? You remember
what Saul was asked in Acts 26, 14? He gave account of his conversion
in Acts 26, 14 and said, when we were all fallen to the earth,
I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew
tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Is it hard for you
to kick against the pricks or the goads? We saw that word before. It's the word goad. God was goading
him like an animal. When did the Lord ask Saul that
question? When he was at the height of
his rebellion and pride, he was on the road to Damascus with
letters, with the authority to go and persecute the people of
God, and the Lord stopped him and said, why are you persecuting
me? What's the matter? Is it hard
for you? To kick against the restraints
of God? He was in opposition to the Lord. And what was the occasion of
this? What was that day? How did Saul look upon that day,
you reckon, from that time on? That was the day of reckoning.
It's time to give account to the Lord. Why? Why are you doing
what you do? It's the day when God said, enough. That's what this is in our text.
What's wrong with you? You joyous and wonderful, busy,
City, what's caused you to stop your business and get up on your
rooftop? There comes a day when God says,
hitherto shalt thou come and no further. Aren't you glad? That's a good day because of
where we're headed to when God says no further. You're not going
there because he loves you. God says here to Jerusalem, what's
bothering you? What aileth thee? Is it hard
for you to kick? You having a problem? What's
the problem? What's gotten your attention so that you're up on
your housetop now to see what's going on, to keep watch, to maybe
see what can be done about it? God in his gracious providence
sends trouble, and we of course rebel. To a point. As long as we can. As long as
he lets us get away with it. Jerusalem's trouble here is in
the form of the Assyrian army. A very powerful and overwhelming
army. And this is real trouble. Real
trouble for them. And so is our trouble with God.
We got real problems with God by nature. You haven't been besieged until
God brings you to account. for your sin against him. It
says why? Where are you and why? Thou that art full of stirs,
a tumultuous city, a joyous city, thy slain men are not slain with
the sword nor dead in battle. Now these are two completely
different thoughts, separate thoughts. And always remember
now the The verses, the divisions of
verses in the scripture are just for memory only, just for reference
only. They're not really there. The first part of verse 2 refers
to the question in verse 1. Why are you all up on your rooftops
and worried now? What's gotten your attention?
You're a bustling city full of noise and business and joy. It's
not like you to stop your business. It's not like you to be on watch.
Why aren't you going about your daily business anymore? What
has interrupted your noisy and busy life? It's kind of a sarcastic
question, isn't it, in a sense? Kind of like, is it hard for
you, Saul? It's hard for you, isn't it? This is us when we find out we're
in trouble. We're like a bustling city with
all kinds of business to take care of, all kinds of interests
and endeavors and many concerns of this world. But when we realize
our condition before God, we have one concern only. It kind of tends to put things
in perspective, doesn't it? The important things on your
to-do list are kind of put in perspective by the fact that
you are a wretch before God, and God says, enough. We're going
to settle the score. Naaman was a busy important man
until he was a leper and then he was just a leper With one
one concern, how can I not be a leper anymore? And I guarantee
you when you become a sinner, that'll be your one question.
How? How can my sin be done away with? Saul had a lot on his plate until
he met the Lord and then it was Lord. What do you have for me
today? I had a lot of things on my list,
but I think I'll do what you have. What do you suppose the woman
with the issue of blood who had spent all that she had
on trying to be cured of that issue of blood and was only worse.
Can you imagine that? Have you ever spent money to
be better and you're just worse? She spent everything to get better
and she was only worse. What do you think she woke up
in the morning thinking about? What was on her mind when she
went to bed at night? One thing. God knows how to get
your attention. And he'll get it sooner or later.
And once God gets your attention, he has a way of keeping it. From
then on, it's pretty much about him, isn't it? It's got to be
that way. You're not just gonna get saved
and get on with your life. Christ is your life from then
on. And then the last part of verse
two, remember there again, it's just for reference, the verses
now. This is a division here. This is a next thought. And here's what the last part
is saying. You're dying. You're dying. Men of this city
were dying. There were casualties being taken.
Think about that on a personal level. You're dying. But it's
not an enemy attacking you from the outside, he said. It's something on the inside.
These Jews were likely dying of starvation because it says
it wasn't a foe. It wasn't somebody with bow and
arrow or with a sword that was killing you. They were probably being besieged
by an enemy. They were probably dying of starvation.
But the spiritual problem referred to here, of course, is our sin.
It's not an outside enemy that's killing us. You're killing yourself,
aren't you? Killing yourself. God sends trouble to get our
attention. He sends trouble, but our real trouble is on the
inside. He just causes us to know that. Sometimes he uses
outside influences to cause us to know, but our trouble is on
the inside. It's what we are. Verse three, all of our rulers
are fled together. They are bound by the archers.
This is God dealing with his people. That's what it is, isn't
it? This is Jerusalem, the city of peace. God's chosen people
and God is sinning trouble. Look how he's dealing with them.
All your rulers are fled They are bound by the archers all
that are found in me are bound together which have fled from
afar two points here your rulers Have abdicate abdicated their
throne They're gone. Your authority is abdicated.
I And again, Saul, he said I'm
a pattern for all believers. He's a good example in a lot
of things, isn't he? The way the Lord dealt with him.
He was a big shot before, but now he's in the dust. His rulers
had fled. His authority, he's in the dust
calling somebody else Lord now. The one that was on the throne
before, they're gone. You see that here? And notice
the word bound. This is the second thing here.
Bound. The Jews said, Lord, we've never been in bondage to any
man. They were in bondage as they said that. And what they
said proved it. And that was their problem. They
could not see that they were in bondage to sin, to Satan,
and to the justice of God. Verse four. Therefore said I,
look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't even
try to comfort me. Don't even try. Nobody can, can
they? Because of the spoiling of the
daughter of my people, for it is a day of trouble and of treading
down and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley
of vision, breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains. Now think with me. When I read
of bitter weeping here, who do you think of? The Apostle Peter
went out and wept bitterly, the scripture says. You know why?
Because he realized what he was. This is a sad thing now. You'll
mourn your sin, won't you? When God reveals it to you. Sorrow. A day of sorrow. Look away. Just let me weep. Don't even
try. It's no use. It's just got to be... There's
just going to have to be mourning, isn't there? There's going to
be some weeping. It's a day of trouble. The Apostle had denied his Lord. He became the very thing that
he hated. You remember what he said? Oh, I won't deny you. Somebody else maybe, but not
me. He became the thing that he hated. When he realized that
he was the person that he said he would never be. People go through their whole
life saying, I would never do that. And then one day you find
out that not only would you, but you have, many times. It's still, it's still, and I understand our blindness,
we're still blind to a great degree, aren't we? We still look
at other people and say, look how sinful they are. I wish God
would shut our mouths about that. I'm telling you flat out, I wish
God would shut us up. Shut me up, shut you up about
other people's sin. One day we're going to find out
what we are and we're going to weep over my sin. There's trouble. What that word
trouble there means, all of these things in verse 5. the Lord does
to us spiritually. He brings it right home to my
heart. The word trouble, you know what it means? To be discomfited.
It's the word tribulation. The tribulum was an instrument
that was used to separate chaff from wheat. And you know what
you had to do? Beat the devil out of it to separate the two. And that's what tribulation is.
It's the Lord just thrashing you. Discomfort he tosses us out of
our nest he he makes us to see That we're not what we thought
we were he brings trouble to our heart. He shakes our very
foundations our rulers are what what what was He turned your world upside down And look what else he said there's
treading down look at verse 5 again, it's a day of trouble God's gonna
shake you He's going to break your heart. He's going to tear you up. And then of treading down. You
know what that word I looked out of? The treading down. You
know what that means? Subjugation. What does subjugation mean? I
didn't even answer your question, did I? What is treading down
subjugate? Well, that's not much of an answer
is I still don't know what that is either I'll ask Vicki sometime. Where is this? I see my purse
Well, where's your purse? It's not an answer The subjugation
it means the act of bringing under control or enslavement
To subjugate somebody is to make them your slave. I Is that what
the Lord did to you? And it was your greatest dream
come true. You just didn't know it yet.
Oh, I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Bless God. Bless God,
I'm his slave. And then look, what's next? Perplexity.
You know, perplexity. Confusion. You know what confusion
is? Everything you thought you knew.
All of a sudden, you're not so sure anymore. Isn't this a blessing? Has God done this for you? Everything
you thought you knew, everything that you were emphatic
about, everything you stood for, everything you believed in, all
of a sudden, wait a minute, it's all garbage. It's all, it's all dumb. Everything I know is not worth
knowing Your thoughts about God Your
thoughts about yourself everything you knew about the way things
are all confounded by God And we're reminded here mid-verse
By the Lord God of hosts were reminded mid-verse here that
this is God doing this Not an enemy God may use an enemy, but God's not the enemy. The
truth of the matter is, I'm my own enemy. I'm the enemy. This is God doing this. And then
look, breaking down the walls, is this
your experience? Honestly, before God. Did God
invite you to be saved? Or did he bust your walls down? It's a simple question. I can
tell you from my part, I can tell you what he did for me.
He busted in. He tore my walls down. And I built some, I thought,
pretty strong ones. Religion presents God as too
much of a gentleman to violate anybody's will. Hogwash. That's a lie straight from hell.
He invites, you know, but he won't go any farther than that
lest he violate your will. I'm glad my God's not like that.
How about you? I think and praise his holy name breaking down my
walls. He didn't ask me if he could. He didn't invite me to open the
door. That's not how God operates. And I'm so glad I tell you this, my God loved
me too much not to violate my will. How about yours? And there's
crying. There's crying, a cry for help. It's not complicated, it's not
eloquent. You know what it sounds like? Lord, save me. Save me. As Peter sank beneath
the waves, He didn't say, Lord, I need a little help. He didn't
say, Lord, how about a hand? Save me. I'm a goner. I need you to save me. God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the cry. Verse six, and
Elam bared the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen and Kur uncovered
the shield and it shall come to pass. that thy choicest valleys
shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves
in array at the gate." Now we've already seen that Jerusalem is
besieged, surrounded by the enemy, and they're coming in. And this
here is to show, these two verses, they show how foolish we are
seen to be in the next verses. Keep that in mind. These verses
are fixing to launch us into the next verses. This is saying
right here that the opposition is overwhelming Elam and Kerr
are armies that fought under and with the Assyrians so this
is a this is a a massive joined army of enemies and he said all
your valleys your choicest valley God's going to come to that which is most precious
to you and he's gonna tear it apart. He's gonna rip it to shreds. Your choices, valleys, are gonna
be violated. All your valley full of chariots,
the gates, there's not any escape. The gates are blocked with horsemen.
You're not getting away. You're not gonna get away from
God. Not on this day now. There may be times when he comes,
he may let you run for a while. He'll goad you, and you may run.
You may trot away and bow your neck, you know, and say, nope.
But on this day, the gates are blocked. You know
what he's done? He's shut you up to himself.
That's what he's done. And there's no hope. It's overwhelming.
You're overrun. That's what this is saying. You're
overrun. And yet, look what we did in spite of that fact. and
he discovered the covering of Judah, that thou didst look in
that day to the armor of the house of the forest." What do
we look to? Our armor, our resources. Verse 9, You have seen also the
breaches of the city of David, that there are many You're broken
in. You're overwhelmed. You're overrun.
You're besieged. Your valleys are full of chariots
and your gates are barred with horsemen. And you gather together
the waters of the lower pool, your own resources. You've numbered
the houses of Jerusalem. How many do we have? Who will
fight? Let's, you know, let's rally our forces. And the houses
have you broken down to fortify the wall. Surely there's some
way we can ride this out. No, there's not. No, there's
not. We take an inventory of what
resources we have to fight this battle. We're besieged. What are we going to do? Well,
let's fortify the walls. Let's see how many of us there
are. Let's see how strong we are. Let's see how good we are.
Let's see if our good outweighs our bad. We've got a lot of good,
and you know, we've done some bad things, When the Lord challenged the
righteousness of the Pharisees, what did they immediately start
doing? They defended themselves. We have Moses. God is our father. We be not sinners. We're not
in bondage to any man. We never have been. You can't
defend yourself in this fight. Lay down arms. Surrender. Your house is built on the sand.
Your sins are overwhelming. You have no hope. The storm is
too strong. Here is our only response, our
only reasonable defense in this day. Look at Isaiah 64, verse
six. You know what you say when the
Lord does this to you, for you, in you? Isaiah 64, verse six. Here's what we find out. We are
all as an unclean thing And all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away, taken us away. There's no resistance.
You're not going to stand your ground in that day. You're going
to be blown away. And there's none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
For hell has hid thy face from us, and has consumed us because
of our iniquities. We can't even look up. But now,
oh Lord, you're our father. Our hope is not that we're going
to do something. Oh, well, you know, we're in
trouble, but we look to the Lord. No, we didn't. You didn't call
on his name. You didn't care. You fortified
your walls. You tore your house down and
tried to fortify your walls against God. Oh, but he's your father
anyway. If he is, and we're the clay,
you're the potter, and we are all the work of thy hand. Be not wroth, very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see, we beseech thee. We are all your people. Our hope is a relationship. Thy holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our
beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with
fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain
thyself from these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace and
afflict us very sore? O Lord, will you have mercy?
Will you have mercy on us? There these Jews were tearing
down their own houses in order to fortify the wall, and they
never once thought about where that wall came from. Think about
this. Look at it in the language again. Verse 11, you have made a ditch
between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you
have not looked unto the maker thereof. Neither had respect
unto him that fashioned it long ago. You think about this now.
They're fortifying the wall, they're digging a ditch between,
there was an outer wall and an inner wall, they're digging a,
you know, a moat there to make it difficult for the enemy to
come in. They're doing everything they can to, for themselves,
to protect themselves, to defend themselves. And they never thought
about it, there they are between those walls, and they never looked
up and said, you know, we have a wall because of God. We are a city. We are a people
because of God. God built that wall. You see
what the prophet said here? You never once thought about
the one that built that wall before you were even born. There
you are trying to patch it up. Where were you when God built
it? He didn't need your help. And he still don't. And your defense is again, you
see that They probably thought they were fighting for God. Oh,
we're fighting against the enemies of God. They were fighting God
is who they were fighting. The one that built the wall.
They wouldn't look to Him. The reason they were a city at all
to begin with was that God had favored them and delivered them
from Egypt and brought them through the wilderness. And God built that wall. And
only He can make it stand in the day of trouble. But you see, He is the trouble
now. And the one that built that wall will tear it down. And then he'll be our wall. We won't need a wall after that.
He is our wall. Lord, you're my rock and my fortress. Whom shall I fear? The answer
to our dilemma, our predicament, is not to fortify our resources
and start looking, you know, well, I've done some good things,
and I've been good to mama, and I've given Some to the church
and been faithful. Our refuge is not the city. Us. But the one that built the city.
God, you see that in that look to the one that built the city,
not the city. Don't look to yourself, look
to the one that made you. Your builder and maker is God.
Listen to Isaiah 813 sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. And
let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall
be for a sanctuary But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of
offense To both houses of israel for a gin and for a snare to
the inhabitants of jerusalem is christ to you a stumbling
stone or sanctuary You look at verse 12 in that
day Did the Lord of God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning
and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth and behold joy
and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and
drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow
we shall die. And it was revealed in my ears
by the Lord of hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged
from you till you die. Now he said in that day before
before this day there's this day of reckoning There's this
day of Saul, why are you persecuting me? You're stopping right here.
And you're not going anywhere until we do business. And then
there's this day. What's your problem? Trouble. Trouble's come. Because of your
sin. But there was a day when the
Lord warned you. He called to weeping and to mourning
and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth. He called you
to repentance. That's what sackcloth is there.
He called us to weep over our sin. There was a preacher, wasn't
there? Before God revealed himself to you, he sent his messenger
before his face. He said, mourn over your sin.
Weep, repent. Sackcloth symbolizes repentance. Our Lord said unto Corazin in
Matthew 11 21 woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if
the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre
and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. That's what sackcloth represents.
And God calls us to repentance. He commands men everywhere to
repent. There was a call for weeping. There was a call for
sackcloth from God. And you know what we did? We
went on eating and drinking and being merry and said let's eat
and drink. Tomorrow we die, let's live it up while we can. That's what that rich young ruler
said. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. We go on with our lives as if
we weren't wretched sinners under the wrath of God. And we'll do
that until... Look what he said there, verse
14. It was revealed in mine ears
by the Lord of hosts. This is what Isaiah, this is
what Isaiah realized. There's only one way that God
is going to purge our iniquity. There's only one thing you can
do with sinful flesh, and that's kill it. Paul said I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I died. Saul of Tarsus became a wretch
that day. That's what he said in Romans
7.24, that same passage. That was Romans 7.9 that I just
read. In 7.24, you know what he said?
I'm a wretch. Wretched man that I am That's when he became a wretch
right there And he died to self and was made alive unto God And
he was able to say in that same context. Oh wretched man that
I am here's the good news though Who shall deliver me who shall
save me can anybody save me? from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. He
tread me down. He subjugated me. I serve him
now. And he's going to save me. He's
going to save me from this dead, stinking, wretched flesh. He had to kill me and that's
fine. in order to make me alive. The bad news is tonight you're
a wretch too. Is that too strong a word for you?
A wretch. But the good news is God has
mercy on wretches. If you receive by His grace and
acknowledge the bad news by His grace, if you see yourself a
wretch and look to the Savior of wretches the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll kill you, but he'll make
you alive. If you try to save your life,
you're going to lose it. But if by his grace you lose
your life, if God kills you, then you'll be saved. You'll
find out what life is then. The Savior of wretches became
wretched that we might be saved. He became wretched, not in the
sense of being sinful like I am. He knew no sin, but wretched,
miserable, man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid,
as it were, our faces from Him. We did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes we're healed. Thank God. This is a story of
judgment. There's no doubt about that.
And no question, many of the Jews were killed and sent straight
to hell. And this is well a prophecy of
that too. But do you see a picture here
of how God dealt with you in His mercy? We're wretched, but we're His. Let's pray.