Excerpt - Apocalyptic Commentary of the Book of Isaiah by Avraham Gileadi, Ph.D.

22:9-11 When you saw the City of David increasingly breached, you conserved water in the Lower Reservoir. You took a census of the buildings in Jerusalem, tearing down buildings to fortify your wall. You built cisterns between the walls for the water from the Old Reservoir, but you did not look to its Maker, nor have regard for the One who designed it long ago.

Employing last-ditch defensive measures against their enemies' advance, Jehovah's people ignore the fact that their protection comes from God in spite of whatever preparations they may make. When they keep the terms of his covenant, Jehovah defends them against all who attack them. Even as the enemy encroaches upon them, however, his unrepentant people fail to turn to him: "Have you forgotten Jehovah, your Maker, who suspends the heavens, who sets the earth in place, that you go all day in constant dread of the oppressor's rage as he readies himself to wreak destruction?" (Isaiah 51:13).


22:12-14 In such a day my Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, calls for weeping and lamentation, for austerity and wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is mirth and merrymaking, the killing of cattle and slaughter of sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: Let us dine and drink, for tomorrow we die! Jehovah of Hosts revealed this to my ears: Such wickedness cannot be forgiven you till you die, says my Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

With the lives of so many people in jeopardy-men, women, and children-the appropriate response at such a national tragedy would be to lament and show remorse by fasting and wearing sackcloth (Isaiah 15:3; 20:2; 32:11-12; 37:1-2). Instead, by blatantly pursuing hedonistic pleasures, Jehovah's apostate people repudiate all decency and their covenantal obligation to defend themselves. Instead of appealing to Jehovah for help and preparing to engage the enemy, they throw parties. Tantamount to murder, their crime deserves the death penalty from "Jehovah of Hosts"-Israel's God in his executive role.


See more here and here
Buy the book