Human Effort Cannot Save

There is such a thing as false joy in the people of God. Isaiah describes such a time in Chapter 22 when the defeat of their enemies seems to be a signal that God is proud of who they are and defending them as such. The reality is God is showing mercy that they do not deserve and preserving them according to His Covenant and not their good works. 

Isaiah 22:1–2 (ESV) The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, 2 you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.

The next verse seems contradictory:

Isaiah 22:3 (ESV) All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.

The reality is Isaiah sees what will be of this proud city. Though they had been spared destruction, their lack of repentance will lead to inevitable demise. He describes this later in verse 5.

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.

Ironically Jerusalem is built on a hill. Its temple was located at the place where Abraham offered Isaac and where David bought land from Araunah. Its height was seemingly impenetrable to David's men and required Joab's elusive maneuvering through the waterways to capture it from the Jebusites. But here in Isaiah 22, Jerusalem is seen as a valley. Why? Because pride in the heart lays one low in the spirit. You can appear however you want on the outside, but sin will tear you down on the inside. 

Next Isaiah describes how the city will react in the face of impending judgment. They will seek human-oriented solutions to what God alone can perform for them. 

Isaiah 22:8–11 (ESV) He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

The House of the Forest was famously where Solomon stored his armory, and now they are gone. They took their own homes to built up their defenses. They manufactured water ways to separate them from their enemies. But all their human efforts were wasted. They could not save themselves from judgment. 

The next verses describe how they ignored God's call to repentance, living brazenly according to their own desires. 

Isaiah 22:12–13 (ESV) In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; 13 and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

And the final judgment is death.

Isaiah 22:14 (ESV) The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

We cannot save ourselves from sin and death. That is the truest thing human history has proven. Regeneration has occurred in our hearts when we come to the end of our sin and self-preservation efforts. Isaiah saw Jerusalem for what it was, not what she thought she was. And that's the effect of God's Word upon our hearts. It reveals us, it demolishes our self-sufficiency and points us to the hope only found in God's grace and God's son.