Reading Isaiah In The Land Of The Billionaires' Sky Scrapers - Sometimes Those Metaphors Are More ConcreteThan Other Times

 TODAY'S LECTIONARY readings start with Isaiah 26:1-6

 On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah:

“A strong city have we;
he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.
Open up the gates
to let in a nation that is just,
one that keeps faith.
A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace;
in peace, for its trust in you.”

Trust in the LORD forever!
For the LORD is an eternal Rock.
He humbles those in high places,
and the lofty city he brings down;
He tumbles it to the ground,
levels it with the dust.
It is trampled underfoot by the needy,
by the footsteps of the poor.

There's a comparison in this between city that is kept safe by its "firm purpose" of "trust in you,"  which in the context of Isaiah's prophesy means keeping The Law, the Mishpat, the code of egalitarian justice.  That is obvious in the second part of the passage in which the "lofty city" will be brought down BY GOD, humbling it with destruction where it's trampled by the needy and the poor.  The homeless, those about to be homeless, the working poor.  That is made explicit, without going through a metaphor shortly after this:

If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness they deal perversely
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.

verse 10 New Revised Standard Version

You do have to notice that this is something that never, ever seems to be taken seriously even though the Scriptures, both First and Second Testaments are full of the same message.  Those who build grand buildings don't much take it seriously, even those who build buildings where this text will be read today, those who build towers and deify themselves by putting their names on them in gold covered letters, those who give loads of cash so they can get their names on some Ivy League university building, etc. while pretending to believe in the religion that supposedly follows those scriptures. 

Do they really believe it? Do they believe that the consequence of not doing that kind of egalitarian economic justice to the poor, the homeless, etc. leads to destruction?

The Gospel is the one about building a house on rock instead of sand.  The allusion to this passage in Isaiah by Jesus - who repeatedly proved he was very well versed in Isaiah and other books of the Jewish Bible - was almost certainly understood by his followers who were all Jews.   The houses in his example were only metaphors for things much bigger, one built on the rock of the Law of justice and equality will stand, one built on the sand of utility and convenience, the ways of commerce and injustice, won't last.  Ours is strong only the extent to which it is based on exactly the same Law as is attempted at a verbal codification in the Law as cited, repeatedly, by The Prophets and in The Gospel by Jesus.  

The, I suspect, increasingly frequent stories about TRUMP being taken off of towers, his real-estate empire folding, and those videos of his casino being imploded are a metaphor of the same though sometimes those metaphors are more concrete than other times.