“And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die. Isaiah 22:13”
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die is one of the most quoted parts of Isaiah. This portion of the verse has appeared in films and ancient literature throughout history.
You might immediately think of an ensuing battle when you hear the verse. And while this is technically true, a more significant message applies.
The Book of Isaiah is an integral part of the Old Testament. It is most often associated with a call to repentance, prophecy of judgment, and even the future arrival of Jesus Christ.
However, in verse 22:13, Isaiah recorded the reaction of the people of Jerusalem upon learning their judgment of an incoming invasion. John Calvin commented:
Isaiah, on the other hand, relates here the speeches of wicked men, who obstinately ridiculed the threatenings of the prophets, and could not patiently endure to be told about chastisements, banishments, slaughter, and ruin. They employed the words of the prophets, and in the midst of their feasting and revelry, turned them into ridicule, said, in a boasting strain, “To-morrow we shall die.”[1]
Although the verse may appear as a brave reaction to an imminent invasion, Isaiah and, more significantly, God meant it to be expressed as a sarcastic retort or mockery towards God. Calvin emphasized, “It certainly was frightful madness when, through indignation and wrath, they quoted with bitter irony the words which not only ought to have affected their minds, but ought to have shaken heaven and earth.”[2]
Humanity is often guilty of mockery towards God and His providential judgments. Franz Delitzsch explained, “The sin of Jerusalem is expiated by the giving up of the sinners themselves to death.”[3] Ironically, this prophecy becomes a warning more than an actual foretelling of an event where the Assyrians face destruction from Jerusalem. Delitzsch commented on the chain of events, “In the first place, it is a memorial of the mercy of God, which withdraws, or at all events modifies, the threatened judgment as soon as repentance intervenes.”[4]
God seeks faithful people and will hand them over to their destruction or intercede on their behalf. While the verse documents the taunting of the people, the result of destruction to the Assyrians in the battle underscores God’s faithfulness and divine providence.
The greater message is Isaiah's consistent prophecy. The people were called to repent, for judgment was at hand. Through the horrors of war, God reminds those who mock Him that He controls all aspects of life, including their triumphs or losses in battle.
[1] John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries, vol. 7, trans. from the original Latin by Rev. William Pringle (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), 126.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Johann Friedrich Karl Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, vol. 7, trans. and ed. by Eerdmans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 397.
[4] Ibid.
