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Isaiah 22 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
How do you handle the immense spiritual burdens of others?
Isaiah wept over Israel. You can feel his raw emotion in verse 4. He refuses comfort in his mourning because of his bitter sadness. Why does he feel such extreme grief?
The people around him cannot see their own human depravity. In verse 1, Isaiah refers to Israel as the valley of the vision. This is because they often received vision from God regarding their future. Jerusalem is continually referred to as Mount Zion, but here, the term is definitely being used sarcastically. Though they were high on Mount Zion, they were spiritually in a valley. Though they should have possessed incredible vision, they could not see the future destruction.
Isaiah’s grief is heavy.
Any parent can relate to these emotions. As older, wiser adults, there are many times we try and instruct our children not to follow our same footsteps in life. Many of us, however, have strong-willed, stubborn kids. They want to do it their own way. Although we can clearly see where their path will lead them, they can’t – and they continue to walk forward. It’s heart-breaking.
What is so striking about this chapter is how Isaiah reacts to it. So, here is my question again – how do you handle the immense spiritual burdens of others? Most of us want to retreat. The easy thing is to avoid them. At the bare minimum, we offer a prayer or two for the person. But we don’t want it to upset our apple cart.
Not Isaiah. He refuses comfort. He wants to be as deeply touched by this as he possible can be. In fact, Isaiah, much like Jesus, wants to enter into the pain with Israel. He wants to jump down into the pit and mourn for them. Isaiah wants his heart to burn for his people.
Do we do this? Are we willing to go jump in the muck with others? Are we regularly committed to carrying burdens with authenticity and perseverance?