Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 22:15-25 The Lord Will Carry You Away With A Mighty Captivity…There Shall You Die

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Isa 22:15-25 The Lord Will Carry You Away With A Mighty Captivity...There Shall You Die

Isa 22:15  Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,
Isa 22:16  What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?
Isa 22:17  Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.
Isa 22:18  He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.
Isa 22:19  And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.
Isa 22:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
Isa 22:21  And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:23  And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Isa 22:24  And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
Isa 22:25  In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

I hope we are beginning to see the truth of these words:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

If we are given to judge ourselves, then Shebna becomes more than a historical person who has been placed over the affairs of the king's house. If we can judge ourselves, we will see ourselves as the man who has been given the Lord's goods, and we can see that we are simply using our Lord's name to magnify and glorify ourselves. So we read:

Isa 22:15  Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,
Isa 22:16  What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?

"The kingdom of God is within [us]", and we are all stewards of that kingdom (Luk 17:20-21). That kingdom is growing daily, both inwardly as our old man dies and the new man grows within us, and outwardly as the "144,000... firstfruits unto God and the Lamb" are being accrued in each and every generation since Christ. However, that kingdom within us does not come first in a perfected state.

The "kingdom of God" of Luke 17:20-21 is called "the kingdom of heaven" in:

Mat 5:20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If we have been given to "know the things that are freely given to us of God", then we will know that those things freely given us are not just the blessing of being a good steward and being seated with Christ in His Father's throne, but we also realize we must first be "the first man", Adam, hateful, envious and murderous, Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Goliath and the Philistines, and yes, even Judas,  before we will be granted the privilege of becoming the new man, the last man, Adam, and "through much tribulation [be] seated with Christ in the heavens" (Eph 2:6).

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

"Neither CAN he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" means that all the things of which we are speaking in these studies are unintelligible and "foolishness unto [the natural man]". Here in the very next chapter are those "things [which are] freely given to us of God". Paul makes us to know what the "things that are freely given to us of God" are in 1Corinthians 3.

Since "the things which are freely given to us of God... are foolishness unto [our natural man]", and the wisdom of our natural man is foolishness with God, therefore:

1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

If "Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world [and] death" are ours, then Shebna is also a type of our own old man who really wants to immortalize himself in any way possible, even if it is just with an expensive "sepulchre on high" - an extravagant and prominent grave site.

But "the spirit which is of God" has no interest in preserving the memory of the accomplishments of "the first man, Adam" because "the wisdom of this world is foolishness" to "the spirit which is of God", knowing that God will only call and choose the very people whom this world despises:

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

It is so for one grand reason:

1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Because we are Shebna, and because we despise our own spiritual husband and prefer our own ways over His, we are promised:

Isa 22:17  Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.

Have you ever been captive to a merciless taskmaster? Has God ever given you over to Satan for the destruction of your flesh because of your own physical or spiritual fornication? Few indeed are able to see their own slavery to their own merciless taskmaster even as they look him in the eyes every morning. This is our attitude until that sinful beast, our own merciless taskmaster, is revealed to us by the brightness of the coming of Christ with His mind within us:

Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Those words express the spirit of all the 'Shebnas' in Jerusalem, meaning all of us, just before the King of Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem and took the entire apostate royal family away as captives to Babylon, along with the entire apostate city of Jerusalem.

Isa 22:18  He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.
Isa 22:19  And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.

These words are ours because we have one and all denied our Lord and rejected His ways in our own lives at our own time. Here is what the destruction of Shebna and the king's house typifies as part of "the things freely given to us of God":

2Th 2:1  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2  That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ["Know ye not that you are the temple of God..." 1Co 3:16]
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Claiming Abraham as our Father, or claiming to be a Christian, does not impress our Creator who demands obedience to everything He says:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Another way of speaking of a house which was built upon the sand is these words:

Isa 22:18  He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.
Isa 22:19  And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.

The destruction of Shebna, the king's treasurer, in time includes the destruction of the king himself, and it is all a type of the destruction of the kingdom of our own old man of sin within every one of us and within every person who is dragged to Christ. It is only through that fiery destruction of the entire kingdom of our rebellious, stubborn, carnal-minded old man that the kingdom of "the new man... the last man Adam", begins to grow and bring forth fruit:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat [our old man] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

The house of Shebna, the apostate treasurer, and the apostate king are told: "[The Lord] will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die..." Now notice the very next verse reveals to all with eyes that can see "the things freely given to us of God" the wonderful fruit of the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying:

Isa 22:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
Isa 22:21  And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

"Your government" is the government of the apostate treasurer, Shebna, and the government of an apostate king, the son of King Hezekiah:

Isa 39:5  Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:
Isa 39:6  Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
Isa 39:7  And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Isa 39:8  Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

The Lord's words take time to bring about their fruit, but they never fail to do so at His appointed time. It may seem to us to take much too long, but the truth is that everything happens at the appointed time, and in the Lord's own time the government of both the kingdoms of this world and the government of the realm of the spirit will all be given over into the hands of Christ and His Christ.

Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:23  And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Isa 22:24  And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.

Eliakim is a picture of Christ, "a glorious throne to His father's [King David's] house", and He is being "fasten[ed]... as a nail in a sure place", just as Shebna thought he was (vs 25).

These verses referring to "the key of the house of David" are all speaking specifically of God's elect who are being prepared to judge this world and then to judge all men in Gehenna fire. We know this is true because Christ makes this same promise to the overcomers of the church in Philadelphia:

Rev 3:7  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
Rev 3:8  I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

It is Christ who is promised the throne of His father, David.

Luk 1:32  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

Therefore, "the key of the house of David" is actually "the keys of the kingdom of heaven":

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The false doctrine of the Catholic Church is that these words apply only to Peter. I will only remind you that the Greek word translated 'Peter' is 'petros', meaning "a stone" or a piece of a rock, whereas the Greek word translated as 'rock' is 'petra' meaning a massive rock.

Joh 1:42  And he [Andrew, Peter's brother] brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

In other words, Christ was informing Peter that he and the other apostles were a part of Himself, and that He Himself would build His own church upon Himself, just as the sum of God's word demonstrates:

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter [Greek:  petros], and upon this rock [Greek: petra] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

So upon whom will all vessels  hang, and upon whom exactly does the glory of the house of King David hang? Upon whose shoulder is the key to the house of David laid? To whom exactly is it given to open and none can shut and to shut and none can open as we just read?

Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:23  And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Isa 22:24  And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.

Here is the answer to all those questions. Here are all those who are pictured by Eliakim as the Christ of Christ:

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Mat 18:18  Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye [the church] shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

There we have it! It is "the church", or "two or three gathered together in my name", who make up "the house of David", and it is among them that Christ is in the midst. "The glory of... the house of David" is the glory of "the kingdom of God", and that "kingdom... is within [His disciples]":

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

It is Christ who opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens, and it is Christ upon whose shoulder the key to the house of David is laid. If we are His, then we are Him, and it is we, His church, His body, His flesh and His bones, who are given this key, and it is we who open and no man shuts and who shut and no man opens because we are plainly told "As He is, so are we in this world":

Mat 18:18  Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

There it is! It is none less than "Jesus of Nazareth" who tells us 'the least of these... whom you persecute [is] Jesus of Nazareth'. If the kingdom of God is within us and Christ the King is within us and His words are within us, what then, is "the key of the house of David", and what are "the keys to the kingdom of God"?

Because "the key of the house of David" and "the keys to the kingdom of God" both open and shut things in heaven and on earth, it is once again manifested that "the dream is one", and the key and the keys are one and the same.

Gen 41:26  The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

That 'key' and those 'keys' are Christ, Who is the Word (Joh 1:1). Christ is the king of the kingdom, so like Eliakim and like Shebna before him, those who are given that 'key' and those who possess the 'keys' are those who have been given the power of Christ, the King of the kingdom. It is they, and they alone, who have His Words within their hearts and minds.  They will also have those Words, those "keys to the kingdom", in their hearts and in their mouths as the fire which will proceed from their mouths and will kill their enemies:

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth [Zec 4].
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

"The keys to the kingdom of God" therefore simply verify what  has already been revealed to have been opened in heaven and what has already been revealed to have been loosed on earth, as the CLV properly translates both Matthew 16 and Matthew 18:

Mat 16:19 I will be giving you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth, shall be those having been loosed in the heavens.

Mat 18:18 Verily, I am saying to you, Whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth shall be those loose in heaven.

Shebna pictures our old man, and he has already been pronounced as having been bound on the earth and unfit and incapable of inheriting the kingdom of heaven:

Isa 22:25 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall;
and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

Shebna, like the "man of sin" within us who thinks he is God" and who thinks he is "fastened in a sure place", is a type of the kingdom of our carnal-minded rebellious flesh which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, [and] which will "be cut down and fall":

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The phrase "in that day" appears four times in this twenty-second chapter of Isaiah. Here are those four times:

Isa 22:8  And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.

Isa 22:12  And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

Isa 22:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

Isa 22:25  In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

In every case "that day" is the day of the judgment which is now upon the house of God and upon the kingdom of our old man, who sits in the house of God claiming to be God:

2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Both Shebna and Haman are Old Testament pictures of the house and kingdom of our old man which must be judged "in that day", in the day of judgment, which is even now upon the house of God. The nail that thought it was fastened in a sure place "in that day" is being removed and cut down and is falling, and all those who were hanging onto Shebna or Haman are being cut off because the "flesh and blood [of our old man] cannot inherit the kingdom of God":

Est 9:10  The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
Est 9:11  On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace [who were hanging on Haman] was brought before the king.
Est 9:12  And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.

Isa 22:25  In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

That is our study for today, and next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin Isaiah 23 concerning the judgment of Tyre:

Isa 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
Isa 23:2  Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
Isa 23:3  And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
Isa 23:4  Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
Isa 23:5  As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
Isa 23:6  Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

 

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