Thursday

Related Verses
Rev. 3:7
7 And to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the true One, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens:

Isa. 22:22-23
22 And I will set the key of the house of David upon his shoulder – When he opens, no one will shut; When he shuts, no one will open.
23 And I will drive him as a peg into a sure place, And he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.

Luke 1:31-33
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of David His father,
33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

Matt. 16:18-19, 24-25
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
25 For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.

Related Reading
To the church in Philadelphia, the Lord is…the One who has “the key of David” (Rev. 3:7), the key of the kingdom, with authority to open and to shut. Here we need to consider the meaning of the term the key of David. According to Genesis 1, when God created man, He gave him dominion over all creatures. This indicates that in God’s intention man is to be the power representing God on earth. Due to the fall, however, man lost this power and has never fully recovered it. Man has not regained dominion on earth to represent God. 

The image and dominion revealed in Genesis 1 are…fulfilled in the temple and the city. In the temple we have God’s presence for His expression, and in the city we have God’s dominion. God’s king is in the city representing Him as he rules on earth. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4199-4200) 

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The key held by David is the key of God’s entire dominion. God’s dominion includes the whole universe, particularly mankind…David represents God in establishing God’s kingdom on earth…The real David is Christ, the greater David (Matt. 12:1-8). He is the One who built God’s temple, the church, and established God’s kingdom (16:18-19). 

Revelation 3:7 also says that Christ is the One who “opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens.” He opens and shuts because the universal key, the key of God’s economy, is in His hand. The Lord uses this key to deal with the church. 

As the One who has the key of David…, the Lord has given the recovered church an opened door, which no one can shut. Through the years, the Lord’s recovery has experienced the Lord as such a One. Since the recovery of the proper church life began in the early part of the nineteenth century, a door has always been opened wide to the Lord’s recovery. From the beginning of the recovery of the proper church life, Satan, the enemy of God, tried his best to shut the door…In spite of much opposition, today the door is open worldwide. The key is in the hand of the Head of the church; it is not in the hand of the opposers. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4200-4201, 4203) 

Hymns, #541…speaks of the things that replace Christ, such as the law of letters, philosophy, and religion. All these things are really “Shebnas” that replace Christ. According to Isaiah 22, Shebna was “fired” and replaced by Eliakim as the steward over the king’s house. Darby said that Shebna typifies a false Christ. He should be removed and replaced by Christ. Christ should not be replaced by us. Instead, we should be replaced by Christ. All of us are “Shebnas” who should be removed and replaced by the real Eliakim. Christ, our Eliakim, should replace everything and everyone in God’s economy. 

Christ has a big key to open the treasury of all His riches. When He opens the treasury, no one will shut. When He shuts the treasury, no one will open. Christ is the One who can open up to us all the riches of God embodied in Him. He can also shut the door to these riches…His opening and His shutting are all for one thing—the enjoyment of His riches as the treasure.

I believe the direct application of Isaiah 22:22 is this—Christ has the key to control the door of God’s treasury, in which are the riches of God in Christ for our enjoyment. We have experienced both His opening of these riches to us and His shutting up of these riches. When He shuts up these riches, we have the feeling of being dried up or inwardly deprived. Our experience indicates that Christ is the One who has the key to all His riches. (Life-study of Isaiah, 2nd ed., pp. 293-295) 

Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 412; Life-study of Isaiah, msg. 42