Scripture Daily

Context No. 1569 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 22:12-19: in context

12In that day, the Lord, GOD of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; 13and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” 14The LORD of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. 15The Lord, GOD of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, 16‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” 17Behold, the LORD will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. 18He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house. 19I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

God called his people, in a day of threat and danger, to weeping, mourning, and repentance. But instead of heeding the call, they responded with defiant revelry: killing cattle and sheep, eating meat and drinking wine, saying, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. God's response is grave: this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die. The chapter then turns to Shebna, a royal official busy carving himself a grand tomb, whom God will thrust from his office.

The startling thing is the response to God's call. God summoned his people to weeping and repentance, to face the seriousness of their situation and turn to him; and they answered by throwing a feast, defiantly grabbing at pleasure, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Faced with a call to seriousness, to mourning, to repentance, they chose distraction and pleasure instead, drowning the summons in food and wine. It is a picture of a very human evasion. When God calls us to face something serious, our sin, our mortality, the state of our souls, the temptation is to refuse the call and escape into pleasure and distraction, to numb the summons with food, drink, entertainment, busyness, anything rather than heed it. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die is the motto of the evasion, a fatalism that uses the shortness of life not as a reason to seek God but as an excuse to grab what pleasure we can and refuse to think about him. God had called them to weep and turn; they chose to feast and forget. There is a searching question in this about how we respond to God's calls to seriousness. When he summons us to repent, to face our sin, to consider our end, do we heed the call, or do we drown it in distraction and pleasure, saying in effect, let us eat and drink? The call to weeping was a mercy, an opportunity to turn while there was time; and they threw a party instead. To meet God's summons to seriousness with defiant distraction is to refuse the mercy in it.

When God calls me to seriousness, to face my sin, my mortality, the state of my soul, do I heed the call and turn to him, or do I drown the summons in distraction and pleasure, saying in effect, let us eat and drink, refusing the mercy in his call to repent while there is time?

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