Isaiah 22

Since the fall of Adam the people who would follow God have had a battle on their hands. Success in any battle can have something to do with who has the high ground. In the spiritual battle that we face today, we do not use the weapons of the world, and we do not try to force people into submission to Jesus Christ. Instead we bring forward reasonable spiritual propositions for the consideration of people who are being drawn to the Lord. For this kind of battle for the souls of men, having the high ground can also be important. We are told to be a city on a hill, which cannot be hidden. We are to be the light of the world in Jesus Christ, who is able to draw men to Himself.

Jerusalem was literally a city built on a hill. She was to be a place of great spiritual vision. Even on the grounds of the temple mount God had made the court of the temple to be a place where the nations would come for prayer. This city was to be a light to the world. But instead of being a mountaintop of vision, Isaiah says that she had become a valley of vision. The view of the world from the valley may not be the best vantage-point for our understanding of the world around us, and for world's appreciation of the Lord's kingdom. The church needs to be like a lamp which is placed upon a stand. It should give light to all the house. But a "valley" of vision is like a lamp under a basket.

It is amazing that in the midst of statements against Edom, Arabia, Assyria, Babylon and other nations, God had a word for Jerusalem. She too had done evil and would face discipline from the Lord. The sin of the leaders is mentioned by Isaiah. They would one day flee from the city and abandon their people, rather than stand firm in the faith, listening to the word of God's prophets. Therefore, a day was coming upon the Land, a day of destruction, but also a day that God had decreed long ago.

God called His people to weep and mourn, to put on sackcloth and to humble themselves before God. But they would not look to the source of the discipline they faced. God would be the one who would bring the day of disaster. Amazingly, in his discipline of specific officials and the nation more broadly, God would put an end to the covenant community that was not living as the light of the world, and God would begin a new community where we are connected to one who is uniquely the light of the world and who calls us to be the real Jerusalem, a city set on a hill.

If this new Jerusalem was to be born, it seems that it was necessary for the glory of the Jerusalem that is below needed to be diminished some, so that people could look beyond what was low in the valley and fading away, and could begin to set their heart on Christ the cornerstone that the builders would reject, on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, and on the church as a living letter of divine light scattered abroad as bread cast upon the waters. This is of course an amazing privilege, for we are a part of the Kingdom of heaven - the new Jerusalem.

In the day of Isaiah, God called His people to weep and mourn for the poor condition of the Jerusalem below and her people. Instead of this humility, there was a strange arrogance among the leaders, and a hedonistic fatalism among some. Even a high official like Shebna the secretary, was seeking great things for himself and for the glory of his name in a day of disaster for the people of God. He would be replaced by a man who would have more concern for the good of those who were looking to him for godly leadership. Where can great men like this be found in the church today?

We have such a great man over the household of God. Jesus the Christ is more than a servant in the house of the Lord. He is the Son of God and the sinless leader of the people. Everything that He has done has been accomplished with a full heart for the people that He came to represent. We needed Him, and He has come. He has opened a door to heaven that no one can shut. But when He shuts that door no one will be able to open it again. Today the door is open for all who would repent and believe. Come to the city of light, the city on a hill. Come to the new Jerusalem and find the peace and security of the new world that Christ has won for us.