In ancient times people mostly lived off the land. The people of God lived in the valleys where their cows grazed and they worshipped in the mountains. The heathen also had their places of worship in the hills. Isaiah 65:7 says, “Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.”
The Lord was also worshipped on the mountains. Abraham was directed to the mountain to make sacrifices. Mt. Sinai, where God met and talked with His children, was above the plain where the children of Israel were encamped after coming out of Egypt. Later, God had His temple built on Mt. Moriah, outside of Jerusalem. God was also worshipped on the mountain which was called the mountain of God.
In the last days we are told that the mountain of God would be higher than all the other mountains. Isaiah 2:2, 3 says, “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.” This passage of Scripture refers to the time when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church and many people from all walks of life and from all nationalities come into the church.
In the last days the people of the earth are likened to a people living in a valley. Looking forward to Jesus’ second coming, Joel 3:13–17 says, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.”
We find the same expression used in Revelation 14:15, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” Joel 3:13, 14: “Come, go down for the winepress is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” God is in the mountain while the people are in the valleys. Some versions say the valley of judgment. It continues, “For the Day of the Lord is come in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake: but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.” Joel 3:14–17.
The real meaning of this verse in context is that God, who dwells on high, is judging these people in the valley. They are being judged and are receiving the decision for eternal life or eternal damnation.
In Hebrew there are two words for valley. The first is ameq, which means a great large valley, big valley, wide valley. That is used here because it is a valley that houses all the people of the world; it is a big valley.
The second word is gaya which means a smaller valley, a narrower valley with high sides, but more narrow than ameq. That is used to depict God’s people, those on the narrow way. Here in Isaiah 22:1 we find another valley. It says, “The burden against the valley of vision.” Isaiah in the last few chapters has been talking about several valleys and several nations. There is a whole chapter on Moab and a chapter on Damascus. He talks about Samaria, Ethiopia, Egypt, and then in chapter 21, finally Babylon.
In the Bible, Babylon, denoting the world, and Jerusalem, God’s people, are always pitted against each other. In Chapter 21 it begins with the burden of the wilderness of the sea, a dry and desolate valley. A valley of the sea is very interesting because a sea in prophecy, according to Revelation 17:15, represents multitudes and peoples. Babylon is a great vast dry desolate valley of many peoples, nations, multitudes and languages. The merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.
In Isaiah 21:9 it says, “I looked and look, here comes a chariot of men and with a pair of horses. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Literal Babylon fell at one time. This is referring to the same Babylon we find in Revelation: Babylon is fallen, is fallen.
In chapter 22, we find a narrow valley, a smaller valley and this is the valley of vision. The people of God were called, led, guided and directed by vision. God refers to them as a people of vision, a valley of vision. Metaphorically they are living in a land of vision. In Hosea 12:13 it says, “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.” God’s people were established, preserved and directed by a prophet. II Chronicles 20:20 says, “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This prophecy is written to the land of vision. When people listen to vision, they become established. When they disregard vision, they become destroyed.
What does Isaiah 22:8–10 say about the people in the land of vision who do not listen to visions? It says, “He removed the protection of Judah.” He removed the protection of Judah. “You looked in that day to the armour of the house of forest. You also saw the damage to the city of David. It was great: you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses you broke down to fortify the walls.” What didn’t they do? “You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect to Him who fashioned it long ago.” Verse 11. It says you’ve got a lot of human plans, wisdom, councils, and meetings, but you did not look to the counsel of God and so He removed the protection of Judah.
When God’s protection is gone, things deteriorate very quickly. Where there is no vision, the people perish. It doesn’t matter how many provisions you may have had for the future. You soon perish, and the provisions also perish.
When God’s protection is removed, the strongest fortifications become like paper maché. The greatest, most skillfully laid plans become like kindergarten strategy. The greatest security and the greatest secure institutions become like the Titanic on its maiden voyage. The most secure political alliances become like the alliance between Brutus and Caesar. Ruin follows. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Could this be true of the United States of America? Are we great because of natural resources, education or because of some super intelligence that God has given to us? Is that what made America great today?
“Republicanism and Protestantism became the fundamental principles of the nation. These principles are the secret of its power and prosperity.” The Great Controversy, 441.
Is America always going to remain with the Protestant ethics of liberty of conscience and belief in the Bible and God, with the idea of Republicanism? Republicanism is a little different than democracy. Republicanism believes in protecting the rights of the minority, not just the majority. Pure democracy means that you protect the rights of the majority.
“The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.” Ibid., 588.
What happens when God withdraws His protection from America?
“Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.” Ibid., 589.
Satan delights in war. When God’s protection is not over us, Satan can bring us into confusion and war. But he does not stop there. “Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows.” Ibid., 589.
Aren’t you thankful that God only allows Satan to go so far and that God protects as much as we allow Him to protect? “It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world has shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same.” Ibid., 589.
God’s protection will be removed. In Isaiah 22 it says He will remove His protection from Jerusalem. Satan will bring disaster upon disaster until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation.
“In accidents and calamites by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. … These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast.” The Great Controversy, 589, 590.
God has signally blessed this country because it has been established on the principles of the Bible, upon principles of religious freedom, upon principles of belief in God and in His word. “Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.” Ibid., 614. I want to be under the banner of God; how about you?
It is a pretty terrible thing when God withdraws His protection. When He removed the protection from Israel of old, Israel was destroyed. When He removed it from Jerusalem, Jerusalem was destroyed. When He removes it from America, national apostasy will be followed by national ruin, and America will be destroyed.
Could God’s blessing be removed from the church as well? Remember, Isaiah is especially written for the last days. Isaiah 22:22 says, “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.”
There are three special times when God opened a door that no one could shut and closed the door that no one could open. It happened the first time when the temple in heaven was opened when Jesus ascended to heaven and the temple on earth was closed. The temple in heaven was opened and could not be closed. It happened the second time in 1844 when God opened the door to the Most Holy Place and closed the door to the Holy Place.
The Holy Place door was closed forever. No one can open it. The door into the Most Holy Place is open and no one can close it. It will happen the third time when God leaves the Most Holy Place and closes that door and no one can open it.
What counsel does God have for us in Isaiah 22:1, 2? “The burden against the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are gone up to the housetops? You who are full of noise, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: your slain men are not slain with a sword, nor dead in battle.”
Here we see God’s people in great apostasy. The men are gone, but they are not slain in battle. It is not through battle with the enemies that they are slain, but they are apostatizing. Somehow the ranks are narrowing and thinning, not through conflict with the world, but through some inner apostasy.
It continues, “All your rulers have fled together, they are captured by the archers: all who are found in you are bound together (Verse 3).” Here we find political alliances.
Isaiah 22:4: “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.” God says, this is a time to weep. Verse 5: “For it is a day of trouble, and treading down, and perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.” Could there come a time in this church when God withdraws His protection? Look at what happened in Battle Creek, at the very headquarters of this church. We are told that was just the beginning. When apostasy takes hold of this church, God’s blessings will be withdrawn.
“Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 250.
Battle Creek was only a beginning. God will not be trifled with.
There will come a time when His hand will be removed, and we see one disaster after another. Isaiah 22:7 says, “It shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.” There will come a time when our choicest institutions will be filled with non-Adventists and when they will eventually be taken over.
Isaiah 22:8, 9: “He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in the day to the forest of the house of forests. You also saw the damage to the city of David, and it was great.” But what did you do when you saw that the damage was great? Verses 10, 11: “You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses you broke down to fortify the walls. You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.” Just consolidate, bring them together. When two are going bad, bring them together; make one strong conference out of two. “But, you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect to Him who fashioned it long ago.”
We can institute all the studies we want, but dear friend, where is the prayer and repenting? Where is the weeping between the porch and the altar? Where is the belief in the visions? Where is simple obedience to what God has told us?
We are told the last great deception will be as follows. Satan is constantly pressing in the spurious to lead away from the truth. “The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 48. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18. Ellen White is referring that to our church. “Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony.” Ibid. They consolidated. They carried out studies, they carried out all kinds of things, but they did not look to their Maker and the protection was removed.
What next? Look at Isaiah 22:12–14: “And in that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness, and 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. Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, Surely for this there shall be no atonement for you, even to your death, says the Lord God of hosts.”
God says that He called for weeping and for mourning, but you went on, rejoicing and saying all is well. You went on with your religious ceremonies of killing the sheep and went on with your eating of meat and drinking and partying and saying all is well, happy and joyous, when I (the Lord God) called for weeping and mourning.
It is very interesting to look at Ezekiel 9:4. There can be no doubt that this verse refers specifically to God’s last church because it describes the time God’s Spirit left between the cherubim which is in the Most Holy Place. This is just before His Spirit leaves, just before the close of probation. But before He leaves, “The Lord said to Him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men” who do what? “Who sigh and cry for all the abominations done in Israel.” Those who did what the Lord called them to do in Isaiah 22, who went out and sighed and cried.
Today, we are living in the midst of apostasy in the United States of America. Someday God’s protection will be removed. It won’t come in one day; it is even happening today. We are living in the midst of apostasy within the church and God calls for repentance. The Bible says that those who are repentant and those who are concerned, He’s going to seal and carry through. But those who go on uncaring, and instead of weeping and mourning as it says in Isaiah 23:13, they have joy and gladness, continual religious ceremonies, of the slaying of ox and killing of sheep, of eating meat, or the Old King James says, “eating flesh, and drinking wine” Isaiah 22:13; and “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” I Corinthians 15:32. People who are planning to live their whole life in this earth.
I heard a sermon from a union president who was saying, “Today we are planning now for the 21st century.” “We are not planning on God coming before then.” “Let us go on with our business, for we’re going to die here in this land.”
It says in Isaiah 22:14, “It was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, Surely for this iniquity there’ll be no atonement.” Because you were joyous when God said to mourn; you went on saying everything was good when God said, ”Cry aloud and spare not and tell the house of Jacob their sins and the people of Israel their transgressions.” Isaiah 58:1.
Today God is calling for prayer, repentance, weeping and tears. The question today is, Will we join the apostasy or will we repent? Will we cry aloud and spare not? Will there be anybody who stands in the breach as the Bible says? Very soon we are going to see the very close of earth’s history; in fact, it’s happening today. We see Isaiah 22 being fulfilled. Very soon we are going to see plagues. We are going to see greater and greater apostasy, both within America and within God’s church. We are going to find most Adventists are going to be lost. We are going to see more and more of human plans and human devising.
Today it is time to look away from man’s devising and to look at the Maker. It’s time to look at the visions. It’s time to say, “Lord, our best plans are nothing without You. It’s time for You to come in and pour out Your Holy Spirit upon us. We can’t win any souls with our plans, methods and devising. We need You, and we need Your power.”
It’s time for us to get down on our knees and pray and plead for God’s power. The best human skills are not going to convert one of our children. We need to pray for God’s power to be poured out on our television program. I am so impressed that we need God’s power pleading with the people as they are watching. Nothing we can say is going to change a human heart unless the Holy Spirit is working on that heart.
We need God’s power today. We need to look away from consolation. Look away from manipulation. Look away from human plans. We need to look at the Maker. It is time to pray that God pours out His Spirit on this church. It is time for us to look to the Maker.
Pastor Marshall Grosboll, with his wife Lillian, founded Steps to Life. In July 1991, Pastor Marshall and his family met with tragedy as they were returning home from a camp meeting in Washington State, when the airplane he was piloting went down, killing all on board.