A Warning to the Shebna's of Today from Isaiah 22

 

In his article The Nail of theLord, Garris Elkins brought a great insight about Shebna from Isaiah 22:19. I couldn't place the name, so I did a search and see he was in Hezekiah's time.

Garris was talking about how Shebna was such a high up person in Hezekiah's reign that he considered himself in a sure position...but the word of the Lord came that although he thought he was a nail in a sure place, he was going to removed and the Lord would raise up another of Hezekiah's governmental leaders Elikim, son of Hilkiah. Shebna is referred to as the "treasurer" and consequently, this is a common reason for men to fail, for the love of money. Judas was the treasurer for Yeshua and His apostolic team.

In Isaiah 21 God is speaking a prophetic word the defeat of all the enemies of Israel: Babylon, Edom and Arabia.

Then in Isaiah 22 God gives a prophetic word to the Valley of Vision (hizzayon, vision properly means prophecy or revelation)

God speaks of an enemy that comes against His people: Elam. In Isaiah 11:11 Elam is called the abode of dispersed Israelites (many Persian Jews have returned to Israel since Israel became a modern state.

In verse Isaiah 22: 8 God says that, "And he (Elam) discovered the covering of Judah, and thou did look in that day to the armour (weapons) of the (bayit ya'ar') house of the Forest."

Bayit ya'ar can also mean House of the "honeycomb" and in a spiritual sense, this speaks to me of the House of the Remnant (Jewish believers in Yeshua) in Israel whose "armour" is the prophetic Word of God. This is the opposite of what God is about to take exception to when dealing with Shebna.

Shebna is a "major domos" of Hezekiah (One definition of Shebna's position is a "majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge FOR ANOTHER ...the highest person...acts on behalf of the owner (KING)....oversees the day-to-day responsibilities." This was Hezekiah's right hand man in the palace and in governing the nation. This is the role Shebna played.

God says of this Shebna, "On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. 9 You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, BUT YOU DID NOT LOOK TO THE ONE WHO MADE IT, OR CONSIDER HIM WHO PLANNED IT LONG AGO.

Then God says, verse 12-13: 12 On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth. 13 But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

God was looking for sorrowing, for fasting and prayer, but instead what He saw was them looking to the arm of the flesh to defend Jerusalem, and the fatalistic, "Party on Garth, because we will be dead tomorrow."

Now God addresses Shebna by name and remember this man ran things in King Hezekiah's stead. ..his job that was entrusted to him by King Hezekiah: 15 This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: 16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?"

The Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem

In his pride and ambition, Shebna presumed to carve a sepulcher out for himself in the place where the kings of the City of David were buried: "a collection of tombs in the form of chambers in the rocks" on the "east of Jerusalem, on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, and in the wall of rock to the west of Jerusalem."

God rebukes Shebna: "17 Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, 18 roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master. 19 I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position." (See The Saga of Shebna about an interesting archaelogical find)

Shebna was to be taken captive and would die in a foreign land, called by God "a disgrace to the house of your master."

20 On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
(Eliakim means "God raises" or "God sets up")

21 I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Shebna failed because of his ambition and having his head turned by the amount of money he had control over as the King's treasurer. He came to regard the large sums of money as belonging to him.

That's not what God was looking for - someone who spent huge amounts on misguided building of the City of David, not according to the plans God had given. Also spending a huge amount on his own "legacy" burial place among the kings of David. What God was looking for was a man to act as a "father" to the people living in Jerusalem and the house of Judah.

22 I will place on his (Eliakim's) shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.b

23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

This promise of "the key to the house of David" is the same key that Yeshua-Jesus was given by God, and in turn, the keys that He gave to His apostles, and by extension all who follow him.

The gaping mouth of the Gates of Hell

As Yeshua was preparing the apostles for His coming death in Jerusalem, he took them up to Caesarea Philippi, near the southwestern base of Mount Hermon. There looking upwards one sees the gaping hole in the mountain known as Banias, or "the gates of hell." It was a place of idol worship and human sacrifice in Israel. In the view of this place is where Yeshua told His apostles that He was going to give them "the keys of kingdom" based on the revelation that He is the Messiah.

The key to the house of David - that which opens doors no man can close, and closes doors no man can open is a prophetic foreshadow of the key that would be laid on Yeshua, as the Messiah of Israel. When He passed the key to His apostles, He called it keys - keys that would restrict things from hell on earth and release things from Heaven on earth. The key became multiple and was given by revelation of who Jesus is.

Matthew 16:18-19 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock (revelation) I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I see applications of this some current situations, but it is not for this post, except to say that these keys to the kingdom are certainly for the Remnant of Israel, the believers in Israel, and also for those who will stand with them in these times - binding the hell coming against them, and loosing the will of HEAVEN toward the salvation of all Israel.