What does it mean that Jesus "holds the Key of David" in Revelation 3:7?

The next reference takes us to the book of Revelation. The Lord presents Himself to the assembly in Philadelphia as ‘he that has the key of David’ (3:7). This expression is based on Isaiah’s prophecy: ‘And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open …’ (Isa. 22:22). This prophecy, which relates to Eliakim in the first instance (see v. 20), will find its ultimate fulfilment in Christ. He will hold the key — that is, He will have the right of administration. This right will be unimpeded: ‘he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open’.

The way this prophecy is used in the letter to Philadelphia is very interesting and instructive. Although it will be in the millennium that the true Eliakim will hold the key of the house of David, there is a moral principle here that is designed to encourage the faithful ones in Philadelphia. They only had ‘a little strength’ and there were those who opposed them (the ‘synagogue of Satan’), but Christ was the one who was really in control. This goes to show how we can benefit and take courage from the way Christ is presented in prophecy.

In Isaiah the ‘key’ is linked to the ‘house’: ‘the key of the house of David’. Here the blessing is in view of David’s natural descendants. It seems that in Revelation the scope is widened so that the ‘key of David’ is an encouragement to Christian believers today.

Rev. 3:7. — “To the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write: These things saith the holy, the true: He that has the key of David, He who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open.” It is a circumstance to be carefully noted that the character in which Christ presents Himself here forms no part of His glory as beheld in chapter one. He assumes a moral attitude towards the Church in Philadelphia, one which exactly fits its state of manifest weakness. Here, then, we have Christ in personal character, what He is essentially. He is the holy, He is the true. Others, however, might be that in a qualified degree, so that scarcely gives the force of the words, “the holy, the true.” He is both in His own Person. He ever is the embodiment of holiness and truth. Both personally and intrinsically He is “the holy” and “the true.” Viewed essentially these are divine attributes (Hosea 11:9; Jer. 10:10; Rev. 4:8; 1 Thess. 1:9; Isa. 6:3; 1 John 5:20). Persons and things are spoken of as holy and true, but no created being has the essential moral glory of being The Holy One and The True One. As employed in our text they are really divine titles.

— “He that has the key of David.” In these words and in those that follow the reference is to Isaiah 22:22. Shebna is deposed and degraded. The treasurer of the royal house of David used his high office to immortalise himself (v. 16). Then the prophet announced the investiture of Eliakim to the administration of the royal authority. The terms of the prophecy in depth and fulness are characteristically Messianic, going far beyond the historical circumstances in the days of Hezekiah. The prophetic announcement of Isaiah (Isa. 22:22) and the words of the Seer (v. 7 in our chapter), almost verbally the same, imply administrative authority; the former in connection with royalty in Judah, the latter in connection with grace to the Church. The “key” as a symbol denotes undisputed right to enter and exercise all needful authority.

Some, strangely enough, connect “the key of the house of David” with “the keys of death and of hades.” They are not identical. The former intimates Christ’s sovereignty in time, the latter His sway in the unseen world in all that concerns the bodies and souls of men. “The keys of the kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 16:19) were alone committed to Peter to signify delegated authority, which necessarily ceased when his work was done. Peter by his preaching opened the door of the kingdom for Jews in Acts 2, and for the admission of Gentiles in Acts 10. The keys having been used, and the doors opened, a successional and vested right in “St. Peter’s keys” is absurd. Peter left the door open; hence they are of no further use.

— “He who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open,” does so in virtue of having “the key of David,” i.e., complete sovereignty. But the reference here is not to admission and rejection connected with either Church or kingdom. It is a “door” of service and testimony that is opened or closed according to Christ’s sovereign pleasure (compare with Acts 14:27; 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; also with the words following, “Behold I have set before thee an open door”). The treasures of grace and blessing are under the absolute control of Christ, “He has the key,” and will not pass it on to another. Hence when He opens or closes a door, who can shut or open? His right to direct His servants is unquestionable, His authority irresistible.

The first words are the key. "He that is holy, he that is true" (verse 7). Look at the first Epistle of John. The expression is not often used about the Lord, but we find it there. In the second chapter of that epistle, speaking to the little ones of the family of God, it is written, "Ye have an unction from the HOLY ONE, and ye know all things." He that is Holy, He that is true, has all for them. There might be weakness, but He has the key of David. In the genealogy of our Lord in Matthew we find the expression, David "the king," not Solomon the king or any other; because David is the person who first characterized royalty in Israel. He was the man according to God's own heart. As long as David walked in faith, no difficulties could stand in his way. True, the type was imperfect: no type reaches the mark, because it is not Christ, though it may be a witness of Him. We see the failure of the man; but where the power of God wrought in David what was bright, and blessed, and good, we have the germ, as it were, of that which we see fully in the Lord. "The key of David" represents administrative power, the means of access to whatever he possessed. Thus it is said (Isa. 22), "the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut," etc. This was the consequence; he who had it had all things under his hand; and it was his business to take care of everything.

The Lord presents Himself as having the key of David. Therefore they ought not to look to the power of the world, nor to man; for if He had the key, it was the very thing they wanted. The energy of man might be at work all around, Jezebel, false prophets, etc.; but there was this Blessed One, the Holy and the True; and so much the more needed, because they were weak. They had so little strength that, perhaps, they could not even open the door; but He says that He had opened it for them; He had brought them into a large place where there was no such thing as bondage or constraint. It is plain that the Lord is here marked according to what He is personally and morally; not only as the great source of holiness and truth, but as the Holy One and the True. We find the latter also in the first Epistle of John. "We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ;" but there he goes farther still, "This is the true God and eternal life." Thus then we have the Lord's person brought before them: it was what they coveted. They valued Christ. They wished to know more of Him; and He knew their heart. So it is said, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." They were tried by a mere form of godliness; they knew it was as possible to be lost or to dishonour the Lord in orthodoxy as in the world. They turn to the Lord, and He presents Himself as the Holy One and the True; not as against them, but full of tenderness and grace, putting before them an open door, and giving them the certainty that no man could shut it.

Furthermore, the Lord has "the key of David." Keys are not directly connected with the Church and its administration, but with the Kingdom and government (Matt. 16:19). The quotation is taken from Isaiah 22:22, and the context of the passage connects the idea of government with the key, for in the preceding verse the Lord says, "I will commit thy government into His hand." The two great symbols of government in Scripture are the sword and the key. The sword implies the exercise of government in the judgment of evil; the key implies the exercise of government in restraining evil or in opening a door for blessing. The day is coming when the Lord will use the sword in overwhelming judgment. Today, He uses the key on behalf of His people to make a way for what is of Himself and to restrain that which opposes Himself. How blessed to apprehend Christ as "the Holy" and "the True" and as the One Who holds the key and can thus maintain His people in testimony for Himself in spite of all the power of evil.

What is written in Isa. 22:22 has very evidently Christ in view, even as it is written of the Son of God in Revelation 3:7, "He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David …" As having the key of the house of David, we see the Lord Jesus in control of all pertaining to Israel, the government of all belonging to Him as Israel's King resting on His shoulder. Having the key of David would rather refer to the Lord's present authority at God's right hand, the place from which He controls all, though not publicly, for the good of His people. Whether in regard to the present, or the coming day, the Lord Jesus has all authority and power to open or close doors as He wills.

Eliakim carries the key of the house of David here. His name means “whom God will raise up,” and he plainly points on to our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has raised up, to secure all “the sure mercies of David,” the promises connected with David’s Seed. He is robed and strengthened, and the government committed into his hand, and be becomes a father to the people (v. 21).

Rev. 3:7 is another passage referred to in connection with Isaiah 22:22, as proving "that when Christ claims to have the key of David's house, His meaning is, that He has that anti-typical authority in David's house which Eliakim's robe, girdle, and key faintly shadowed forth; that He is now exercising this power of the key; and that the house of David - as Christ is ruler in it, at least - can be none other than the Church of the living God, under the Redeemer's regal administration." To this argument we need only reply that at the end of Isaiah 22 we find that "the nail fastened in a sure place" (Eliakim) was to be removed, and to be cut down, and to fall;" "and the burden that was upon it," says the prophet, "shall be cut off: for the Lord has spoken it." Understand this of Christ's relation to the literal Israel, as king, and it is easy to understand. Messiah, the king of Israel was "cut off, but not for himself." (Daniel 9) "The burden" of Jewish hopes and prospects which hung upon that nail, was "cut off" along with it; though in resurrection, as we all know, the whole is yet to be made good. "The key of David" is in the hand of His risen Son; but it is still "the key of David," and it is as such that it is seen in the hands of Jesus in Rev. 3:7-12. It is as opening into a new dispensation, in which He will be known in this character, that He addresses the church of Philadelphia, promising to keep them from "the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth;" and assuring and exhorting them, "Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." These are evidently points in the address to Philadelphia, which can only find their place, if we regard that address in its prophetic character; and then, Christ's possession of the key of David, as opening into that Dew dispensation in which His glory as David's son, and the heir of David's throne, will be displayed is in perfect harmony with the whole. But this affords no proof of Christ's "now exercising" the power of which "the key of David" is the distinctive symbol and expression.

As to the key of David, it is used figuratively as one who has a right to shut and open. But Dr. B. has forgotten that, while Christ surely exercises this power, the key of David was not in the king's hand, neither Shebna nor Eliakim was king or David's son. No Christian denies Christ is Lord; none that He has all power in heaven and in earth. But while having the personal title to be king, they say that Scripture shews He has not taken the proper power of the kingdom: of this further on. I notice now a remaining text - Isaiah 9:6-7. A very short answer suffices. The reader has only to consult the passage, and he will find that the increase of Christ's government is consequent on the great battle day of God's judgment.

We, on the other hand, maintain not only that there is not one word to this effect, but that Christ's ascension is expressly distinguished from his Davidical title. Three separate Psalms are cited or referred to in proof of three distinct glories of Christ: Ps. 16 as indicating Christ's resurrection; Ps. 132 God's oath touching David's throne; and Ps. 110 His session on Jehovah's throne in heaven, which, as the apostle argues, was no more true of David than the resurrection of Ps. 16. This, then, affords not proof, but disproof: the Father's throne above (where Christ is sitting — Rev. 3:21) is not the throne of David or of Israel, as men most singularly make out of Peter's words. So, as to Zech. 6:12-13, (though it is quite lawful for us to appropriate very much that is blessed in it,) it supposes a time yet future, when “he shall be a priest upon his throne”: the regular and formal fulfillment of the prophecy, and indeed of the kingdom; not the mystery of His present place on the Father's throne, Rev. 3:21. The possession of David's key applied figuratively in Rev. 3:7 is an extraordinary witness to call, seeing that it pertained not to the king, but to his subject and servant. David's throne is quite another thought. As to understanding Isa. 9:7 of “the administration of Christ in the church,” we can only say that, as interpretation, whether one looks at the text or its context, it is a sense which is destitute, to our mind, of the smallest probability. The passage supposes unprecedented vengeance executed, and the government carried out on principles of righteousness.

The Lord thus goes on to present Himself as the One that has the key of David, that opens and shuts, and no man can shut what He has opened, or open what He has shut. Here we have THE POWER OF CHRIST, our second point in the series. The key of David speaks of the power of administration and of government. All things are in His hand; Christ has the key to everything. All power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth (Matt.28:18) and is at the disposal of those who depend fully upon Jesus the Lord. What an encouragement to the feeble remnant of Philadelphia is found in this presentation of the Lord, and also to all who trust fully in Him for everything in any age.