ISAIAH 22


20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call [summon] my servant [eved Elyakim Ben Chilkiyah]:

21 And I will clothe him with thy robe [kesones], and strengthen him with thy girdle [avnet (sash)], and I will commit thy government [memshelet (authority)] into his hand [yad]: and he shall be a father [ av] to the inhabitants of Jerusalem [Yerushalayim], and to the house of Judah [Bais Yehudah].

22 And the key of the house of David [mafte'ach Bais Dovid] will I lay upon his shoulder [shekhem]; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place [yated (peg) in a makom ne'eman (firm place)]; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house [kisse kavod to the Bais Aviv].

24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house [kol kavod Bais Aviv], the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups [bowls], even to all the vessels of flagons [ large vessels].

25 In that day, saith Yahweh of hosts, shall the nail [yated] that is fastened in the sure place be removed [makom ne'eman give away], and be [violently] cut down, and fall; and the burden [massa] that was upon it shall be cut off: for Yahweh hath spoken it.

 A key is symbolical of power to open and shut; hence, the Anointed One saith in this writing, that he openeth and shutteth, and no one can prevent him.

The key is styled "of the David," because there is a something connected with David to be opened and shut. This something is revealed in the prophets. There it is styled

"the Key of the House of David"

that is, of his kingdom (Isa. xxii. 22). In this chapter, two states of the Kingdom of David are prefigured by the names of two of Hezekiah's officers -- SHEBNA and ELIAKIM. The former, derived from shavah, "to lead captive," represents the kingdom in a dispersed and ruined condition; and the latter from AIL, God, and yahkim, "shall set up" indicates the restoration of the kingdom by Divine Power. Hence, Ail-yahkim, or Eliakim, is a typical name for the restoration Power, which is Deity in David's Son, or the Christ.

...This is a very interesting typical prophecy. We presume, that no one will be so obtuse as to suppose that the things written were fulfilled in Eliakim the son of Hilk-Yah. Very little is left on record concerning him in the Bible. From this we learn, that while Shebna was Secretary of State and Treasurer, Eliakim was over the King's Household in Hezekiah's reign, and at the time of the destruction of the Assyrian host by a blast from Divine Power, and the consequent deliverance of Jerusalem and Judah from the oppressor.

His name, the peculiar circumstances of the time, and his position in David's kingdom, all combined to make him a very fit person for a Messianic representative. Shebna was officially identified with the law which was to vanish away; while Eliakim was officially identified with the kingdom of David which Divine Power will set up when the time arrives to deliver the remnant of the captivity.

The Ail-yakim, or Eliakim, typified, then, is "MESSIAH THE PRINCE," in whom all is to be accomplished that was typically spoken of Eliakim. Shebna's robe, girdle, and govemment, are all to be transferred to the Christ; who will be both scribe and treasurer when Divine Power, or AIL, shall set up, yakim (or Eliakimize) the tabernacle of David which has fallen down, "and set it up as in the days of old" (Acts xv. 16; Amos ix. 11). Then will he be

"a Father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah."

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Isaiah remarks, that the Eliakim should wear his key upon his shoulder, as a mark of office, of his power to open and shut with authority; thereby indicating that he is the Grand Master and Chief of the House of David. Callimachus says, that Ceres carried a key upon her shoulder; a custom that appears very strange to us; but the ancients had large keys in the form of a sickle, and which from their weight and shape, could not otherwise be carried conveniently.

For the key of the house of David, then, to rest upon the Eliakim's shoulder, is equivalent to the government of that house, or of Israel resting there. This is evident from the prophet's allusion to "the shoulder" (ix. 6). In this place, speaking of the "Son to be given" to the house of David, who should be called AIL-GIVBOR, the Mighty Power, Avi-AD, Father of Futurity, SAR-SHAHLOM, Prince of Peace, the Spirit says, "the government shall be upon his shoulder."

This can mean nothing else than that the government then on the shoulder of Ahaz the reigning prince of Judah, should at some future time rest upon the shoulder of a Divine Son of David's house, named IMMANUEL, or "God with us," as typified by one of the prophet's family: and this idea is symbolically expressed by the apocalyptic phrase, "I have the Key of the David, opening and no one shutteth, and shutting and no one openeth." "The key of the David" is an elliptical phrase. The words to be supplied are indicated by Isaiah: according to him, "house of," in the sense of kingdom of, should intervene between "key of the" and the name "David." Thus, the Spirit-Man who was dead and is living as the Holy One and the True God, in speaking to the Star-Angel in Philadelphia, and through them to all the ecclesias, declares that he is the Eliakim; and that the government of the kingdom of David is with him; and that holding the keys, he will "set it up as in the days of old."

But furthermore, the Spirit-Man being the AIL-yakim, is also "the Nail" and the "Throne of Glory." "The words of the wise are as fastened nails given from one shepherd." The word of the only wise Deity when incarnated, is therefore fitly represented by "a nail fastened in a sure place." Of this nail, the Spirit in Zechariah said, that it should come out of Judah (x. 4). The "sure place" in which it is to be fastened, Ezra designates as "Yahweh Elohim's holy Place," in which he and the remnant of the captivity returned from Babylon, were then sojourning; that is, in Jerusalem. This accords with the true import of makhom niamahn, which signifies an established habitation. This is the "sure place" in which THE NAIL is to be fastened -- in Jerusalem then a peaceable, quiet, and established habitation (Isa. xxxii. 18: xxxiii. 20).

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The Spirit-Man is also to be for "a Throne of Glory." A throne is an elevated seat with a canopy and hangings which cover it. Hence, the Eliakim in the passage before us, is styled metaphorically issai, from the root kahsah "to cover." "He shall be for a Cover of Glory for the house of his Father;" for "He shall bear the glory, and sit and rule upon his throne" (Zech. vi. 13): he shall be " a wall of fire round about, and the Glory in the midst of Jerusalem (ii. 5). As the glory sat enthroned between the Cherubim in the times of the law, so it shall be seated upon the Eliakim and his brethren in the apocalyptic Aion of a thousand years.

Isaiah saw this throne of glory in a vision, in the year that king Uzziah died. He tells us that it was an exalted throne, and that the King, YAHWEH TZ'VAOTH, was sitting upon it. Around it stood the Seraphim, who proclaimed superlative holiness, and announced that the whole earth was full of his glory (vi. 1-5). This vision has been reproduced in Apoc. iv. 3, of which we shall treat more at large when we arrive at that chapter in our exposition.

Isaiah tells us in regard to "the Nail," that all the glory of the house of the Eliakim's father shall be suspended upon him; and appositely informs us, that this glory consists of what in the Common Version is termed, "the offspring and the issue." These are in the original hatzeatzaim we-hatzphioth -- literally, earth-products and shoots; in other words, those who, "sown in dishonour," are "raised in glory." They are styled also "all vessels of the small;" that is, "the poor of this world rich in faith, who are heirs of the kingdom," and termed "the small" in Apoc. xi. 18, in relation to "the great" -- the small, being compared to wash-troughs; and the latter, to the vessels made of skins to hold wine, and other choice fluids.

Such is to be the glory that is permanently to cluster around the Eliakim. But before that glorious consummation is developed, the Spirit declared that "the Nail fastened in an established place shall depart: and it shall be cut off, and fall; and that suspended upon it shall be cut down: for Yahweh hath spoken." This cutting off the Nail, and his departure, occurred in the nailing of Jesus to the cross, and his subsequent assumption. The apocalypse symbolizes in "the Lamb slain" this cutting off, and in the tribulation or trial then "about to come upon the whole habitable," the cutting down of that suspended by faith upon the Nail.

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