Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom, and carried away many of her citizens to a far land. At some point she attempted to do the same to the Southern Kingdom. While the troops managed to destroy several cities and devoured the produce of the land, Zion was spared, and Assyria's forces died in the night. In a short time, the empire fell. Part of her demise was the revolt of Babylon, with her Persian allies. We can't know at what point in the story this vision comes to Isaiah, but it would seem to be on the eve of Assyria's failed siege of Jerusalem.
Isaiah paints for us the image of a deep and depressing vision, the most common symbolic association with valleys. Thus, the Valley of Vision is a heavy burden, for it brings no good news. The great city of the Temple was normally such a bustling and cosmopolitan place. Everyone in the city is distracted from such a boisterous normal existence. Instead of everyone going about their business, they are gathering on the rooftops in nervous anticipation of what can be seen over the walls of the city. Already men are dead, but not from battle. Rather, they are dead from starvation. Isaiah sees the siege of Babylon, when the city would have finally sinned so much there was no further reprieve.
During that Babylonian siege, the royal house and many nobles attempted to flee by night through a breech in the city walls. When the encircling army learned of it, they caught up with the refugees. The capturing party was mostly archers, lightly armed, who travel fast and can attack from a distance. A short time later the city surrenders, and all the survivors are herded into tight groups. The entire vision tears at Isaiah's heart.
Jesus would understand this scene centuries later, weeping over the city about to be destroyed. She has rejected God's message repeatedly. Nothing in the message demands more than Zion can bear, but she refuses any part of it. It is with some mocking bitterness and sarcasm Isaiah suggests anyone near him cares enough to bother asking why he weeps and cries aloud over the needless destruction. Because the city refuses to weep for her own sins, Mount Zion and the surrounding valleys themselves weep. Those valleys would be filled with siege troops drafted by Babylon from her neighbors, with their many differing battle tactics and strategies. Isaiah sees the frightening prospect as if it were immediately real.
In the rejection of God's provision, a provision proven in the defeat of Assyria, it was too late for Jerusalem. The Lord removed His protection. The King's trust in the House of the Forest armory was in vain. All the work to make the water tunnel run down to the protected pool was actually pointless. Dismantling houses to buttress the walls, building the lower pool between the inner and out defense walls -- it meant nothing because they did not turn to their God who made the stones and the water. When God called them to repent, they partied as if there were no tomorrow. When God calls for a day or mourning, you can obey then or mourn later when everyone around you dies.
At various points in his prophetic career, Isaiah faced opposition from what amounted to political party within the royal council. This party called for an alliance with Egypt against the Assyrians and would arise again when Babylon threatened. This same party would eventually murder the governor placed by Babylon, then flee to Egypt, dragging the prophet Jeremiah along. During Isaiah's time, a major figure in this party was the Royal Scribe, Shebna. Isaiah mocked this pretentious man's purchase of a custom hand-cut tomb near the city, for he was about to lose his high position, and would die in an open wasteland.
In that time and place, houses were often built of stone, perhaps braced up with a wood frame, then plastered over. Any weight bearing fixtures would need to be placed during the initial stone placement. Many homes had hanging pegs carefully rooted between the wall stones, then plaster around to stabilize. Shebna was likened to a peg which would not hold anything useful, so it would be removed from it's place and the hole plastered over -- he would be forgotten.
In his place would be Eliakim, a faithful servant of God and of the royal house. He would be like the peg which could not be removed. Yet, when the day of judgment finally came, even such good and righteous men as Eliakim would die. While the specific fulfillment points to the Siege of Babylon, the general principle runs much deeper. When God comes against sin in a nation, even good people get hurt.
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By Ed Hurst
24 October 2008
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