There's an incredible passage in Isaiah 22, called "An oracle concerning Jerusalem". I think it's both a historical/geographical commentary and allegory. What's catching is the language. It's as though God is speaking to people in that valley and to Himself and also in the third person of events that will pass. God says to people in the valley (paraphrased), "What are you doing...on the rooftops? You were thriving and 'exultant'. ...your people aren't dead in battle as you think. They fled and they were captured without a fight." [I wonder why they fled.] Then God says he can't be consoled. He's so grieved over the 'destruction of his people'. But 'the day' was appointed. The valley of vision was supposed to be thrown into a 'tumult'...and even trampled down. V.8 [Third person] "He has taken away the covering of Judah." WHY??? For reasons I kind of get and from a historical perspective...don't. God said, "You looked to your weapons and all your plans to protect yourself, but you didn't look to me. And I planned this long ago." He says, "I asked for 'weeping and mourning', for contrition, but you didn't hear. You didn't hear because you wanted to live as though tomorrow you were going to die." God says, "That's what you will pay for while you live." ...Does that not rattle you?
Then begins the more inscrutable verses. The oracle transissions from tangible people to something prophetic, but which I do get generally if it is in reference to the cross. God says, "go ask the 'steward' of the town or valley, what have you done here??? You've fortified yourself safely? on this height, in this rock above the neighboring valleys? 'The Lord will hurl you away violently. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land.' There you'll die, you shame of your master."
This is all leading to the oracle. God says, I'm going to put another man, Eliakim, in that man's office. That makes sense, a transfer of power, but then he says, "he's going to be a father to Jerusalem and Judah and I'm going to give him a key. 'He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.' ...what? Who is Eliakim? The passage doesn't offer an explanation, but it does say that God determined to "fix him like a peg...on which the whole honor of his father's house and offspring and every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons was to hang." That's some imagery to end with.... A jubilant valley, appointed chaos, inattention to God, a steward violently removed, and a man God determines to fix in place and hang every honor on. ...a peg isn't remarkable, but this peg bears the whole house, all the earthly possessions. Then in another appointed day, God says, 'the peg will give way. It will be cut down and fall, and everything on it will be cut off.' And that's the end of this perplexing passage.
I can imagine this valley and the bustle of a town and the fear of war. I can picture the panorama of seeing in a valley. I can kind of identify with the 'tumult' and uncertainty of God timing (what is He doing?). And I think I can even identify with the terror of God's warning to the steward. I don't understand the implications of lineage being cut off. But I do believe God fixed Jesus in place...made for a little while lower than the angels (Hebrews 2). It is Jesus we must see - the one who made himself nothing, a servant (Philippians 2) - at the center of that farsighted, encompassing vision.
O God of grace,
Thou has imputed my sin to my substitute,
and has imputed his righteous to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong ar so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing for the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
