What is the Key of David?

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.

Used symbolically for authority to open or to shut. Spoken of Eliakim, 'established by God,' as having the key of the house of David laid upon his shoulder: "he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." Isa. 22:22. He is a type of the Lord Jesus, as spoken of in Rev. 3:7, who has also the keys of hades and of death. Rev. 1:18. To Peter were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 16:19, which he opened to the Jews in Acts 2, and to the Gentiles in Acts 10. The Lord charged the doctors of the law with taking away the key of knowledge. Luke 11:52. This they did by their traditions and by hindering those who would have entered in to the blessings brought by Christ.

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.

In the next place the Lord speaks of Himself as "He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth." In Isaiah 22:22, he who had the key of David was the treasurer of David's house. And the word used here is clearly a reference to that passage. There it is said of Eliakim, "The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut and none shall open." The remainder of the passage shows that Eliakim was but a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one upon whom should be hung all the glory of His Father's house. He, by His Spirit, opens the great treasure-house of divine truth, and none can shut it. On the other hand where there is perversity of spirit, and an unwillingness to walk in the truth, He shuts and none can open. So He has said elsewhere, "If the light that is in thee become darkness, how great is that darkness."

In Isaiah 21 we learn that Shebna, who was of the lineage of David, was over the house of Hezekiah, but, because Jehovah was displeased with him, his office was to be given to another, even to Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. Regarding Eliakim the Lord said, "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open" (Isa. 22:22). With the key of David upon his shoulder, the government of the royal house was committed into the hand of Eliakim, and he was to minister in his high position, as called of God, for the good of "the inhabitants of Jerusalem and … the house of Judah".

Eliakim in this is surely a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who, in the coming day, will order all in Jerusalem, in Judah, yea, in all Israel for the glory of God and the blessing of His people. This gives us in type what is proclaimed in the prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder … upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever".

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).

The title "He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open", is clearly a reference to Isaiah 22. There we have, under the figure of Shebna and Eliakim, the complete rejection of all that was offensive to God on the one hand, and the establishment of what would be to God's glory on the other. "Behold, Jehovah will hurl thee with the force of a mighty man, and will cover thee entirely. 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, shame of thy lord's house!" (Isa. 22:17-18). It would be difficult to find a more striking figure of rejection than this. But He also speaks of "my servant" who has the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and who opens and shuts so that no one can reverse what he does (Isa. 22:20-22). Christ sustains all the glory of the house of David. The Lord Jesus, as having died and risen from the dead, and having gone into heaven, has secured everything for God's glory.

347 "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true." Here in Philadelphia we have the Lord in His moral character, and not in the character of personal power as the Son of God, but as the "holy and the true," presenting Himself as a standard of judgment as to everything inconsistent with Himself, and suiting Himself in grace to the condition and need of His faithful ones, and by His truth giving a means of judgment, and security of heart and confidence to the saints. And we also find Him disposing of means in favour of the church, in such a way that, if He opens a door, none can shut it, or if He shuts a door, none can open it. Thus there are the two things: He is the holy and the true, to those who trust in Him; and He has also, not here indeed the display of power, but the key of power (as Jehovah said of Eliakim to Shebna in Isaiah 22:22: "The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open"). So that, where there is this weakness, He encourages the church to look to Himself as the holy and the true, and trust Him; and where there is this resting on His title to open and shut, and this trust in His Person, and conformity to His character, the church is perfectly secure, no matter what may happen. Let all the power of man or Satan do their worst, if I am resting in Christ, who is perfectly true, and He has opened a door, neither man nor devil can shut it.