Isaiah – The fifth Hebrew gospel – Chapter 22

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22:1 The burden of the Valley of Vision. What troubles you now that you all have gone up to the housetops? 2 You that are full of turmoil, a tumultuous city, and a noisy city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor are dead in battle. 3 All your rulers have fled together, the archers bind them: all that are found in you are bound together, who have fled from far. 

Here, the former spectators flee in a mass stampede, the screams and shouts that echoed from ancient sporting arena’s change suddenly into shrieks and cries of terror and what was lighthearted revelry turns into terror. 

The Jerusalemites and become so used to watching the Assyrian’s and later Babylonians outside the gates, the Babylonian’s it would be for two years where they were attempting this and attempting that, building this and building that, advancing and being repelled, troop movements being thwarted, supply lines being broken that it had become a spectator sport – unaware of their imminent peril that their enemies catch them by surprise. 

You have to become alienated to survive and thrive or alienated to perish with the wicked – either way you have to reside yourself to becoming alienated!

The Jerusalemites had become so alienated from יהוה that they had to endure all that the the world endured – whether perish with the wicked in יהוה day of judgment or conversely become alienated from the wicked, from the culture, from the distractions of sport and entertainment that you thrive and survive with those who repent – Isa. 10:22 or though Your people Israel are like the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the full end which is decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

This chapter recounts a people who been given over to a lack of restraint, people who’ve abandoned self-control on a headlong run to try and escape the reality of the enemy. 

4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, don’t bother to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble, and of trampling down, and of perplexity by the Master vuvh tzevaoth in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. 

Valley of vision; what used to be a mountain of יהוה has become a valley of vision – hills and valley’s of life and faith – the people have lost sight of יהוה and are now in a valley of vision and that vision is once of famine and war, destruction and terror.

The only one with vision is Isaiah he has a vision of over 300 years into the future that is witnessed by another prophet – Ezekiel. 

Isaiah prophecies from 742 BCE. 

Ezekiel prophecies from 429 BCE. 

The mountains promise the only remaining refuge – but they won’t find יהוה there for He as departed fulfilled to the days of Ezek 429BCE this prophecy of Isaiah is Ezek 10;18 The glory of Yahweh went forth from over the threshold of the house (this occurred in 434 BCE as Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar).

6 And Eylam bore the quiver with mirkavot of men and horsemen, and Kir carried the shield. 7 And it shall come to pass, that your best valleys shall be full of mirkavot, and the horsemen shall set themselves inbattle array at the gate. 8 And He removed the covering of Yahudah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the bayit of the forest. 9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of Dawid, that they are many: and you gathered together the mayim of the lower pool. 10 And you have numbered the houses of Yahrushalayim, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall. 11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the mayim of the old pool: but you have not sought its Maker, neither seen Him that made it long ago. 12 And in that day the Master vuvh tzevaoth called for weeping, and for mourning, and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth: 13 And see simcha upon simcha, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating meat, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die. 14 And it was revealed in my ears by vuvh tzevaoth,

Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until you die, says the Master vuvh tzevaoth. 

This prophecy belongs to not only the period of Sennacherib’s invasion (701), but also the raising of the blockade of Jerusalem, in consequence of Hezekiah’s ignominious submission to the terms of Sennacherib, and then later when the Assyrian king endeavored by threats to extort the entire surrender of the capital, and then the multi level’s unfold further far into the future in the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s and still later in the days of Titus; it’s remarkable.  

Luke 19:41: And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Immediately we see the Assyrian shall thunder at the gates of Jerusalem; the city’s day of doom has arrived.

Thoughtless revelry and merriment when instead the people should have sought serious reflection and penitence. For such a sin Isaiah has only a “fearful looking-for of judgment” to announce.

The ignoring of יהוהs presence in this crisis is an unpardonable sin.

What does V. 14 really mean. V. 14 כָּפַר kâphar – to cover, to expiate, an atonement.

1. Is it that the threat implies that the sin could not be expiated by the death of the sinner, the unexpiated sin will call down punishment, and the punishment will be death?
2. OR: is there hope, yes their sins were so grave against the Most High that death was the only remedy for reconciliation to Elohim?

Job’s wife opted for option #2. she thought Job had fallen into this category Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

The wisdom literature leaves the interpretation open to either 1 or 2. Ecc. 7:17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

In the Melech Tzedik priesthood we know we have the authority to forgive our brothers sins NOT unto death. 

1st Jn. 5:16 If any man sees his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him chayim for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall make tefillah for it. 

Shemot 21: sins unto death: kidnapping, murder, striking or cursing your parents, adultery etc., NOT unto death: stealing, fighting, arson, pre-marital sex with a virgin etc.

15 This says the Master vuvh tzevaoth, Go, get to this treasurer, even to Shevna, who is over the bayit, and say, 16 What have you here? And who have you here that you have cut out a tomb here, as he that cuts out a tomb on high, and that carves a home for himself in a rock? 17 See, O man, vuvh will throw you out, and will surely grab you. 18 He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shall you die, and there the mirkavot of your tifereth shall be the shame of your master’s bayit. 19 And I will drive you from your office, and from your position He shall pull you down. 

A reversal of circumstances, the whole passage of Shebna reiterates how that which exalts itself ends up humiliated and that which humbles itself יהוה exalts. 

Matt 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

46 Blessed is that servant, whom his master when he cometh shall find so doing.: 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My master delayeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The master of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Entitlement offends, יהוה – 

‘It’s not fair, I deserve this and that’; should not be in the heart and mouth of the redeemed! 

Acceptance of our fallen state and just judgment deserved is the key to living a transformed life where we stay on track – humbled before our God; lest we fall from grace. 

20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call My eved Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu: 21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your government into his hand: and he shall be an abba to the inhabitants of Yahrushalayim, and to Beit Yahudah. 22 And the key of Beit Dawid will I lay upon His shoulder; so He shall open, and none shall shut; and He shall shut, and none shall open. 

Rev. 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.

The symbol of unlimited authority over the royal household.

Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.

Matt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my assembly; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Prophetically and for historically; with the destruction of the Temple in the days of Nebuchadnezzar while the temple was being burned the sages report a group of young kohanim gathered and climbed to the roof of the temple with it’s keys in their hands and Jewish history records they threw the keys upwards toward heaven and what seemed to be a bloodied and nailed palm of a hand took them and then the kohanim fell into the fire.  

The imagery of nail in a sure place signifies the suffering the servant endures in answering for his people’s grave disloyalties against the father’s house – Abba’s Bayit. 

Isa. 22:23 And I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place; and He shall become a kesay of tifereth to His Abba’s Bayit. 24 And they shall hang upon Him all the tifereth of His Abba’s Bayit, the honorable and the noble men, and all the vessels of small quantity, from the cups, even to the jars. 25 In that day, says vuvh tzevaoth, shall the nail that is fastened in the secure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for vuvh has spoken it.

Yahusha was fastened in the sure place of the Mikphad altar – the altar of the red heifer; eastward, outside the gate was removed from the tree, cut down to death and sheol, and the burden of sin that was upon him was placed upon the mercy seat by the better blood for יהוה has spoken it.