Reflection on Isaiah 22:19-23

Rev. Marcel Divine Okwara, CSsR

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Isaiah is one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. Major here does not mean superior, rather it means that his prophetic writings cover a significant time span and also present a wide array of messages. His messages are often a criticism of a nation, a people, his own people. He hardly criticizes an individual. However, in the 22nd chapter of the Book of Isaiah, we find the prophet’s only criticism of an individual. It is the only time he singles out an individual for harsh criticism. And the person in trouble with the prophet is a certain man Shebna. He is described as the master of the palace, which is probably a prime minister. And the palace in question is the king’s palace. Shebna is a very high official in government of whom prophet Isaiah addressed these words, “I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station” (Isaiah 22:19) Incredible! But what is it that rouses the ire of the prophet against Shebna? Earlier in the Book of prophet Isaiah has this to say, “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, come, go to that official, Shebna, master of the palace and say to him, ‘What right do you have here? Who were your relatives here that you have cut out a tomb for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height and carving a resting place for yourself in a rock?’” (Isaiah 22:15-16). What is Isaiah complaining about? He is complaining about Shebna’s recklessness, for building an elaborate tomb for himself on a height, for building, not a resting place for his body but a monument to himself on a height so that everybody will see it. Shebna has gone to enormous expense to build this extraordinary monument of a tomb. Now, think for a moment how Shebna would have reveled about this when he was alive. He must have thought he was a big and important person now that he has built his monumental tomb. He must have thought that people will forever remember his name as they see his monument.

So, because of Shebna’s excessive waste of resources, the Lord removes him from his position and puts in his place Hilkiah. Shebna is out. Why? Because he spent his time, money, energy, and personnel to build a monument to himself. So, the question for you is this: How do you use the power and authority that you have? Obviously, there are people in positions of official power, but everyone of us has some kind of power. You have power in your own family, power in the community, power in place of work. May be you have a very high office. Therefore, the great spiritual question is: What do you do with it? There will always be a temptation to use that power to build monuments to yourself, and to involve lots of people in that project. But the godly thing is to use the power precisely for the benefits of those you serve. The whole point of power is to serve others. The reason why God gave you the power that you have is for the sake of those you have authority over. God wants you to use your power to serve and to make their lives a lot better. Shebna has used enormous resource of money, energy, time, and personnel for a project meant almost exclusively for self aggrandizement and to stroke his ego. But the supreme irony here is that after spending a great deal of resources building a monumental tomb for himself in order to be remembered forever, he is only remembered because of this criticism in the Book of prophet Isaiah.