In yesterday's text we found the Lord stating that Shebna would be removed from his position. Today's text picks up where that left off by beginning with the words "in that day". The Lord is going to promote someone else to Shebna's position after He deposes Shebna.
"In that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and fashion your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah." (Isaiah 22:20-21)
In the book of 2 Kings and later in the book of Isaiah we find Eliakim the son of Hilkiah referred to as "the palace administrator". The Bible provides no details to us about how Shebna was deposed and how he ended up dying in a foreign land (as the Lord said he would in yesterday's passage) or why Eliakim was given all the king's trust and all the political authority that had once belonged to Shebna. We can safely conclude that Eliakim was a more godly and trustworthy man than Shebna and that he was more worthy of being in the king's inner circle. The fact that he will "be a father" to the people indicates that he set a good, godly, and wise example for them to follow. Whereas yesterday we learned that Shebna was mainly concerned with magnifying and exalting himself, Eliakim was mainly concerned with magnifying and exalting the Lord.
This next segment is believed by many scholars to be a twofold prophecy, and I agree. They state that it concerns Eliakim---the man who was given authority over King Hezekiah's household---and that it concerns the Messiah who will be given authority over everything that belongs to the Lord.
"I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open." (Isaiah 22:22) It was the custom for the man in charge of the king's palace to pin a keyring to the shoulder of his robe. The key (or keys) attached to the keyring opened every door that belonged to the king: all the doors in king's palace and all the doors in the king's storehouses. Anyone who saw the keyring pinned to the man's garment would immediately know he held a high position of trust and authority in the kingdom. Only this man could open and close the doors of the king. If he unlocked a door, no one else could lock it back. If he locked a door, no one else could open it.
When the Lord says that He will place on Eliakim's shoulder the key to the house of David, He is saying that He will see to it that Eliakim is elevated to this high position in the king's household. Since the king is descended from David, the Lord refers to the palace (and everything associated with it) as the house of David.
But an even greater promise is being made here than that which is being made to the man named Eliakim. In our next study session we will find the Lord Jesus Christ applying this prophecy to Himself in a passage from the book of Revelation. We will take a look at how God the Father plans to place on the shoulder of God the Son the keys to the kingdom: the eternal kingdom.
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