22. Isaiah Chapter Twenty-Two
Isaiah Chapter 22 The valley of vision, concerning which this oracle is uttered, is not Samaria (as suggested by some) but Jerusalem. Though not exactly situated in a valley, yet there are mountains round about it (Psalms 125:2), and God had chosen it as a place shut in, so to speak, from the world, a place where He would give, through his prophets, visions of His will and purposes. Man’s cities are spiritually and morally deserts.
Judgments were about to fall on Jerusalem, through Gentile powers, but the chapter is not confined to events of the then near future. Much of the opening verses will be fulfilled when the nations are gathered together against the city at the end of this age. There will be "a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity" (Isaiah 22:5) such as Jerusalem has never experienced.
Elam and Kir (Isaiah 22:6) were strategic places in Assyria, and the passage primarily refers to the Assyrian invasion. Isaiah 22:8-11 describe what was done in Hezekiah’s time (2 Kings 20:12-21; 2 Chronicles 32:2-7, 2 Chronicles 32:30). While God blessed Hezekiah’s efforts, he did some scheming; but the people were in such a state of apostasy from God that He could not purge their iniquity (Isaiah 22:14). They had no idea of looking to their Maker (Isaiah 22:11), and when he called for mourning and repentance, they indulged in feasting and entire carelessness as to the judgments, impending, even though they were aware of their doom (Isaiah 22:12-13). The lesson of the passage, Isaiah 22:8-11, is of the utmost importance. Whatever we attempt by our own efforts is futile and disastrous unless directed by God and wrought by His power. Evil can never be averted by means adopted by our natural wisdom. Forgetfulness of God leads to reliance upon human resources and means, and ends in disappointment and misery. In Isaiah 22:15-19 we learn facts about Shebna additional to those in chapters 36 and 37 and 2 Kings 19:1-37. He was a sort of vizier, or chamberlain, over the king’s household, with charge of his treasury. The word "this" (Isaiah 22:15) expresses divine contempt. His arrogance led him to hew out a sepulcher for himself, hollowed out in the rocks of the city, copying the high and mighty of earth. His doom of captivity would prevent him from lying there. Jehovah would turn (lit., coil) him violently, and toss him like a ball into a land far and wide. The state carriages which he had provided for himself would go too, and become the shame of Hezekiah’s house. In captivity he would meet his death. So is he who "layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21). His place would be filled by Eliakim, who would have a still more honorable and extensive position. What is said of him in Isaiah 22:22-24 marks him as a type of Christ, of whom what is mentioned in Isaiah 22:22 is spoken by Christ Himself in Revelation 3:7, while Shebna, whose doom is repeated in Isaiah 22:25, foreshadows the Antichrist. As Eliakim replaced Shebna, so will Christ replace the Man of Sin.
Eliakim’s family would be benefited by his position, as metaphorically described in Isaiah 22:23-24, a foreshadowing of the effect of Christ’s coming glory upon those who, spiritually, being born of God, are related to Christ.