Isaiah
22 reminds me of a football strategy called the “Prevent Defense”.
It is often used by a team with the lead, toward the end of the
game. The idea is to allow the other team to make short yardage
plays, while preventing them from completing very long scoring plays.
It can be frustrating to fans as they seem to make it too easy for
the other team by conceding many small wins. In this prophesy about
Jerusalem, but I wonder if there is a warning to us not to compromise
on important things. Isaiah begins addressing “the
Valley of Vision“. Most
people agree that this is a reference to Jerusalem, since it was a
city built on two hills. Next he notes the people have become
spectators, “you have all gone
up on the roofs“. He says the
town is “full of commotion, you
city of tumult and revelry“.
It’s hard to know if this is a party, or an invasion, but Isaiah
adds, “Your slain were not
killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
All your leaders have fled…
captured without using the bow… having
fled while the enemy was still
far away“. We have a sense
that there was no resistance at all to the enemy; no one even raised
a cry for battle. There is always pressure to conform, no one wants
to be seen as a trouble-maker, but concession assumes there is no
best solution. Isaiah reacts with sorrow, “let
me weep bitterly… over the destruction of my people“.
Have you been giving in rather than standing firm on standards?
I
believe that God’s hand of protection keeps us from even being
aware of some attacks, but if we continuously reject God, and ignore
His truth, He simply removes His hand. “The
Lord…has a
day of tumult and trampling and terror… a day of battering down
walls and of crying out to the mountains“.
He describes the desperate attempt to react after realizing the game
is slipping away. “The Lord
stripped away the defenses… You saw that the walls… were broken
through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool…
and tore down houses to strengthen the wall… but you did not look
to the One who… planned it long ago“.
We have a choice to repent and call on God’s mercy, or be overrun
by the mob. “Let us eat and
drink for tomorrow we die!”
The
chapter ends with words or warning that once the game is over, the
score is set, nothing can be changed. “Till
your dying day this sin will not be atoned for“.
Football also has something called Sudden Death Overtime. The first
team to score wins. The resurrection of the Savior was a game
changer. Isaiah is instructed to tell the palace administrator,
“What are you doing here…
LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away… He will
roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you… you will be ousted
from your position“. He says
to the king of compromise that Christ will take it from here. “I
will clothe Him with your robe and fasten your sash around Him and
hand your authority over to Him… what He opens no one can shut, and
what He shuts no one can open.
I will drive him like a peg into
a firm place. All the glory of His family will hang on
Him“.
He is saying there is no middle ground, you have got to decide which
side of the ball you will line up. Are you willing to hang your
eternity on a Hail Mary pass? Jesus is the author and finisher of
our faith, “In Him you have
been made complete”
(Colossians 2:10). Get off the sidelines and get on the field. It
is time to stand for what you believe.