Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 22:1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? BOOK 4 JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB 701 B.C. INTO this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies of the Book of Isaiah, that have to do with the prophet’s own time: chapters 1, 22 and 33, with the narrative in 36, 37. All these refer to the only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: that undertaken by Sennacherib in 701. It is, however, right to remember once more, that many authorities maintain that there were two Assyrian invasions of Judah-one by Sargon in 711, the other by Sennacherib in 701-and that chapters 1 and 22 (as well as Isaiah 10:5-34 ) belong to the former of these. The theory is ingenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the Assyrian annals about any invasion of Judah by Sargon, it is impossible to adopt it. And although Chapters 1 and 22 differ very greatly in tone from chapter 33, yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to suppose two different invasions, with a considerable period between them. Virtually, as will appear in the course of our exposition, Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah was a double one. 1. The first time Sennacherib’s army invaded Judah they took all the fenced cities, and probably invested Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment of tribute and the surrender of the casus belli , the Assyrian Vassal Padi, whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the keeping of Hezekiah. To this invasion refer Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 . and the first verse of 36.: "Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them." This verse is the same as 2 Kings 18:13 , to which, however, there is added in 2 Kings 18:14-16 an account of the tribute sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the narrative in Isaiah. Compare 2 Chronicles 32:1 . 2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when Sennacherib, himself advancing to meet Egypt, sent back upon Jerusalem a second army of investment, with which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army that so mysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the besieged. To the treacherous return of the Assyrians and the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from their grasp refer Isaiah 33:1-24 , Isaiah 36:2-22 , with the fuller and evidently original narrative in 2 Kings 18:17-19 . Compare 2 Chronicles 32:9-23 . To the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem in 701-chapters 36 and 37 - there has been appended in 38 and 3 an account of Hezekiah’s illness and of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events probably happened some years before Sennacherib’s invasion. But it will be most convenient for us to take them in the order in which they stand in the canon. They wilt naturally lead us up to a question that it is necessary we should discuss before taking leave of Isaiah-whether this great prophet of the endurance of the kingdom of God upon earth had any gospel for the individual who dropped away from it into death. CHAPTER XX THE TURN OF THE TIDE: MORAL EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS 701 B.C. Isaiah 22:1-25 Contrasted With 33 THE collapse of Jewish faith and patriotism in the face of the enemy was complete. Final and absolute did Isaiah’s sentence ring out: "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith Jehovah of hosts." So we learn from chapter 22, written, as we conceive, in 701, when the Assyrian armies had at last invested Jerusalem. But in chapter 33, which critics unite in placing a few months later in the same year, Isaiah’s tone is entirely changed. He hurls the woe of the Lord upon the Assyrians; confidently announces their immediate destruction; turns, while the whole city’s faith hangs upon him, in supplication to the Lord; and announces the stability of Jerusalem, her peace, her glory, and the forgiveness of all her sins. It is this great moral difference between chapters 22 and 33-prophecies that must have been delivered within a few months of each other-which this chapter seeks to expound. In spite of her collapse, as pictured in chapter 22, Jerusalem was not taken. Her rulers fled; her people, as if death were certain, betook themselves to dissipation; and yet the city did not fall into the hands of the Assyrian. Sennacherib himself does not pretend to have taken Jerusalem. He tells us how closely he invested Jerusalem, but he does not add that he took it, a silence which is the more significant that he records the capture of every other town which his armies attempted. He says that "Hezekiah offered him tribute, and details the amount he received." He adds that the tribute was not paid at Jerusalem (as it would have been had Jerusalem been conquered), but that for "the payment of the tribute and the performance of homage" Hezekiah "despatched his envoy" to him when he was at some distance from Jerusalem. All this agrees with the Bible narrative. In the book of Kings we are told how Hezekiah sent to the King of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have offended; return from me; that which thou puttest upon me I will bear. And the King of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king’s house. At the same time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of Jehovah, and from the pillars which Hezekiah, King of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to the King of Assyria." It was indeed a sore submission, when even the Temple of the Lord had to be stripped of its gold. But it purchased the relief of the city, and no price was too high to pay for that at such a moment as the present, when the populace was demoralised. We may even see Isaiah’s hand in the submission. The integrity of Jerusalem was the one fact on which the word of the Lord had been pledged, on which the promised remnant would be rallied. The Assyrian must not be able to say that he has made Zion’s God like the gods of the heathen; and her people must see that even when they have given her up Jehovah can hold her for Himself, though in holding He tear and wound. { Isaiah 31:4 } The Temple is greater than the gold of the Temple; let even the latter be stripped off and sold to the heathen if it can purchase the integrity of the former. So Jerusalem remained inviolate; she was still "the virgin, the daughter of Zion." And now upon the redeemed city Isaiah could proceed to rebuild the shattered faith and morals of her people. He could say to them, "Everything has turned out as, by the word of the Lord, I said it should. The Assyrian has come down; Egypt has failed you. Your politicians, with their scorn of religion and their confidence in their cleverness, have deserted you. I told you that your numberless sacrifices and pomp of unreal religion would avail you nothing in your day of disaster, and lo when this came, your religion collapsed. Your abounding wickedness, I said, could only close in your ruin and desertion by God. But one promise I kept steadfast: that Jerusalem would not fall; and to your penitence, whenever it should be real, I assured forgiveness. Jerusalem stands today, according to my word; and I repeat my gospel. History has vindicated my word, but ‘Come now, let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ I call upon you to build again on your redeemed city, and by the grace of this pardon, the fallen ruins of your life." Some such sermon-if indeed not actually part of chapter 1-we must conceive Isaiah to have delivered to the people when Hezekiah had bought off Sennacherib, for we find the state of Jerusalem suddenly altered. Instead of the panic, which imagined the daily capture of the city, and rushed in hectic holiday to the housetops, crying, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die," we see the citizens back upon the walls, trembling yet trusting. Instead of sweeping past Isaiah in their revelry and leaving him to feel that after forty years of travail he had lost all his influence with them, we see them gathering round about him, as their single hope and confidence (chapter 37). King and people look to Isaiah as their counsellor, and cannot answer the enemy without consulting him. What a change from the days of the Egyptian alliance, embassies sent off against his remonstrance, and intrigues developed without his knowledge; when Ahaz insulted him, and the drunken magnates mimicked him, and, in order to rouse an indolent people, he had to walk about the streets of Jerusalem for three years, stripped like a captive! Truly this was the day of Isaiah’s triumph, when God by events vindicated his prophecy, and all the people acknowledged his leadership. It was the hour of the prophet’s triumph, but the nation had as yet only trials before it. God has not done with nations or men when He has forgiven them. This people, whom of His grace, and in spite of themselves, God had saved from destruction, stood on the brink of another trial. God had given them a new lease of life, but it was immediately to pass through the furnace. They had bought off Sennacherib, but Sennacherib came back. When Sennacherib got the tribute, he repented of the treaty he had made with Hezekiah. He may have felt that it was a mistake to leave in his rear so powerful a fortress, while he had still to complete the overthrow of the Egyptians. So, in spite of the tribute, he sent a force back to Jerusalem to demand her surrender. We can imagine the moral effect upon King Hezekiah and his people. It was enough to sting the most demoralised into courage. Sennacherib had doubtless expected so pliant a king and so crushed a people to yield at once. But we may confidently picture the joy of Isaiah, as he felt the return of the Assyrians to be the very thing required to restore spirit to his demoralised countrymen. Here was a foe, whom they could face with a sense of justice, and not, as they had met him before, in carnal confidence and the pride of their own cleverness. Now was to be a war not, like former wars, undertaken merely for party glory, but with the purest feelings of patriotism and the firmest sanctions of religion, a campaign to be entered upon, not with Pharaoh’s support and the strength of Egyptian chariots, but with God Himself as an ally-of which it could be said to Judah, "Thy righteousness shall go before thee. And the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward." On what free, exultant wings the spirit of Isaiah must have risen to the sublime occasion! We know him as by nature an ardent patriot and passionate lover of his city, but through circumstance her pitiless critic and unsparing judge. In all the literature of patriotism there are no finer odes and orations than those which it owes to him; from no lips came stronger songs of war, and no heart rejoiced more in the valour that turns the battle from the gate. But till now Isaiah’s patriotism had been chiefly a conscience of his country’s sins, his passionate love for Jerusalem repressed by as stern a loyalty to righteousness, and all his eloquence and courage spent in holding his people from war and persuading them to returning and rest. At last this conflict is at an end. The stubbornness of Judah, which has divided like some rock the current of her prophet’s energies, and forced it back writhing and eddying upon itself, is removed. Isaiah’s faith and his patriotism run free with the force of twin-tides in one channel, and we hear the fulness of their roar as they leap together upon the enemies of God and the fatherland. "Woe to thee, thou spoiler, and thou wast not spoiled, thou treacherous dealer, and. they did not deal treacherously with thee! Whenever thou ceasest to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and whenever thou hast made an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. O Jehovah, be gracious unto us; for Thee have we waited: be Thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. From the noise of a surging the peoples have fled; from the lifting up of Thyself the nations are scattered. And gathered is your spoil, the gathering of the caterpillar; like the leaping of locusts, they are leaping upon it. Exalted is Jehovah; yea, He dwelleth on high: He hath filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And there shall be stability of thy times, wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the fear of Jehovah, it shall be his treasure". { Isaiah 33:1-6 } Thus, then, do we propose to bridge the gulf which lies between chapters 1 and 22 on the one hand and chapter 33, on the other. If they are all to be dated from the year 701, some such bridge is necessary. And the one we have traced is both morally sufficient and in harmony with what we know to have been the course of events. What do we learn from it all? We learn a great deal upon that truth which chapter 33 closes by announcing-the truth of Divine forgiveness. The forgiveness of God is the foundation of every bridge from a hopeless past to a courageous present. That God can make the past be for guilt as though it had not been is always to Isaiah the assurance of the future. An old Greek miniature represents him with Night behind him, veiled and sullen and holding a reversed torch. But before him stands Dawn and Innocence, a little child, with bright face and forward step and torch erect and burning. From above a hand pours light upon the face of the prophet, turned upwards. It is the message of a Divine pardon. Never did prophet more wearily feel the moral continuity of the generations, the lingering and ineradicable effects of crime. Only faith in a pardoning God could have enabled him, with such conviction of the inseparableness of yesterday and tomorrow, to make divorce between them, and turning his back on the past, as this miniature represents, hail the future as Immanuel, a child of infinite promise. From exposing and scourging the past, from proving it corrupt and pregnant with poison for all the future, Isaiah will turn on a single verse, and give us a future without war, sorrow, or fraud. His pivot is ever the pardon of God. But nowhere is his faith in this so powerful, his turning upon it so swift, as at this period of Jerusalem’s collapse, when, having sentenced the people to death for their iniquity-"It was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts" { Isaiah 22:14 } -he swings round on his promise of a little before-"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow"-and to the people’s penitence pronounces in the last verse of chapter 33, a final absolution: "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquity." If chapter 33 be, as many think, Isaiah’s latest oracle, then we have the literal crown of all his prophesying in these two words: forgiven iniquity. It is as he put it early that same year: "Come now, let us bring our reasoning to a close; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." If man is to have a future, this must be the conclusion of all his past. But the absoluteness of God’s pardon, making the past as though it had not been, is not the only lesson which the spiritual experience of Jerusalem in that awful year of 701 has for us. Isaiah’s gospel of forgiveness is nothing less than this: that when God gives pardon He gives himself. The name of the blessed future, which is entered through pardon-as in that miniature, a child-is Immanuel: God-with-us. And if it be correct that we owe the forty-sixth Psalm to these months when the Assyrian came back upon Jerusalem, then we see how the city, that had abandoned God, is yet able to sing when she is pardoned, "God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in the midst of troubles." And this gospel of forgiveness is not only Isaiah’s. According to the whole Bible, there is but one thing which separates man from God-that is sin, and when sin is done away with, God cannot be kept from man. In giving pardon to man, God gives back to man Himself. How gloriously evident this truth becomes in the New Testament! Christ, who is set before us as the Lamb of God, who beareth the sins of the world, is also Immanuel-God-with-us. The Sacrament, which most plainly seals to the believer the value of the One Sacrifice for sin, is the Sacrament in which the believer feeds upon Christ and appropriates Him. The sinner, who comes to Christ, not only receives pardon for Christ’s sake, but receives Christ. Forgiveness means nothing less than this: that in giving pardon God gives Himself. But if forgiveness mean all this, then the objections frequently brought against a conveyance of it so unconditioned as that of Isaiah fall to the ground. Forgiveness of such a kind cannot be either unjust or demoralising. On the contrary, we see Jerusalem permoralised by it. At first, it is true, the sense of weakness and fear abounds, as we learn from the narrative in chapters 36 and 37. But where there was vanity, recklessness, and despair, giving way to dissipation, there is now humility, discipline, and a leaning upon God, that are led up to confidence and exultation. Jerusalem’s experience is just another proof that any moral results are possible to so great a process as the return of God to the soul. Awful is the responsibility of them who receive such a Gift and such a Guest; but the sense of that awfulness is the atmosphere, in which obedience and holiness and the courage that is born of both love best to grow. One can understand men scoffing at messages of pardon so unconditioned as Isaiah’s, who think they "mean no more than a clean slate." Taken in this sense, the gospel of forgiveness must prove a savour of death unto death. But just as Jerusalem interpreted the message of her pardon to mean that "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved," and straightway obedience was in all her hearts, and courage upon all her walls, so neither to us can be futile the New Testament form of the same gospel, which makes our pardoned soul the friend of God, accepted in the Beloved, and our body His holy temple. Upon one other point connected with the forgiveness of sins we get instruction from the experience of Jerusalem. A man has difficulty in squaring his sense of forgiveness with the return on the back of it of his old temptations and trials, with the hostility of fortune and with the inexorableness of nature. Grace has spoken to his heart, but Providence bears more hard upon him than ever. Pardon does not change the outside of life; it does not immediately modify the movements of history, or suspend the laws of nature. Although God has forgiven Jerusalem, Assyria comes back to besiege her. Although the penitent be truly reconciled to God, the constitutional results of his fall remain: the frequency of temptation, the power of habit, the bias and facility downwards, the physical and social consequences. Pardon changes none of these things. It does not keep off the Assyrians. But if pardon means the return of God to the soul, then in this we have the secret of the return of the foe. Men could not try nor develop a sense of the former except by their experience of the latter. We have seen why Isaiah must have welcomed the perfidious re-appearance of the Assyrians after he had helped to buy them off. Nothing could better test the sincerity of Jerusalem’s repentance, or rally her dissipated forces. Had the Assyrians not returned, the Jews would have had no experimental proof of God’s restored presence, and the great miracle would never have happened that rang through human history for evermore-a trumpet-call to faith in the God of Israel. And so still "the Lord scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," because He would put our penitence to the test; because He would discipline our disorganised affections, and give conscience and will a chance of wiping out defeat by victory; because He would baptise us with the most powerful baptism possible-the sense of being trusted once more to face the enemy upon the fields of our disgrace. That is why the Assyrians came back to Jerusalem, and that is why temptations and penalties still pursue the penitent and forgiven. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

The burden of the valley of vision. Isaiah 22:1 "The valley of vision B. Blake, B. D. This expression is applied to Jerusalem, where Jehovah was pleased to give visions concerning His will to His servants. ( B. Blake, B. D. ) The valley of vision F. Delitzsch. It is quite in place, in so far as round Jerusalem there are mountains, and the very city, which in relation to the country occupied an elevated position, in relation to the mountains of the immediate neighbourhood appeared to stand on a low level. Because of this two-fold aspect Jerusalem is called ( Jeremiah 21:13 ) the "inhabitant of the valley," and immediately on the back of this the "rock of the plain," and ( Jeremiah 17:3 ) the "mountain in the fields," whereas ( Zephaniah 1:11 ) not all Jerusalem, but a part of it (probably the ravine of the Tyropaeum) is called the mortar, or as we say, basin. If we add to this that Isaiah's house was situated in the lower city, and that therefore the point of view from which the epithet was applied was there, the expression is perfectly appropriate. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Jerusalem, the valley of vision F. Delitzsch. Furthermore, the epithet is intended to be more than geographical. A valley is a lonely, quiet depression, shut in and cut off by mountains. Similarly is Jerusalem the sheltered, peaceful place, closed against the world, which Jehovah has chosen in order to show there to His prophets the secrets of His government of the world. ( F. Delitzsch. ) The valley of vision spiritualised Where Bibles and ministers are, there is a valley of vision, from which is expected fruit accordingly. ( M. Henry . ) The inexpiable sin of Jerusalem J. Skinner, D. D. The key to this passage (vers. 1-14) — the most lurid and minatory of all Isaiah's prophecies — is the irreconcilable antagonism between the mood of the prophet and the state of public feeling around him. In a time of universal mirth and festivity he alone is overwhelmed with grief and refuses to be comforted. In the rejoicings of the populace he reads the evidence of their hopeless impenitence and insensibility, and he concludes his discourse by expressing the conviction that at last they have sinned beyond the possibility of pardon. The circumstances recall our Lord's lamentation over Jerusalem on the day of His triumphal entry. ( J. Skinner, D. D. ) The historical allusion J. Skinner, D. D. It may be regarded as certain that the prophecy belongs to the period of Sennacherib's invasion (701), although it is difficult to select a moment when all the elements of the highly complex situation with which it deals might have been combined. There is just one incident that seems to meet the requirements of the case, namely, the raising of the blockade of Jerusalem, in consequence of Hezekiah's ignominious submission to the terms of Sennacherib. It must be noted that this was not the last episode in that memorable campaign. The real crisis came a little later when the Assyrian king endeavoured by threats to extort the entire surrender of the capital. It was only at that juncture that Hezekiah unreservedly accepted the policy of implicit trust in Jehovah which Isaiah had all along urged on him; and it was then that the prophet stepped to the front with an absolute and unconditional assurance that Jerusalem should not be violated. That the earlier deliverance should have caused an outbreak of popular joy is intelligible enough; as it is also intelligible that Isaiah should have kept his eye fixed on the dangers yet ahead. The allusions to the recent blockade are amply accounted for, and the prophet's expectation of a terrible disaster yet in store is obviously based on his view of the continued and aggravated impenitence of his countrymen. ( J. Skinner, D. D. ) What aileth thee now? A mad holiday Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. In these words we can hear the old man addressing his fickle child, whose changefulness by this time. he knew so well. We see him standing at his door watching this ghastly holiday. "What are you rejoicing at in such an hour as this, when you have not even the bravery of your soldiers to celebrate, when you are without that pride which has brought songs from the lips of a defeated people as they learned that their sons had fallen with their faces to the foe, and has made even the wounds of the dead borne through the gate lips of triumph, calling to festival?" ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) A new year's question Preachers' Magazine. I. It specially designates "THEE." There is an identity in human experience. But there is at the same time an intense personality in each one of us, secrets in our experience — secret struggles, failures, motives, emotions. II. A SPECIFIC TIME — "NOW." Not the past — or the future — but the present. III. THE AILMENT. IV. THE QUERY is suggestive, as though the prophet's inquiries were made with a view to a remedy. What is the specific for the ailment? Wealth, etc.? No! personal salvation. ( Preachers' Magazine. ) Ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof. Isaiah 22:11 A godless prudence J. W. Lance. They take measures to supply the city with water during its siege, and to cut it off, if possible, from the besiegers. "Why," as it is written in the history which gives us the fulfilment of this prophecy, "should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?" Where this fails everything fails, for water, next to the air we breathe, is the first necessity of human life. There are, it seems, certain streams or pools of water fed with springs outside the city, and these they manage to divert, so that they flow now away from the besiegers and in favour of the besieged. The city has two watts, and between these two — the inner and the outer — a ditch or trench is dug, and the water of the old pool made to flow into it, forming at once as a moat some kind of protection for the inner wall, should the outer be broken down, and also a supply for the use of the inhabitants. All this was right and reasonable, and no blame could be laid upon the authorities for taking these precautions. But there is blame in this, that notwithstanding they are the Lord's chosen people, and have ever been taught that they owe all they have to Him, yet they do not recognise Him as the bountiful Lord and gracious Giver. ( J. W. Lance. ) Man's use of God's gifts J. W. Lance. We have here a kind of type and pattern of the infirmity so common to human nature, namely, forgetfulness of God in the use and appropriation of those things which He has provided for us. I. Look, e.g. , at the Divine provisions in THE GREAT STOREHOUSES OF NATURE. See how by invention and discovery we turn these to account, perceiving in some instances forces which, though old, are new to us, and in others ingeniously applying old and well-known forces to new purposes in the advancement of civilisation and for the comfort and convenience of life. It is written concerning man in the Book of Psalms, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands." II. Let us take up the more familiar theme of DAILY PROVIDENCE. We can see God in clouds, we can hear Him in the wind; He is sometimes near to us in the earthquake and the fire, as well as in the still small voice; but we often fail to see Him in those common mercies which are yet new every morning and fresh every evening. Consider that loaf of bread on your table. It should be to you a revelation; and that it may be so, find out its genesis. It was flour yesterday or the day before, and it came, perhaps, from France, or Spain, or America, where it was grown as wheat — came to you across the ocean, God's own highway in the wilderness of waters. Long ago He fashioned those grains of wheat, and put into them such force of life that a handful or less, found in an Egyptian mummy three thousand years old, when planted in English soil, have grown and brought forth thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold. "Givens this day our daily bread," simplest of all prayers as it seems, is really asking that nature's forces may continue to be filled and sustained by Him who made them; and that the industries of life may go on working harmoniously with the gracious providence of God, for without these links human and Divine in the great golden chain, our daily bread would cease. III. IN RELIGION, too, we may see how the Divine gifts have been used, and, alas! too often abused, in blind forgetfulness of the Divine Giver. Man is a creature who can no more do without "religion" than he can do without money, without clothing, without houses, or without food. But though naturally religious, it does not follow that he is godly. We may make to ourselves a religion without God. One of the charges brought by the apostle Paul against those who had formed the most elaborate and complex religious systems was, that they did not "like to retain God in their knowledge." The religious faculty, God-given, in some sort they exercised, but they lost sight of Him the Giver. They lost His unity among their myriad gods and goddesses, and so Israel's mission was to declare, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." They lost sight, too, of His justice; for though they said, "The gods are just," yet when we read the story of their lives, their vices, and their crimes, every idea of justice is shocked and revolted; and as to these gods, they that make them are like unto them. It may be, too, that in our own theologies we have not been in this respect free from fault. Even in Christian theology the "Theos," the personal God, may have been too much lost sight of. It may ye, as is sometimes charged upon us, that we think of God as a "bundle of attributes," rather than as a living Father revealed to us in the Christ. IV. IN CHRISTIAN ORDINANCES let us always see the Giver. Unless we do so, use in them there is none. ( J. W. Lance. ) And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping...And behold joy and gladness. Isaiah 22:12-14 A call to repentance H. Blair, D. D. I. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE (ver. 12). 1. The day here referred to was a season of abounding iniquity. A day of sore trouble (vers. 4, 5). II. THE RECEPTION IT MET WITH. (ver. 13). There is no room to suppose that they had given no attention to the message delivered by the prophet. It would rather appear that they had attended to it with accuracy, nay, studied its meaning on purpose to counteract it; for a contrast so minutely exact, a scheme of contradiction so completely adjusted, could hardly have been stumbled upon by mere accident. And indeed the latter part of the verse puts this beyond all doubt, "Let us eat and drink," said they, "for tomorrow we shall die." We are not to imagine that these words were spoken seriously, by one of those presumptuous and boasting rebels. The most daring amongst them must have been conscious that the aspect of the king of terrors, at their most sumptuous entertainments, would leave them no appetite either for flesh or wine. They meant it as a scoff, a witty saying, for turning rote ridicule the warning they had received, but which they did not believe. It is common enough to condemn the same faults in others which we easily forgive, nay, cherish in ourselves. III. THE ALARMING DENUNCIATION OF WRATH against those perverse and obstinate transgressors (ver. 14). IV. IMPROVEMENT. What concern have we in these things? ( 1 Corinthians 10:11 ). God is always the same. And therefore, in His past acts of government, as they are explained by His Word, we behold a plan of righteous administration, from whence we may learn, with some degree of certainty, what kind of treatment, in similar circumstances, we ourselves have reason to expect. ( H. Blair, D. D. ) God's call to repentance G. B. Macdonald. The awful state of Jerusalem forces this truth upon our minds — that no privileges, civil or religious, can give immunity to a depraved and guilty people, from the threatened judgments of an angry God. In how many instances do the circumstances and the conduct of the ancient Jews strikingly resemble ours! I. THE DUTY TO WHICH GOD CALLS US. We are called to "weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth" — these expressions being indicative of the ancient" forms of mourning." We are called by our calamities to it; we are called by our God. II. THE CONDUCT WHICH IS DISPLAYED. "And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" — a sensualist notion, which may be taken here either as the language of despair — "Since we must die tomorrow, let us eat and drink today; or, in the way of sneering — They say we shall die; let us eat and drink then, and enjoy as much as we can of the good things of this life." III. THE THREATENING WHICH IS DENOUNCED (ver. 14). God's threatenings are not idle declamations. ( G. B. Macdonald. ) Judah's great folly E. H. Plumptre, D. D. They were entering on the terrible issues of the struggle with Assyria with as light a heart as the Parisians did on the Franco-German war. They were spending, as it were, the night before the battle in the revelry of drunken mirth, as the Saxons spent the night before the battle of Hastings. ( E. H. Plumptre, D. D. ) Shebna. Isaiah 22:15-19 Shebna B. Blake, B. D. In the councils of Hezekiah there was a strong party favourable to an alliance between Judah and Egypt. At the head of the party stood Shebna. He occupied a post corresponding to that of our prime minister, and was treasurer, or chief adviser of the king. His tenure of office bode no good to Jerusalem: his pro-Egyptian policy, like the pro-Assyrian policy of Ahaz, was utterly displeasing to Jehovah, and alien to the best traditions of David's house. Against this policy Isaiah is specially commissioned to raise his voice. In the discharge of this mission he singles out Shebna, a stranger apparently, who had by ambition raised himself to high office, and was devoid of religious principle. He had been securing honour for himself, establishing his family in the land, as he thought, and, as the custom was, hewing out for himself a sepulchre. But from that high office he would soon be disgracefully ousted, when king and people would alike come to see the unworthy Character of an Egyptian alliance. And it is worthy of remark that this prophecy was speedily fulfilled. For when the Rabshakeh is met by Hezekiah's messengers, Shebna does not occupy the first place. ( B. Blake, B. D. ) The prophecy concerning Shebna Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. This prophecy illustrates the influence wielded by Isaiah in the domestic polities of Judah. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Shebna a foreigner Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. To judge from the form of his name he was probably a Syrian. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Shebna's vain expectation F. Delitzsch. In the rock of [the east slope of Zion] from the top downwards, the tombs of the kings were hewn. So high a position, does Shebna occupy, and so great does he think himself, that he hopes after his death to be laid to rest among kings, and by no means far down. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Shebna's tomb Sir E. Strachey, Bart The mention of the height of Shebna's new tomb is supposed to indicate his extreme pretension to pomp and dignity. The ancients, not excepting the Jews, attached much more importance than we do to everything connected with the burial of the dead, because they were so much less able to distinguish the human person from the earthly body, or to apprehend the substantial reality of the former a part from the latter. Our burials symbolise, and express our faith in, immortality and a resurrection; but the Jews shared more or less the common feeling of antiquity that there was some real connection between a man's due obsequies and his state after death. Still their faith, though obscure, was in me main spiritual and elevating, when held as it was by David, Hezekiah, or Job. But the worldly and sense-bound man then, as indeed he does now, contemplated the costly preparations for his burial, and for the preservation of his embalmed and entombed body, as the last possible act of regard for that sensual existence which he alone cared for. It was but the consistent maintenance to the last of his sensual creed, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart ) He will surely violently turn and toss the like a ball. Isaiah 22:18 Shebna's doom Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. To this unfamilied intruder, who had sought to establish himself in Jerusalem, after the manner of those days, by hewing himself a great sepulchre, Isaiah brought sentence of violent banishment: "Behold, Jehovah will be hurling, hurling thee away, thou big man, and crumpling, crumpling thee together. He will roll, roll thee on, thou rolling stone, like a ball thrown out On broad, level ground; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the house of thy lord. And I thrust thee from thy post, and from thy station do they pull thee down." This vagabond was not to die in his bed, nor to be gathered in his big tomb to the people on whom he had foisted himself. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) Shebna's doom Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. For him, like Cain, there was a land of Nod; and upon it he was to find a vagabond's death. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) Shebna's ejection J. A. Alexander. The ideas suggested are those of violence, rapidity, and distance. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Retribution Those that, when they are in power, turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves when their day shall come to fall. Many that have thought themselves fastened like a nail may come to be tossed like a ball, for here have we no continuing city. Shebna thought his place too strait for him, he had no room to thrive; God will, therefore, send him into "a large country," where he shall have room to wander, but never find the way back again. ( M. Henry . ) The irresistibleness of God's judgments W. Manning. Learn — I. THE EASE WITH WHICH GOD EFFECTS HIS JUDGMENTS. II. THE UTTER USELESSNESS OF ANY RESISTANCE TO THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. As surely as a ball must follow the line of projection, so surely must we go whither the judgments of God carry us. III. THE AWFULNESS OF FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD. ( W. Manning. ) My servant Eliakim. Isaiah 22:20-25 "My servant Eliakim J. Parker, D. D. Who was he? Nobody can tell. Where else is he referred to in Holy Writ? Probably nowhere. Was he then a man without renown? That depends upon what you mean by renown, for he is indicated in the text by terms which imply infinite fame, Say "Eliakim," and nobody knows him; say "My servant Eliakim," and obscurity rises up into eminence unrivalled and never to be surpassed. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Renown, nominal and moral J. Parker, D. D. Renown, then, may be nominal, or it may be moral. Nominal renown is a thing that comes and goes, a coloured cloud, a bubble on the river, a noise in the air, nothing that is substantial, nothing that is beneficent in itself; but moral renown, the renown of goodness, the fame of character, the reputation associated with deeds of sacrifice or valour — that is a renown which lives in heaven. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Eliakim and Christ B. Blake, B. D. The language here used about Eliakim finds its perfect fulfilment only in Him whose supreme prerogative it is so to open that no man can shut, even Jesus Christ. ( B. Blake, B. D. ) The power of the keys F. Delitzsch. (ver. 22) consists not merely in supervision of the royal chambers, but also in the decision as to who was and who was not to be received into the king's service. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Eliakim: the nail and the throne F. Delitzsch. A nation's rulers ( Zechariah 10:4 ) stand in the same relation to the community as a tent peg to the tent which it holds firmly and keeps up. As the tent peg is driven into the ground in such a way that a person can, if necessary, sit on it, so by development of the metaphor the peg is changed into a seat of honour. As a splendid chair adorns a room, so Eliakim graces his hitherto undistinguished family. The closely connected thought, that the members of his family in order to attain to honours would sit on this chair, is expressed by a different figure. Eliakim is once more presented to us as a "nail," now, however, as a high one, somewhat like a pole on which coats are hung up, or as a peg driven into the wall at a distance from the ground. On this pole or peg they hang — i.e. , one hangs or there hangs — the whole heavy lot (as in chap. 8:7) of the family of Eliakim. The prophet proceeds to split up this family into its male and female components, as the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine nouns shows. ( F. Delitzsch. ) The kingdom and government of the glorious Messiah typified by Eliakim's preferment and promotion E. Erskine. I. ELIAKIM'S CALL unto his honourable employment, whereby is represented Christ's call unto His mediatory work and office (ver. 20). Christ did not run unsent. II. THE BADGES OF HONOUR bestowed upon Him in consequence of His call (vers. 21, 22). 1. He is clothed with a royal robe. So Christ is clothed ( Revelation 1 ) with a garment down to the foot, that serves to cover and adorn Himself and all His members. 2. He is strengthened with a girdle, a girdle of truth and faithfulness; He is always ready girded for the execution of His work. 3. He hath the keys of the house committed to Him, and the sole government; He opens, and none shuts, etc. The keys of the heart, and the keys of hell and death are in His hand. III. HIS CONFIRMATION IN HIS HONOURABLE OFFICE AND STATION. He is "fastened as a nail in a sure place." Christ is nailed in His mediatory work and office by an eternal decree ( Psalm 2:7 ), and by the oath of God ( Psalm 110:4 ); and all the powers of hell and earth shall never loose this nail. IV. We are here told TO WHAT ADVANTAGE HE SHOULD DISCHARGE HIS TRUST. "He shall be for a glorious throne to His Father's house." God manifested in the flesh is the throne of grace to which we are called to come with boldness; and this may well be called a glorious throne," because there is, in this dispensation of grace, the brightest display of the glory of God. Christ is the ornament of His Father's house, the brightness of His glory, and the brightest crown that ever adorned the human nature. V. CHRIST'S PREEMINENCE IN GOD'S FAMILY, and the dependence of all the domestics upon Him (ver. 24). 1. The designation given unto the Church of God; "the house of the God and Father of Christ." 2. The nature and quality of the house; there is "glory" in it. 3. The high and honourable station that Christ hath in His Father's house; He is the great Master household, and the whole family is committed to Him, and is said to "hang upon Him as a nail fastened in a sure place." 4. The common consent of the whole family unto His management; they shall hang upon Him all the glory, etc.; i.e. , the Father of the family, and the whole offspring of the house, concur amicably that He should have the sole management. 5. Some account of the furniture of the house, committed to the management of the great New Testament Eliakim. (1) The glory. (2) The offspring and issue. (3) The vessels of small quantity, from vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.By which we are to understand believers, for they are the children of God, and the seed of Christ by regeneration; and likewise called "vessels," because they are the recipient subjects of Divine grace, which is the wine, milk, and honey of the house. ( E. Erskine. ) And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. Isaiah 22:23 The fastening hold of Christ Homilist. The fastening force of Christ upon the soul of humanity is seen — I. IN HIS HOLD UPON THE GENERAL MIND OF THE WORLD. Who, throughout the history of the ages, have laid such a firm grip upon mankind as Christ has? It is true that Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed, have had — and still have — a firm hold on millions of souls. Some of them have a far wider influence than that of Christ, but they are not fastened so firmly. 1. Philosophy shows this. Their systems — if systems they can be called — only appeal to certain faculties in human nature; Christ grasps the entire man — intellect, imagination, conscience, hope, fear, love. 2. History shows this. Heathenism does not encroach upon Christianity. Christians are not converted to Zoroaster, Confucius, etc., but their followers are converted to Christianity every day. Heathendom is contracting, Christendom is extending on all hands. Its language, its literature, its institutions, are pushing themselves everywhere. The "nail" is made so fast, that to extract it would be to tear the world to pieces. II. IN HIS HOLD UPON THE CONSECRATED MIND OF HIS DISCIPLES. His hold here is far firmer than His hold on the general mind. He goes deeper into humanity, He takes hold of the entire soul, and makes it captive. Or, to change the figure, He strikes His roots into every faculty of the soul. He becomes to the human spirit in this case what the sap is to the tree. You must tear the soul to pieces — nay, you must annihilate it — before you can extract his "nail." ( Homilist. ) A nail in a sure place Homilist. I. THE LESSON OF THE NAIL; that little things may be very important things. We read when David prepared for the building of the temple, "he prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates." So all preparation for training, for education, for the formation of character, is a kind of holy iron, hereafter to be fashioned into nails for the "sure place." And if you turn to Ezra 9:8 , you will find the good man even makes this a matter of prayer, that "God would give him a nail in His holy place" — that is, that he and his might have a place of security, however insignificant it might be; for a nail, small as it is, speaks of security, it fastens things. There is an old proverb which says how, "for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the rider was lost." II. THE SURE PLACE. From which you learn, that even things good in themselves must be in a good place, in order that they may be of any good. For instance — 1. Good words, in order that they may do good, need good memories; and the good memory is the "sure place." 2. A good example in a fruitful life is "a nail in a sure place." 3. Faith fixed on a good object is "a nail in a sure place." Faith is not always good; people may believe lies. If you look to Christ and trust in Him there will be the "nail in the sure place." III. THE LESSON OF THE FASTENING. 1. In order to the fastening a nail needs guiding. You will need strength, help, and guidance from God. 2. Fastened. Some things, once fixed, are fixed forever. What a dreadful thing it is, to think that this applies, so far as we are able to say and to see, to bad things! Habit fixes a man like "a nail in a sure place," fixes his ways of thought and life so that it seems as if he is immovable; for every time we repeat a wrong thing, it is driven farther and farther into our life. See to it, as you value your happiness for time and eternity, that, if you are fastened as "a nail in a sure place," it shall be a good place. 3. In a good place, fastened. "Be steadfast, unmovable": act in such a manner that the bad people shall never have any hopes of getting you over on their side, or of drawing you out of your sure place. ( Homilist. ) Nails in Eastern houses J. N. Norton. These nails, or pegs, when employed in houses, were not driven into the walls after the building was finished, but were worked in while the building was going up. The strong hooks, or spikes, thus secured in the mortar answered the double purpose of clamp irons to hold the walls together, and of nails on which anything could be hung. ( J. N. Norton. ) The nail in a sure place J. N. Norton. The promise concerning Eliakim amounts to this: "I will so build him up into My spiritual temple (so the Almighty may be supposed to say), that he himself may be securely fixed in it, and that others also may safely depend on him for help and counsel." As Eliakim was a type of Christ, we have in this similitude an instructive lesson, both of our duty and our happiness. On Him we must hang our hopes and interests, both with respect to our own salvation, and to the peace and prosperity of the Church. I. Eliakim was a type of Christ IN BEING THE SUCCESSOR OF ONE WHO HAD PROVED HIMSELF UNWORTHY OF HIS OFFICE. As the haughty and unprincipled Shebna gave place to a man whom no selfish interests could possibly influence, so were the corrupt and evil-minded rulers of the Jewish nation to be set aside at the appearance of the Messiah who was to govern the world in righteousness. II. Again, Eliakim was a type of Christ, IN THE AUTHORITY ENTRUSTED TO HIM. As the successor of the faithless Shebna was honoured by having "the key of the house of David laid upon his shoulder," in token of the unlimited authority which he was thenceforth to exercise, so was the Lord Jesus to be entrusted with "all power in heaven and earth;" and we find Him adopting the same lofty terms to describe His own regal attributes ( Revelation 3:7 ). III. A third particular in which Eliakim may be considered as a type of Christ, is IN THE BENEFITS AND BLESSINGS SECURED BY HIS RIGHTEOUS RULE. Eliakim, we are told, was "a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah," but the benefits of the wisest administration of man are few and insignificant, when compared with those which are secured to the world by the glorious reign of the Prince of Peace. ( J. N. Norton. ) And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house. Isaiah 22:24 Eliakim's family Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. The vessels, large and small, are figures of the various members of Eliakim's family. As vessels of every kind are suspended upon a nail, so will Eliakim's connections, rich and poor alike, support themselves upon his new dignity. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Oriental display of wealth J. N. Norton. A large part of the wealth of the ancients consisted of gold and silver vessels, and in changes of showy raiment, of which they made an ostentatious display, by hanging them on the spikes along the walls. It was also common to suspend in houses and temples, suits of armour, swords, shields, and helmets; the spoils of war, or the heirlooms of honoured ancestors ( Song of Solomon 4:4 ). ( J. N. Norton. ) Christ the sole Manager of the Church I. THE CHURCH IS THE HOUSE OF GOD ( Isaiah 2:2, 3 ; Hebrews 3:6 ; 1 Peter 2:5 ). 1. He is the Founder of the house. 2. The Purchaser. 3. The sole Proprietor. 4. Here He hath His abode.Hence, it must be a very glorious structure. The plan of it was laid by infinite wisdom from all eternity ( Proverbs 9:1 ). (1) The foundation of the house is glorious. (2) The form. (3) The door ( John 10:9 ). (4) The pillars ( Proverbs 9:1 ). These are the perfections of the Divine nature as they are manifested in Christ. (5) The ordinances. II. CHRIST IS CONSTITUTED THE GREAT MANAGER OF HIS FATHER'S HOUSE. 1. In the council of peace, from eternity, He was chosen to be the Builder of the house ( Zechariah 6:12, 13 ). 2. He is the everlasting Father of the family ( Isaiah 9:6 ). 3. The great Oracle and Counsellor ( Isaiah 9:6 ). 4. The great Priest ( Hebrews 10:21 ). 5. The great Lord-Treasurer, yea, the treasury ( Colossians 1:19 ; John 1:16 ). 6. The great Lord-Steward or Dispenser. 7. The Lawgiver. III. CHRIST IS FIXED IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE HOUSE OF GOD, as a nail in a sure place. 1. There is an irreversible decree passed in heaven that He should be the sole Manager and Governor of the house ( Psalm 2:6, 7 ). 2. He is fixed in the administration of the house with the solemnity of a covenant transaction ( Psalm 89:3 ). 3. With the solemnity of an oath taken by the great Jehovah. 4. In His oath He pledges the most dazzling perfection of His nature. He will as soon cease to be a holy God, as suffer His Son's authority in His house to be overturned. 5. He is fixed in the management by a solemn call and investiture. 6. By an actual possession of the throne ( Philippians 2:9-11 ). 7. By a complete victory over all His and His Church's enemies, so that none of them are capable to give Him the least disturbance. IV. THE WHOLE HOUSE, WITH ALL ITS APPURTENANCES, HANGS OR DEPENDS UPON THIS BLESSED NAIL THAT IS FASTENED IN A SURE PLACE. 1. All the glory of the house hangs upon our Lord Jesus Christ.(1) God's presence in a Church makes her glorious. It is owing to Christ that the tabernacle of God is with men.(2) The revelation of the mi

22:1-7 Why is Jerusalem in such terror? Her slain men are not slain with the sword, but with famine; or, slain with fear, disheartened. Their rulers fled, but were overtaken. The servants of God, who foresee and warn sinners of coming miseries, are affected by the prospect. But all the horrors of a city taken by storm, faintly shadow forth the terrors of the day of wrath. 22:8-14 The weakness of Judah now appeared more than ever. Now also they discovered their carnal confidence and their carnal security. They looked to the fortifications. They made sure of water for the city. But they were regardless of God in all these preparations. They did not care for his glory in what they did. They did not depend upon him for a blessing on their endeavours. For every creature is to us what God makes it to be; and we must bless him for it, and use it for him. There was great contempt of God's wrath and justice, in contending with them. God's design was to humble them, and bring them to repentance. They walked contrary to this. Actual disbelief of another life after this, is at the bottom of the carnal security and brutish sensuality, which are the sin, the shame, and ruin of so great a part of mankind. God was displeased at this. It is a sin against the remedy, and it is not likely they should ever repent of it. Whether this unbelief works by presumption or despair, it produces the same contempt of God, and is a token that a man will perish wilfully. 22:15-25 This message to Shebna is a reproof of his pride, vanity, and security; what vanity is all earthly grandeur, which death will so soon end! What will it avail, whether we are laid in a magnificent tomb, or covered with the green sod? Those who, when in power, turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves. Eliakim should be put into Shebna's place. Those called to places of trust and power, should seek to God for grace to enable them to do their duty. Eliakim's advancement is described. Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as Mediator, Re 3:7, that he has the key of David. His power in the kingdom of heaven, and in ordering all the affairs of that kingdom, is absolute. Rulers should be fathers to those under their government; and the honour men bring unto their families, by their piety and usefulness, is more to be valued than what they derive from them by their names and titles. The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence; it is but hung upon him, and it will soon drop from him. Eliakim was compared to a nail in a sure place; all his family are said to depend upon him. In eastern houses, rows of large spikes were built up in the walls. Upon these the moveables and utensils were hung. Our Lord Jesus is as a nail in a sure place. That soul cannot perish, nor that concern fall to the ground, which is by faith hung upon Christ. He will set before the believer an open door, which no man can shut, and bring both body and soul to eternal glory. But those who neglect so great salvation will find, that when he shutteth none can open, whether it be shutting out from heaven, or shutting up in hell for ever.