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Isaiah 22:15-25
Readings: Deuteronomy 25, Ephesians 5
Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,
To remind you, when we finished the first part
of this chapter, it was talking to the valley of vision, Jerusalem. The
latter part of this chapter is referring to Judah. The message from God
is that if Jerusalem and Judah are going to act like the world, look like
the world, and be like the world, then God will judge them like the
world. God was going to deliver them from the Assyrians, but He was not
going to deliver them from the Babylonians any time soon. There is a
lesson in this, we can learn from their example. Don't imitate the world,
seek God and His righteousness, and things will go better for you. We
will still live in the world, with bills and such, but we will also have
joy and peace that demonstrates the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.
22:15-19 Concerning Shebna, what a picture!
Can you imagine God rolling him into a ball and throwing him? It almost
makes you picture God as having a ball cap and a pitchers mitt on. Then
rearing back and slinging one to outfield. Shebna was the palace
administrator in Hezekiah's court. He had high hopes of becoming king,
and of controlling the nation. The lust for power was evident because he
was having his tomb hewed out of the rock. Those who had their tombs hewn
out of the rock in Jerusalem were royalty from there, including King
David, 1 Kings 2:10. The very act of hewing out his tomb was premature on
his part. God did not like the pride that was displayed, and He did not
like the idea that Shebna wanted power rather than a relationship with
God. He was not concerned with pointing Judah to her God. I wonder if
this is where the expression "digging your own grave" came from. I wonder
if he was hoping for the position of king after Hezekiah died, even though
God had anointed Manasseh to be king at 12 years old in 2 Kings 21.
Perhaps, Shebna was hoping to usurp that position. At any rate, he was
delivered into captivity, and died there, away from Jerusalem.
22:20-24 The Lord summoned His servant
Eliakim to rule over Judah. Note that he is a type of Christ. God uses
him to establish authority, extreme authority. The reference to having
the key of David was also used of Christ in Revelation 3:7. Jesus passed
the keys of the church on to Peter. Note also that just like Christ,
Eliakim was a servant of the people, he was like a peg driven into a wall
to hold pots and pans. In other words, he supported the common people,
the servants of the kingdom. If he was just there for the glory, his peg
would have held the kingly garments, not the vessels of labor.
It also seems that things were not much
different in politics in those days either. Follow my train of though for
a moment, Manasseh succeeded Hezekiah at age 12, he was succeeded by Amon,
22 years old, then Josiah, 8 years old, Jehoahaz, 23 years old, Jehoiakim,
25 years old, and Jehoiacin 18 years old. 2 Kings 21-24 All young men and
boys were anointed as kings. Who led the kingdom? The old man who worked
in the background as a servant to the people led the kingdom, Eliakim was
the political power behind all the kings. he was the one who motivated
and led the common people. Just as our president and our governor are
figureheads for their parties, the same was the case in the time of the
kings. Eliakim became like a father to the nation, because there were
kids in charge of the nation, and they really messed it up.
22:25 Eliakim will support Judah until the
peg breaks and all of Judah goes into Babylonian captivity. God had used
a righteous man working with the common people. However, the people were
not following God. The burden was too much for one man to bear. So when
his leadership broke, Judah went into captivity.
I scratched my head over this question, how
could he be a type of Christ from 20-24, and stop being one in verse 25?
The answer is simple, he was still a type of Christ in verse 25. To the
Jewish people, Jesus came to minister to the poor and the common people of
the day. He was recognized as Messiah when He rode a donkey into
Jerusalem, as a servant would. All the common people recognized Him for
who He was, Luke 19:29-38, Matthew 21:1-10, Mark 11:1-10. The religious
leaders, scribes, Pharisees, High Priest, etc, did not recognize Him as
Messiah. So they had Him crucified. Jesus rose from the dead in three
days. We know this to be a fact. Unfortunately, the Jews did not
recognize that their Messiah had risen from the dead. To this day, most
Jews are still in a figurative bondage, just as demeaning as the
Babylonian captivity because they do not recognize Jesus as Messiah.
Their hopes died with Him on the cross, and they somehow missed that He
rose from the dead. In essence, they were cut off since they rejected
their Messiah. This though, is not completely true. In History, Jesus
came to preach to the Jews, and for the most part ignored the Gentiles.
When He rose from the dead, He appeared to Jews. When He sent His Holy
Spirit out at Pentecost, they were all Jews. It was not until later in
Acts that Gentiles were even considered. Then somehow during the first
century, with the defeat of Jerusalem and the Roman occupation, the
Gentiles took over the church, and alienated the Jews from their own
Messiah. Somehow, they missed the picture, and a division developed
between the Jews and the Gentiles. They lost sight of their Messiah, and
are living in bondage to the law to this day. Running off on a little
tangent, the hatred between the Jews and Gentiles grew to great
proportions. In Martin Luther's writings, and other church fathers, the
Jews are openly condemned as having lost their share in the kingdom of
God, and considered to be sub-human. It was not until recently that the
Jews became a nation again, and at that time, the Messianic Jews were
formed. They are waking up, today we are seeing the Jews turn back to
Yeshua, Jesus, as their Messiah! The bondage is slowly coming to an end.
Lord, as we consider the great things taught
in Your word, I pray that each one of us will not be lost in the details,
but rather that we will be able to focus intently upon how that You work
in each one of our lives. Open our eyes Lord, so that we can see You as
our strength, and recognize that we are all servants, just as You
demonstrated for us.
In Him,
Joe Turner.
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