Isaiah 22:20

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; 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. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I shall fasten him as a nail in a safe place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flagons. In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way, and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for Jehovah hath spoken it."

We cannot resist the conclusion that far more is meant by these verses than the mere replacement of a corrupt and ineffective official by a faithful successor. As hinted at by Archer, Eliakim is a type of the "righteous remnant" who indeed were the glory of Judah, the heir of all the sacred promises to Abraham and who did indeed totally replace the great secular majority of Israel who correspond to Shebna. The ultimate fall of Eliakim is a reference to the rejection of the Messiah. This was indeed the "fall" of the righteous remnant in the racial sense. "It was hewn down" is far too strong as a reference to the fall of one man. This foretells the destruction of secular Israel by the armies of Vespasian and Titus in 70A.D.

The reference here to the "key of David" is of special interest. Many have pointed out that "opening and shutting" represent the making of decisions that no one but the king could change. Here is the background of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 16:19, "Suggesting that Jesus was appointing Peter to be steward over the household of God in the messianic kingdom."[17] While true enough as far as it goes, this statement is fundamentally altered to extend the ownership of the key of David to all of the apostles of Christ (Matthew 18:18), and by no means restricting it merely to Peter. Besides that, "The ultimate authority is claimed in these very terms for Christ himself (Revelation 3:7,8)."[18]

This reference to the key of David is all but proof of the proposition that there are indeed in this half of the chapter overtones of the messianic kingdom and the rejection of racial Israel as the chosen race.

How futile and pitiful are the plans of sinful men. Shebna was concerned about building himself an impressive tomb, high on a cliff; but he did not know that he would go into slavery under a foreign invader, suffer a shameful death, and have no impressive tomb whatever, if indeed, he had any at all. Jamieson has given us this sad comment on the death of Shebna:

"The mention of "thy magnificent chariots" does not mean that Shebna would have these in a foreign land, but that he would be borne thither in ignominy instead of in his magnificent chariots. The Jews say that he was tied to the tails of horses by the enemy, to whom he had designed to betray Jerusalem, as they thought he was mocking them; and so he died."[19]