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By Elizabeth Prata
This essay first appeared on The End Time in October 2009
Have you ever locked yourself out of your car? Or worse, your house? LOL. It's always aggravating when that happens, and it happens to the best of us. Sometimes your child will lock you out on purpose, and you stand there begging and pleading, "Please open up. Open it. I said NOW!" Anyway, it's always a relief when you get the key and let yourself in.
I was reading Isaiah 22 and I came across the verse containing the phrase, "The Key to the House of David." It isn't a long chapter but that phrase stopped me and I kept returning to it. Here it is:
"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." Hmmm. Isaiah is a prophetic book. We see in the prophetic book of Revelation 3:7 the same phrase is repeated.
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:"
Plenty of more scholarly folk than I have delved into the spiritual implications of these bookend phrases describing the Key of David. However, the Spirit is drawing me to the simple. The door and the key. The bible is replete with symbology depicting the Open Door and Christ is that door. Here are two examples.
Luke 13:24-
He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Matthew 7:7- "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
However this promise is not open-ended.
He is also the key! The authority of the Church is God and He has given the key to Jesus, descendant of David, to govern. Though Jesus has sole authority, His mercy proclaims that we, His bride and soon to be His wife, will govern with Him. (Rev 1:5-6; Ephes. 2:6; Romans 8:17). We have received the keys to the kingdom. The guarantee of the open door will not remain forever, however.
"When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ (Luke 13:25).
Can you imagine that one day the door will be shut and the key will not ever enter the lock to open the door again? If you thought it was aggravating to be locked out of your car for a few minutes, imagine how it will be to be locked out of the Lord's presence for all time.
Why is it that so many people stampede to get in the closed doors at Wal-Mart at Thanksgiving's Black Friday, and do not stampede to get into heaven, with its infinitely more beautiful riches and goods? You, precious reader, can partake of the glories of worship of the Lord in heaven. Your trials and tribulations can be laid behind and your tears to be wiped from your eyes by your Maker. You must make sure you are in the right side of that (currently) open door. Be eager to ask forgiveness of your sins and make Jesus your Savior and Lord. Because, He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, ... who shuts and no one opens... and that day when the door shall be shut is coming.
This essay first appeared on The End Time in October 2009
Have you ever locked yourself out of your car? Or worse, your house? LOL. It's always aggravating when that happens, and it happens to the best of us. Sometimes your child will lock you out on purpose, and you stand there begging and pleading, "Please open up. Open it. I said NOW!" Anyway, it's always a relief when you get the key and let yourself in.I was reading Isaiah 22 and I came across the verse containing the phrase, "The Key to the House of David." It isn't a long chapter but that phrase stopped me and I kept returning to it. Here it is:
"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." Hmmm. Isaiah is a prophetic book. We see in the prophetic book of Revelation 3:7 the same phrase is repeated.
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:"
Plenty of more scholarly folk than I have delved into the spiritual implications of these bookend phrases describing the Key of David. However, the Spirit is drawing me to the simple. The door and the key. The bible is replete with symbology depicting the Open Door and Christ is that door. Here are two examples.
Luke 13:24-
He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Matthew 7:7- "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
However this promise is not open-ended.
He is also the key! The authority of the Church is God and He has given the key to Jesus, descendant of David, to govern. Though Jesus has sole authority, His mercy proclaims that we, His bride and soon to be His wife, will govern with Him. (Rev 1:5-6; Ephes. 2:6; Romans 8:17). We have received the keys to the kingdom. The guarantee of the open door will not remain forever, however.
"When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ (Luke 13:25).
Can you imagine that one day the door will be shut and the key will not ever enter the lock to open the door again? If you thought it was aggravating to be locked out of your car for a few minutes, imagine how it will be to be locked out of the Lord's presence for all time.
Why is it that so many people stampede to get in the closed doors at Wal-Mart at Thanksgiving's Black Friday, and do not stampede to get into heaven, with its infinitely more beautiful riches and goods? You, precious reader, can partake of the glories of worship of the Lord in heaven. Your trials and tribulations can be laid behind and your tears to be wiped from your eyes by your Maker. You must make sure you are in the right side of that (currently) open door. Be eager to ask forgiveness of your sins and make Jesus your Savior and Lord. Because, He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, ... who shuts and no one opens... and that day when the door shall be shut is coming.
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