22 The [a]oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?
2 You who were full of noise,
You boisterous town, you exultant city;
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor [b]did they die in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured [c]without the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
[d]Though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not [e]try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord [f]God of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion
In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying [g]to the mountain.
6 Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, [h]infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.
8 And He removed the [i]defense of Judah.
In that day you [j]depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,
9 And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10 Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11 And you made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the old pool.
But you did not [k]depend on Him who made it,
Nor did you [l]take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.12 Therefore in that day the Lord [m]God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.
13 Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
14 But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself [n]to me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be [o]forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord [p]God of hosts.
In this chapter, we turn once again back to Judah, as God is warning them of their impending destruction. The first part of the chapter is a bit strange though, as we see what appears to be the aftermath of a battle, yet there was no battle. There was no sword, or bow, and yet everyone has been taken captive.
As Isaiah continues, there is indeed an army with chariots, bow, quiver, shields, all the things of war (vv. 6-7). Judah attempts to repair their defenses, but that’s almost short-lived as we find them throwing a party in v. 13. God called them to weeping and mourning (v. 12), but they say “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
Still, I come back to this weird aftermath with no weapons of war, and have to ask what is going on? Now, I don’t know if this was God’s intent here, but it reminds me of what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
There is a battle raging in our world, and was in that day, where there are no visible weapons, but there are indeed weapons. Judah had been lead into idolatry, sexual immorality, and all sorts of corruption, without a single blade raised. We too can fall victim to these things, without a shot fired (although sometimes they still are).
This is the most dangerous battle of all, with the highest stakes, for it is more than our physical life at stake. Our souls and all of eternity hang in the balance. Dramatic? Perhaps, but it’s as real, and more so, than anything we see in this world. God didn’t create us just to wander around this earth for 70 years and then vanish into nothing.
So we need to be on our guard against the same vices that Judah faced. The same enemies that plagued them are on the prowl still today, and they don’t play fair, they don’t abide by any conventions of war, and they desire nothing short of our utter ruin. However, the same God who wept bitterly over the destruction of Judah, wages war on our behalf still today.
We see in v. 11 that they failed to depend on God who made the waters and everything else on this earth. Let us not make the same mistake, for He is our one and only hope, and He fights for us as well. Be on our guard? Certainly, but also put on the full armor of God (also Paul writing to the Ephesians in chapter 6), and know that God is the one responsible for the victory, and He will not let go of what we entrust to Him.