In this sermon, the speaker begins by asking why people rush to the rooftop when there is commotion or excitement. He questions whether the noise and commotion they hear is something good or bad. The speaker then uses the analogy of an elevator to explain that just as one cannot move an elevator without pushing a button, one cannot atone for their own sins. The sermon then shifts to discussing a passage in Scripture about a proud man named Shibna, who is warned by God about his pride and false sense of importance. The speaker concludes by discussing the preparations made by Jerusalem in the face of an impending siege.

Isaiah chapter 22, now tonight in going verse by verse through chapter 22 and chapter 23, we're going to conclude the section which is usually considered to be the judgment against the nations. In Isaiah chapter 1 through chapter 12, Isaiah dealt with the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And in chapters 13 through 23, he deals with the nations with one very interesting exception. I mean all through the previous weeks we've been going through and we've been seeing Isaiah prophesy against Babylon and the Moabites and the Edomites and the Assyrians and all sorts of different nations. Take a look here at chapter 22, verse 1 though. The burden against the valley of vision. Well, okay, what's the valley of vision? It's Jerusalem. You see, Jerusalem is a city that's built on a hill, but it's surrounded by three valleys. And since it was the place where many of the prophets lived and where God spoke so powerfully, Jerusalem is known here in this scripture and in a few other places as the valley of vision. Now right now we stop and we scratch our heads. We say, wait a minute, I thought this was the word of the Lord against the nations, not against his people Israel. I thought he was talking to Babylon and Egypt and Ethiopia and the Moabites and the Edomites and everybody else. Why is he talking to Jerusalem right now? Because Judah had chosen to behave like the Gentile nations. He had chosen to desert the Lord. And so the Lord says, I'm going to judge you alongside or in the midst of or in the same section that I'm speaking to the nations. We read here verse 1, the burden against the valley of vision. What ails you now that you have all gone up to the housetops? You who are full of noise, a tumultuous city, a joyous city. Your men are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle. All your rulers have fled together. They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together who have fled from afar. 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. Isaiah looks off and in a vision here he sees Jerusalem in a time of crisis, in a time of calamity. In any time of great confusion or calamity in the city of Jerusalem, just like any city in the ancient world of that place and of that time, what would people do when there was some kind of emergency or calamity? You'd run up to your rooftop. They had patios on their housetops. And you know, if there was something going on, some riot, some calamity, everybody would want to see what's going on. So you'd get up on your housetop and you'd look. And that's what he says here in verse 1. What ails you now that you've all gone up to the housetops? Well, what happens? Is it something good? Verse 2 says, you who are full of snore, a tumultuous city or a joyous city? Is all the noise, is all the commotion, is it something good? It's as if you hear a bunch of shouting. You hear a big commotion going on and you rush up to the housetop. Well, what is it? Are people excited with joy? Is it the roar of a Super Bowl crowd? Or is it something terrible that people are groaning at and shouting at and yelling at? Well, what is it? Look at what he sees here in the middle of verse 2. Your slain men are not slain with a sword, nor dead in battle. You see, when Jerusalem was judged by the Babylonians, there was no great big battle of Jerusalem. It wasn't some big dramatic thing where, you know, the swords were flying and men were falling dead. You know how Jerusalem was conquered? They laid a siege around it. And they starved the city out. And there were dead bodies all over the city. But most of them weren't killed by the sword. They were dead from pestilence and famine. And this is what Isaiah is seeing in his vision. The men weren't slain by the sword. They were defeated by the siege that came against them. And what's Isaiah's reaction? Look at verse 4. You know, usually we think of Jeremiah as being the weeping prophet. He's the guy who's crying his eyes out all the time as he brings the Word of the Lord. But Isaiah did his share of weeping too, didn't he? Isaiah said, I will weep bitterly when he saw God's judgment coming against God's people. And then in verse 5, he sees the army on the march. Look at it. For it is a day of trouble and a treading down the road. How would you feel? There you are in the ancient world and you see an army surrounding your city. And they're bent on destruction, on taking everything that you have. And the archers, and the chariots, and the horsemen, they're all ready. And so what does Jerusalem do? They prepare. Right? Let's prepare for battle. Look at verse 8, prepare for the siege. He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armour of the house of the forest. You also saw the damage to the city of David, that it was great. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And the houses, you broke down to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between two walls for the water of the old pool. Just stop right there in the middle of verse 11. You say, okay, well, the siege is around us, we've got to prepare. Get out the shields, make sure you've got a water supply, right? Because you can't go outside of the city walls. The siege army has surrounded the city. Make sure you've got food. Number the houses, repair the wall. Jerusalem is doing everything that they can to prepare for the calamity of the siege. It's surrounding them. They're doing everything they should, except the right thing. Look at the middle of verse 11. But you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it. So often, we're doing all kinds of things in our life, except for the right thing. When Jerusalem was surrounded by the armies of Babylon, Isaiah sees them filled with commotion, preparing and doing everything they can for the coming battle, for the coming starvation. Do we have enough water? Is the wall strong enough? Do we have weapons? Yes, yes, prepare, prepare. But then they stop. And Isaiah says, I want you to stop. You're doing everything except turning to the Lord. Look to your maker. Look to the One who fashioned you. Verse 12, And in that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth. But instead, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. You see the attitude of the people of Jerusalem. Well, I know I'm in trouble. I know the armies are around me. I know I'm in a desert place, but I'm going to go headlong. Let's eat and drink, tomorrow we die. There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Let's just have a fatalistic outlook toward the future. What's going to happen is what's going to happen. Let's just do whatever we want. Let the chips fall where they may. No, Isaiah says. This is wrong. God had removed the protection of Judah. And as they were being attacked, instead of humbly repenting for God, instead of coming before God with weeping and mourning for baldness and girding with sackcloth, no, instead they were throwing parties. Well, the good times are going to end pretty soon. Pretty soon the Babylonians are going to come over the wall. Let's enjoy it while we can. What a foolish attitude, isn't it? How easy it is for us to take on that theme. Instead of seeing the urgency of today. Today I want to be right with God. Today I want to walk righteously after the Lord. Today I want it to be straight with Him. 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. That's heavy, isn't it? The Lord looks and He says, you know what? When you do that little ceremony on the day of atonement, it doesn't count for you people. It doesn't matter how many sacrifices you offer. It doesn't matter how much blood you think can cover that sin. And it won't matter at all. No atonement can cover that sin. And what is the sin? What is the sin that can't be forgiven? It's the sin of ignoring God. Of refusing to humble yourself before the Lord and repent. Jerusalem was doing everything except the essential thing they had to do to prepare for the attack. Because they were rejecting the Lord, there would be no atonement for them. Look at the attitude of verses 12 and 13. Instead of repenting, instead of humbling yourself before the Lord, you ignore God and go on your merry way. There's no atonement for that. None. You've rejected the only way of atonement there is. By the blood of Jesus Christ, which you have to humbly receive. Repentantly receive atonement. They've rejected the Lord. Now, please, no one should here think that you earn your forgiveness by repentance. Or that you earn your forgiveness by having a humble heart before God. Friends, those things only put you in the position to receive it. You don't earn it. You just reach out and receive it like riding in an elevator. You don't make the elevator travel between floors by pushing the button. When you think, look at me, I moved this big car, and this thing must weigh thousands of pounds. I moved it. I pushed a button. Yep. No. There's a whole sophisticated system of gears and pulleys and cables and motors and all that stuff. But if you don't activate it by the simple act of pushing a button, you'll stand in the way of God. You'll stand in that elevator all day and it's never going to move between floors. Friends, you can't atone for your own sin just like you can't move that elevator car, but you need to reach out and push the button. You need to receive it humbly by faith. Now, the Lord is going to give us in verses 15 through 25 one of the most interesting passages of Scripture I've run across in a long time. You know, you may all the time run across the Bible and say, gee, you know, I never really saw that. Wow, that's a surprise. I want you to know that the second half of Isaiah chapter 22 just hit me in a wonderful way here. A beautiful contrast that the Lord paints between two people. One guy's name is Shebna. The other guy's name is Eliakim. Let's take a look here first. Shebna, verse 15. Thus says the Lord God of hosts, Go, proceed to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, What have you here? And whom have you here? That you have hewn a sepulcher here, as he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, who carves himself a tomb in the rock. Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty man, and will surely seize you. He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country. There you shall die, and there your glorious chariot shall be the shame of your master's house. So I will drive you out of your office, and from your position, He will pull you down. Now, who's this fellow, Shebna, that Isaiah is prophetically addressing here? Shebna was a servant of the present king of Judah, King Hezekiah. Shebna was a steward, and was over the house of Hezekiah there. If you want to take a look here, you can stop right here and go to Isaiah chapter 37. Just keep your finger there. Here's another reference to this fellow, and he's mentioned several times in the book of 1 Kings as well. Isaiah 37, verse 2. Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders and the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. Well, you see, he's part of the leadership. He's one of the leaders of Judah at this time, one of the leaders of Israel. Okay, fine, we know who this fellow is. He's the steward over the house of King Hezekiah. And what does the Lord say to him? He says what the Lord would say to every proud person. Look at verse 16. What have you here, and whom have you here? In other words, God's saying to this proud man Shebna, who do you think you are, and what do you think you have? Shebna was a man filled with pride. He didn't see that he was really nothing, and that he really had nothing. Instead, he had a high view of who he was, and a high view of what he had. This is shown, as you see here in verse 16. He says that you have hewn a sepulcher here, as he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, who carves a tomb for himself in a rock. You know, in the ancient world, that a lot of times people like to glorify themselves with very elaborate tombs. Think Egypt, and the pharaohs, and the great pyramids, right? That's all they were. They were huge monuments to themselves, mausoleums, monuments to their own greatness. But in the same way, this fellow Shebna was so proud that he had built himself a great and elaborate tomb, a sepulcher, set it up on high where it was very visible. And the Lord is coming to him and saying, who do you think you are? Why do you have such a high opinion of yourself? Something else interesting about Shebna building himself a sepulcher right there in Jerusalem is that Isaiah had previously prophesied that the children of Israel, that the people of Judah, especially the leaders of the nation, would be carried away in exile. Now, if you're Isaiah and you prophesied to Shebna, you're going to be carried away in exile to Babylon. And Shebna says, you know what? I'm going to build myself a tomb right here in Jerusalem. What are you saying? You're saying, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to die here and I'm going to be buried here. I don't believe your word, Isaiah. And Isaiah says, oh, you don't believe my word, do you? Well, this is the word of the Lord to you. Look at it here, verse 17. Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty man, and He will surely seize you. He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country. There you shall die. You're not going to die in Jerusalem. You're going to die in Babylon. The Lord is going to pick you up and toss you like a ball. Shebna, the same kind of man that Jesus spoke about in Luke chapter 12 in the parable of the rich fool. Remember that man? Spent all his time planning and using his money building great things. But in the end, he died without God and it meant nothing. And here's this man Shebna, a man of great accomplishment, great man monuments around. Oh, look at the great sepulchre he built. Oh, wow. Anybody would be proud to be buried in such a place like that. When your body's dead and you have to stand before God, you may have nothing. Nothing. Look at all his glorious accomplishments. Verse 18, it says, and there you shall die, and there your glorious chariot shall be the shame of your master's house. Yeah, you know, Shebna, that great chariot used to ride and the thing you were so proud of, all that that you made. You know, it's analogous to the person today, isn't it? They buy themselves a big house. Oh, yeah, this is their life's accomplishment. This great, beautiful house. Oh, look at how great I am. Wow, I've really done something. Then they buy themselves the car, right? Verse 18, the glorious chariot. There you got the car. Woo, wow, that's great. If your heart's not tuned towards God, what good is it? You're just a Shebna. The Lord's gonna bring you love. Shebna is not the kind of person that God uses. Kind of person that a lot of people like. Not the kind of person God uses. What's the kind of person God uses? Look at this other fellow, Eliakim. Verse, and it shall be in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Hey, Shebna, wake up. Your robe, Eliakim's getting it. Your responsibilities, Eliakim's getting it. Your belt, Eliakim's getting it. I'm pushing you out and I'm bringing Eliakim in. Look at the authority Eliakim has. Verse 22, the key of the house of David, I will lay on his shoulder. So he shall open and no one shall shut. And he shall shut and no one shall open. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place. And he will become a glorious throne to his father's house. They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and all the issue, all the vessels of small quantity from all the cups to all the pitchers. Wow. This man, Eliakim, lifted up, isn't he? Why? Look at the title given to him here in verse 20 that I will call My Servant. Don't you want that title in your life? Don't you want people to look at you and say, that's a servant of God? Don't you want God to look down from heaven and say, My Servant? Doesn't matter what job you do, doesn't matter what work you do. You know, there's this person over there and they work at that job, and they work at this job, and they say, My Servant. You can be God's servant at school, in your home, wherever God puts you. You can be the servant of the Lord. Shebna's heart was directed towards selfish ambition and glory, but Eliakim's heart was turned towards the Lord and he just wanted to serve the Lord. This man was lifted up and brought up. He was made to be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a leader of the house of Judah. The Lord would take the office and the authority of the unfaithful Shebna and give it to Eliakim instead. Friends, do you understand that God will get His work done if a Shebna's unfaithful? The Lord will remove him from His office, strip him of his authority, and give it to somebody else. God's work doesn't begin or end with a man. A man's being unfaithful, the Lord will remove him. The Lord will put someone else there. And here, Eliakim, the Lord's servant, is being lifted up. Isn't this glorious what it says here? Right here in verse 22, the key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. Now, in those days, the chief steward of a great house or of a royal house would have the large master key of the palace fastened to the shoulder of his tunic. The key was a picture of the demonstration of the authority of the chief steward. You know, the guy who runs the place has all the keys, right? Big, big, huge ring of keys all around. Well, this chief key, Eliakim, would have it. And it was a demonstration of his authority and of his leadership. And here, the Lord gives Eliakim the authority to open and shut as the Lord's representative and nobody can oppose him. You're going to do it, Eliakim. Nobody can get in your way. As he says here, look at it in verse 22, so he shall open and no one shall shut and he shall shut and no one shall open. And then he says, I'll fasten him as a peg in a secure place. Say, wow, I always wanted to be a peg for the Lord. You know what that means? Friends, in those days, in somebody's house, they didn't have cupboards or closets. You know how they would store things? They'd put a peg on the wall and hang stuff on it. Right, a cup would have a handle. And the handle just wasn't for holding it. Primarily, it was to put it on the head, peg. Curtains, linens, clothes, whatever. There'd be a peg, you'd put it on the wall. That's the peg. Everything's going to hang off of him. And so, if something was on its peg, it was safe and secure. It's on the table, somebody might knock it over. It's on the floor, somebody might kick it. No, it's on the peg. It's going to be safe, it's secure. And they say they will hang on him all the glory of his father's house and offspring and issue. The godly Eliakim was a secure peg and could spiritually support his father's house and his offspring. Isn't it glorious? You're established. People can hang on you. People can trust on you. People rely on you. You're a peg in God's house. I want to be a peg in the house of the Lord. Glorious thing. Friends, I want you to consider something. When we read here, verse 22, the key of the house of David, I will lay on his shoulder, so he shall open and no one shall shut. He shall shut and no one shall open. You said, I heard that somewhere before, didn't you? Okay, keep that there in your Bible. Turn to the book of Revelation, chapter three, verse seven. Revelation 3.7. This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking and He says, these things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 22, verse 22. Now, you know what this tells us? Is that Eliakim is a picture of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ directly identifies Himself with Eliakim. Jesus is the one who has the keys of Hades and death. Jesus is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus delegates His authority as it pleases Him. And friends, if it was true of Eliakim, He shall open and no one shall shut and He shall shut and no one shall open. Friends, Eliakim is a picture of Jesus. We know that Jesus has the authority to open and shut doors in our lives as He pleases. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus can do it. He opens the door and nobody shuts it. He shuts the door and nobody opens it. Friends, we need to accept both the open and the shut doors is from the Lord. F.B. Meyer wrote something relevant to this. Applying this truth of Jesus' ability and right to open and shut doors in our lives. F.B. Meyer wrote and he said, down the long corridor of closed doors we may sometimes have to pass. It seems heartbreaking to us to see doors labeled friendship, love, home, shut against us. But beyond them, there is the one unclosed door through which we shall enter into true life. Oh, do not lose heart and hope in useless weeping over the closed doors of the past. Follow Him who has the keys. Leave it to the Lord. If He wants the door open, He'll open it. When He wants it open, He'll open it. You ever see those safes that open with a locking mechanism that's keyed to a timer? And you can't open it in the middle of the night, can you? It has to be a certain time of day or the safe just won't open. Friends, that's how it is in a lot of God's doors in that corridor we walk in. You walk down a door and it's closed. You say, Lord, I don't want this door to be closed. I want it to be open. You start knocking on the door and kicking on the door and waiting out the door. Like one of those people standing in line for the movie. You know, you camped out for six months in front of that door. And Lord says, you know what? This door's got a time lock on it. It's not open until the right time. And you waste all this time agonizing over the door because it's closed. Friends, move on. When the Lord wants that door open, he's going to open it. Because when he wants it open, no one can shut it. And when he wants it shut, nobody can open it. That's the authority of Jesus Christ. Now, since Eliakim is a picture of Jesus, don't we see something else here? Isn't he the peg that we hang on? My friends, I want you to think about that for a minute. Eliakim is a picture of Jesus, and in that we see the believer's total dependence on Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to look at verse 25, and then we'll sort of consider these things together. Because verse 25 fits into this very powerfully. He says, In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken. Now, what's the peg he's talking about in verse 25? He's talking about Shebna there. I mean, look, in verse 23, he says of Eliakim, I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place. That's the future tense. So, Eliakim is going to be put as a peg in a secure place. Well, whose peg is in there right now? It's Shebna. And God's going to remove Shebna and put Eliakim in his place. Now, if this is a picture of Jesus Christ, I want you to consider this. Friends, you can't put Jesus in that place as being the peg that you hang on until you get out the old peg. You've got to get Shebna out of the way before you can put Eliakim in. And aren't a lot of us wasting a lot of time in our lives trying to hang our lives on the wrong peg? Get it out! You're trying to hang your life on the peg of your own goodness, on the peg of your own abilities, on the peg of your own strength of God. Get that peg out! You're trying to hang your life on the peg of what you can do for God. Oh, look, Lord, I go to church all the time. I'm even here on Wednesday night. I must really be right. Get that peg out of there! Don't hang on that. Hang on Jesus Christ. You've got to get the old peg out, right? Shebna, you're gone, because look what happens to the peg that Shebna is. Look at it right there, verse 25. And the burden that was on it will be cut off. For the Lord has spoken. Whatever you're hanging on that Shebna peg, it's going down. It's going to fall. It's going to fall down and it's going to be broken. Because that old peg can't hold it. But, if you put it on Jesus Christ, what happens, Eliakim, verse 24, they will hang on him all the glory of his Father's house, the offspring and the issue, all the vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pictures. Right, you're hanging the kids on there. That's the offspring. You've got kids on there. You've got vessels on there. You've got big vessels, smaller. There's a million things on that peg. You know what? The peg of Jesus Christ can hold it. You can put everything on him. You can't overload that peg. You're putting up a hook in your garage and it's some big fancy magnet. It says on it, look, warning, do not overload with more than, you know, 50 pounds or 100 pounds. You never find a warning sign like that on Jesus Christ. You can hang everything on that peg. And by the way, if you notice this, that there's many different vessels in the Lord's house. Isn't that what verse 24 says? All vessels of small quantity, from the cups to the pictures. Everything. A lot of different vessels in the Lord's house, right? Some are big, some are little, some are fancy, some are plain, some are gold, some are pottery. All different vessels. Every one of them has to hang on the peg of Jesus. You might say, I'm a gold, big vessel in the house of the Lord. Look at me. I'm the fanciest vessel in this house. All the other vessels look to me and admire me and what a great vessel I am. Mister, if you don't stay hanging on the peg, you're going to break. You are no more secure than that old clay pot that's hanging on the peg. Your security isn't in what a great vessel you are. Your security is in the peg. Don't think that your security is in the fact that you're such a wonderful Christian, that you love the Lord so much. Your security is in Jesus Christ. You slip off of Him, you're gone. What salvation is there outside of Jesus Christ? None. He's the peg. He's the one that we can hang everything upon. The safety isn't in the size or the quality of the vessel, but it's in its attachment to the peg. Why don't I challenge you with that right now tonight before we move on to chapter 23? Let me bear this home right now. What do you need to hang on Jesus right now? What are you holding on to or putting on your own peg? Maybe it's some difficulty in your life, some trial. Maybe it's something great. Maybe it's going great for you. Man, this area of your life is going gangbusters. But you know what the problem is? You got it on the wrong peg. It's going to fall down. It's going to crack. I think the Lord would speak to each individual's heart here this evening and say, I want you to take it off the Shebna peg and put it on the Jesus peg tonight. The night put it on his peg. That's the security. Chapter 22. The burden against Tyre. Now, the city of Tyre was to the north of Israel in what's modern day Lebanon. Tyre was the leading city of Phoenicia, which was the great maritime power of the ancient world. Because it was such an important harbor and center for shipping, Tyre was synonymous with commerce and materialism. We look here, verse 1. The burden against Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, that there's no house, no harbor. From the land of Cyprus, it's revealed to them, be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom those who cross the sea have filled. And on great waters, the grain of Sihor, the harvest of the river is a revenue, and she's a marketplace for the nations. Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea saying, I do not labor, nor bring forth children, neither do I rear young men or bring up virgins. When the report comes to Egypt, there will also be an agony at the report of Tyre. Here's the picture. Isaiah pictures sailors from Tyre in the land of Cyprus, and in Egypt, hearing of the destruction of the harbor of Tyre. And when they hear the news, they wail, and they're in agony. Right, you're a sailor, and you're at Cyprus, or you're in Egypt, in your home ports. Tyre, and then you get the message. Tyre is under destruction. It's been judged by God. You weep and you wail. You think of your home. You think of your family, your children back home. Oh, what's happened to us? And they mourn, and they wail. And why? Why did God judge Tyre? Look at verse 6. Cross over to Tarsus. Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to sojourn? Who has taken the counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The Lord has purposed it to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Tyre was a city where money ruled. The merchants were princes, and the traders are the honorable of the earth. To be a good leader, to be honorable, you didn't have to be of royal heritage in Tyre. You didn't have to be a good man or an honest man. All you needed was success in business. And the Lord purposed it to do what? To bring to dishonor the pride of all glory. Because of its great material success, Tyre had become proud and full of self-glory. But the Lord of hosts had purpose to judge and humble Tyre. And Isaiah announces it. Pride. Pride. That's it, isn't it? Isn't that always our sin? The middle letter of sin is what pride is all about, isn't it? Every sin, in one way or another, can be brought back to some element of pride. Even if it's that most subtle pride of saying, I can do what I please before God. How important it is for us to have a humble heart and a humble walk before the Tyre is destroyed. Look at verses 10 through 14. Overflow through your land like the river, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea. He shook the kingdoms. The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And he said, you will rejoice no more, O you who oppressed the virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus. There also you will have no rest. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not. Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up its towers. They raised up its palaces and brought it to ruin. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste. The city of Tyre was conquered by successive invasions from the Chaldeans and the Assyrians. They were used by God to bring the city to ruin. This once mighty city defeated, destroyed, laid waste. The Lord was behind it all because of the pride. Tyre's pride was rooted in its success material. And you know, it's always a great temptation when things are going well, when you're enjoying success in one way or another, to fall into that self-sufficient pride. That was the problem with Tyre. Look at verse 15. Here's a promise of restoration. Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot. Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot. Make sweet melodies, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. God's judgments are so precise that He decrees the exact numbers of years Tyre will be forgotten. And He says that you may be remembered. Well, after those years that they're forgotten, after the seventy years, they're going to be remembered again. In quoting what may have been a well-known song in his day, Isaiah makes the point that at the end of the seventy years appointed by God, Tyre will be remembered again. And look at it here, verse 17. It shall be at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. She will return to her pay and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her grain and her pay will be set apart for the Lord. It will not be treasured nor laid up. For her grain will be for those who dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for fine clothing. Now this is kind of a difficult couple of verses to understand. On the one hand, it seems in verse 17 that he's speaking prophetically of the end of the age. We've talked before about how Babylon was a picture of the world system and how the book of Revelation speaks of God's judgment upon Babylon, upon the world system in the great tribulation in the very last days before the return of Jesus Christ. Well, friends, we also know that Tyre is kind of like a sister to Babylon. Some people have called the city of Tyre Babylon by the sea because of its great opulence and wealth. It sort of pictures the commercial aspects of the world system. And the Lord may be speaking in verse 17 about the rise of material Babylon in the last days. Friends, I have to say, if you want to know about the material grip of the world, we're in it right now, aren't we? Good heavens. Strength and the power of materialism. Each and every one of us. I know I am. I'm challenged by it. I'm shaken by it. There's just such a draw on our lives towards material things. It's very disturbing when we just take a reasoned breath and say, Lord, man, I don't want this to be a sacred cow in my life that I ignore. In verse 18, he speaks about the pay and the glory of Tyre being set apart for the Lord and for his sake. I have to say, this verse is plain tough to figure out. Now, many commentators believe that this was fulfilled in the Christianization of the city of Tyre. Because in the days of the early church, Tyre became a largely Christian city. There was a big Christian population in it and it continued with that big population for many, many years. Paul found many Christians in the city of Tyre in Acts chapter 21 and it suffered in a great deal under the persecutions of the early church. It continued to be a Christian city until it was taken by the Muslims in 639 AD. And so, Tyre had a rich Christian history and many people think that verse 18 is a fulfillment of that. But since verse 17 seems to be speaking of the very last days, I would say that the enrichment of material Tyre, material Babylon in the last days, God will ultimately use that to bless his own kingdom in the millennium. That's the way I would understand it. You know what, friends? The millennium is going to be neat. When Jesus Christ rules and reigns, it'll be precious for us because we are going to rule and reign the earth with Jesus Christ. Do you understand that that's why you're going through a lot of things you're going through right now? Do you think that this life is all there is? Do you think that your work for the Lord right now is all there is? No way. God has a work for you to do. He has a throne for you to sit on after you graduate to glory over the millennial earth. And He's training you for that right now. Lord, why do I have to go through all these things? It doesn't seem to make any sense. It doesn't seem to make any difference. Lord, I don't understand it. Sorry, you don't have to understand it. God has destined you for a throne. And so much of what you're going through right now is only going to be understood when you're ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ in the millennium. Back then you'll say, now I get it. Now I know why I had to deal with this trial over and over again. Because the Lord gave me this area of responsibility in ruling the millennial earth. But one of the things I think is going to be neat about the millennial earth, not only just that we're going to rule and reign in glory with Jesus, that would be enough. But the millennial earth isn't going to be like the Garden of Eden. I mean, look, let's face it. In the Garden of Eden, Adam didn't have all those really cool electronic gadgets and stuff that we have today. And what the Lord will do in the millennium, I think this is what verses 17 and 18 are talking about. The Lord will take the blessings that have come to us through materialism, if you'll put it in those terms, and he'll cleanse those things and give them to us perfectly during the millennium. That'll be a glorious thing. You know, friends, we take a look at the world system and the commercial culture and the materialists. Do you understand how, oh, I mean, it's just, it's hard to, what are the most spectacular buildings that we build today in our society? You know, in the medieval ages, in those days, in the middle ages, the most dependent structures they made were cathedrals. Buildings unto God. And, you know, that was the most spectacular building in the whole community. Now you know what the spectacular buildings we build are? Shopping malls. Those are our modern cathedrals. Believe me, they have worship too, yeah, casinos as well. Worship services all the time, right? Worship 24 hours a day in the casinos, in the shopping. And those are a glorious structure. Now, there's nothing wrong with glorious buildings. There's nothing wrong with technology. Friends, God's going to cleanse those things that were given to us by higher, so to speak, by the world, the materialistic world, and give them to us. Now, let me just conclude with this. I want you to think back about what peg the things in your life are hanging. It's time for some of us tonight to rip out that peg of Shibna. Look to Elijah, and look to Jesus Christ. Hang those things on you. You got something in your hands, you don't know what to do with it. You're worried, you're anxious. You know, here it is. It's like a hot potato. You don't know what to do. I don't know where to put it. I don't know what to do. I'm confused. I don't know. Go hang it on that peg. The Lord's given you a place. Jesus Christ has that secure peg in His house. Go hang it on Him. Thank you, Jesus, for being that glorious peg. That we can hang everything on it. Father, I pray that you'd help me, that you'd help everybody here this evening. To just totally trust in Jesus Christ. To put our reliance on Him. Lord, I just speak for myself, and I speak for all of us tonight. We just say we're just sick and tired of trusting in ourselves, and hanging things on the wrong peg. We thank you, Lord, that you've given us Jesus Christ to hang everything in our life on, including ourselves. Father, we just want to find that peace and that security in you. Get us up off the floor. Get us up off the table. Take that thing out of our hands, Lord. Let it all be laid upon Jesus Christ. That He can handle it all. We give it to you tonight in Jesus' name.