Isaiah 22: 15-18

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord God of hosts,

“Come, go to this steward,
To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,
¹⁶ ‘What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,
You who hew a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?
¹⁷ ‘Behold, the Lord is about to hurl you headlong, O man.
And He is about to grasp you firmly
¹⁸ And roll you tightly like a ball,
To be cast into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house.’

There is more to Isaiah, Chapter 22. With the close of verse 14, we did not reach an end in the prophecy of Jerusalem but a pause. If the first 14 verses were the lead article, verse 15 might be the beginning of a sidebar. Isaiah has been speaking to all of Jerusalem when God touches him on the sleeve, figuratively, and says, "Come...." There is more to be said, and we discover more of the problems that plague Jerusalem through one of its servants.

Shebna is a "steward...in charge of the royal household." What my study Bible calls 'steward' the King James Version and Amplified Bible call 'treasurer'. We know, then, that Shebna handled money. Being in charge of the house is like being chief of staff or prime minister. He was someone with very high authority, as in not the king, but close.

We also know from Scripture that he was a scribe.

"When they called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them."

--II Kings 18:18

This is the time when King Hezekiah's intermediaries met the liaison from the Assyrian delegation that had parked itself outside Jerusalem's gates. Shebna and his fellow servants to the king called for calm at a time when Sennacherib's forces wished to rock the city walls down and scare all the people--which is exactly what the Assyrians did. At this point in time, Shebna appears to be fulfilling his role.

But, the prophecy from Chapter 22 describes a different time and situation, before the time Shebna faces Sennacherib's folks. In fact, we will learn next week that Shebna is demoted to scribe (Isaiah 22:19). In his higher position as steward, it seems Shebna ran into difficulty with his integrity. In verse 16, Isaiah questions him: Who are you? "You who hew a tomb...." [Say that 10 times fast!] Really, it's who do you think you are, Mister Big Stuff?! Shebna decided that he was worthy of a burial place fit for a king, quite literally. Do you remember reading about the fallen pompous kings of Sheol in Chapter 14? These verses sound so much like that.

"But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.'
Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit."

--Isaiah 14: 13-15

Shebna arranged to have a tomb carved from rock. Not just any rock, but rock that was of considerable height. ("A tomb that may be Shebna’s, cut in the rock, has been excavated in the Kidron Valley."--Reformation Study Bible) This would have involved calling in some craftsman.

"So very nice and curious was it that it seemed rather to be the work of an engraver than of a mason or carpenter; and it seemed engraven in a rock, so firmly was it founded and so impregnable was it. “Nay, thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre,” as if he designed that his pomp should survive his funeral."

--Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

 
"What right do you have here...?" Isaiah asks. Indeed! A man in the position that Shebna held should not have expected the benefits of the king for himself. We can make a reasonable guess that Shebna had a problem with pride. He may have been more caught up in his titles than he was in the work of guiding the people of Jerusalem. There is suggestion in commentary that he may have been writing to Sennacherib--corresponding with more than the regular payment of the tribute. Under such a Godly influence as Hezekiah, Shebna would have had the opportunity to have found great blessing in serving. The larger error, of course, was his disobedience to the God he was supposed to be honoring in his word and deed.

With verse 17, Shebna's fate is revealed in graphic description. I'm sorry to say that I'm stifling chuckles because I have these pictures of cartoons and mythical movies in which the "giant" scoops up the small trouble-in-its-way, balls him in its hands, and throws him off the screen. As a little kid, you don't know any better. I do know, now, though--this isn't funny. Isaiah is saying that Shebna thought himself so high that it would be the Lord's doing to hurl him down from the heights he thought he was at! He will be thrown "to a vast country." Unnamed, but not Judah. "There you will die...." You and the "splendid chariots" you somehow found time and funds to create for yourself with which to get around the city. No, not funny at all.

It is not known exactly what happened to Shebna, either. Perhaps he was taken by the Assyrians. Hezekiah may have tossed him out, as part of his reforming work. There's even a report that Shebna developed leprosy ("which was a disease commonly supposed to come from the immediate hand of God’s displeasure, particularly for the punishment of the proud, as in the case of Miriam and Uzziah"--Matthew Henry), and left the country in disgrace. "You shame of your master's house." Two masters, really.

Jerusalem's people were certainly at fault in their disobedience. The first of this chapter makes that clear to us. God grants us a look at the inner failings of a governmental system through one of its leaders. When we ask why Hezekiah couldn't pull off total reform of his city, of his country, perhaps this is another reason why? Even so....

"It is likewise a confirmation in general of the hand of divine Providence in all events of this kind, which to us seem contingent and to depend upon the wills and fancies of princes. Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south; but God is the Judge...."

--Matthew Henry

Out with the old, in with the new. Goodbye, Shebna! ....'Til next week!

Photo: adventure.howstuffworks.com

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Next week:  Isaiah 22: 19-21
 
Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 22: 12-14

¹² Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.
¹³ Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
¹⁴ But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you

Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

Are you like me--Do you screen out more calls than you take? Do you stare at your caller ID, asking why the same "unknown" folks continue to call day after day (and often more frequently)? If "the Lord God of hosts" came up on your display, how would you respond?

When you read prophecy, often knowing how history unfolded and how prophecy was fulfilled, it is so frustrating and sometimes unbelievable to read how people could have mindlessly ignored a message that was specifically given to them. Yet, when you fully take in this "vision" that Isaiah is relating to Jerusalem, and you think about society today--with its emphasis on personal pleasures and self-sufficiency in an environment of selective communication--are we all that far away from the prophet's word? Time for another reality check!

Verse 12 of Chapter 22 sums up the message left to Jerusalem by God: "This is a call to repentance, My people!" There should be deep, inward grieving over the continued display of sinfulness, culminating with a lack of recognition of God as their authority in life. I've spoken here several times about King Hezekiah, who truly tried to reform his country. In the good-king/bad-king kingdom that was Jerusalem in those days, he really was one of the good ones. He modeled for the people not only by restoring God in the places of worship, but by demonstrating active faithfulness to Him through his political decisions in running the country and in his personal response to dealing with those tough situations. He was the one who tore his clothes and sought God in prayer as things around Jerusalem began to disintegrate. But earthly leaders, even with their Godly intentions and actions, cannot sway the mindset of an entire nation, much less change the plans of God.

"...And all this to lament their sins (by which they had brought those judgments upon their land), to enforce their prayers (by which they might hope to avert the judgments that were breaking in), and to dispose themselves to a reformation of their lives by a holy seriousness and a tenderness of heart under the word of God."

--Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

So, we have verse 13, in which we see that not only have the people disregarded the word of their king and their Lord, but they have opted to go full-throttle on the prodigal way.

"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all."

--Luke 17: 26-29

You could add on to Jesus' examples here: It also happened in the days of Hezekiah--they were eating, they were drinking, they were doing everything that made them happy, even with the charioteers of Assyria fixed at their gates. But, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the sons of Jerusalem would call Babylon home.

"But what do you do? You throw a party!
    Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!
You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—
    slabs of meat, kegs of beer. 
'Seize the day! Eat and drink!
    Tomorrow we die!'"

--Verse 13 from The Message

It seems crazy to us when we read how Jerusalem responded. We're watching that movie, and we know the killer is hiding behind the door, but the victim is completely oblivious. Truly, not just oblivious, but frivolously saying, "Whatever.... Not going to happen to me, but if it does, I'm going out with a bang." Does it register yet how ridiculously angry God must have been? Biblical commentator Matthew Henry said, "It is a sin against the remedy." God could save them. God would save them. But rather than admit that there was a problem at their gates--and an even bigger one in their hearts--Jerusalem says, "More sheep ribs, please. Extra sauce!"

"Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things."

--Ecclesiastes 11:9

"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die." (vs. 13) What originated with Isaiah would be passed down over generations. Paul would use this quote in writing the Corinthians, admonishing them as some in the church had misrepresented and confounded the teaching of Jesus' resurrection from the dead:

"If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.' Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame."

--I Corinthians 15: 32-34

To me, this reads so much like Isaiah's situation in his day. If I stand here naked among you, prophesying God's word, what does it profit unless you heed what God is saying through me? If God has not brought His people to this place, building His city, establishing His principles by which to prosper His people, then let's party, 'cause what difference does it make? Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning. Isaiah was saying exactly what Paul said. "For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame." YIKES! Jerusalem didn't get this. 2014 Christians, do we get this??

How personal was this message to Isaiah? He goes so far as to tell us that "the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me...." (vs. 14) In studying up on these words, this was not a visual revealing but a speaking directly to Isaiah. In other words, Isaiah heard this from God literally in his ear! This apostasy, this sin, that is on full display before the Lord "shall not be forgiven"; "will not be atoned for" (New International Version); "shall not be purged" (King James Version), until.... The 'your' in closing part of the verse is related not to Jerusalem but to Isaiah. Atonement will not be granted until after Isaiah has passed away.

At this, I, being Isaiah, would have thought instantly back to the day of my commissioning as a prophet. God calls Isaiah, and he answers. He is ready to, “Go, and tell this people" (Isa. 6: 9) of whatever God desires him. "Lord, how long?" the prophet asks. (Isa. 6:11)

"Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
The Lord has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land."

--Isaiah 6: 11 and 12

Isaiah would not live to see the day Jerusalem was carried off by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.

"'In your filthiness is lewdness.
Because I would have cleansed you,
Yet you are not clean,
You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again
Until I have spent My wrath on you.'"

--Ezekiel 24:13 (just before Babylon decimated Jerusalem)

And what if Isaiah had not answered the call of the Lord God of hosts? What if he had written off his vision as a spectacle? Just a dream? A misplaced phone call?

Who is calling you today? What message are you hearing?



"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:31) We'll read what happens to the "prime minister" of Jerusalem at the hands of God. ....'Til next week!

Photo: israel21c.org

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Next week:  Isaiah 22: 15-18
 
Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 1: 21-26

Zion Corrupted, to Be Redeemed

 ²¹ How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
²² Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.
²³ Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not defend the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.   
²⁴ Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts,
The Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries
And avenge Myself on My foes.
²⁵ “I will also turn My hand against you,
And will smelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.
²⁶ “Then I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”

I mentioned last week to remember the words of grace spoken by God in our passage. Sure enough, I find myself struggling to read and write about the words facing Jerusalem in our passage this week. "How the faithful city has become a harlot...," says verse 21. This transports me back to the beginnings of Hosea, when Israel receives the same designation. Isaiah paints Jerusalem as a has-been city--one that had everything going for it, but now stands self-corrupted.


Isaiah compares Jerusalem to both silver and drink, as in wine, although neither are respectable. "Your silver has become dross. Your drink diluted with water." (vs. 22) That latter one might cause you to spit! The first reference may require some explaining.

As is the case with other metals, minerals or gems, one must take the raw material through a process to make it valuable. Smelting is the process used to refine metals, like silver. The unwanted substances and impurities in the silver are called dross. Where Jerusalem had once shone bright like silver--both literally, in its successful business enterprises, and figuratively, as in its honorable obedience to God--it now appeared as dross, or, as the Hebrew word is defined, "refuse." [Strong's]

"Dross may shine like silver, and the wine that is mixed with water may retain the colour of wine, but neither is worth any thing. Thus they retained a show and pretence of virtue and justice, but had no true sense of either."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

"Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart."

--Proverbs 26:23

That might as well be a description of Jerusalem.

The Apostle Paul's words in the New Testament come to us in Greek, not Hebrew, but he also used a word meaning refuse in regard to the purity of the relationship He was constantly seeking with God. It was as if he were saying, "Smelt away the dross from me!"

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ...."

--Philippians 3: 7 and 8 (emphasis mine)

Verse 23 of Isaiah takes the cleansing, instructional words of verse 17 and flips them on their ears, to represent the "evil" that Jerusalem demonstrates in its actions. Rather than "reprove the ruthless" (vs 17), we read "Your rulers are rebels," and "Everyone loves a bribe" (vs. 23); "Defend the orphan" (vs 17) vs. "They do not defend...." (vs 23); and "Plead for the widow" (vs 17) vs. "Nor does the widow's plea come...." (vs 23). It's flat-out disobedience, and God has a plan to deal with this problem, one He laid ground for back in Israel's wilderness days:

"If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God...It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it."

--Deuteronomy 28: 58a and 63

The same Judge is still in His courtroom with Jerusalem, and He's like no other judge anywhere. Isaiah's titles, "the Lord God of hosts" and "the Mighty One of Israel," both point to God being the ultimate authority. Not just the Law, but the One who issues and carries out the punishments. But, in verse 24, God's judgments do not refer to the present time of Jerusalem's corruption. The sentence of Babylonian captivity is not what we read about in the next couple of verses. The time frame for this period of judgment refers to the end times--a final judgment and restoration period for Jerusalem.

As I read the quote from God in verse 24, I can't help but see Him on His throne, ruminating that future day on His calendar when He will once and for all rid Himself of His enemies. The saints in Heaven say, how much longer? The day is coming when God will have His Day.

"He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years." 

--Malachi 3: 3 and 4

Isaiah returns to the use of 'smelt' in verse 25 as we understand further the process that God must bring forth in order to reestablish, once and for all, a permanent, perfect relationship with His chosen people. A Holy God cannot be in the presence of dross! So all that is unholy will be purged away. The "sons of Levi" refers to those who kept the Temple. Yes, there are "wolves in sheep's clothing" [Matthew 7:15] in the religious establishments of our world who will be held accountable for their allegiances.

"Then," begins verse 26, "I will restore...." Jerusalem will return to Glory days--the Shekinah will be in the sights of those on Earth again--as the Son of Man returns to reign in His "city of righteousness, a faithful city."

Redemption, but not for all. Chapter 1 concludes.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: maratek.com

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Next week: Isaiah 1: 27-31

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).