Behold, Jehovah will hurl thee with the force of a mighty man, and will cover thee entirely.
Isaiah 22 closes with God naming one man: Shebna, the officer in charge of the royal household. Verse 17 opens God's sentence on him, and it raises two questions: what had this man done, and why does a chapter about a besieged city end with the fall of one official?
The verses before this one show a city busy with walls, weapons and water supplies. All the while, God was dealing with that city in judgment. One writer explains what is wrong with human wisdom in God's city, and with outward work that hides a corrupt heart:
In the first place all the wisdom of man is not enough to keep evil away, if the power of God is not with it. When the city of God is at stake, this wisdom forgets the God who built and founded His holy city. That is an unpardonable sin (Isa. 22:11).
This happens often. People do God's work in outward faith, and He blesses the work. Yet the heart is corrupt in that very thing, and God will surely judge it. They forget God Himself, and they forget that they belong to Him. This is what happens when the people of God lean on human means.
The chapter then narrows from the city to one man.
The one God calls "you strong man" held the highest position under the king. His problem was not weak ability. It was what he lived for:
The close of the chapter shows us the unworthy Shebna set aside. He had crept into the place of chief minister, next to the throne. He lived only for himself, and even after death he sought nothing but his own name and glory.
The specific charge in the verses just before is a tomb cut high in the rock. Money and standing had come into his hands, and he spent them on his own memory:
Shebna was a man with much riches passing through his hand, for he was the treasurer. So he had distinction in this life, and by building himself "a tomb on high," he wanted to keep his memory alive after his life was over. He was plainly aiming at his own exaltation. He was rejected. God would strip him of his place so completely that the chariots of his glory would turn out to be the shame of his lord's house. We see that at the end of verse 18.
The grave he built for his name would not hold him. God would fling him far away instead.
Scripture never tells us how the sentence landed. That silence does not weaken it:
God's word to Shebna was a solemn one: "Behold, the Lord will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you. He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country; there you shall die" (Isa. 22:17-18). Although there is no record of what happened to Shebna, we can be sure that it was all carried out to the letter.
(This quotation follows an older translation.)
A ball has no say in where it lands. God handles the man who arranged his own monument like an object.
The move from Shebna to Eliakim happened in history. One writer sees a further meaning in it:
Shebna was then rejected, and Eliakim was to take his place. His name appears to mean "God is setting up." This transfer happened during the reign of Hezekiah, just as the prophet said. But we see in it a picture of what will take place at the end of the age. Then the self-exalting "man of sin" will be violently turned and tossed to destruction, and the once rejected Christ will be exalted and established.
The office Shebna held was not the problem. That is the sharpest lesson in the whole passage:
It was not the position, but the person that made the difference. Shebna had exactly the same place, but he utterly failed and brought ruin. Not so Eliakim, who followed. Revelation 3:7 makes it right to apply this to Christ.
- Setting — Jerusalem answered God's judgment with walls, weapons and water. Wisdom that forgets the God who founded the city is an unpardonable sin.
- Self — Shebna reached the top post and used it for himself, wanting a name both in life and after death.
- Sentence — God Himself does the hurling. He tosses the man who carved his own resting place like a ball into a far country to die there.
- Sureness — no record tells us how it happened, yet we can be sure God carried out every word.
- Successor — the office was not at fault; the man was. Shebna's fall makes room for Eliakim, and one writer sees there the man of sin displaced by the once-rejected Christ.
Rolling thee up completely, he will roll thee as a ball into a wide country there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, O shame of thy lord's house!
Isaiah 22 ends with a message from God to one man. Shebna ran King Hezekiah's household, and he used the job to build his own name. Verse 18 is the sentence God passes on him. God picks him up, throws him far away, and leaves his fine chariots standing as a public disgrace to the master he served.
The judgment lands on a character, not just a career. One writer describes what made Shebna's conduct offensive to God:
Shebna is introduced here to show the character of those in leading positions in Israel. They care only for themselves, with no thought of God. Shebna was in fact one of King Hezekiah's chief ministers. But his conduct was objectionable to God. It stood in sharp contrast to what a servant of the Lord should be. Instead of caring for the interests of the Lord among His people, he had the glory of his own name in front of him.
William Kelly sees the same ambition reaching beyond the grave:
The close of the chapter shows us the unworthy Shebna set aside. He had crept into the place of chief minister, next to the throne. He lived only for himself, and even after death he sought nothing but his own name and glory.
The picture of a man rolled up and hurled into open country is deliberately violent. Nothing about it suggests a dignified retirement:
Under the figures of Shebna and Eliakim we have the complete rejection of everything that was offensive to God on one side, and the establishment of what would be to God's glory on the other… It would be hard to find a more striking picture of rejection than this.
The chariots were the visible proof of Shebna's rank. God's judgment does not simply take them away; it turns them into evidence against him.
Shebna was a man with great riches passing through his hands, since he was the treasurer. So he had distinction in this life, and by building himself "a tomb on high" he wanted to keep his memory alive after his life was over. Self-exaltation was clearly his aim. He was rejected. God would strip him so completely that the chariots of his glory would turn out to be the shame of his lord's house. We see this at the end of verse 18.
God's word here is more than a threat. One writer takes it as certain, even though the outcome is never reported:
God's word to Shebna was a solemn one. Although there is no record of what happened to Shebna, we can be sure that it was all carried out to the letter.
The same pattern appears elsewhere in the Bible. Writing about Haman, the official in the book of Esther who plotted to destroy the Jews, one commentator points back to this verse:
His fall is prepared, just like that of Shebna.
One writer has no doubt that the passage looks past Hezekiah's day, to the false king still to come:
From verse 15 to the end, I have no doubt that we should see in Shebna the antichrist set aside for the Messiah, pictured by Eliakim. All the glory, great or small, belongs to Jesus on the throne of David, and all the power of antichrist will be cut off. Until the LORD speaks, antichrist looks strong and secure, and he counts on the future. But from the moment God speaks, he falls.
The removal is not the end of the story. One writer names who takes the place:
Who can doubt that Eliakim here is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who will be seen exalted, lifted up and very high, after antichrist has been thrown into the lake of fire? The robe and the belt that truly belonged to God's Christ had been taken over by antichrist, the man of sin, the false king. But when he is thrown out and judged, the true King will take up the robe and the belt that are His by right. He will be "over the house," as He is even now.
- Glory sought. Shebna held a trusted office and used it for his own name, right down to carving himself a splendid tomb.
- Glory hurled. God does not simply remove Shebna from office. He rolls him up, throws him like a ball into a wide land, and leaves him to die far from the tomb he built.
- Glory shamed. The chariots that displayed his rank end up as the disgrace of the house he was supposed to serve.
- Glory forecast. Shebna pictures the antichrist. He looks unshakeable until God speaks. Then he falls.
- Glory given. God gives the office to Eliakim, a picture of Christ, who wears the robe by right and is over the house.