Blindness in the Valley of Vision

Isaiah 22:1-14 

1 The burden against the Valley of Vision.
What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
2 You who are full of noise,
A tumultuous city, a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.

3 All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.

4 Therefore I said, "Look away from me,
I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people."

5 For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
By the Lord GOD of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.

6 Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And Kir uncovered the shield.

7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

8 He removed the protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest;

9 You also saw the damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.

11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Lord GOD of hosts
Called for weeping and for mourning,
For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

13 But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine:
"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

14 Then it was revealed in my hearing by the LORD of hosts,
"Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death," says the Lord GOD of hosts.

This prophecy against Jerusalem in the valley of visions given through the prophets like Isaiah was to expose their chosen blindness and resultant hopelessness for their rejection of the LORD.  In the valley of vision they should have heard and heeded God’s word as revealed to them but instead they turned away and faced overthrow by their enemies.  This plundering of God’s people brought sadness to Him and to Isaiah who was burdened with bringing the message.  As the Lord enacted judgment on Jerusalem, bringing trouble and confusion in the valley of vision where all should have heard and seen, there was breaking down of the city and weeping instead because of the hardness of their hearts.  The armies of judgment entered the valley where vision failed as God removed the protection of His almighty hand and they looked vainly to their own defense.  The destruction was extensive to include their own destruction of the houses along the city walls to reinforce them against the onslaught.  But their biggest mistake was in not looking to their Maker who made all things and relying on Him.  He had made them and given them the city and their protection.  He called on them to repent, to turn from self-reliance to faithfully following by trusting obedience, but they instead found false happiness in revelry and partying, taking up the ill-fated mantra of "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" in their living of excess in sin.  This rejection of the Lord earned them death and no atonement for their willing sin of rejecting Him.  Likewise, those who reject His Word, Jesus Christ, will also find no atonement because many will refuse to believe God in the valley of vision given in the scriptures and preached as the gospel to them (John 12:48).  By hardening their hearts, many will not find the way to life, but only the certain judgment which we all deserve and cannot escape apart from listening to Him and His atoning work (John 6:28-29) of His death, burial, and hope bringing resurrection.  No defense we can mount can protect us from being overthrown and defeated by sin and death if we do not look to our Maker as in the wilderness which was to point us to Christ (Numbers 21:8-9,  John 3:14-15) to trust in for life.  He is the only way, the absolute truth, and life itself (John 14:6)!  May we not be caught up in the world to repeat the rejection of these in old Jerusalem who lived for the passing pleasures of sin (1 Corinthians 15:32, Hebrews 11:25), the blind ones in the valley of vision given in the Bible for our instruction and salvation.  There is atonement only for those who humble themselves in repentance to life in Christ.