Isaiah 22:1

Isaiah 22:1 says, The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?  The burden of the valley refers to Judah and Jerusalem.  So far, the prophesies had concerned other nations, but now God was speaking to the Jews through His prophet Isaiah.  We cannot just think that God’s punishment is going to happen to other nations but must ask what His coming judgment means to us personally.  Unless we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, no matter what happens to anyone else, we will be sent away to everlasting punishment.  Matthew Henry says this does not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar but the attempt to destroy it by Sennacherib and was a warning to frighten the people there.  I think that we should come to Jesus not out of fear of what will happen if we don't but out of love for Him for what he did for us when He died in our place, but it is better to come to Him out of fear of the alternative than to never come to Him at all.  

Verse two adds, Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.  Isaiah reminded them that Jerusalem had been a joyous city filled with trade and the noise of business and that its men had not been destroyed by the sword.  As followers of Christ, we should be joyous people who go about everyday life victorious because Jesus Christ has already defeated our spiritual enemies forever. 

Verse three continues, 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.  Isaiah said that now all their leaders had fled their cities and were bound together in Jerusalem looking for protection.  He adds that even though they were in Jerusalem, they were of no use to the people there.  Those who fail to put their faith in God, even if they call themselves Christians, will never stand up to those who threaten them because of their belief in Him.  They also will be of no help to others who do but will only be looking out for their own good.

Verse four states, 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.  Isaiah asked people to look away from him while he was in such grief.  He wasn’t doing this for show but was sincerely brokenhearted for the people of Judah and what was going to happen to them because they had turned away from God.  He was going to keep his grief to himself.  We don’t need to make a big show out of grieving for the fate of lost people today, but we should be heartbroken about their fate due to the fact that they are lost and doomed to everlasting punishment.  This applies to those who profess to be Christians but who claim to be redeemed by some other way than accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord as well, just as the people of Judah claimed to be God’s people in that day but were looking to other gods to save them. 

Verse five adds, 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.  Isaiah said he was in such grief because it was the day when the people of Judah were going to be trampled down and perplexed by what was happening.  When people refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, one day they are going to be trampled down by God’s judgment, and they will never rise up from it again.  This should leave us grieving for them, but we too often have little concern for them it seems to me, myself included.