The Valley Of Vision in Isaiah 22

Jerusalem is loud, confident, and throwing rooftop parties, but Isaiah can already see the siege lines tightening. That tension is why Pastor Carl’s walk through Isaiah 22 hits so close to home: when pressure rises, we often reach for control first and God last.

We trace the meaning behind Isaiah’s “Valley of Vision,” a nickname for Jerusalem, the place where God met His people. Then we watch what the city does when fear creeps in: they check the armory, patch the walls, store water, and lean on human engineering. Pastor Carl even points to Hezekiah’s tunnel as a stunning example of preparedness. The turning point is a single indictment that cuts through every generation: “you did not look to its Maker.” Planning is not condemned, but self-reliance without repentance is exposed.

From there, the message becomes personal and national at once: a call to humble repentance, honest self-examination, and prayer for our leaders. We also confront the “eat and drink for tomorrow we die” mindset, the temptation to numb out and live short-term while ignoring eternity. The hope is not vague optimism; it is Jesus Christ, offered as real salvation and real life right now. We close with a leadership contrast between Shebnah and Eliakim, asking whether our service is fueled by self or stewardship.

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Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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Pray for that spirit of repentance to go all over the nation, that hearts would be turned back to the Lord, and that it would move the president's heart. That he would get to this place where he would say, you know, we've done all these great things and we got all these great people, but you know what? We've sinned against God. And we need to turn to God. Our only hope is in Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Let's pray that that happens. Isn't it just incredible when you turn away from your sins and welcome Jesus as your Savior? That feeling is truly something special, right? Now take a moment to consider all those individuals out there who haven't yet heard about Jesus and how he can save them from the snare of sin. Doesn't it just tug at your heart to want to share the gospel with them? In today's message, Pastor Carl invites you to lift every unbeliever in prayer and take meaningful steps to share the love of Jesus with them. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Chapter 22 is in this section that's talking about the neighbors and the enemies of Israel, but it's directed toward Jerusalem and Judea. It's very interesting. Verse 1 says, the burden against the valley of vision. Now, the valley of vision, this term isn't used anywhere else except in this chapter, but all the commentators point to the fact that this is talking about Jerusalem. Um it's pretty clear. It's poetic language that Isaiah uses. The Valley of Vision, Israel, I mean Jerusalem was the place that God brought his vision. That's where he met with his people in the temple. That's where he ruled through his kings. That's where he brought messages through the priests and the prophets. This is the place where the people came to meet, to gain a vision of the Lord in Jerusalem. But now the question is, what ails you that you have got up on the housetops? You're full of noise, a tumultuous city, a joyous city. What's going on? What's happening? Jerusalem became a place that really wasn't seeking after God. They were seeking after the good life. Everything was going well, everybody was partying, and the uh the rich were getting richer. And yet something was brewing on the horizon. And people would go to the house tops. And the question was, is this roar that you're doing? Is this, are you celebrating or are you crying out? Uh are you having a good time or do you see danger looming on the horizon? You would go up on the house tops to have parties. They had flat housetops there, but you could also look over the walls and see what was coming because Jerusalem was up on a hill and you could see the enemies coming. And the truth was the Assyrian armies were coming and they could see it. And people were starting to get afraid and starting to get uh a bit concerned. And in verse 3 it says, All your rulers have fled together. They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together. They have fled from afar. There's this idea that uh when the rich or the people of means are just people that are just looking out for themselves. When they see evil running, when they see evil coming, they run. When they see the enemy coming, they run. And and and the question is that they they snuck out the doors and they ran, they snuck out the gates and they ran, although the Assyrian armies were all around. How did they get through without being captured? Well it looks like some of them were captured, but others may have paid off officers and say, well, let me just go, let me just go, because riches will get you everywhere, right? So it's this idea that you know, if I have enough, I can get away with whatever. I can build up my kingdom and I'll have great walls, and nobody can ever penetrate our thing that we've built here, with no mind to the Lord, who happens to be the Lord of that city. That's the place where God met with man, and yet they're totally ignoring God. And in verse 4, therefore I said, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Do not labor to comfort me because of the plundering of the daughter of my people. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. By here, Isaiah is crying out, and this is a vision of what's going to happen in the future. And yet he's he's crying out because it's so real, it's so vivid to him. I can't believe that the city where God meets with man is under siege, and the people, it's not that they're that it's under siege, it's the attitude of the people. The people aren't seeking the Lord, they're just doing their own thing and trying to save themselves and or maybe even just ignoring it. We'll see some of that as we go on. But his heart is broken for the people. Verse 5 for it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity. Perplexity. Doesn't that describe today? It's a time of trouble and treading down and perplexity. Everything we've built up is being broken down. And there's no real easy answer, is it? If we try to figure out in our own thinking and we're doing it, our our our leadership is doing it, uh nations around the world, they're all trying to figure out how to work together and to solve this problem. It's perplexing. By the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision breaking down the walls and crying to the mountain. It's not just the Assyrian army coming to attack Jerusalem, it's not just a virus that's that's sweeping the world. But it's the Lord shaking us up, it's the Lord breaking down our walls. It's the Lord crying out from Zion, saying, I am the Lord your God, worship me, turn to me. I'm here to help you. Seek me, find me while it's still day, while I can still be found. Verse six, Elam bore the quiver with the chariots of men and horsemen, and Kur uncovered the shield. These are the Medes and the Persians which were either aligned with Assyria or were pulled in by Assyria. They were conquered by Assyria. One way or another, they were with Assyria, coming and fighting, along with other nations that Assyria had conquered or had made deals with. It came to pass that your choicest valley shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. He removed the protection of Judah. The people of Jerusalem can look out and see all this happening. Their chariots coming, their horses, they've destroyed all the other towns around. The towns that were a protection against Jerusalem. But they were all flattened, they were all taken captive, they were all defeated. And now they're coming. And what do I do? Well, in that day, Jerusalem, you look to the armor of the house of the forest. Now the house of the forest was like a forest was like an armory that the King Solomon had built with uh with wood from Lebanon, the cedars of Lebanon. He built this thing called the house of the forest, and uh that's where he stored up all the ammunition and everything. That's what we need to protect us from the enemy. We need all the ammunition we can get, and it's stored up right here. You also saw the damage to the city of David, that it was great. They would go out while there was still time and look around the walls and see if they're strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the army that's to come. But they'd find their cracks in the wall, there's problems. So they're trying to fix it before they come. And you gather together the waters of the lower pool. In other words, they made a reservoir to have enough water just in case they are surrounded, so that they could withstand the siege for months or maybe even years because they had their own supply of water uh saved up. In other words, they hunkered down and they got ready. They had all the toilet paper they needed for years. Right? But does that save you from the enemy? I mean, those are wise things to do, but if we do it without any regard to God, it's nothing. It's nothing. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem and the houses you broke down to fortify the wall. There's this idea that if they lived on the wall, because many, many dwellings were on the actual wall, when they saw an army coming, and and this, we have to do some, take some drastic measures here. We we need to make sure these walls are are strong. So we need everybody to get out of the houses. We need to destroy the out houses and build up the wall, make it even stronger. We need to lay everybody off. We need to stop all commerce in order to fight this bug. I'm not making a judgment call whether it's right or wrong. I'm just saying there are things that we do that seem wise in the eyes of man, but if we're not seeking the Lord in the matter, we've missed it all. It might be the exact same things the Lord calls us to do. And I'm hoping and I'm trusting that our leadership in Washington are seeking the Lord, that they are getting wisdom from our God, and that we're praying for them that indeed God would give them wisdom and direction on what to do. But you know, man is created in the image of God, and because we're created in the image of God, we're able to think, we're able to make choices, we're able to do mighty things, and we can even do it without the Lord's input, because he's given us the ability to believe him or not to believe him, to seek him or to seek our own ways. You also made a reservoir between the two walls, and and this reservoir was called the Hezekiah's tunnel. Now we talked about this reservoir that was dug beneath the city of David. It happened about 701 BC because they even then they saw that Assyria was coming. But then when Hezekiah came into power, uh he built a 1750-foot tunnel to bring water from the reservoir which was on one end of the city, so they could bring water to the other end of the city. And uh and it was one of the greatest works of engineering technology of that time. And it was a good thing. But again, if you're doing it because you're just thinking of the emergency at hand, you're just thinking of how we can build ourselves up without regard to the Lord, we're missing something. We're missing something. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool, and here's the key phrase but you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it long ago. And in that day the Lord God of hosts called for a weeping and a mourning for baldness and for girding with sackcloth. The Lord wasn't saying, Build yourselves up and fortify yourselves for this attack that's coming. What did he say? He said, Repent. He said, Turn to me. He said, Shave your heads. Priests would never do that. It's an offense against themselves and against God. But God is saying, You need to shave yourself, you need to humble yourself, you need to fall at my feet, asking for forgiveness and for help. But what are you guys doing? You're ignoring me, you're going your own way, you're doing your own thing. And that's something I'm not seeing in our current situation. I mean, here and there we hear uh spiritual leaders calling out for repentance, and we're we hear our president calling the nation to pray, but we do not hear anything being said. We have sinned against God, and we as a people need to repent and turn back to him. That's the message of the Lord. He's saying, Turn back to me. So may we start with that. May our hearts be turning back to the Lord. May we have hearts of repentance, may we have hearts to say, Lord, search me, know me. Is there any sin within me that's holding you back from doing your work within my life and in my families and in my church and in my community and my nation's life? What is it in me that's holding it back? And then pray for that spirit of repentance to go all over the nation, that hearts would be turned back to the Lord, and that it would move the president's heart. That he would get to this place where he would say, you know, we've done all these great things and we got all these great people, but you know what? We've sinned against God, and we need to turn to God. Our only hope is in Jesus. Let's pray that that happens. This is a strategic time in our nation's history. We need the Lord desperately. Verse 13 but instead, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. Let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. This idea where, oh well, whatever happens will happen. Let's just eat it all up and have a good old time. It's all over tomorrow, so we might as well live it up tonight. Totally ignoring the fact that they have a healing, they have the salvation from their enemies in the Lord, but they're ignoring the Lord. They're saying, let's just live it up. Because tomorrow it's all over. And we sort of, may I say, we sort of have that same attitude in our nation today. I'm not saying that it wasn't a good thing for our government to to uh to come up with this giant stimulus package because our economy, our nation, needs help to overcome this for sure. But this is putting us deeper into debt. And who's gonna pay for it and what happens when it doesn't get paid for? I just that this is leading to a situation that's even worse than we're experiencing right now. It's almost like, well, at least we can take care of now. Who cares about tomorrow? We need to take care of right now. Except for the fact that the Lord gives us a long-term perspective. There's so much more than just now that we have to deal with. There's forever that we need to deal with. Verse 14 then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts. Surely, for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, even to your death, says the Lord God of hosts. This is the Lord whose heart is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to a knowledge of him. But he says, There's no there's no atonement for you. There's no salvation for you. Why? Because you're ignoring me. You're going in your own way. How can we expect the Lord to save us when we don't seek him for salvation? He's given us a gift. John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It's open, it's a gift, it's ready if you receive it. Will you receive it? And if you have received it, are you picking it up again? Are you relying on it? Or was it just fire insurance? Or is it just, hey, I want to be saved just as long as you know I know that I'll make it to heaven and I won't burn? And I could just play and do whatever I want right now. But that's not the heart of the Lord, is it? The heart of the Lord is, I want to save you for forever, but I want to save you now. I want to give you an abundant life now. I want to use you in powerful, mighty ways now. But it takes you seeking after me. It takes you not going by your own wisdom and your own knowledge and your own fleshly thoughts. Hey, let's just party, we're gonna die tomorrow anyway. It's the end of the world, and I'm fine. Right? I'm okay, no problem. No, we're not okay. We need the Lord, we desperately need the Lord, and if we don't recognize that, there is no salvation for us. This is a heavy message that Isaiah was giving to the people of Jerusalem. You are not seeking the Lord, and so there's no atonement for you. Verse 15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, go proceed to this steward, to Shebnah, who is over the house, and say, What have you here? And whom have you here? That you have hewn a sepulcher here, as he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, who carves a tomb for himself in a rock. This is interesting. We take a shift from the people of Jerusalem to some of the leaders in Jerusalem, and and this guy, Shebna, was a steward of the house of the king, of King Hezekiah, who was a man who sought after the Lord. For the most part, he was a good king. And yet, apparently, he put some bad people around him. And Shebna was apparently one of these guys who, you know, wanted to do the good things for the people, but not because he cared about the people, but because he cared about himself, he cared about his own kingdom that he was building up. What Isaiah is pointing to here is the fact that this fella actually made himself a tomb cut out of the limestone up on the hill in the same place where all the kings of Israel were buried. He wanted to make himself as one of the kings. He was just a servant, he was a steward of the house. And in doing so, he made a statement. He said, I'm never leaving Jerusalem. I'm here forever. This is my place. I built this kingdom, I'm part of this kingdom. They might take the rest of the world, the city away, but not me. I'm here forever. Because he heard some of the prophecies of Isaiah. Isaiah says that Babylon would come and take over Jerusalem, and indeed it would. And verse 17 indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O man, and will surely seize you. He's going to take you away. You think you have a place for you to be buried here? You will not be buried here. He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country. He'll take you like a piece of paper and crumble you up and throw you away to another land. There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots shall be the shame of your master's house. We can do the same thing with different motives. Are we serving God or are we serving ourselves? So I will drive you out of your office and from your position, he will pull you down. The Lord is going to pull you down. So that is uh the bad steward, Shebnah. And in verse 20, we see a good steward that comes along. It shall be in that day that I will call my servant, that's a capital M. The Lord Himself is taking the other guy down, Shebnah, and elevating Elochim to this position. I will call my servant Elochim, the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe, Shebnah, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your responsibility into his hand, because you weren't faithful with it. All you were thinking about is yourself. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. He will actually look over and care and sacrificially provide for the people of Jerusalem and Judea. He won't be looking out for himself, he'll be looking out for others. And then he says, in verse 22, this is a very interesting verse. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. Now the Lord promised that the line of David would the kings on the throne in Jerusalem would be kings from the line of David. And yet he's talking a little bit different here to a servant of the king, Eliakim, who would have the keys. The authority would be laid on his shoulders. And we've seen that as a you know a picture of Joseph in in Egypt, right, with Pharaoh. And there are other examples of this too, where he was given the authority, and what he said went, and what he didn't say didn't went, right? Kind of like this. So he shall open and no one shall shut, and he shall shut and no one shall open. What he says goes. When he says no, no. When he says yes, yes. And does he do it to exercise powered authority over people? No. He does it because he's serving, he wants the best for his people.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

You're listening to Pastor Carl teach through Isaiah on Come On Up. As you may know, the book of Isaiah was written by a prophet who was telling of the coming exile of the people of Israel. They had strayed far from God, and they were about to face consequences for their sinful behavior. However, this exile isn't the end of the story for God's chosen people. Isaiah also shares a message of hope, reminding his readers that God can use even the darkest of circumstances for the good of all humanity. The Israelites may be away from their homeland for a while, but one day they will return. Pastor Carl wants us to learn that we are spiritual exiles, living in a world unlike the one we were made for. We were meant to be in communion with God, but we were separated from his presence by the curse of sin. But just as the Israelites came back to their homeland, we will one day be restored into the presence of our Creator, thanks to the blood of Jesus. Would you like to hear more from Pastor Carl? If so, go to themountaincross.com. There you'll find links to our Bible studies and our podcast feed, where you'll be able to listen to more of Pastor Carl's lessons. But you'll also find information about our in-person services at the Mountain Cross. If you're in Waynesville, North Carolina, you're invited to join us for our Sunday services at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. Thanks for listening today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.