(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. Okay, so we're up to Isaiah chapter 22 now. Isaiah 22 in our Wednesday evening Bible study where we've been going chapter by chapter through the book of Isaiah, breaking it down, preaching from the verses in each chapter each week. Last week we were in Isaiah 21. It was a burden of the desert of the sea which was referring to Babylon, the city being amongst many bodies of water. We're jumping around a bit in time in these chapters, Babylon obviously being a time, you know, sort of a couple of hundred years in the future from that point when it was being prophesied, and in other times a bit more coming up a bit closer. Well, it was talking about Babylon back in Isaiah 21. Isaiah was pained with this vision, but as opposed to that being because of the ease with which the Medo-Persians were to conquer the Babylonians, as we look back at that from a historical point of view and also from what we see in the Bible there as well, it was because of the results of the Babylonian empire with Judah being spoiled and the people being taken into captivity. That's what I believe Isaiah was so pained by. Isaiah then prophesied of the pretty uncontested taking of Babylon with the Medo-Persians represented by a few chariots, resembling more of a removal firm, didn't it there, resulting in those familiar words, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, with the Babylon of the future to fall suddenly with ease too. We looked at that as well with what's going to happen in the future being prophesied in the Word of God as well. And as with in the future, the Babylon of old was just full of idolatry, with the trading of these idols being a feature with both time periods, we looked at that as well. Just all these things that people just worship above God, things, you know, wealth and all these different things that people buy with their wealth. We also saw the burdens of some of the surrounding nations at the hands of Babylonians, Douma being in Edom and then those in Arabia with those of Kedar being destroyed within a year, which could either be the time that it took to defeat them or perhaps this was to happen imminently at the hands of the Assyrian empire, whilst Isaiah is prophesying this here, who did conquer parts of Arabia too. It said in verse 16 of Isaiah 21, For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of unhiling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail, and the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar shall be diminished, for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it. And then we're into Isaiah 22 now, and verse 1 starts with this, A burden of the valley of vision, what aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetop? So I'm going to pray and then we're going to get started with this chapter. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for the book of Isaiah, Lord, thank you for all the many lessons we can get out of it, the many prophecies that we're seeing here, Lord. Help me to preach this chapter today, Lord, just clearly, accurately, boldly, full of your Spirit, Lord, in a way that people will be able to follow, to be able to listen. It's a bit more of a study today, there's a lot of flicking, a lot of page turning, to understand what's being preached about, to put it into context, Lord, help me to do that today. In the right way that people will still be able to follow, pay attention, not fall asleep either, Lord, and just help me do all these things in Jesus Christ's holy name. Amen. Okay, so it said the burden of the valley of vision, what aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetop? So what is a valley of vision? The valley of vision, well as we go through the chapter it's clear that this is referring to Jerusalem. Okay, that's what it's referring to at this point in time. He said in verse 2, thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city, by slain men are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle. Okay, so clearly talking about city, verse 9 said ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, another name for Jerusalem, that they are many and ye gather together the waters of the lower pool. Verse 10 said, and ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down forth by the wall. All talking about the same subject here, this city here that we're seeing that's also being called the valley of vision. Why is it being called the valley of vision? Isn't Jerusalem set upon a hill? Isn't it known as Mount Zion, right? Well, turn to Psalm 125. Now, if you're not familiar with Flicky and Tony, you're welcome to just stay in Isaiah 22 and listen up, but if you want to, turn to Psalm 125. Okay, but we're going to stay in Isaiah 22 for the duration, so keep something there if you are turning. Now, I think it's probably due to Jerusalem itself being surrounded by mountains. In Jeremiah 21, 13, you're turning to Psalm 125, but in Jeremiah 21, 13, preaching against Jerusalem, Jeremiah says this, Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, saith the Lord, which say, Who shall come down against us? Talk about coming down from those mountains or who shall enter into our habitations. And in Psalm 125, it says from verse one, it's a song of degrees, They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth forever, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem. So the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever. So it's talking about the mountains being round about Jerusalem. It's surrounded by mountains. Hence, God is calling it a valley. That's why it's being called a valley, because in, you know, in comparison to the mountains around it is a valley. And there are obviously valleys amongst the city and around the city as well. But he's calling it a valley. Why the valley of vision, though? Well, a vision is a revelation from God. And when it came to revelations from God, they were pretty concentrated within Jerusalem, really, weren't they? The Holy City being the place to go, really, for God's revelations. If you really want to know about God, you want to know what God had to say. In general, you go to Jerusalem. Now, don't get me wrong. Prophets went out from Jerusalem. You know, the idea was that the word of God went out to the whole world. But ultimately, that was the place to go. That's where God's people have been. That's where God's prophets generally were. And there were others around, obviously, that went to other places and were in other places. But that was kind of the hub, wasn't it? Well, here in verse one of Isaiah 22, the valley of vision has a burden coming into it, being Jerusalem. It said, the burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? So he's saying, what's troubling you now, with the housetops being for a few things, okay? They're a safer place. Obviously, being up on the housetops is going to be a big place. A point to look out from, obviously, as well. A vantage point being from up high. But also a place that people went to pray as well. For example, in Acts 10, 9, you don't have to turn there. It says, As they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And whether or not they're all praying, or more likely all going to a safer vantage point, the people of Jerusalem, they're going to be in trouble and will be wholly going to the housetops. Wholly going to safety. Wholly going to some sort of safe place. Verse two said, thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city, thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. Now, stirs are public disturbances. A tumultuous city has disturbances, it has disorder. Yet it's a joyous city as well, where the dead there haven't been killed in battle. Now, what's this about, if you're wondering? Well, as we go through this, okay, we see that this is referring to the coming besieging by the Assyrians. That's the time period being preached about here. It's not talking about the Babylonian captivity. It's talking about the coming, very soon to be coming, besieging by the Assyrians of Judah, and specifically, really, Jerusalem, which will cause stirs, tumult, but eventually joy. Why? Because they will survive it. They are going to survive this, so there will be joy in the end, but there's going to be some problems first. It said in verse three, all thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers, all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far. Remember that the invasion of Judah by the Assyrians before the besieging of Jerusalem would have resulted in those of the outlying cities fleeing into the hope and safety of Jerusalem's walls. So Jerusalem was meant to be a safe place. When the land got invaded, many would have fled to Jerusalem, where they are bound or confined, maybe you could say, by the archers, which could apply to either the Assyrians or the archers of Judah who are protecting the city. The people have come from afar to seek refuge in Jerusalem. He said in verse four, therefore, said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Labour not to comfort me because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. Now all of those surrounding were being plundered, all those surrounding cities. So was it just, oh, the only people that were there lived in Jerusalem. There were many cities of Judah at this point, they were plundered. It sounds like the non-rulers, really. He said, because earlier we just saw in verse three, all thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers, all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from her. Then in verse four, he said, therefore, said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Labour not to comfort me because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. So maybe many didn't necessarily escape. Jump forward to chapter 36, which records what happened. So in Isaiah chapter 36, we see it as it happens and Isaiah is writing about it. Isaiah 36 and verse one said this, now it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the defence cities of Judah and took them. So it wasn't just obviously Jerusalem, they came to all these cities and Sennacherib. But just to remind you of this, the Assyrians, they were brutal. They used to do some pretty rough stuff. There's all sorts of historical stuff about what they would do to their captives like skinning people, all sorts of pretty sick stuff. This was a scary force, this was a scary empire to be invading your city. They came up against all the defence cities of Judah and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakey from Lachish to Jerusalem under King Hezekiah with a great army. So from Lachish, which is the city of Judah, he sent them to Jerusalem under King Hezekiah with a great army and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fullest field. So they marched onto Jerusalem, something that was seen being prophesied years previously by Isaiah. Well Hezekiah ends up sending his top guys to Isaiah in response to this. Look at chapter 37 and verse 2. Chapter 37-2 in Isaiah says, And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke and of blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. Which is exactly what Isaiah calls it in Isaiah 22-5, that day of trouble. Look at Isaiah 22-5 again, our text for tonight, where it says, For it is a day of trouble and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. So we read about the success eventually of Hezekiah's Jerusalem against the Assyrians, we've looked at that obviously previously as well, and maybe we don't think about the toll it took on them. Sometimes I think you read through it and you just say, Oh yeah, well they were victorious in the end, right? But they came up against all the defence cities. Lachish was overrun, this was a fortress city. We just read about that, that being taken, and verse 5 here says that there was trouble, treading down, perplexity or maybe confusion. Walls broken down, crying out to the mountains. We saw in the verse before, in verse 4 of Isaiah 22, Therefore said I, look away from me, I'll weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spawning of the daughter of my people. So there would have been a lot of like, who knows what happened to a lot of the women of these cities, I mean this is a tough time, all right, for these people. And you can look at this and you can go, wow, I mean, just unbelievable, those Assyrians, if only God had dealt with them earlier, what a shame they got this far, those mean old Assyrians. Now perhaps they were, right? It's not that, yeah, they weren't godly people, but they were being used by the Lord. They were being used by the Lord to mete out God's judgment on the world at this point, or at least on that part of the world. It said here in verse 5, for it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision. So ultimately, God allowed this to happen. God let this happen, and the Assyrians were being used to mete out God's judgment. And with the result, the result, not only a remnant, okay, but here they call out to him, and the nation itself ends up seeing the salvation of the Lord. And just a point with this, and just a reminder of this, okay, and I know we've talked about this a bit before, but we all need a reminder of this, okay, that should be the result of trials and tribulations in our lives. Any trial and tribulation, any problem you go through, any issue you go through, in any area of your life, the result should be that we draw close to God, and we call out to him. Like anything you go through, use it, anything you're going through, and you're just like, I can't believe I'm going through this, use it for good. Use it as a result to go, right, I need to get close to God, I need to be drawing close to him, I need to be praying to him, I need to be reading his word, I need to be in church, I need to be doing the things of God, I need to be pulling close to God, and he will help me out of this. So that's the goal a lot of the time, where we see God, he comes down hard on his people a lot. He comes down hard on other people, and there should be a remnant comes out of that. Obviously, a lot of the time, in hard times, more people are likely to be humbled, to get saved, to put their faith in Christ. But those people that are saved should be using those times to then draw close to God. And it's something that we should remember in all of our hard times, every time you go through, use it to draw close to Psalm 86, somebody that says, in the day of my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. God will answer you when you call out to him, call upon him. Call upon him, don't just try and do it yourself, call upon the Lord, he wants us to humble ourselves and to rely on him. Well, in this day of trouble here, it's coming from a vast Assyrian empire, a savage Assyrian army. It said in verse 6, And Elam bear the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen, and Keir uncovered the shield. Back in, obviously, Isaiah 22. So, we saw earlier that Elam eventually became part of Persia and was referred to as part of Persia when talking about what happened with Babylon. But being in the south of that region is what it was, it was south of Persia there, and eventually it's kind of taken on by Persia. It's directly east of Babylon, if you're wondering on a map there, okay? But before this, it was in perpetual war with the Assyrians, before being conquered around 50 or so years after this point in 655 BC, okay? So, it's a bit later that it's conquered, whereas Keir seemed to have already been conquered by Assyria, likely being the Kyrian between Moab and Edom, somewhere between there, where they took the Syrian captives earlier in 2 Kings 16, if you remember. And we've seen this before, where when the Syrian captives, where Syria was enlisted by Judah to help them and the Assyrians, took those Syrian captives, then at that point from Damascus, they took them to Keir. So, there is a theory that maybe it's another name for Kush on the south of Elam. It could be, okay? But my thoughts are that during this invasion of Judah by the Assyrians, the Elamites invaded the Assyrian-occupied Keir, because he said an Elam bear the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen. So, remember, these are people that weren't part of the Assyrian empire, yet at this point have been in constant battle with them. And Keir uncovered the shield. So, I think maybe they invaded that occupied Keir, perhaps at least distracted the Assyrians somewhat. So, I think maybe, maybe, okay? Maybe making them more likely to want to negotiate a surrender with Hezekiah, because when they came to Judah, they didn't just come and invade. They came and they wanted to negotiate a surrender. They came and wanted to take them on. Maybe they were dealing with war somewhere else, which just made things work out. Because a lot of the time, when God does things, He's just molding other things going on in the background. Other things are going on over here. And when you see it all come together, you're like, okay, I see. That's why that happened. That's why this happened. Maybe that's what's going on here, perhaps. Okay? It said an Elam bear the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen. So, talking about the quiver of bows, okay? And Keir uncovered the shield. So, there's some sort of maybe war going on in the background with these guys. And it shall come to pass that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. Now, that's the approaching of the Assyrian army. 2 Kings 18, 17. You don't have to turn there. It says, and the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab Saris and Rab Sheki from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the pool which is in the highway of the fullest field. So, they came all the way to Jerusalem, okay? This army of people, they came up. It said with a great host. That's a great army. A huge army came to the walls of Jerusalem. It said in verse 8, and he discovered the covering of Judah. And thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest. Now, turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 9. 2 Chronicles 9. The house of the forest was the armoury that King Solomon bought, okay? Built, sorry. So, he built this armoury in 1 Kings 7, 2. You turn to 2 Chronicles 9. In 1 Kings 7, 2 it says, he built also the house of the forest of Lebanon. The length thereof was an hundred cubits and the breadth thereof fifty cubits. And the height thereof thirty cubits upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. So, it wasn't all the way up north in Lebanon, in case you're wondering. It was using the timber from the forest of Lebanon, okay? Well, you're in 2 Chronicles 9. We've just seen that he built, Solomon built this house. And 2 Chronicles 9 shows us what this huge building was for. We've just seen some really big dimensions there. The length thereof was a hundred cubits, which is about a hundred fifty feet. The breadth thereof fifty cubits, about seventy five feet. The height thereof thirty cubits, about forty five feet. Well, 2 Chronicles 9, it says this in verse 15, 2 Chronicles 9, 15. And King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold. Six hundred shekels of beaten gold went to one target. A target was a type of armour or shield, okay? That's what he's making out of gold, out of pure gold. And this was obviously a time of plenty when they were, you know, in their heyday, the kingdom there, the kingdom of Israel then. Verse 16 says, And three hundred shields made he have beaten gold. Three hundred shekels of gold went to one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. So he put these, these, these shields, he put these targets in this house of the forest of Lebanon. And verse 8 said here, back in Isaiah 22, and he discovered the covering of Judah and now he's looking at data the armour of the house of the forest. So this is an armour store, this is where they had a lot of their weaponry it seems. And I believe that the covering or protection of Judah, what it's talking about here, was basically Jerusalem. That was the covering, that was the protection. The walled city on a mount, okay? That's what he's talking about here. They discovered it, they've come to Jerusalem. They've come to Jerusalem, they've discovered it in terms of, they've now marched upon it. They're looking to the armour, they're ready for war, okay? It's time to bear arms, that's what he's saying. Verse 9 says, You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And you have gathered the houses of Jerusalem, and houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall. Now turn again, obviously keep a finger here, to 2 Chronicles 32 now. Like I said, it is a study tonight, okay? It is a bit of a Bible study tonight to really get an idea of what's going on here, and to show you that it is clearly prophesying of this Assyrian siege. Turn to 2 Chronicles 32, where we see them doing this. Verse 9, where we just were, said this, You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall. Well in 2 Chronicles 32, okay, after Hezekiah's done a good revival at the beginning of his reign, it says this in verse 1, After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city, and they did help them. So notice that it says here that they stopped the waters of the fountains which were without the city. Verse 4 said, So there was gathered much people together who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? So when you're being besieged, you don't really want them to have like a nice water source at the same time obviously, okay? It's just going to be even worse for you because they're just going to be able to be there for a lot longer besieging you and you're going to be drying up and running out of food and water. Verse 5 says, Also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken, again we just read about that being prophesied previously, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without a repaired millow in the city of David and made darts and shields in abundance. Now millow being part of the citadel of Jerusalem, like part of the kind of fortress or castle part of it. So as prophesied by Isaiah, they gathered together the waters, they fortified the walls, we just saw that prophesied several years before, and according to Isaiah, or at least sorry, according to Isaiah where we just read, they did that by breaking down houses. They were breaking down houses to fortify the walls because of course they're being besieged, they can't just go out and start finding rocks in the quarry and stuff, they're going to have to use the materials they already have within the city boundaries. Basically they're gearing up for a siege. And I don't know, you might see movies about this sort of stuff, you might have thought about this stuff before, that's got to be a pretty scary time isn't it? When you're being besieged, when you've got some pretty brutal army just camped outside your city walls and they're besieging you and they're just looking to wear you down and eventually they're going to conquer you and slay you and probably worse as well, right? He said in verse 11, You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago. So they even made some sort of moat, you know what a moat is obviously, it's a way of defending the city, defending the city walls by putting water in between. They've made this between the two walls, so obviously in between the outer walls and the inside walls, but they hadn't at this point reached out to the Lord. That's what he said. He said, But ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago. So if you go over to 2 Kings 19, which goes into a bit more depth, we're going to go to 2 Kings 19. In 2 Kings 19, we see Hezekiah's first response to the Assyrians invading Judah. So in 2 Kings 19, we're going to look from verse 13. 2 Kings 19, 13 is Hezekiah's first response to this invasion. Said in verse 13, Now in the fourteenth year, 2 Kings 19, 13, Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fences of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended. Return from me that which thou puttest on me will I bear. So this is Hezekiah at this point. He's saying, look, what do you want from me? I've offended because they basically rebelled against Assyria here. And he's saying, what do you want me to pay? And the king of Assyria pointed unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house. So he gave him it all, right? He gave him all the silver. He gave him the treasures of the king's house. You feel like he didn't kind of maybe went above and beyond. He was told three hundred talents of silver, thirty talents of gold, and he gave him all the silver and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid. He gave it to the king of Assyria. So he definitely wasn't reaching out to the Lord, was he? He's actually stripping things out of the house of God to give to him. And when times are harder, you try to do it your own way, what happens? The results just don't last long. And we often do that, don't we? We think, well, if I kind of do it this way. For example, one way people try and solve some issues, I've got some financial problems, I've got some problems. I know, I just won't go to church so much. I won't do as much of what God wants. I'll strip away from the house of God. I'll strip away my Bible and he'll strip away this. And he might work for a little time, right? But you won't get a long-term result from that. Look at verse 17. And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabseras and Rabshakey from Lachish. I mean, it almost feels like there's hardly a pause here. It just goes straight into it. Verse 17, suddenly he's sending people there again. He's been paid off, but now he says he sends Tartan and Rabseras and Rabshakey from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host. That's that big army against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fullest field. So they go on to test the people, trying to turn their heads, put doubt in their minds, demoralize them. If you ever read that passage, they're just talking to the people the whole time, just trying to basically get them to pull out, to not want to defend their city, get them to be demoralized. And that's obviously a big part of war, isn't it? It's trying to demoralize the people, trying to demoralize the army that you're fighting against through propaganda and other ways. Well, Hezekiah's guys come and tell him, okay? They look at what he does in the next chapter, 2 Kings 19. Look at 2 Kings 19 and verse 1. 2 Kings 19, 1 says, And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, so he's like ripped his clothes, it was a show of grief, of stress, and covered himself with sackcloth, a sign of mourning, a sign of humbling himself, and went into the house of the Lord. So what did king Hezekiah do? He basically, he's showing his outward stress, he covers himself with sackcloth, which is a sign of humility, like something that people did with fasting and things like that, and then he went into the house of the Lord. And that's the response that God wants, okay? When times are hard, when you don't know what to do, you're like, I don't know what to do, God. What do I do in my life? What do I do with this situation? What do I do with this problem? He wants you to go into the house of the Lord. He wants you to humble yourself and go into the house of the Lord. He wants you to seek him, to go to God and just say, what do you want me to do, God? He wants you to call out to him. And look at verse 2, And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebanah the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth. So his guys as well, the people that are underneath Hezekiah, are doing the same to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amor. They've come to the man of God. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke and blasphemy, for the children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakey, remember that's a bad guy, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach a living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard, wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. So he's told him what to say, they've gone to Isaiah. Which is what Isaiah prophesied of several years before, in Isaiah 22 and verse 12. Now keep a finger here though. Keep a finger in 2 Kings 19, but back in Isaiah 22 and verse 12, it said, And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. So we see it prophesied here, what happened several years later, they did exactly that. He's called them to weeping, he wants them to weep, he wants them to mourn, he wants them to baldness, and it's something they used to shave off their hair as a sign of mourning, a sign of going through tribulation. And then he wanted them girding or clothing, surround themselves with sackcloth. So they're humbling themselves to God. What was the result? 2 Kings 19, 7. In fact, look at verse 6, it says, And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. The result was that the Assyrians were defeated. That was the result. Why were the Assyrians defeated by what was a much smaller kingdom, by Judah at this point? Because they humbled themselves and reached out to the Lord. That's why they won that victory, that's why so often we'll win big victories in life, big victories in our lives, big victories as a church. Why, if we humble ourselves and we call out to the Lord, we reach out to the Lord, we can and will win those victories. And that's what solves so many of the trials and tribulations in our personal lives as well. Yet so often, what do people do in those times? They run, they hide away from God, or they might feel like they've got a little, or even God's given them a victory, and what do we so often do? Try and take the credit. Well, it was thanks to me, it was thanks to my cunning, it was thanks to my clever decision, it was thanks to this, thanks to that, and we so often, we see God work. He does something for us and then suddenly we're trying to take the credit ourselves, which is what so many people do, don't they? Hard times should humble us and should result in us drawing closer to God. Just a reminder again, use hard times for that. Use hard times, benefit from hard times by humbling yourself and pulling close to God. Verse 13 said, and behold, back in, sorry, back in Isaiah 22, Isaiah 22 says in verse 13, and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. Now, I've gone through this at length, obviously wine here is not right, let's have a booze up, wine in the Bible can be alcoholic, hold on alcoholic, these guys here, it was a luxury item without mechanical presses, without all this industrial farming, and here, for me, it's going to be like that's great country, the finest juice there, they're killing sheep, they're eating flesh, they're drinking wine. He said, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And I believe meaning it's not happening today, so you might as well celebrate. I don't think he's saying we're going to all die tomorrow, let's have a celebration. He's just saying, well, we're all right now, tomorrow we're going to die. It's not going to be until another day, right? And you can imagine the celebrations when the Assyrians were defeated, can you imagine? Like I said, this was a scary bunch, right? I mean, people still talk about it to this day, some of the history about the stuff they used to do to their prisoners, and this was a scary empire, and they were on their doorstep, besieging them, 180-odd thousand, and then next thing you know, they're defeated. That must have been some celebration, right? We've had some celebrations in life over many things, many times, when you celebrate, I'm sure, but that was a victory to celebrate, wasn't it? He said in verse 14, and it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts. What's he talking about here? I think he's likely referring to verse 11. Verse 11, which said, ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago. So I think what he's saying in verse 14, where it said, and it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, as I was talking, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, and I think that's what he's talking about, that this is an ongoing problem for his people, not looking unto him in hard times, not having respect unto the Lord in your hard times, in your struggles, in your tribulations, in your trials. This is a problem in the world over for God's people. They don't look to God when they go through trouble, when they go through hard times. We see it time and time in the Word of God, and we see it time and time even in our own lives, don't we, when so often you have a problem, you have trouble, you have a test, you have a scary situation, even worse, and instead of calling out to God, you're trying to just do it all yourself, right? That's what I think he's talking about. Then Isaiah starts prophesying, then after this, so he's prophesied of this time to come, and he then starts prophesying against a specific individual, but it's still around this time, so it's in this same time period, as we're going to see. So it's said in verse 15, Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house as say. So you will have noticed the name Shebna maybe when we read Isaiah 37 earlier, maybe 2 Kings 19, He was described as a scribe, we saw a Shebna described as the scribe, and was one of the three men that went to speak with the Assyrian representatives when they came to besiege the city. Now he's always called the scribe, yet here he's said to be a treasurer, he's said to be over the house, with Eliakim then replacing him. So for me, I just believe this is a different Shebna, as in the following verses when he's replaced, he's also carried away, he's not turned into a scribe, he's not like, right, now you've become the scribe. In the following verses, once he's carried away, it seems that he's then destroyed, he's killed. So verse 15 said, Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house as say. What has thou here? And whom has thou here? That thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth in habitation for himself in a rock. So basically the Shebna is being rebuked for seemingly making some sort of grave of Jerusalem. I think that's what he's saying here, that basically he's hewing out a sepulchre here, he's making Jerusalem, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth in habitation for himself in a rock. Remember that Jerusalem being on a rock basically, being on a mount. I think what he's saying is you're trying to make this into a place where everyone dies. Now he's basically the second in Kebom with a lot of influence, okay, as we're going to see as well when he then talks about the guy that then takes over from him. And you would imagine, like I said, being that, a lot of influence on the king. So perhaps he was the former treasurer that enlisted, maybe he was the guy that enlisted or encouraged Hezekiah to enlist, or sorry, it was before Hezekiah maybe, to enlist the help of the Assyrians against Israel in Syria. Maybe he was there previous to Hezekiah. Maybe he was part of the trusting of Egypt to help them against Assyria. If you remember that that's what he says, you're relying on this bruised reed, Egypt, you know, that's just going to be a problem for you. Perhaps he was part of the decision to try and buy off the Assyrians. Perhaps he was part of that as well. This is some sort of second in command to Hezekiah that's being rebuked here for basically trying to make this into a graveyard, okay. Whatever he did, he's being rebuked and he was going to get punished for it. It said in verse 17, Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity and will surely cover thee. So maybe he was in one of those outlying cities, maybe, because we know no one got carried away from Jerusalem at this point. But remember, maybe even Lachish which was seemingly conquered by Sennacherib and I'm sure there were some high-ranking people there. Maybe he went there, maybe he was part of that battle there because they did seem to conquer there and take over there because he's stationed there, Sennacherib. But either way, this guy seems to be carried away. He said in verse 18, He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a bull into a large country. There shalt thou die and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy Lord's house. So those chariots that erode will be defeated and will become a shame. He said in verse 19, I will drive thee from thy station and from thy state shall he pull thee down. So this Shebna will lose that position as a sort of second in command to the king. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. So this is definitely the same Eliakim being the son of Hilkiah, the guy who went out to negotiate with Rabshakey, the guy who went on behalf of Hezekiah to Isaiah in sackcloth. So he's mourning, this is the same guy now. And I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Now why a father? Because he's in a position of leadership, he was over the household and it seems like he was a good leader as well. It said in verse 22, And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open. So he's given the responsibility as the head of the house. We see him go out to negotiate with the besieging army. We've already seen that. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. So he will be secure in his place and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons. So as a nail he will be responsible for the glory of their house and big things to small things. And then verse 25 says, In that day saith the Lord of hosts, Shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and full, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it. And when he eventually falls, when that position ends, so will the burden. Which you feel like is a time, I think he's talking about when the Assyrians are defeated. Okay, that burden is over. When the Assyrians are defeated and they get through this as a nation, the nation of Judah then. Now, some of you here though, reading through that last passage, might have noticed a picture here with Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, clearly being a Christ figure. Okay, this is clearly now a Christ figure. Now you might go, wait a second, wasn't Hezekiah a Christ figure for like the millennial reign of Christ? Yeah, yeah, but here now clearly Hilkiah is a Christ figure. Okay, and I'll show you why. Look at verse 20 again. It said, And it shall come to pass that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. This is verse 20 here in Isaiah 22. Now, Eliakim means raised up by God. And the first way that we can apply that to the Lord Jesus Christ is, for example, in the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18, 15. You don't have to know where it says, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me unto him, ye Shehok. So the Lord Jesus Christ obviously being 100% man at the same time as 100% God, He's raised up from amongst the people. However, the Lord is also to be raised from the dead as well, wasn't He? Okay, so firstly, just the name itself, it means raised up by God. Okay, then we've got in verse 21, it says, And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. Now, this makes you think firstly of Isaiah 9, 6 with verse 21. And Isaiah in chapter 9 of verse 6, you flick there if you want, don't worry if not. Famous verse of the Bible that we're all going to hear a lot of around Christmas time, in the Christmas cards and everything else, which is, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And we just saw here, And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And talking about that nature of his, you know, being God in the flesh, being that Everlasting Father, the government being upon his shoulder, having ultimate rulership over his people there. Turn to Revelation chapter 1 though. Revelation 1 we're going to turn to. Revelation 1, we just saw as well that it said, And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle. Well in Revelation chapter 1, Revelation 1.13, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, it says in Revelation 1.13, Now just to make it clear, the garment down to the foot wasn't a pretty little dress like sadly many people want to envisage the Lord Jesus Christ wearing. It's just a long robe, okay, it's like a long, what we might call a long coat for example. It's a long robe, we just saw it being described as here, and I will clothe him with thy robe, okay. It's not a dress, but it's a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. A girdle's like a belt, okay, but it's a bit higher up. He's got this golden belt on as well. It says in Revelation 1.13, we just read, He will be clothed with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle. And in Revelation 3, and verse 7 says this, we've just read in verse 22 of Isaiah, The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut. We just saw earlier that the government shall be upon his shoulder, but here it said he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. Well in Revelation 3.7, it says, And to the angel of the church of 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. Again, talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's the Lord Jesus Christ writing to these churches. Here we just read in Isaiah that, The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. Almost identical, the Lord Jesus Christ, what is that about, him shutting and opening? He is the only way to heaven. He is the only way. Jesus Christ said in John 46, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He's the only one that opens. He's the only one that can open the door through faith in him. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Your works ain't getting you to heaven. Your holiness ain't getting you to heaven. Your abstaining from certain sins ain't getting you to heaven, because one sin will take you to hell. But he opens, and when he opens, it can't be shut. It can't be shut. He openeth and no man shutteth. Doesn't matter who can entice you into whatever sin. It doesn't matter whatever you think you can do, whatever you might do in the future, you can't shut the door. Once it opens, once you're given eternal life, you're saved. He said in John 10, 28, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. No one can take you away. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. He made it very clear, once you're saved, you're saved. He opens and no man shuts. That's what he's saying here. He opens and no man shut. He said, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. And once it's shut though, once it's shut, it can't be opened. And there's a couple of ways that works. Number one, you die, you die in unbelief. You die without trust in the Lord Jesus Christ your Saviour. You die trusting your works. You die trusting another form of salvation. You die trusting another version of God. It's done. Because there's a great goal fixed, you cannot pass from there to there. You can't pass, you're done. Once you die in unbelief, it's too late. There ain't no purgatory. There's nothing in the Bible about purgatory. It's a lie. There is no purgatory. There's no sort of soul sleep where you might get a bit better. They try and teach you all these different versions. It ain't happening. Once you die, you die. And you either die and go to hell, or you die and you wake up and you're in heaven. And once it's shut, it can't be opened. There's another way as well. If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ to a point where basically you turn the truth of God into a lie, you reject the Lord Jesus Christ and there's different things which go hand in hand with that, which we've seen studying the reprobate doctrine. There are people that can be twice dead in life. It's too late for them. They're given over to a reprobate mind. They cannot be saved. They're ever learning and never able to come to the truth, to the knowledge of the truth. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ shutteth, and no man openeth, and he openeth, and no man shutteth. It all comes down to faith in Christ. He said in verse 23 though, back in Isaiah 22, And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, that he shall be for glorious throne to his father's house, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, from the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. So that's referring to the cross, isn't it? That's referring to the cross. Every one of his father's house, the offspring and the issue or their offspring, basically. So it's not just those first generation, just everyone saved there. It's from faith to faith to faith, right? Vessels is also a term for bodies, for people either saved or unsaved. There's vessels of wrath, there's vessels of mercy, there are those that are saved. Vessels or bodies, people who aren't much, basically. Here it's talking about the vessels of small quantity, the base things of this world, because that's really what it comes down to, really, isn't it? If you did across the board, just summary of people that are saved. In general, we're just the base of this world, aren't we? The reality of it is, is this church and any other church which has saved people in it, people that have put their trust in Christ, that actually believe the gospel, it's not going to be full of a load of rich high rollers. It's not going to be full of a load of people that are putting the world up here. No, it's just full of basically people that are humble enough to put their faith in Christ. At least at some point in their life, they put their trust in Christ. That's generally what you're going to see. They're vessels of small quantity. And we are looked down upon by the world, aren't we? Vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flaggers. We're basically just nothing of importance in the world, however in God's eyes we are, however in the spiritual battle we are, because we've put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can show me the theological experts of the world, the people that they put up here in all the different religions, everything else, they couldn't even understand a chapter like this. They can't understand half the Bible, because the natural man was seen with not the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. However, the vessels bodies it's talking about here, then it said, in that day, in verse 25, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and full, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord hath spoken it. That's the Gospel, isn't it? That's the Gospel. The nail, him fastened to the cross, removed, cut down, full. Where? For me, to the heart of the earth. To the heart of the earth. The result? The burden that was upon it. The burden of sin cut off. That's what it's talking about. Galatians 3, 13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, referring to the cross. 1 Peter 2, 24 says, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. That's the Gospel, isn't it? That's what it's talking about here. In that day saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down and full, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord hath spoken it. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came off that cross, was buried and rose again, the burden was done. The burden of sin removed. All you've got to do is trust him, it's done. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, done. You're saved. That's the Gospel. That's the good news. That's the glad tidings. Why? Because the Lord has spoken it. Because the Lord has spoken it. Verse 25 said, In that day saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down and full, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord hath spoken it. And that's why we trust the Gospel, because the Lord has spoken it. That's why we trust it. That's why we trust it, because it's the Lord that's spoken it. But how would we know what he had spoken if we didn't have the Word of God? How would we know? But we have the Word of God. We have the preserved Word of God in English in the King James Bible, and we know what the Lord said, because we can read it and he said it. And he said that, Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have ever lost their life. It's as simple as that. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, you're saved. And he has taken that burden. The burden has been cut off, if you trusted Christ. And just going through this chapter, okay, the prophecies that we've seen already, right, just, I mean, I don't know, I find it amazing. When I do, I love Bible studies, because they just strengthen your faith in the Word so much, right? You're seeing these prophecies all over the place being fulfilled. You're seeing prophecies prophesied before the events being fulfilled. Then we're seeing some prophesied in the future that we're going to see fulfilled, that you can see even shaping into those times we see prophecies of Christ being fulfilled. Yes, some are a bit cryptic, but you know what, as you study it and as you compare, you see, yeah, wow, okay, I can see that now. I can see that in the Word of God. And does it strengthen your faith, right? Who could write it? Who could write it? To be like that, and as you start to unravel it and unwrap it, you just, wow, you just see what it's prophesying of, times prophesying of, and you see ultimately the gospel there in the end there as well. Yeah, written in a way that now with the light of the New Testament, we don't see through it darkly anymore. We can see it through the light of the New Testament and understand it more, but it's amazing, isn't it? All these prophecies of Christ here written 700 years before he came and fulfilled in the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was Isaiah chapter 22. That was some pretty cryptic stuff in there. Some of these burdens have been like that. I'm looking forward to getting kind of through the burdens of it, because they take a little bit of brain power going through them, but I do get a headache, but hopefully that's kind of come across to you as I feel like it did to me as I study through that, and on that we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the book of Isaiah, Lord. Thank you for how rich your word is, how deep your word is, Lord, and I pray that you just help us to all be wiser as we study your word, Lord. We know that it's not always simple. It takes some concentration, Lord, to get through it, and with chapters like that to really get to grips with what your word's saying. And, Lord, help us to all just want to grow, want to learn more, want to study more, Lord, and to know that these Bible studies, they're not always the most exciting sermons, Lord, for many, perhaps, but you know, Lord, you want us to study your whole word. You want us to compare line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little, there a little, help us to all want to do that, to all want to have those different types of sermons to just keep learning, keep growing, keep learning from your word, Lord. Help us to apply it to our lives as well, Lord, and ultimately the main point today to apply that, you know, when we go through hard times, we're all going to go through hard times, we're all going to go through troubles, we're all going to go through trials, tribulations, chastisement in life. Help us to use those times, those moments to just draw closer to you, for that to be our instinct response, to just turn towards you, Lord, to pull closer to you, to draw nigh onto you, and you'll draw nigh onto us. Help us all do that this week, Lord, and help us to get home safe Sunday and return on Sunday for another day in your house, for the two services on Sunday. In Jesus' name we pray all this. Amen.