O Key of David (Isaiah 22)

Summary

"Key of David" is used only once in the Old Testament, and it's used of a failed leader. The people of Judah invested all their trust into a single man, and the weight ultimately tore him down. The church can learn much from this story, but it also reveals a desire in every human heart for the perfect leader, the single key to all of life. Jesus is that Key. 

Text

“In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.””

(Isaiah 22:20–25 ESV)