Bible In One Year Day 201 (Isaiah 21-22, Naham 3, Proverbs 10:29-32)

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Day 201:  Keys to the Kingdom 

Agape Bible Study 
Isaiah 21 -22 

Isaiah 21:1-10 ~ Oracle concerning the Fall of Babylon

The "coastal desert" is probably a reference to the region of the Persian Gulf. This is either an oracle on the fall of Babylon in the distant future in the 6^th century BC when Babylon is conquered by the combined armies of the Persians and Medes (already covered in chapters 13-14), or this is the fall of Babylon that has already taken place when Babylon was conquered by the Assyrians in 729 BC with the assistance of the Medes. In both events, the Medes, who were at one time vassals of the Babylonians, can be said to be traitors. Elam, located to the east of Mesopotamia was the homeland of the Medes and Persians. It is possible that the prophecy might be referring to both events, since sometimes Biblical prophecy has more than one fulfillment as in the prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC that was repeated by the Romans in 70 AD and on the same date, the 9^th of Ab.

The vision that Isaiah sees fills him with dread, even though it is an event he has "longed for".
This suggests it is the destruction of Babylon in 539 BC that will result in the release of the faithful remnant of 10:20-23 and 14:1-2.

However, this verse suggests that the oracle is for the fall of Babylon in 539 BC after the citizens of Judah has suffered 70 years of exile. According to the prophet Daniel in the Book of Daniel Chapter 5, and also recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5^th century BC, on the night when Babylon fell to the Persians, King Belshazzar was giving a royal banquet/orgy in the palace as part of a festival celebration. See Daniel 5:1-31/6:1 and Herodotus, 1.191.

This is a call to prepare for battle. Shields were greased so the enemy's weapons would slide off the shield when it was struck.

 The messengers "two by two" are those carrying the news of the fall of Babylon and the destruction of the images of her false gods (see verses 6-9).

10 You whom I have threshed, grain of my threshing-floor, what I have heard from Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, I am telling you now. The literal translation is "my crushed one, son of my threshing-floor, meaning the exiles in Babylon. The news is being brought to the people of God in exile in Babylon. These exiles are the "crushed one", those purified by suffering (literally God's son of the threshing-floor), who will now rejoice because they know their deliverance is coming.

Isaiah 21:11-17 ~ Oracles against Edom and the Arabian Tribes

Dumah means "fortress" or "silence"; it is an oasis in northern in Arabia on the border of Edom (also called Seir), a nation at the south end of the Dead Sea, but Isaiah may be using Dumah as a variant name for Edom-Seir. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau brother of Jacob-Israel and son of Isaac and Rebekah and the tribe of Dumah were descendants of Abraham's  by Hagar, Ishmael. It is ominous that Isaiah, the "watchman" hears nothing but silence as morning fades into night again, which may be a word-play on the name Duman. Often great acts of God are followed by periods of profound silence, as in the silence in the Mass after the Eucharistic miracle (also see Rev 8:1). Edom's time was coming but not yet.

The "watchman" responds to Isaiah's warning that everything is normal; they do not take Isaiah's warning seriously. St. Bernard applied this passage to the Christian's obligation to warn others to be vigilant concerning the return of Christ: "Although I must guard my own conscience and that of my neighbor neither is well-known to me; each contains inscrutable depths. Nevertheless I am called to be the guardian of both, and they cry out: Watchman, what of the night?" 

Question: How are most people today like the people Isaiah tried to warn in this oracle concerning the warnings that Christ will return to judge the earth?
Answer: They don't see any signs of His coming "morning turns into night in the normal passage of time "so they either are unaware of the warning, do not believe or care, or think of the event as sometime in the distant future.

Question: What did warning did Jesus give about the timing of His Second Advent in Matthew 24:37-44?
Answer: He said His return will be sudden, while people are going about their normal, daily lives. He warns to remain alert because we do not know the day or hour of His coming.

Question: What does Isaiah urge the Denanites and the citizens of Tema to do in 21:13-15?

Answer: He calls upon them to assist the refugees who are fleeing the oncoming army.

Chapter 22 ~ Oracles against Jerusalem and the Davidic Steward

In the preceding chapter, Isaiah gave three oracles against Babylon (21:1-10), Edom (21:11-12), and Arabia (21:13-17). Now he pronounces an oracle against His own people and the capital city of the Southern Kingdom of Judah "the holy city of Jerusalem. Yahweh will deal with sin wherever He finds it and no one is exempt from His judgment.

Isaiah 22:1-14 ~ Oracle predicting the Siege of and Salvation of Jerusalem

This prophecy dates to the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian army that was besieging the city in 701 BC. King Hezekiah openly broke with Assyria in 705 BC. The death of King Sargon II of Assyria became a signal for open rebellion throughout the Assyrian Empire, and Hezekiah was the force behind a military coalition to resist the Assyrians and to test the new king. He took his army into the coastal plain and ousted the rulers who were hostile to his policies (2 Kng 18:7-8). In 701 King Sennacherib brought his armies into the west. The Phoenician and Philistine allies were overwhelmed by the Assyrians, and then Sennacherib began his march through Judah, taking 46 fortified cities before besieging Jerusalem (2 Kng 18:13-17; 2 Chr 32:1). Hezekiah and the people repented their sins and prayed for deliverance. As Isaiah prophesied, God delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians the same night (2 Kng 19:35-36; 2 Chr 32:20-23).

Isaiah had prophesied the city's deliverance and now he warns the city in advance against the exaggerated joy expressed by Jerusalem's citizens who do not seem to realize or want to acknowledge that this was a work of God.

The "Valley of vision is mentioned in verses 1 and 5. Jerusalem was built in between two high valleys in the Judean Mountains. The Mount of Olives to the east was higher than Mount Moriah and one could look down on Jerusalem from Mount of Olives, as Jesus did when He pronounced His judgment over Jerusalem in Matthew 24:3-25. It was also a place of visions that moved forward God's plan in salvation history:

• First for Abraham in his vision of the angel in Genesis 22:11-14 who told Abraham not to sacrifice his son Isaac but to offer a ram caught in a thicket instead.
• And David who had a vision of the Angel of Yahweh on the height of Mt. Moriah in 2 Samuel 24:17.
• The Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem was where generations of the children of Israel experiences spiritual visions of the divine in daily Temple worship.

The Elamites and Aramaeans from Kir were allies or mercenaries of King Sennacherib of Assyria who were the vanguard of the attacking army.

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, by Sir Edward John Poynter  (House of the Forest of Lebanon)

The House of the Forest of Lebanon was the royal palace built by King Solomon with huge cedar pillars to hold up the roof and decorated with shields on its walls (1 Kng 7:2-6; 10:16-17; 14:25-29; 2 Chr 9:16; 12:2, 9-11).
Question: In what ways did the people recognize how desperate their situation was?
Answer:

1. The situation was so desperate some of their leaders fled the city.
2. The people considered taking down the ornamental shields displayed in the palace of the king, either to use in self-defense or to pay as tribute to the Assyrians.
3. Houses that were built against the wall were destroyed so the enemy could not make use of them.
4. They saw the breaches made in the wall where the Assyrian sappers had tunneled beneath the wall and set logs on fire to cause the wall to collapse.

Jerusalem was a double walled city. To secure Jerusalem's water supply, King Hezekiah had his engineers cut a tunnel out of the rock from the city's only water supply, the Gihon Spring, to bring the water into the reservoir of the Siloam Pool within the city. Hezekiah's tunnel was a marvel of ancient engineering (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chr 32:3-4; Sir 48:17/19).³

Question: Instead of jubilation and feasting, what is it that God wanted from Jerusalem's citizens?
Answer: It is Isaiah's warning that when their deliverance comes instead of joyous celebration they should show their gratitude to God by offering Him their genuine repentance for their sins by wearing sackcloth, weeping, and shaving their heads.

Question: What will be their punishment for their failure to recognize God as their deliverer and their failure to repent the sins and purify their lives?
Answer: The verdict is divine judgment and the future destruction of the city.

Isaiah 22:15-25 ~ The Davidic Chief Stewards Shebna and Eliakim
God finds fault with the Davidic chief steward Shebna whose focus is advancing himself instead of service to his king and the people.

Question: What example is given of his self-serving agenda?
Answer: He has built an expensive tomb for himself to reflect his status and is more concerned with material wealth that with his eternal future.

God will bring about the loss of Shebna's position as chief steward/Vicar of the palace and will appoint another to take his place, a righteous man named Eliakim, whose name means "God will establish". The signs of Eliakim's office and the extent of his authority are listed in verses 21-24. To "open and shut" refers to making binding decisions for the good of the kingdom of Judah as the king's chief minister, the symbolic images of the "nail into a firm place" depicts the security of his office, and "the vessels" both small and large, "from cups to pitchers" refers to all the members of the kingdom from the common people to the more influential. To "open and shut" (also translated as to "bind and loose") refers to the authority to make binding decisions.

Question: How is the office of the Davidic Vicar/Prime Minister Eliakim described in Isaiah 22:21-25?
Answer:

1. He wore a garment that identified his high office (verse 21).
2. He was a "father" to the people of the kingdom (verse 21).
3. As the Vicar of the King, the Davidic chief minister kept the "key of the house of David", referring to the palace and its administration (verse 22).
4. The key (singular) was his sign of authority and gave him the power to "open and shut" or "bind and loose" "make binding decisions for the good of the palace and the kingdom (verse 22).
5. His position will be secure and he is responsible for the glory of his family "from the least to the greatest member "all the "vessels", "from cups to pitchers" (verse 24).

Question: Who in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus is given the same responsibilities in the New Testament and who carries on that same office in the Church today? See Mt 16:16-20.
Answer: Simon-Peter, like Eliakim, was chosen for his office by God Himself as the new Davidic King's chief steward or Vicar of the New Covenant Kingdom. His successors are the Popes "the "fathers" to the people of the new Jerusalem that is the Kingdom of the Church who continue to serve today. They have the same authority as the other Davidic Vicars:

1. The Pope wears a special garment identifying his high office.
2. He is a "father" to the people of Christ's kingdom of the Church.
3. He symbolically carries the "keys" (plural) of Heaven that is his sign of authority over the "house" of Jesus (the eternal Davidic king) that is the Kingdom of the Church.
4. He has the power to make binding decisions for the Church and his pronouncements are infallible on issues of faith and morals.
5. He is responsible for the spiritual well-being of all members of the family of the Church from the least to the greatest members.

The power to "bind and loose" sins and govern the Church that Jesus gave to Peter, who served as His chief minister/vicar, Jesus also gave to the other Apostles who were the first members of the Magisterium who governing Jesus' Kingdom of the Church with His chief minister/Vicar (see Mt 18:18 and Jn 20:22-23).

Question: But what warning is given in Isaiah 22:25?
Answer: While the people of the Davidic kingdom and their descendants depend on the Vicar/chief minister, he will only remain in his office so long as he remains faithful. If he fails, he too will be torn out like a defective nail and his failure will be a threat to the kingdom which will fail.

Question: Why does this threat of the loss of the kingdom not apply to Christ's Vicar and the Kingdom of the Church? What promise did Jesus make in Matthew 16:17-19? How is Jesus' kingdom unlike earthly kingdoms?
Answer: Jesus promised that, through divine intervention, His Kingdom would remain secure and did not depend on the faithfulness of any one vicar: "And the gates of the underworld [death and Hades] can never overpower it" (Mt 16:18). Jesus' kingdom is eternal.

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 201 Will Heaven Be Boring?

CHALLENGE: “I can’t imagine being happy for all eternity in heaven. Sitting on a cloud playing a harp sounds boring.”

DEFENSE: The reality of heaven transcends human imagination, and popular images of it are only pointers.

The depiction of robed saints sitting on clouds and playing harps is a modern one. It is found in art and on greeting cards, but it mashes images together in a way not found in the Bible.

Scripture uses many images for heaven. The most fundamental is the sky. John Paul II explained: “In biblical language ‘heaven,’ when it is joined to the ‘earth,’ indicates part of the universe.

Scripture says about creation: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen. 1:1)” (General Audience, July 21, 1999). 

The sky, in turn, was used as an image of where God dwells: “Metaphorically speaking, heaven is understood as the dwelling-place of God, who is thus distinguished from human beings (cf. Ps. 104:2–3; 115:16; Isa. 66:1). He sees and judges from the heights of heaven (cf. Ps. 113:4–9) and comes down when he is called upon (cf. Ps. 18:9, 10; 144:5). However, the biblical metaphor makes it clear that God does not identify himself with heaven, nor can he be contained in it (cf. 1 Kings 8:27)” (ibid.).

Scripture uses other images of heaven, though we need to be sensitive to their limitations too. The Catechism explains: “This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor. 2:9)” (CCC 1027).

We thus shouldn’t be confused by modern images depicting saints sitting on clouds with harps. “In the context of revelation, we know that the ‘heaven’ or ‘happiness’ in which we will find ourselves is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. It is our meeting with the Father which takes place in the risen Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit” (John Paul II, op. cit.).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist