Isaiah 22: 15-25...Shebna and Eliakim
Isaiah 22: 15-25...Shebna and Eliakim...”Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Come, go to this steward, To Shebna, who is in charge of the {royal} household, 'What right do you have here, And whom do you have here, That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here, You who hew a tomb on the height, You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock? 'Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man. And He is about to grasp you firmly {And} roll you tightly like a ball, {To be} {cast} into a vast country; There you will die And there your splendid chariots will be, You shame of your master's house.' "I will depose you from your office, And I will pull you down from your station. "Then it will come about in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. "Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.” (NASB)
There are two kinds of people that are presented in scripture, the accepted and rejected, the loved and the hated, the upright and the shameful. The passage presents us with two of these, Shebna and Eliakim. The historical background of the lives of Shebna and Eliakim are in 2 Kings 18.
Shebna liked the ostentatious pretensions of office. The pomp and ceremony, of great political power. His excesses are spelled out in the passage. This is what God takes exception too. For it demonstrated that he was not capable of wielding the power he was entrusted with as the steward of the king. It takes a man truly in control of himself to be a great leader. Instead of minding the kingdom properly, Shebna was busy riding in a chariot, wearing the robes and insignia of his office, and building a great tomb. All but the tomb ended up in Babylon. He had forgotten who had given him his office. Politicians have not changed, today they have new ways to demonstrate such ostentatious self aggrandizing displays, they build bridges, damns, roads, and museums etc. with their names on them, for posterity, and for the people of course; no, no, not for votes. Unfortunately we get what we vote for. Like Shebna they all want to be remembered, so too often they waste resources on ostentations and monuments instead of paying attention to what is needful. Hezekiah was looking at the invading armies of Assyria and this fool was building a tomb, so he would be remembered.
At some point not covered in [2 Kings 18] Shebna is cast aside for Eliakim whose name means God will establish, he is the son of Hilkiah whose name means my portion is the LORD, who may or may not have been the same as the high priest Hilkiah at the time of King Josiah [2 Kings 22:8] Eliakim is given all the marks and robes of office. Among these is the key of the house of David, so that he can have the power to act in order to save Judah from the Assyrians, but as the passage states at the end they are only buying time, judgment is coming and all will be lost. It is only safe till Hezekiah is gone. Then they went back to doing what is evil in the eyes of the LORD.
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Matt. 24:45 -51
We are not sure of exactly what part Eliakim played at the court of Hezekiah. The Chronicles of the kings of Judah were lost when the Babylonians destroyed the city and palace. The passage states that he has the key of David, just as Messiah does in Rev. 3. So Eliakim is a type of Messiah, what he says gets done. What he establishes comes to pass. What he sets in motions continues till it has run its course. His fixed points remain fixed for all eternity.
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. Is. 22:22
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. Rev. 3:7.
The prophecy of the church of Philadelphia is about the church of the Reformation. Just as Hezekiah had brought Judah out of her idolatries way, so the Reformers had started the processes of cleaning out the churches of her many corruptions and idolatrous practices. The key of David refers to the conditions of the time in that nothing was impossible for her. The church of Philadelphia’s doors were wide open, meaning that they would spread the Gospel to the world, while the doors of persecution were shut.
Now we are the church of Laodicea, we have shut the door ourselves, we have locked God out, after all He is too controversial. We have thrown away the key, and gone back to the pagan keys of Janus and Cybele i.e. St. Peter. We have neglected to continue the work that the Reformers started and instead of removing more corruptions and paganism, we have brought the formerly removed stuff back in. It is Ecumenical you know. We have been told we can’t pray in public, so we don’t. We have been told to take down the Ten Commandments, and we do. It really shouldn’t matter if you have hid them in your heart. Teach them to your children, stand up and recite them. We have put them back into our liturgy, it is amazing what it does for the congregation. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, stop bringing pagan things into your temple. We think no one see what we have drug in, what we have painted on our walls, after all it is just decoration. We think that no one can see into our temples. Never mind that they are the same abominable things that Judah had profaned the literal temple walls with. [Ezekiel 8.] The dispensationalist teach that the law has passed away, so since there is no law it must be is OK. Weeping for Tammuz i.e. Lent, worship Ashtaroth, i.e. Gaea, the mother goddess, celebrating Saturnalia i.e. Christmas. And God forbid that we should make some national treasure an object of veneration, Even though the Declaration and the Constitution are marvelous documents and everyone should read them, THEY ARE NOT HOLY WRITE. They can not even be understood without some knowledge of the Bible. One can not appreciate that we are created equal, if one does not understands the creator. The only decoration your temple needs is the Word of God . I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psa. 119:11
So what kind of people are we to be? Shebna left nothing but an empty tomb, one that he never used. His wealth and chariots all ended up in Babylon, while Eliakim stands for all eternity as a type of Messiah. They stand as examples of the two kinds of people that are presented in scripture, the accepted and rejected, the loved and the hated, e.g. Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Jacob and Esau, Judah and Israel, the sheep and the goats, the virgins with oil and the virgins without oil, the faithful and the unfaithful servant, the whore and the bride. Make your choice, which will you choose to be?
There are two kinds of people that are presented in scripture, the accepted and rejected, the loved and the hated, the upright and the shameful. The passage presents us with two of these, Shebna and Eliakim. The historical background of the lives of Shebna and Eliakim are in 2 Kings 18.
Shebna liked the ostentatious pretensions of office. The pomp and ceremony, of great political power. His excesses are spelled out in the passage. This is what God takes exception too. For it demonstrated that he was not capable of wielding the power he was entrusted with as the steward of the king. It takes a man truly in control of himself to be a great leader. Instead of minding the kingdom properly, Shebna was busy riding in a chariot, wearing the robes and insignia of his office, and building a great tomb. All but the tomb ended up in Babylon. He had forgotten who had given him his office. Politicians have not changed, today they have new ways to demonstrate such ostentatious self aggrandizing displays, they build bridges, damns, roads, and museums etc. with their names on them, for posterity, and for the people of course; no, no, not for votes. Unfortunately we get what we vote for. Like Shebna they all want to be remembered, so too often they waste resources on ostentations and monuments instead of paying attention to what is needful. Hezekiah was looking at the invading armies of Assyria and this fool was building a tomb, so he would be remembered.
At some point not covered in [2 Kings 18] Shebna is cast aside for Eliakim whose name means God will establish, he is the son of Hilkiah whose name means my portion is the LORD, who may or may not have been the same as the high priest Hilkiah at the time of King Josiah [2 Kings 22:8] Eliakim is given all the marks and robes of office. Among these is the key of the house of David, so that he can have the power to act in order to save Judah from the Assyrians, but as the passage states at the end they are only buying time, judgment is coming and all will be lost. It is only safe till Hezekiah is gone. Then they went back to doing what is evil in the eyes of the LORD.
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Matt. 24:45 -51
We are not sure of exactly what part Eliakim played at the court of Hezekiah. The Chronicles of the kings of Judah were lost when the Babylonians destroyed the city and palace. The passage states that he has the key of David, just as Messiah does in Rev. 3. So Eliakim is a type of Messiah, what he says gets done. What he establishes comes to pass. What he sets in motions continues till it has run its course. His fixed points remain fixed for all eternity.
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. Is. 22:22
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. Rev. 3:7.
The prophecy of the church of Philadelphia is about the church of the Reformation. Just as Hezekiah had brought Judah out of her idolatries way, so the Reformers had started the processes of cleaning out the churches of her many corruptions and idolatrous practices. The key of David refers to the conditions of the time in that nothing was impossible for her. The church of Philadelphia’s doors were wide open, meaning that they would spread the Gospel to the world, while the doors of persecution were shut.
Now we are the church of Laodicea, we have shut the door ourselves, we have locked God out, after all He is too controversial. We have thrown away the key, and gone back to the pagan keys of Janus and Cybele i.e. St. Peter. We have neglected to continue the work that the Reformers started and instead of removing more corruptions and paganism, we have brought the formerly removed stuff back in. It is Ecumenical you know. We have been told we can’t pray in public, so we don’t. We have been told to take down the Ten Commandments, and we do. It really shouldn’t matter if you have hid them in your heart. Teach them to your children, stand up and recite them. We have put them back into our liturgy, it is amazing what it does for the congregation. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, stop bringing pagan things into your temple. We think no one see what we have drug in, what we have painted on our walls, after all it is just decoration. We think that no one can see into our temples. Never mind that they are the same abominable things that Judah had profaned the literal temple walls with. [Ezekiel 8.] The dispensationalist teach that the law has passed away, so since there is no law it must be is OK. Weeping for Tammuz i.e. Lent, worship Ashtaroth, i.e. Gaea, the mother goddess, celebrating Saturnalia i.e. Christmas. And God forbid that we should make some national treasure an object of veneration, Even though the Declaration and the Constitution are marvelous documents and everyone should read them, THEY ARE NOT HOLY WRITE. They can not even be understood without some knowledge of the Bible. One can not appreciate that we are created equal, if one does not understands the creator. The only decoration your temple needs is the Word of God . I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psa. 119:11
So what kind of people are we to be? Shebna left nothing but an empty tomb, one that he never used. His wealth and chariots all ended up in Babylon, while Eliakim stands for all eternity as a type of Messiah. They stand as examples of the two kinds of people that are presented in scripture, the accepted and rejected, the loved and the hated, e.g. Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Jacob and Esau, Judah and Israel, the sheep and the goats, the virgins with oil and the virgins without oil, the faithful and the unfaithful servant, the whore and the bride. Make your choice, which will you choose to be?