Isaiah 23 - The Only Peg That Holds

The fastest way to reveal what you worship is to watch what you cling to when things start to shake. We open with a hard question: who do we call honorable, and why are we so tempted to look to people, platforms, and systems as if they can save us? Isaiah’s answer is bracing. Salvation is not found in power, prestige, commerce, or even “being a good person.” True salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

From Isaiah 22, Pastor Carl walks us through the downfall of Shebna, a steward obsessed with his own name and permanence, and the rise of Eliakim, a servant-leader who carries authority for the good of others. Then a stunning Bible connection clicks into place: the “key of David” language in Isaiah is quoted in Revelation 3:7 and applied directly to Jesus, the One who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. That thread turns an ancient passage into a present-day mirror for how we lead, how we trust, and what we expect authority to do.

Next, Isaiah 23 shifts to Tyre, a global trade hub, and the message lands uncomfortably close to home. When Tyre falls, people mourn the economy more than God, exposing how money and commerce can become counterfeit security. The invitation is simple and searching: stop hanging your life on pegs that can be pulled from the wall, and cling to Jesus, the peg that never moves.

If this message challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more from Isaiah, and leave a review so others can find the show. What’s one “false peg” you’ve been tempted to trust lately?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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Who are the people and the nations that we lift up, that we call honorable? Most of them are in opposition to the things of the Lord. And the Lord, because he loves all mankind, has to wake up people to the truth of the reality that you're not going to find your salvation in people. You're not going to find your salvation in power, in prestige, in commerce.

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Pride. Some people enjoy looking up to others as their role models, hoping to walk in their footsteps to discover their own inner spirituality. Is being a good person with solid morals and ethics really enough? Can it ever be your ticket out of eternal damnation? In today's message, Pastor Carl shakes things up and reminds you that true salvation comes only through Jesus. It's a wake-up call you don't want to miss. The only way to eternal life in heaven is by embracing Jesus as your Savior. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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This fella actually made himself a tomb cut out of the limestone up on the hill in the same place where all the kings of Israel were buried. He wanted to make himself as one of the kings. He was just a servant. He was a steward of the house. And in doing so, he made a statement. He said, I'm never leaving Jerusalem. I am here forever. This is my place. I built this kingdom. I'm part of this kingdom. They might take the rest of the world, the city away, but not me. I'm here forever. Because he heard some of the prophecies of Isaiah. Isaiah says that Babylon would come and take over Jerusalem, and indeed it would. And verse 17 indeed the Lord will throw you away violently, O man, and will surely seize you. He's going to take you away. You think you have a place for you to be buried here? You will not be buried here. He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country. He'll take you like a piece of paper and crumple you up and throw you away to another land. There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots shall be the shame of your master's house. We can do the same thing with different motives. Are we serving God or are we serving ourselves? So I will drive you out of your office and from your position, he will pull you down. The Lord is going to pull you down. So that is the bad steward, Shebna. And in verse 20, we see a good steward that comes along. It shall be in that day that I will call my servant, that's a capital M. The Lord Himself is taking the other guy down, Shebna, and elevating Elochim to this position. I will call my servant Elochim, the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe, Shebna, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your responsibility into his hand, because you weren't faithful with it. All you were thinking about is yourself. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. He will actually look over and care and sacrificially provide for the people of Jerusalem and Judea. He won't be looking out for himself, he'll be looking out for others. And then he says, verse 22, this is a very interesting verse. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. Now the Lord promised that the line of David would that the kings on the throne in Jerusalem would be kings from the line of David. And yet he's talking a little bit different here to a servant of the king, Eliakim, who would have the keys. The authority would be laid on his shoulders. And we've seen that as a you know a picture of Joseph in in Egypt, right, with Pharaoh. And there are other examples of this too, where he was given the authority, and what he said went, and what he didn't say didn't went, right? Kind of like this. So he shall open and no one shall shut, and he shall shut and no one shall open. What he says goes. When he says no, no. When he says yes, yes. And does he do it to exercise powered authority over people? No. He does it because he's serving. He wants the best for his people. And we need to pray that the people in authority over us, from our mayor, from our sheriff, from the police, all the way up to the president, are truly seeking after the Lord in the decisions that they make. Are they making decisions and doing things based on the good of the nation and the people? Or are they doing it because they want to build up their own kingdom, their own prestige? Now this is very interesting. Have you heard this phrase before? So he shall open and no one shall shut, and he shall shut and no one shall open. As a student of God's word, do you recognize where this is? Maybe you just say, I've heard that before. I've heard prayers like that before, but I where is it? It might be a psalm, but uh, you didn't find it in the Psalms. You know where we found it? In the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 3, verse 7. Look at that. Revelation chapter 3, verse 7. It's a it's the section of Revelation where Jesus is talking to the seven churches. And this message is to the angel of the church of Philadelphia. Write this. These things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. This is Jesus speaking and revelating to John about things that are to come. This is a picture of Jesus declaring who he is. And he's quoting from Isaiah. So this adds another interesting twist to it. Not only is this guy, Eliakim, a faithful servant to Hezekiah, but he's a picture of Jesus. Okay, so we remember that uh in looking at prophecy, prophecy in the Greek mindset is you know, one prophecy given and it's fulfilled in one place. But the Hebrew thinking of prophecy, it's a pattern of things to come. So it happened here, and there are other instances where people are put into a position that, you know, and it should be said for all of us, that look and act like Jesus, where you are right now. God has put you there. Are you shining Jesus? Are you being a representative of Jesus? Or are you taking advantage of that position for your own benefit? So, anyway, going back to Eliakim, which you know, there isn't a whole lot in the Bible about this character, so that makes it even more interesting. In verse 23, it talks about uh him being a peg. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, and he will become a glorious throne to his father's house. They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the prosperity, uh, all the vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers. Apparently, back in that day they didn't have cupboards, they didn't have closets, but they had pegboards. Now, you guys and your your man cave, you know what a pegboard is, and you hang stuff on it, right? And you have it all put away. And this is the picture here. Eliakim would become that peg that people would rely on, that they'd hang on. He would hold up all the people of the nation. And the Lord is the same way. Uh He holds up his people for his purposes. Are we clinging to that peg? Are we holding on to that peg who is Jesus? Or are we holding on to pegs that uh will quickly fade away? And that's what uh 25 says, In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that is fastened with the first guy in the secure place will be removed and cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken. All those that uh put their hope and their trust in this first servant, Shebnah, what will happen to them? They'll all fall off the wall. And for us too, if we put our hope and our trust, if we're clinging to anything but Jesus, it's all gonna fall. It's all gonna be taken away, and we'll have nothing to cling to. The Lord is the only one we can fully cling to and have total confidence in. Because he's the peg that will never move, he's the peg that's there forever. And Eliakim is a picture of this peg. And that wraps up uh chapter 22. What an interesting chapter, huh? And that again, it's the chapter that is talking to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem, you know, in the midst of these other chapters that talk about the enemies of Israel and Judah, Jerusalem is in there too. Can that mean we can be our own enemy as well? May we cling to the peg. Jesus is the peg. Did you ever think of Jesus as being a peg? He's the peg that will never fall. He's the peg that we can hang on and be perfectly safe. Well, with that, let's go to chapter 23 and look very quickly at the burden against Tyre. Now, Tyre was an interesting town. When it was first built, it's a trading community. And uh in modern day, you would look at it on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, around the border between Israel and Lebanon. That would be Old Tyre. And at some point in their history, they became such a strong trading uh partner. Ships would come from all over the area and would buy and sell, that they built themselves a fortified city on an island about a half mile off the coast. That would be the new Tyre. And they were strong for about a thousand years in buying and selling. People all around benefited from it. You know, even if you know some of their business practices weren't very uh biblical, let's say. At least people would could get rich by working with tire. If I'm building something or if I'm making something, if I get tire involved, I can sell it and make a living, and I can be blessed. So this burden is against Tyre and its end. Wail, you ships of Tarshus, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor. From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. But still, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom these who cross the sea have filled, and the great waters on the grain of Shihar, and the harvest of the river is her revenue, and she is a marketplace for the nations, basically touching all these areas that uh Tyre did deals with. From Spain, that sort of area. They went from there all the way around the Mediterranean, all the way into Egypt as well, having deals in all these places. Tyre is gone now, and there's no more deals to be made. They're more upset by the fall of their economy, of their commerce system. They're more upset about that than their relationship with God. Verse 4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken. The strength of the sea, saying, I do not labor, nor bring forth children, nor do I weary young men, nor bring up virgins. Now Sidon was, I think, about 30 or 40 miles north of where Tyre was, and they're basically the same family. They're the same group. But when Tyre was gone, it destroyed Sidon. And there's no more of training people to be involved in this business. There's no more training people to be, you know, ship captains, to be dealers, to be able to continue this commerce. It would be over. When the report reaches Egypt, they will be in agony at the report of Tyre. Because they got richer because of being able to sell their goods to all these other places. And when the ships of Tarshish no longer go through Tyre, there's no more deal, and the whole world is falling apart. How important is the economy to us? It's important, but it can't be more important than what really matters. And that's our relationship with the Lord. Cross over to Tarshish, wail you inhabitants of the coastland. Skip by Tyre because it's nowhere to be found anymore. You go over to Tarshish, but the thing is, Tarshish is not going to be there anymore either. Wail you inhabitants of the coastland. This is your joyous city, whose antiquity is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to dwell. This city's been around forever. They've been in this business forever, it seemed like. Relying on the world's way of making money, world's way of dealing, the world's way of commerce. Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants and princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? Who in the world would come after Tyre? Why would you want to destroy this city when it destroys everybody else in its path? And chances are you too. Why would you want to destroy the economy when it'll take you and everybody else down? Well, the answer is it's not an individual, although, as we'll see, it God used an individual to accomplish this. But in verse 9 it says, the Lord of hosts has purposed it. Who are the people and the nations that we lift up that we call honorable? Most of them are in opposition to the things of the Lord. And the Lord, because he loves all mankind, has to wake up people to the truth of the reality that you're not going to find your salvation in people. You're not going to find your salvation in power, in prestige, in commerce. Pride. Pride is such a big thing. Look at what I've done. Look at what we've done. Who or what are we really relying on? Are we relying on the Lord? Are we relying on the systems of this world? Not to say the systems of the world cannot be used by the Lord to provide for us, they can. But when everything falls down, the only thing we have left is Jesus. Do we truly believe and trust Him to take care of us through the hardest of times? Verse 10 says, Overflow through your land like a river, O you daughter of Tarshish. There is no more strength. And commentators through the centuries have had a really hard time with that verse. What does it mean? It has to do with the river, the Nile River down in Egypt. That's the river that all of this commerce in Egypt was all focused around. But the the land is overflowing like the river, and the evil is overflowing, and yet the Lord's judgment is overflowing, and basically there's no more trading to be had. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms. The Lord has given a command against Canaan to destroy its households. And he said, You will rejoice no more, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Again, Sidon was in close relationship with Tyre. Sidon basically gave birth to Tyre. Arise and cross over to Cyprus, there also you will have no rest. Again, as Tyre goes down, all their trading partners are going down as well in this judgment from the Lord. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert. Now the Chaldeans come from where? They come from Babylon. And when Isaiah was making this prophecy, this was before Assyria had come and taken the north, Assyria was building up forces and power. But Babylon was just a little, just a podunk town, let alone a world power. In fact, uh it was part of the Assyrian Empire, and Assyria considered it a place for wild beasts. And it's interesting, we looked at it about Babylon, that it wouldn't be inhabited but by wild beasts. And that's the case of the city of Babylon today. Nobody wants to live there. It's all desolate. You just got a bunch of wild beasts living there. They set up its towers, they raised up its palaces, and brought it to ruin. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste. The strength of Tyre is being taken over by the Chaldeans from this little Podog town named Babylon. And the leader of this Babylon, which is no longer a little Podog town, it's becoming a vast empire. And this guy who would come and take over Tyre would be none other than, have you heard of Alexander the Great? And he had his armies make a passageway from the coast a half a mile out to the island of Tyre. I think it took them about three years, and they didn't have any dub trucks or anything, but they moved dirt and they made a road that their armies could go and take over Tyre. And that's exactly what happened. And again, that was somebody that the Lord would later bring judgment upon, but God used this man to bring judgment on Tyre. And now all the rest, the mighty ships of Tarshish, their powers laid to waste. Now in verse 15, it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king. About the time that a king would serve, that's about the time that Tyre would be out of business. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre, as in the song of the harlot. Take a harp, go out about the city, you forgotten harlot, make sweet melodies, sing many songs that you may be remembered. They would be out of the picture for about seventy years, but lo and behold, about seventy years later, they came back and they were singing the same old song, different people, new generation, but the same attitude. Come and we'll buy and sell together, we'll make great men. Money, and it'll benefit everybody. You just need to serve us and not your God. And it shall be at the end of seventy years that the Lord will deal with Tyre. Tyre, she will return to her hire and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. And her gain in verse 18, and her pay will be set apart for the Lord, and it will not be treasured or laid up for her gain, and it will be for those who dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for fine clothing. Now these last two verses kind of do this this prophetic thing again where it's it's a pattern. Um they would come back, they'd come back in strength, but this last part really hasn't happened yet. Uh Tyre did not become a place that benefited Israel, that fed Israel, that protected Israel. This is a picture of what's to come still. And I'll just leave you with this. There's an aspect of this that uh is very interesting. Who is called the king or the prince of Tyre? None other than Satan himself. So this idea of being the harlot, of bringing the nations together, of building up wealth and power and prestige, it's a satanic, it's a demonic thing when we totally ignore the Lord in the process. We can do this, we can build it up. Come and let's let's do this together. And yet in the end, Tyre will be a servant of the Lord. Tyre, everything that they've gained through the power of the enemy would be used for good to support the people of the Lord. In a kingdom set up by Jesus Himself and ruled by Jesus Himself for a thousand years. It's coming. It's coming. Are you ready for it?

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Thanks for listening to today's lesson from the book of Isaiah here on Come On Up. You're hearing from Pastor Carl at the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina. Now, the book of Isaiah ends with a section that prophesies a new heaven and a new earth, which will come to replace the world that we currently know as it passes away. All of the promises and prophecies that God has made through the prophet Isaiah will come to their ultimate conclusion in this new kingdom. Death and evil will be no more, and goodness and justice will flow like a river. When we look at the world around us right now, it seems like chaos has already won. We can see live images of war, inequality, and sadness in just a few clicks, and it can seem like things will never get better. But Isaiah reminds us to look past the chaos that is right in front of us and fix our eyes on God's promises. That's how we can stay afloat when everything around us feels like it's collapsing. Well, if you want to join a group of believers who are looking together towards the new kingdom, we'd love to invite you to join us here at the Mountain Cross. We meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. For more information, you can visit us online at themountaincross.com. There you will also find our How to Know God page, where you will learn more about how you can belong to the Kingdom of God. Thanks for joining us today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.