WWUTT 1944 What Right Do You Have Here (Isaiah 22:15-25)

The Pride of Shebna and the Humbling of Human Ambition

There was a man named Shebna who thought way too highly of himself, and so the Lord humbled him and removed all that he had. We need to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge anything we have comes from the Lord when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our Old Testament study, we've been in the book of Isaiah, and I still have a little bit of chapter 22 to finish up, the latter half, in the Valley of Vision, the oracle concerning Jerusalem.

Maybe we'll get into a little bit of chapter 23 today as well, but let me pick up reading in Isaiah 22, 15 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says Lord Yahweh of hosts, Come, go to this steward, to Shebna who is in charge of the royal household.

What right do you have here, and whom do you have here, that you have hewn a tomb for yourself here, you who hew a tomb on the height, you who carve a dwelling place for yourself in the cliff? Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, O man, and he is about to grasp you firmly, and he will surely roll you tightly like a ball to be cast into a vast country.

There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be, you disgrace of your master's house. I will push you out of your office, and I will pull you down from your station. Then it will be in that day that I will summon my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your tunic, and tie your sash securely about him, and I will give your authority into his hand, and he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder. When he opens, no one will shut. When he shuts, no one will open. I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, and he will become a throne of glory to his father's house.

So they will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, offspring and issue, all the least of the vessels, from bowls to all the jars. In that day, declares Yahweh of hosts, the peg driven in a firm place will give way.

It will even break off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken.". Now, again, this was an oracle concerning Jerusalem, and the way in which they would fall into the hands of their enemies, it would be relatively easy, because all of their leaders were cowards.

As we read last week, you who were full of noise, you roaring city, you exultant town, your slain were not slain with the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your rulers have fled together and have been captured without the bow.

So they just ran away, did not fight, and did not lead in the fight, and so it was easy for the enemy to overtake them. In this latter half, we have an oracle specifically concerning Shebna, who was the steward that was over the house of the king, and the king in particular in this case is Hezekiah.

His office is being taken from him, and it will be handed to Hilkiah. So let me pick up again in verse 15, thus says Lord Yahweh of hosts, come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household, and say to him this, what right do you have here?

And whom do you have here that you have hewn a tomb for yourself here, you who hew a tomb on the height, you who carve a dwelling place for yourself in the cliff? So in other words, Shebna is claiming to have such a right to the position that he has, his fellowship with royalty, that he has cut for himself a tomb where his body would be laid with the rest of the royals in the line of the throne of David.

Now this was also a proclamation about oneself that they were close with God. So it was not just the fact that Shebna is claiming to have a royal companionship, but even that he is in fellowship with the Lord himself.

I'm going to be buried with those who have the favor of God, and when the Messiah comes and his foot touches down on the Mount of Olives and all those graves are opened up and we rise to meet the Messiah, I'm going to be right there with the rest of the royals who will be at God's right hand.

That's probably Shebna's mindset here. And the Lord is rebuking him, who is giving you that right? Who is giving you that right to cut your tomb and lay yourself with this people in this way as though you've done anything great?

You think that you are a great one that you get to be laid with the greats. So verse 17, Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, O man, and he is about to grasp you firmly, and he will surely roll you tightly like a ball to be cast into a vast country.

There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be, you disgrace of your master's house. So that's where you're going to die. That's where your body will be. I'm the one who decides where you are born and where you die, where your body lies down.

So don't be so prideful to think that I can cut my own grave and that's where my body will be laid. It is the Lord's doing. As Job says in Job 14, that God has determined the times and the places in which a man will be born and live and has set his limits that he cannot pass.

His days are numbered. The Lord already knows and has already set for you exactly how many days you will live. So how dare any of us think that we can determine our present or our future? God has already set those things in whatever place he puts us.

Let us do all things to the praise of his glorious grace. As James says, this is James 4, 13 to 17. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil. To boast in ourselves, to think that we can make the best of ourselves, to think that we have guaranteed for us tomorrow, we can even determine where we're going to lie down and die.

That's arrogant. It is being full of ourselves. It is thinking too highly of ourselves when we think that we have that much control over our very future. The Lord has determined where we are going to go and what we are going to do.

So in whatever circumstance you are in, wherever you happen to be, do it all to the glory of God. You may think you deserve better than what you have. Humble yourself before God and thank him for what he has given you and make the most of the opportunities and what you have and pray that the Lord would lay you down in a gentle and quiet sleep, that you may be raised forever to be with him in glory.

Don't even think so highly of yourself to think that you have the power to hold on to your faith to the very end. It is the Lord who holds you and keeps you and he will do it. I'm not saying that to make you doubt your salvation.

I'm just saying that to humble yourself so that you don't think your faith is so great that you can't stumble and you can't fall and lose a grasp on those things that you were taught, the gospel that was first proclaimed to you.

It's kind of the gist of the whole book of Hebrews. Beware that you don't fall in the wilderness like our fathers did. They who saw the miracles and yet could not hold on to their own faith. It is promised to us that in Christ Jesus, he will hold us secure.

Christ said in John 10 that no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. We're told this in Jude 24 to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy to the only God, our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and forever.

Amen. And as Paul said to the Philippians, I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ. Philippians 1 6, it is all of God and not of us so that no one may boast, give all boasting to the Lord.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 1 30, let he who boasts, boast in the Lord. It is his doing that you are in Christ Jesus. So don't be arrogant like Shebna to think that you can determine your own future. You can lay down with the royals and you will therefore be raised with them when the Messiah returns.

Entrust yourself to the Lord, not to your own self and to your own doings. Trust Christ. The Lord says to Shebna in verse 19, I will push you out of your office and I will pull you down from your station.

Then it will be in that day that I will summon my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your tunic and tie your sash securely about him. I will give your authority into his hand and he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Even any authority that we have has been given to us by God. No one is born with any inherent authority. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about a prince who is born into a royal household. Nobody has inherent authority.

We're all born naked. We're born with nothing. We die naked. We leave with nothing. As Job said, we're naked when we come, we're naked when we go. The authority that anybody has, if anybody holds some sort of authoritative office, it is given to them by God.

Consider the exchange between Pilate and Jesus in John 19. The people cry out, crucify him. Pilate said, take him yourself and crucify him. I find no guilt in him talking about Jesus. And the Jews answered him, we have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God.

Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he became afraid and he entered into the praetorium and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me.

Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered, this is John 19 11. You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above.

In Daniel 2, Daniel says, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever for wisdom and might belong to him. And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.

He reveals the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. We have no inherent ability or inherent authority. Any person who is placed in any position or is given any opportunity or gifting or otherwise, they have that from God.

How do they use that? Even pagans and people who don't believe in God have been placed where they are and given what they have by God. And in the final day, when they stand before the Lord in judgment, they're going to be judged on their works.

How did you do? What did you do with what it was that I gave you, especially concerning his son? What did you do concerning my son? Did you know him? Did he know you? Did you praise his name? Did you share his gospel?

What opportunities are we taking with the position in which we have been given? And if you've been given much authority, then much will be expected and required of you. Humble yourself and recognize that it is not by anything that you have done, but it is God who gives to us all things.

And he is the one who sets up and tears down. As it says in Romans 13, all the governing authorities have been established by God. And that's why we are to be in submission to them, because to reject or resist the governing authorities is to resist what God has appointed.

Any authority that has been granted has been given that authority by God who holds all authority in his hand. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, according to Philippians 2 .10.

And so bow before Christ, serve the Son in all manner of business that he has given you. Do it to the glory of God. We continue on here in Isaiah 22, verse 22. Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder.

When he opens, no one will shut. When he shuts, no one will open. I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, and he will become a throne of glory to his father's house. Now, some of this is even prophetic concerning the Christ.

We know this is happening between Shebna and Eliakim, but even some of this is pointing toward something greater that is to come, where we have a reference to a key that is going to be given, and what he opens is opened, and what he shuts, no one will be able to open.

All of that is in reference to Christ. And remember in Matthew 16, when Jesus responds to Peter, he asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus says, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for no man revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. This is authority that Jesus is granting even to his own disciples.

Now, that wasn't exclusively to Peter, you know, lest you believe what certain churches have said, but that same authority was later extended to the rest of the disciples. We see that same reference to what you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

That same reference comes up again to Matthew 18 when Jesus is talking about the entire church. So, it is something that all believers are given, discernment that we can recognize and know who belongs to Christ and who does not.

But the key specifically belongs to Christ. I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulders, so it's therefore Christ to give to whom he desires to give it to. When he opens, no one will shut.

When he shuts, no one will open. Now, this reference also to Shebna's office, this could be taken to recognize Judas who was removed from his office. After all, in Acts 1, it says about Judas who betrayed Christ and fell into a field, you know, notice that it was said about Shebna that I will throw you headlong.

Where was that? Verse 17, behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, oh man, and he is about to grasp you firmly and he'll surely roll you tightly like a ball. When Judas died, he fell headlong into a field.

Well, he hung himself, but then when the rope broke, his body falls headlong into a field and then his body broke open and his gut splattered into the field and thus it was referred to as the field of blood.

I know that's pretty graphic, but that's what it says in Acts 1. And so it is written in the book of Psalms, this is Acts 1 20, let his residence be made desolate and let no one dwell in it and let another man take his office.

Now, of course, that's quoted from Psalm 109, but it's interesting that same kind of language is used here in Isaiah 22. I just have to wonder, I speculate if there's a connection. I can't say for sure, but I wonder if this could still be prophetically pointing to that as well, since the language is very similar to Psalm 109, which would have been written prior to Isaiah 22.

So anyway, we continue on finishing up the rest of the chapter, so they will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, offspring and issue all the least of vessels from bowls to all the jars. In that day declares Yahweh of hosts, the peg driven in a firm place will give way.

It will even break off and fall and the load hanging on it will be cut off for Yahweh has spoken. So that's the remainder of the prophecy in Isaiah 22. We find some application here concerning our own situation, our own station that God has given us our position to be for his glory.

So how do you use what you have been given? How do you give glory to God in in that which he has granted to you? You might think that you've worked and earned it. You might think that you labored hard and perhaps you have, but it is still by God's blessing that you have what you have.

So rejoice in the Lord and use all that has been granted to you for his glory to proclaim his gospel, telling others that it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we are forgiven our sins and have right standing with God, not because of anything that we do, but because of what God has done for us.

So that on the day of judgment, when Christ returns, there are many others who will also be laid with the Royals because they believed in Jesus Christ. They believed in the gospel and are saved. It is by God's doing once again that you are in Christ Jesus.

And so let us give him all glory and honor in all that we say and do. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read today in Isaiah chapter 22. And may we not be like those who cower in a day of testing when the culture pushes back on us or when circumstances get hard.

We don't run away like the leaders of Jerusalem did, but we stand firm on the word of God because we know the truth. And no matter what the world might do to us to shame us, we will not be moved because we hold fast to the rock who is Christ Jesus.

May we give you all glory and honor and praise in all that we say and do. Bless us, Lord, that we would have opportunity to proclaim the gospel to your glory and to the salvation of many. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.