Rose-Colored Glasses • 06.09.24
Rose-Colored Glasses
Isaiah 22
Dangers of failing to see things clearly
- Right vision is required for a right response.
- Self-reliance blinds our vision.
- Salvation comes from trusting the One with perfect
Amen! As I mentioned earlier, my name is Jordan Bray and I serve as one of the pastors here at Harvest. As the worship pastor, a great deal of my responsibilities have to do with the musical aspect of our services, but on some occasions, like this morning, I have the honor of preaching through God’s word.
If you’re joining us for the first time, or if it’s been a while, I want to welcome you! This year, we started a verse-by-verse series through the book of Isaiah. We took a brief break from that to learn from the letters of John, and last week, pastor Nick picked up where we left off and actually preached through 11 whole chapters of Isaiah! And this morning, I am going to go back into one of the chapters (just one 😉) that we briefly looked over last week, Isaiah 22. But before that…
Dismiss 4th + 5th graders (both services)
Ushers + Bibles (Isaiah 22; page 692)
Before we dive into our text for today, let’s talk for a moment about where we are in the storyline. Last week, Nick walked us through the oracles – “pronouncements” or “declarations” about what is or what will happen to each of the nations surrounding God’s people. These oracles were given by God to the prophet Isaiah so that he could share them with Judah as a warning to not put their hope in these nations. To remind them that only God can save. And today, we go back into chapter 22 where God pronounces an oracle through Isaiah not directed at a surrounding nation, but at God’s people themselves… the nation of Judah. Not even their own resources and self-sufficiency can save them. Only the Lord saves. God, in his wisdom, has a way of bringing people to an end of themselves SO THAT they might turn to him for strength and salvation. How will they respond? Let’s read about that together beginning with verses 1–8a.
Isaiah 22:1–8a
The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, exultant town?
Your slain are not slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 All your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day
of tumult and trampling and confusion
in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.
Judah has been tempted time and time again to put their hope and trust in other nations. God gives Isaiah oracles for each of these nations to warn Judah and to demonstrate that only God can save. Now, the finger points inward and the oracle is towards Judah, the people of Jerusalem, to show that they can’t even save themselves. Only God can save them.
And it’s interesting the way that Isaiah addresses Jerusalem. You’ll notice in verse 1 a title for this portion, “The oracle concerning the valley of vision.” Jerusalem isn’t seated in a valley, but known for being on a mountaintop… So why would Isaiah refer to them as the valley of vision?
Well, it is an oxymoron that illustrates the twisted way that Judah is behaving. We don’t usually associate “vision” with being in a valley, right? If you want a proper vantage point to see your surroundings, you wouldn’t go deep into a valley. Rather, you’d look for a mountain top or somewhere high up where you can look out over the horizon. In a valley, our sight is limited– we have no vision. And that topsy-turvy logic represents exactly how the nation of Judah is behaving in this text. Because they are given a vision from Isaiah of God’s coming judgment, yet the way they respond indicates that they are blind to what that really means. It’s as if their vision is impaired.
What is this vision that Isaiah appears to see clearly while the rest of Judah appears blind?
It is a graphic vision of the city of Jerusalem being overtaken by the Babylonian army. This is a horrific event that you can read more about in 2 Kings 25. Babylon, under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, surrounds and sieges Jerusalem, cutting them off from all outside help and forcing them to survive on their own resources until the point of surrender. Isaiah foretells that many of God’s people will starve to death (“your slain are not slain with the sword”)… They are dying of starvation… and the dead are not “dead in battle” but lying dead in the streets… Their leaders will flee to save themselves but will still be captured. The city walls will be breached and eventually whoever is still alive will be taken into exile.
This is a truly sorrowful image of what is to come for the nation of Judah. And it begs the question, how will they respond to such a fate? In God’s loving providence, he speaks through Isaiah to warn them of this coming judgment. Will they cry out to the Lord for deliverance? Will they plead for forgiveness and repent of their idolatry that has brought this upon them? Not at all… Isaiah looks and sees the nation of Judah responding in the most disturbing of ways – they begin to party! The city erupts in loud excitement and takes to the rooftops in celebration. Isaiah cries in horror and shock, “What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town?” Or in other words, “What do you mean you’re throwing a party?! Are you blind?! Do you not understand what is about to happen to you?!” This is possibly the most bizarre response we could imagine coming from Judah in this situation.
So why is this their response? To put it short: they became complacent. They became so unenthusiastic about the things of God that they are not taking his coming judgment seriously. And as we will see, their optimism stems from a false hope in their own resources. They think they’ll be fine, not because they trust in the Lord’s deliverance, but because of their own plan and resources. This false hope blinds their vision and causes them to respond in careless celebration when they should really be mourning.
That’s why the title for our message today is Rose-Colored Glasses: Dangers of Failing to See Things Clearly.
To see life through “rose-colored glasses” is an old phrase which means to maintain a happy or positive attitude that fails to notice negative things, leading to a view of life that is not realistic. To see things as better than they actually are and to respond foolishly. And this appears to be the case with Judah. Their celebratory response reveals that their vision of what’s to come has been impaired and they are not reacting in the way that they should. They should be mourning and sorrowful. Imagine the shame and horror of your city being taken over by an enemy army, your people lying dead in the streets, yet you proclaim to be the people of God! Surely, anyone in their right mind would be filled with grief and sorrow. Instead, they are throwing a party.
In contrast, Isaiah responds exactly how you would expect – in verse 4, he weeps and mourns at the destruction that is coming to his people. Isaiah appears to be the only one here with correct vision! He’s not viewing the coming judgment through rose-colored glasses, but with a crystal-clear vision that is not pretty. That’s why our first point for this morning is:
- Right vision is required for a right response.
Judah does not take God’s words through Isaiah seriously, so the way that they see and interpret their surroundings is impaired. Naturally, so is their response. In contrast, Isaiah believes Gods words. His vision is right, so he responds as expected. Mourning is the appropriate response to the judgment that’s coming. While Judah views this day through rose-colored glasses, Isaiah understands the weight and confusion of such a day and weeps. And we should expect this from Isaiah – he seems to be the only one who has a grasp on human sinfulness and God’s holiness! And as God reveals to him the punishment for the sin of his people, he is overcome with grief.
This day of judgment is no light punishment. Isaiah describes it as a day of “tumult and trampling and confusion.” This day is depicted throughout the next few verses where we get a picture of the walls of the city surrounded and torn down, horsemen and chariots fill the valleys and stand at the gates so there is no escape. And the most heartbreaking aspect of this all is that “He [God] has taken away the covering of Judah.” In his righteous judgment, God has removed the protection from Judah to remind them that while they are his people, they will be held accountable for their sin just like every other nation.
Judah cannot claim innocence or ignorance. If they believed God’s words and centered their lives around them, they would be responding by repenting of their sins and mourning the just punishment that is coming. A right vision is required for a right response.
Let’s consider for a moment, what we can learn from this. We all have a choice in how we see the world and interpret our surroundings. And whatever lens we choose to see the world through, will determine the way we live; the choices that we make.
God is the One who created us. He is the One who has a purpose for why he put us on this earth. So, God’s word is the truth and the lens through which we must interpret and orient our lives. In Isaiah’s time, he received direct revelation from God, yet the people ignored it and chaos ensued. In our day, we have the Bible – the word of God!
The author and creator, our God has given us his living word so that we might know why we are here, where we are going, and what to do in the meantime! Christian friends, is the word of God a priority in your life? It must be if we want to live in light of the truth! When we go into the world, there are so many competing voices telling us what we should or should not believe. But human flourishing comes from living in the way our Creator has designed us to. So, every time we open the word of God, we have an opportunity to realign our vision to be consistent with God and his ways.
That’s why we gather for worship like this – through admonishing one another in song, hearing the word of God preached, calling upon him to enact on his promises through prayer, serving one another with the gifts his Spirit has given us… in ALL of these things, we are realigning our vision to the truth: God’s will and ways. We need the word of God as our interpretative lens if we want to see things clearly.
If you’re here this morning and you do not profess to follow Jesus, let me ask you, have there been areas in your life where you feel disoriented? Have situations come up that were not on your agenda and you’re having trouble interpreting? What is your source of truth that you depend on to make sense of these situations? I can promise you, God’s word is true and has answers that can help you. His word is able to speak into your life in all matters of life and what pleases him. The question is, are you willing to consider what God says? If the answer is “yes,” please talk to someone today who brought you here or talk with one of our pastors– we would love to open God’s word with you and help you to see clearly why God created you and what he has to say about living a godly life.
In order to live in line with what God expects of us, we must align our vision with his word. From there, we respond accordingly. So, let’s talk about our response. Judah didn’t take God’s word seriously; they didn’t take the warning of God’s coming judgment for their sin seriously. And this “day of the Lord” when God will enact his judgment, not only has an immediate fulfillment in the siege of Jerusalem, but also points to the future Judgment Day, when Jesus Christ will judge the whole earth in righteousness.
Matthew 25:31–32
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
So the question is, will we take God at his word, and if so, how are we going to respond? What is the right response to the truth of the coming Judgement Day? If you are a believer in Christ, you have hope that on that day you will stand before him and be judged as righteous because of what Christ has done, amen? “When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless stand before the throne!” What an amazing hope! But… we cannot forget that Christ gave us a mission until that day… Our response is to go and make disciples of all nations! To spread the good news of Jesus Christ. To tell the world that there is a Judgment Day that is coming, but God has made a way through his Son for sinners to be saved!
Christian friends, are you taking this seriously, and responding by seeking to evangelize the lost? When you consider the lost souls in your life who need the hope of Christ, will you respond like Judah – With a lackadaisical approach thinking that at some point you’ll talk about spiritual matters but until then you’ll just suppress the thought of judgment? Or will you respond like Isaiah– Who mourned the thought of his people being punished and served as a willing witness to warn them?
If you’re like me and feel convicted by Isaiah’s example, I want to encourage you to do something about it! This month is mission’s month at Harvest. Every week, we are being reminded of our calling to participate in local and global evangelism. One of the easiest and immediate ways you can do that is by joining us for Witness on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday at 5:30p, a crew meets at the church and goes out into the city of Grimes to welcome new residents, invite them to church, and seek to stir up spiritual conversations. What an amazing opportunity to respond to God’s word by seeking to evangelize the lost!
Or how about the next time you’re with your unbelieving friends, coworkers, or family, try steering the conversation in a spiritual direction? You don’t have to be mean or confrontational about it (in fact, don’t do it like that…), but what’s stopping you from asking them what they believe or if they wouldn’t mind if you shared what God’s been teaching you? If you need some ideas, maybe even listen to the first four episodes of the Firm Faith Podcast – each of these are centered on apologetics and evangelism and may help you in your pursuit of those conversations! This is a resource we are producing for you and hope that it will help you to stand firm in the faith and share your faith with others.
To live a life that is pleasing to God and faithful to his plan and purposes for us, we need a right vision – God’s word which helps us understand and interpret our surroundings, and we need to follow his words by obeying his commands. Praise God for the example Isaiah sets for us in that regard. He trusted God’s word and responded appropriately at what was to come. Let’s read on to see how his people will respond to this message:
Isaiah 22:8b–14
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
12 In that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
Isaiah’s tragic vision of this day of judgment continues by foretelling how Judah will respond to the siege. As the enemy breaches the walls and prepares to overcome them, will they finally cry out to the Lord for deliverance? No! They will choose instead to depend on their own resources and defense! In desperation, they gather their weapons from the House of the Forest (the place where they stored their weapons). They start breaking down their own houses to gather more material to strengthen the city walls. And they gather as much water as they can to help withstand the siege.
Verse 11 is likely a reference to Hezekiah’s tunnel. This was an amazing piece of engineering that was created about 100 years prior to this attack. One of the most important resources to withstand a siege was a city’s water supply. Well, due to their geographic location, Jerusalem’s natural water supply was limited to one source, the Gihon Spring. This made them particularly vulnerable in a siege. Knowing this, King Hezekiah, built an amazing underground tunnel that could connect the water supply of the Gihon Spring from one side of the city to another, greatly increasing their chances of withstanding a siege. Hezekiah’s tunnel was an amazing structure of his time and in some passages, Hezekiah appears to be commended for his work. So, what’s the problem here? Isn’t Judah just being resourceful? Aren’t they just being wise stewards?
The underlying issue here is not with Judah’s resourcefulness, craftiness, or even their stewardship – the issue is that they are placing their trust in THOSE things rather than God. The second half of verse 11 explains that through all of their plans, they “did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.” Their God, their Deliverer, their Savior has been there all along ready to help them, but instead of crying out to him for deliverance, they chose to depend on themselves! They trusted in their own plans and believed that they would be fine without the Lord’s help. That’s why our second point is:
- Self-reliance blinds our vision.
When we become self-reliant, our vision becomes narrower, and our blind spots increase. Judah became self-reliant and in doing so, viewed their own strength through rose-colored glasses. They were blind to the foolishness and frailty of their hope and forgot that God was the only one who could save them.
You’ll notice in verse 14 that Isaiah refers to God as the “Lord God of hosts.” That title is repeated multiple times throughout this chapter. “Hosts” means “armies” – referring to the armies of angels that stand by God’s side ready to enact his judgment! And rather than turning to him for help, the God of the universe with all the heavenly resources they need, they were blinded by their own self-reliance instead. Do you think God was unaware of the strength of the enemy armies, or the weakness of Jerusalem’s water supply? Do you think God, standing with a host of angel armies by his side looked down and said, “Boy I am sure glad you dug that tunnel… Or else I don’t know how you could get out of this one!” No! God was well aware of their weaknesses, but that’s why he chose that location. God is in the business of using human weakness to show HIS strength! But in their prosperity, Judah became self-reliant and forgot just how truly dependent they were on God.
This must serve as a lesson for our lives. We so easily, in the busyness of life, forget God and drudge on as if we can live without him. In doing so, we view our own strength through rose-colored glasses and forget just how much we are truly dependent on him.
Consider for a moment some indicators that you may be becoming self-reliant rather than trusting and depending on God: Do you find yourself doing more but praying less? Do you find yourself responding in anger or despair when confronted by your physical or mental weaknesses? Do you find yourself exhausted by the mountain of tasks in front of you, but fail to turn to the Lord of Hosts who is bigger and greater than that mountain and stands ready to help you? Are you placing your trust in your own strength, intelligence, wisdom, reputation, accomplishments, possessions, finances? We must remember that we are dependent beings, and it is only through our Creator God that we are sustained, strengthened, and saved.
Last year, I was humbled by this truth in my own life. Early in the year, my wife and I were faced with an unexpected financial set back, and I had to wrestle with who or what I was going to place my trust in. I confess that I was more quick to grab a calculator and crunch some numbers than I was to get on my knees and pray. I was quick to trust in my own plans, rather than turn to the Lord of Hosts and ask for him to sustain us. My self-reliance blinded me to God’s provision and led me to dive into self-pity and despair multiple times. But God, in his mercy, began to help me see that whether through poverty or prosperity, I am dependent on Him. He is the one who provides my daily bread. I know this is true now, because I have written pages in a journal of the many ways God sustained us through that season that I never could have planned. And as hard as it was, I am thankful for that season because it has taught me to cry out to the Lord in my time of need.
While it is painful in the moment, sometimes God wisely and lovingly brings us to the end of ourselves so that we turn to Him for strength and deliverance. This is exactly why God is allowing this to happen to Judah. As it explains in verse 8, he has “removed” the covering from them. He is doing this to show them that they cannot save themselves. Only He can.
And God desires for Judah to turn to him not only for physical salvation, but even more so for spiritual salvation! “In that day,” as it says in verse 12, “the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth.” God is calling them to repentance! To weep and mourn for their sin.
To shave the head and put on sackcloth were common outward displays of the inner reality of sorrow. They were meant to demonstrate a discomfort with sin and the brokenness of this world. Imagine shaving your head and putting on a thick, itchy, burlap cloth. This would be totally uncomfortable, right? Which is precisely the way we should feel when we sin against our loving and holy God. But how does Judah respond?
“and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.” Rather than mourning their sin and outwardly displaying discomfort for the ways they have offended God, here they are again, partying and celebrating and enjoying the comforts of this life instead! And then rings the anthem of generation after generation who disregard the reality of eternity: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Judah had become so self-reliant that they demonstrated an attitude of “if we can’t save ourselves, nothing can.” This is heartbreaking! God wants to save his people and atone for their sins, but they have become so self-reliant that they would rather trust in themselves and enjoy the fleeting pleasures of this life now than to turn to him!
Verse 14 says, “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die.” The essence of this verse is that there is no forgiveness where there is no confession and repentance. To repent is to turn from sin. God is a loving and righteous God, eager and waiting to save sinners, but they must turn from sin to him and cry out for salvation. This is not just an application for the people of Judah in Isaiah’s time! As I mentioned earlier, this theme of God’s judgment day not only has an immediate fulfillment in the siege of Jerusalem, but it also points to the ultimate judgement day that is coming. And just as the people of Judah rejected the Lord’s salvation and atonement for their sins, there will be people on the ultimate Judgment day who have chosen to harden their hearts, and reject salvation through Christ as well.
Romans 2:5–6
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
If you are here today and you have not had a definite moment in your life where you have repented of your sins and trusted in Christ alone for salvation, I plead with you to consider the truth in God’s word. Each of us have fallen short of God’s standard. Each of us are deserving of death because we have rebelled against our Creator. And each of us will one day stand before him and give an account for everything we have done.
But each of us, have been offered a free gift of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us! You no longer have to remain stuck in your sin! You can turn to Jesus and leave this place today confident that one day you will stand before God and be judged as righteous– not because of anything you have done to earn that, but because of what Christ has done for you. God is a God of judgment, but he is also the God who saves! He wants to save you! He wants all of heaven and earth to rejoice today at a sinner being saved! We cannot save ourselves, but God desires to save us.
This life is just a vapor that vanishes in the wind and we can either respond to that by trying to live our best life now, or by preparing for the life that is to come. Judah became so blind by their own self-reliance that they ignored God’s warnings and chose to party when they should have mourned their sins, repented, and turned to God for salvation. And as we read our final chunk of the text for this morning, we will be reminded yet again that it is God alone who can save them.
Isaiah 22:15–25
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.
The final chunk of our text contrasts two kinds of leaders to illustrate the pride of Judah and once again the need for salvation through God alone. There is Shebna, who represents everything that is wrong with Judah: self-reliant and arrogant. Verse 15 refers to Shebna as “over the household.” This was an honorable position with great responsibility. Yet, Shebna illustrates the same pride and complacency of Judah through his pride in this high position. He only looks out for himself. He used his authority to preserve for himself a fancy tomb that he believed would adequately honor him even after death. In using his authority for his own selfish gain, he brings a disgrace to his high position. So, God promises to de-throne him and instead promote Eliakim to his position. Eliakim,“[God’s] servant” as he is addressed, is a faithful leader who will initially use his authority for the good of the people. However, a lot of weight will be placed on his shoulders and eventually will give way. God keeps his promise to promote Eliakim, not so the people have another earthly leader to put their hope in, but to once again show that he is the sovereign Lord over all and the only one with the power to truly save. Which is why our final point for today is,
- Salvation comes from trusting the One with perfect
Throughout this whole chapter, we have seen time and time again that God is the one in control. He has taken away the covering of Judah. He is the one who planned and provided for Judah long ago. He is the one who demoted Shebna from his position and promoted Eliakim. God is continually working things according to the counsel of his own will. He has perfect vision because from eternity past to eternity future, God reigns and has a plan for what he is doing. And even as he enacts judgment upon his people for their rebellion, he will use this to purify them and save a people for himself, just as he promised! Not through earthly leaders, but through his own Son!
Both Shebna and Eliakim are unable to bear the weight of the nation. Only one man could do that, and it is Jesus Christ! And he didn’t just bear the weight of one nation, but the weight of all sin for all time! Jesus bore the full weight of all our sin on the cross, and under the pressure he did not give way like Shebna or Eliakim. He used his authority to serve others, giving himself up for the salvation of those who would trust in him. He endured through the end, humbling himself to the point of death, and therefore was highly exalted and given a status far greater than “over the household.” He was given the name that is above every name “Jesus, Lord over all!” He is the only one with the power to save. Will you trust him alone?
Pray
Offering after prayer
At this time, I’d like to invite our ushers forward to receive a special offering for our missionary friend that I mentioned earlier. Let’s also stand and respond to all that we have heard this morning, by fixing our eyes on Christ and declaring that we look to him alone for salvation and strength.
Closing Song
- Ask for Prayer + Meet the Pastor
- Visitors + Welcome Gift
- You Are Loved