God’s Discipline is Visual - Isaiah 18-22

Isaiah 22:5 (ESV)
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.

In this section of Isaiah (chapters 18-21) we read about disaster that will come upon the nations that have attacked, or not defended in their time of need, the nation of Judah.   Chapter 22, however, is a poem about the same type of disasters that will actually come upon Jerusalem, the capital city Judah (remember, when the nation of Israel split, ten tribes went to the north and kept the name Israel and two tribes went to the south and were referred to as Judah).  These were God’s people.    The above verse is pulled out of this poem about the destruction of Jerusalem.   Reading this entire section is difficult.  It is a collection of poems, but we have little, or no, background for any of them.   As one commentator stated, it is like coming into the middle of a movie and trying too figure out the plot and meaning of the producers.   The above verse, therefore, is on verse out of a brief look at the movie screen.   It makes it difficult to understand what is being spoken.  But, this one verse does capture the essence of this poem about Jerusalem’s destruction.   It simply states that God is going to have His day.  They peoples of Jerusalem did not know when and many were confused as to why (it was their unrepentant hearts).   The phrase that there will be “tumult and trembling and confusing” carries, in the Hebrew words, a certain rhythm.   The words in the Hebrew do rhyme.   Perhaps this is a subtle way for God to communicate to us that even in His wrath and anger, He has demonstrates harmony, structure and organization.   God has an intended plan.  The phrase, “valley of vision” is actually the title of the entire poem (22:1).   We don’t know what it means.  Again, we are coming into the “movie” with no context.  But, Jerusalem’s natural security is that it is surrounded by ravines that protect it from normal attacks.  Perhaps what Isaiah is saying to us is that this destruction is going to be clearly seen, like looking down, from above, into a valley.  That elevated position allows us to see all.  Perhaps we are being told that when we walk away from God, as Jerusalem’s inhabitants did, destruction will come and that destruction will be highly visible to all.  God is not going to do this work in secret.  God’s discipline is often seen by the world.   God wants us to know that disobedient is dealt with and sends a clear message about the character and ways of God.