Let The Light Of Jesus Shine

Isaiah 22:12-25

I want to start off from a passage in our Wed. Night Bible Study. In this passage, Isaiah is revealing the captivity (burden) of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, ordained by God!

This burden came upon because of their trust in human intervention, rather than what God has told them. In other words instead of believing in God’s promise they would turn to earthly resources (other nations) for help instead of trusting God.

This is a common theme throughout these burdens of the nations in Isaiah, pride and haughtiness!

In these verses we read where God is calling His people to repentance and instead of repenting when they heard of Assyria coming they lived it up.......I said Wed. night that it was like being told you have a short time to live and you make out a bucket list instead of repenting and trusting in God! They did not care anything about God only themselves! Does that sound familiar?

This is devastating prophecy......Isaiah tells them that the Lord told him, that these people will not be forgiven for this! Their hearts were so callused they were not going to repent, therefore they were not going to be forgiven!

Now, we read in verse 15 about Shebna...........Shebna was a treasurer in King Hezekiah’s administration.......A servant in the king’s court............Isaiah highlighted Shebna as a prime example of the city’s self-oriented pride (Isa 22:8–11). Isaiah prophesied that Shebna would not receive an honorific burial, but would be taken into exile and shamefully disposed of there. His vacated office would be filled by Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.

Shebna said that there was no way he was going to be taken into captivity, that he will die in Jerusalem and made a sepulchre for himself........nothing for God mind you!

Verse 17 & 18 tells us that he will be carried away in captivity and destroyed eventually in another land!

Shebna’s glory will be shame!

There was another servant in the king’s court, Eliakim and it is said of Eliakim that the glory of the Lord will hang upon him!

Most commentators state that this is a reference to Christ.....because of verse 22 about the key of the house of David.....

Jesus refers to this in Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;”

So, this very well be a mention of the Messiah, but Eliakim actually lived and was a faithful servant and his faith in God/Jesus was the key and he believed it.

Eliakim did not trust in himself as Shebna did!

By his faith he was a peg/nail in a “sure place”

When they would pitch their houses, they would put a peg in the wall and pitch around, where it would harden in place.

They would then hang things on that peg.

Eliakim’s faith was the peg that the glory of the Father’s house would hang! That is a great responsibility!

I began to think about that and our lives as we live today...........I have heard commentators say that God needs us.....I am not sure that I believe that, He does not need us.......however, there are people that are depending on us to carry the banner of Jesus Christ!

They might not know that they are depending on us or what they even need, but it is true their lives are weighing in the balance and what are we doing?

Building sepulchres for ourselves? God tore Shebna’s down.

Eliakim is, therefore, inevitably a person on whom much depends. He has authority and responsibility for its proper exercise; people need his fatherly care, and the whole structure of the state needs him to hold it in place. Everything then depends on how he sees himself and how he allows others to see him. It is not just that leadership position can become pride of position, national welfare be replaced by family interest, public good by nourishing a crowd of ‘hangers-on’, but that the Lord as the object of trust can be replaced by a human object of trust.

There is some debate on whether verse 25 is talking about Eliakim or is going back to Shebna.......

Let’s just view it as anyone that does not have the Lord as the sure place in which to fix their lives!

That “peg” will be removed and cut down.........notice in verse 24 it mentions the things that the nail depends on....”the offspring” hanging on that nail......

Again, there are people depending on us to live out our faith.....our confession matching our confession!

This reveals the glory of the Lord, which is now Jesus Christ!

Turn with me to Matthew 5:13-16........You have heard the great sermon from our Lord........He calls for us to be that peg in a sure place........

Because of Jesus Christ and through the power of Jesus Christ we are salt and light in the world!

Salt has numerous uses and I believe Jesus is meaning the use of salt as a preservative and for taste.....

Has lost its taste presents us with a bit of a problem, for sodium chloride does not lose its taste. But the salt in use in first-century Palestine was very impure and it was quite possible for the sodium chloride to be leached out, so that what remained lacked “saltness,” and specifically the salty taste. This remainder was literally useless; what could possibly be done with it? Jesus asks, with what will it be salted? It was not possible to put salt back into it. Jesus says of this residual mass: “it has power for nothing”; its force was given it by its saltiness; lacking that it had no power. Its fate accordingly was to be thrown out and trampled, testimony to its uselessness.

It is the same idea as what we read about Shebna and Eliakim.........If the most severe understanding of today’s message is that people are depending on us to reveal the Glory of God through Jesus Christ!

How do we do that? It is by our living! Jesus gives out the testimony of what righteousness is in the Beatitudes! This is how we are that salt.......we have flavor and we are also the enemy of decay.......

A preservative....Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

This is what we carry around in us..........The wages of sin, Shebna’s sin was his confidence in himself, no dependence on God!

Death is all that can be said about Shebna......

We have this faith, this belief, this is our life.......show it, live it!

You can’t hide this, live it out.....allow God to live in your life through Jesus Christ.....stop being afraid of loving your enemies, stop being afraid of forgiving those who have trespassed against you, stop being stubborn and quit depending on yourself and others and trust every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!

The Glory of the Lord will hang on that peg and there will be people depending on that peg to be there!

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

What happens when folks see that..........Our Father which is in Heaven will be glorified!

Jesus told His Father in John 17:4 “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Jesus also tells the disciples in John 15:8 “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

Let the light of Christ shine in your life...........Yes I know, this life is not a life that the flesh desires and it is definitely not a life that the world accepts but it is the only life!

One last time turn with me to 1 Peter 4:12-14......

The fiery trial that comes upon you....you would think that all the attributes of God lived out by faith in Jesus Christ would be a good thing for the world....well the world system rejects the life of Christ!

So don’t think it strange when people hate you because of your light shining in the world.....

Rejoice because it is effective, as it was with Christ’s life and sufferings

Paul said in Galatians 6:17 “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Because of Christ many of the apostles suffered severe physical sufferings!

Peter tells us and them to rejoice, that whenever Jesus returns, you will be glad with great joy!

If you are insulted or physically abused for being a representative of everything that Jesus Christ is and for the public proclamation of Jesus Christ’s Person and Work, happy are you..........Why?

God Glory rests upon you.....you are not only revealing the Glory of God through Jesus Christ, it is also the Glory of God that strengthens you during that time!

I can read several accounts of men and women going to be burned at the stake, where there is nothing but exceeding joy that proceeds out of their mouths....that can be nothing but the presence of our Glorious Father!

Ok, so we are called to let the Light of Jesus Christ shine.....we are the peg in the Sure Place (Jesus).......the world system, the flesh hates that Light.........The apostles and many other Christians has lost their place or standing in this world by naming the Name of Jesus and declaring His Good News........however, many are depending on those “pegs” to declare the Glory of The Father (Jesus Christ)..........No matter the cost let the Light of Jesus shine in your hearts, it is promised to us that if we do that Light will never be hidden no matter what it looks like on earth!