Scripture Reading: Isa. 22:15, 20-24; Rev. 3:7
In this message we want to see what Christ is as the Steward in the house of God, typified by Eliakim. Eliakim is one of the most all-inclusive types of Christ. This type is seen in only five verses of Isaiah 22 — verses 20-24. Although this portion of the Word is short, it is very difficult to understand and interpret.
This type in these verses reveals six aspects of Christ. First, He is the Steward in God's house. Second, He is the Father as the Source and Supplier to the people of God. A father of a home is always the source of that family and the supplier. Third, Christ is typified as a key-holder. The Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the One who has the key of David in Revelation 3:7. He is the One who holds the key of the house of David. The house is the place where a person keeps all his precious things. The house which keeps the precious things is the treasury. Isaiah 39:2 records how Hezekiah showed the Babylonian visitors his treasury, which literally means "the house of his precious things" (see note 1 of verse 2 — Recovery Version). The house of David was a treasury. Hezekiah opened up this treasury to show the Babylonian visitors the riches of the house of David. Christ is the One who has the key to the house of David.
Fourth, Christ is seen as a peg, a nail, driven into a sure place. Zechariah 10:4 and Ezra 9:8 are other verses which refer to the peg, or the nail. Fifth, Christ is a throne of glory for His Father's house. Sixth, Christ is the One upon whom hangs all the glory of His Father's house. All the people of God's house are hanging on Him, and these people are likened to vessels.
We may say that whatever is in the New Testament concerning Christ was already referred to in the Old Testament. In principle, this is true. But we also need to realize that there are many details in the Old Testament that cannot be found in the New Testament. The New Testament does not tell us that Christ is a peg, a nail, and no New Testament verse tells us directly that Christ is the throne. The New Testament tells us that Christ is a slave, a servant of God, but it does not tell us directly that Christ is a steward. The New Testament says that we believers are stewards (1 Pet. 4:10), but it does not use the word steward in reference to Christ. A servant may not be a steward, but a steward is surely a servant.
In ancient times, a large family would have a steward to dispense the riches of the household to all of its members. The book of Genesis records that Joseph was such a steward of Pharaoh's house to distribute the riches of this house. Isaiah 22 speaks of Shebna as the steward over the king's house, the royal household, the royal family. All the treasures were in the king's house, and the key to this house was in his hand. Eventually, he was replaced by Eliakim, a type of Christ as the Steward in the house of God. The New Testament does not relate so many details concerning Christ. We need to see how rich the all-inclusive Christ is. He is not only the Steward and the Father but also the Key-holder and the peg. He is also a throne of glory and the One upon whom hangs all the glory of His Father's house.
Our fellowship in this message to point out the aspects of Christ in the type of Eliakim shows that we need the exposition and interpretation of the Bible. Without the proper exposition and interpretation of the Bible, we would not be able to understand it. Darby, Scofield, and Newberry all recognized that Eliakim was a real type of Christ. Today we are standing on the shoulders of the teachers of the Bible who have gone before us so that we can see and enter into more of the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.
Eliakim typifies Christ as the Steward in God's house (Isa. 22:15, 21a). Christ is the real steward of God's house, the divine household. God's household is the greatest house in the universe, including all the believers throughout the ages. In this vast divine household, Christ is the unique Steward. He takes care of God's household in every way to serve us.
His service is a kind of governing, or ruling. In His service there is the dominion, the administrative authority. When we are served by Christ, we are under His government. He governs us and rules over us, taking care of us. The more He takes care of us, the more we are under His authority, His administration. When I was initially saved, I did not consider Christ's ruling over me in His divine government. But the more I went on with the Lord and enjoyed Him, the more I was caught by Him. The more I enjoyed Him, the more I became governed by Him.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s in Elden Hall in Los Angeles, a number of hippies were saved and came into the church life. As they went on with the Lord and enjoyed the Lord, they were brought under the Lord's government. Gradually, as these young brothers were brought under the divine authority, they stopped wearing their headbands, they shaved their beards, and they put shoes and socks on their feet. Most young people want freedom. I was the same way as a young person, but I was saved by the Lord. The more I prayed to Him, the more I enjoyed Him, and the more I enjoyed Him, the more He restricted me. I was and still am experiencing His inward governing. While a steward serves the children of a certain family, he or she also governs them. Similarly, while Christ as the Steward serves us in God's house, He governs us. Christ is God's Steward taking care of God's children.
Isaiah 22:21b says that Eliakim, typifying Christ, will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Christ is a Father to us. As the Father, He is our Source and Supplier. The more we go on as children of God, the more we realize that our Savior, Christ, is our Source and our Supplier. Everything comes from Him. He supplies us and supports us physically, psychologically, and spiritually in every way. If we are short of understanding and wisdom, we should call on Him, look to Him, and wait on Him. Then He will be our understanding and wisdom. We should not be confident in our own understanding and wisdom concerning certain situations or people. We should look to Christ in everything so that He can be our understanding and wisdom. Today Christ is a Father as the Source and Supplier to support us in everything and in every way.
The all-inclusive Christ, as typified by Eliakim, is also the One upon whose shoulder the key of (the treasury of) the house of God (typified by the house of David for the building up of the kingdom of God) is set (Isa. 22:22; Rev. 3:7). The house of David was for the establishment of the kingdom of David, and the house of God is for the establishment of the kingdom of God. Second Samuel 7:16 indicates that David's house was for his kingdom. Today God's house is for God's kingdom. The church is God's house (1 Tim. 3:15), and the church is also the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17). The kingdom of God is not that evident today because the house of God has not been strongly and adequately built up. When the church as the house of God is adequately built up, the church is manifested as the kingdom of God.
Christ today holds the key of this house, this kingdom. Isaiah 22:22 says that Jehovah would set the key of the house of David upon Eliakim's shoulder. It does not say that Eliakim holds the key but that the key is set upon his shoulder. This expression indicates that this key is a great key. A small key is merely held by someone; it is not put upon his shoulder. The key that God has put on the shoulder of Christ is a great one. Such a big key indicates that the door which it opens is big and thick. Such a door would be a stronghold to protect and keep the treasures of the house of God.
The key is for the keeping of the treasures of the house of God. The treasures today in the house of God are all the riches of Christ. In the beginning of my ministry in the United States in 1962, I spoke mostly on the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. Later, I felt that I should go on in the ministry to open up the New Testament to the saints. Therefore, we began to have a life-study of the New Testament beginning in 1974. The subject was seemingly changed from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ to a book-by-book exposition of the New Testament. But many of us can testify that this exposition is full of the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.
Hymn #541 in Hymns is concerning the experience of Christ versus all things. It speaks of the things that replace Christ, such as the law of letters, philosophy, and religion. All these things are really "Shebnas" which replace Christ. According to Isaiah 22, Shebna was "fired" and replaced by Eliakim as the steward over the king's house. Darby said that Shebna typifies a false Christ. He should be removed and replaced by Christ. Christ should not be replaced by us. Instead, we should be replaced by Christ. All of us are "Shebnas" who should be removed and replaced by the real Eliakim. Christ, our Eliakim, should replace everything and everyone in God's economy. We should sing Hymn #541 with such a realization. This hymn says:
We should not allow anything or anyone, including ourselves, to replace Christ. We need to be replaced by Christ. He Himself must be everything in us and to us.
Christ has a big key to open the treasury of all His riches. When He opens the treasury, no one will shut. When He shuts the treasury, no one will open. Christ is the One who can open up to us all the riches of God embodied in Him. He can also shut the door to these riches. Sometimes we experience the door of the divine treasures being open to us to flood into us. But at other times we may do something to offend the Lord. Then we have the sensation that the door is shut and that the riches coming to us are stopped. His opening and His shutting are all for one thing — the enjoyment of His riches as the treasure.
I believe the direct application of Isaiah 22:22 is this — Christ has the key to control the door of God's treasury, in which are the riches of God in Christ for our enjoyment. We have experienced both His opening of these riches to us and His shutting up of these riches. When He shuts up these riches, we have the feeling of being dried up or inwardly deprived. Our experience indicates that Christ is the One who has the key to all of His riches.
Christ is the One whom God drives as a peg, or nail, into a sure place (Isa. 22:23a). In typology, the sure place typifies the third heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2b). Christ was raised up from the dead, and He was exalted to the third heaven where God is. Actually, to be exalted to the third heaven is to be exalted to God the Father because the Father is in the third heaven. In Luke 15:18 the Lord Jesus relates the story of the prodigal son saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." Against heaven equals before you (God the Father). Sinning against heaven is sinning before God because God the Father is in heaven (Matt. 6:9). Heaven, referring to the heavens, is the sure place where God the Father is.
Without the book of Isaiah, we would not know that when God exalted Christ, God drove Him as a peg into the place where He is, the heavens. Christ today is in the heavens as a peg driven into God. He is the peg upon which all of us hang. Sometimes when I was in a plane flying to another locality, the devil injected a thought into me that the plane in which I was flying would drop. My response to this thought was, "I am not actually in this plane; I am in Christ." In other words, I am not hanging on the plane; I am hanging on Christ. Christ is the peg on which I hang. The sisters may think that they are hanging on their husbands. They need to realize that their husbands are not good, trustworthy "hangers." The best hanger is Christ who has been driven into God in the heavenlies.
Christ as a peg will become a throne of glory for His Father's house (Isa. 22:23b). In Hebrew the word for glory here means both honor and glory. Christ is a throne of honor, a throne of glory. According to Isaiah 22:24 the glory is the children of God as the offspring and issue of God, and these children of God are the vessels of Christ, hanging upon Him as the peg. Christ being a throne of glory for His Father's house is the issue of His people, who are vessels, hanging upon Him as the peg in order to contain Him and minister Him to others. These people, the children of God, are the glory of Christ. With the glory there is a throne, and this throne is actually Christ Himself. The throne signifies the administrative authority and the kingdom. Christ in His administrative authority is the throne governing everything within the house of God.
Christ is the One upon whom hangs all the glory of His Father's house — the Father's offspring and issue (descendants), like all the smallest vessels, from the bowls to all the jars (Isa. 22:24). Glory refers to God's descendants, all of God's people. Children are the parents' glory. As the children of God, we are His offspring and issue. Offspring implies the second generation, and issue implies the later generations. Some reference books indicate that offspring is the word for shoot and issue is the word for growth. As the children of God, we are God's shooting out and also God's growth. The children of God as the offspring and the issue are glory in the house of God. In Isaiah 22:24 "the glory" is in apposition with "the offspring and the issue." Hence, they refer to the same thing.
Furthermore, "the offspring and the issue" is in apposition with "all the smallest vessels, from the bowls to all the jars." The glory refers to the children of God, and the children of God are the vessels. Today in God's house, on the one hand, we are God's children, and on the other hand, we are the vessels. The Hebrew word for bowls may also be translated cups, and the Hebrew word for jars refers to large, bulging bottles or pitchers. Some of the children of God are smaller, like cups, and others are bigger, like jars, bulging bottles, or pitchers. Whether we are small cups or bulging bottles, we are all vessels.
Cups, or bowls, are small vessels to contain water, and bulging bottles, pitchers, or jars are big vessels to contain wine. Water typifies the Spirit of Christ, and wine typifies the divine life. This signifies that in the house of God all His children are vessels to contain His Spirit as water to quench people's thirst and His life as wine to cheer people unto rejoicing. When we were saved, we received Christ as the living water. Then that water became wine to us. Every one of us should be filled with the divine water and the divine wine.
At times we are too silent in the meetings because we are not filled with the divine life. We should be "drunk" with the divine wine, the life of God. We need to be the bulging bottles full of God's life as the new wine. When we are "drunk" in this way, we cannot be silent. Furthermore, some of us are too depressed. When we are filled with the new wine, we will be happy and excited. We will be eager to hear the word of the ministry and to receive help from the ministry. The new wine, in a proper sense, will make us "crazy." When we are all "crazy" by being filled with the new wine, we will also enjoy the outpouring of the Spirit. We will be full of joy and rejoicing. We may even be so excited that we will jump before the Lord.
Instead of being filled with the divine wine to such an extent, we may merely be nice, polite, and regulated. To be nice, polite, and regulated in this way is to be dead. Instead of being living members of the Body of Christ, we may be "dead as a doornail." If we feel that we are dead, we need to drink the living water and drink the new wine. The living water will quench our thirst, and the new wine will cheer us unto rejoicing.
Isaiah 22:24 indicates that the vessels, which are for containing water and wine, are hanging upon Christ as the peg. This implies that in the house of God all the riches of the bountiful supply for the enjoyment of God's children are hanging on Christ as the peg, the holder. This implies too that in the house of God all His children who hang on the all-inclusive Christ and who are the containers of the riches of God in this Christ should also be the vessels for ministering Christ to others. As the vessels we are for containing the living water and the new wine for our enjoyment, and we are also for the ministry of the riches of Christ to others.
