What is the context?
The Lord sends the prophet to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace. The rebuke challenges the grand tomb he is cutting for himself. Instead of securing his place in Jerusalem, he will be removed from office and die in a distant land.
Eliakim son of Hilkiah is appointed in his place. The robe, sash and authority pass to him, and he is to care for Jerusalem and Judah as a father. The key of David’s house expresses authority to open and shut.
Eliakim is then pictured as a peg fixed firmly enough to carry his family’s honor and dependents. But the final verse announces that a firmly fixed peg will fall, taking its load with it. Readers differ over which official is in view at that closing point.
Second Kings 18:17–18 later names Eliakim as palace administrator and Shebnah as scribe among the officials who meet the Assyrian delegation. It confirms the change of roles without giving a full account of Shebna’s later fate.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry, Wesley and Gill understand the key as entrusted authority and see Eliakim’s appointment as a contrast to Shebna’s pride. For the final fallen peg, Wesley and Gill return to Shebna. The Cambridge commentary instead reads it as the eventual fall of Eliakim’s family’s position.
The key also has a place in differing Christian accounts of church authority. A Catholic reading is illustrated by Benedict XVI’s homily of 29 June 2012, which connects Eliakim’s key with the keys promised to Peter in Matthew 16. The Catholic Church teaches that Peter’s pastoral office continues in the bishops under the Pope’s primacy (Catechism 881–882).
The Reformed Westminster Confession 30.1–2 places the keys of the kingdom in the hands of church officers; its chapter 25.6 rejects papal headship. The 1689 Baptist Confession 26.4 likewise affirms Christ’s supreme authority and rejects papal headship. Those confessions state their teaching about the church; they do not give a separate detailed explanation of every verse in Isaiah 22.
These differences concern the later application of entrusted authority. The direct New Testament use of the key of David for Christ himself appears in Revelation 3:7.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Revelation 3:7–13 directly places Isaiah’s language on Jesus’ lips: He holds the key of David, and no one can reverse His opening and shutting. He addresses a church with little strength that has kept His word.
The connection carries the image from an appointed royal steward to the Lord who governs access in His kingdom. The church’s security rests in His authority, rather than its own power.
The same message promises a lasting place in God’s temple to the one who overcomes. Isaiah’s picture of entrusted authority reaches forward, through Revelation’s own use of it, to Christ’s authority to keep and welcome His people.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.