Our youngest son is named Eliakim (raised up by God in Hebrew), an Old Testament character we’ve probably all overlooked (2 Kings 18, Isaiah 36). Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, palace administrator of Hezekiah. For this human kingdom he was the one who held the “keys to the house of David” and “what he opens no one can shut and what he shuts no one can open” A man of integrity, he was referred to as a peg driven into a firm place. Yet even he was steadfast and followed God, as a man he was unable to hold the weight of the rest of the Israelites sin. (Isaiah 22:20-25)
There is one who came though that is The Door that can withhold the weight of that sin.
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
John 12:9
These are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open (Revelation 3:7).
Eliakim was an earthly palace administrator, but Jesus is the true chief of the household, a position that had the highest authority within a Kingdom. He came as Son of the Father and with all the authority of the Father and they keys to His Kingdom. He opened the door of His Kingdom for us and ushers us in. The caveat is this, the doorway is narrow.
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door. Then you will stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up for us!’ He will answer you, ‘I don’t know you or where you’re from”
Luke 13:24-25 (Matthew 7:13-14)
The way has been unlocked and we can boldly walk through the door and into Jesus’s Kingdom, but there has never been a promise that it is easy to enter. As we saw earlier in John 6:66, the teaching of Jesus is hard to follow. When we go to walk through the doorway, He asks that we accept Him as Messiah, no longer to we live as if we are King. Our old life remains on the porch and we put on new life in the entryway of our new house.
Christ opened the door for us to be reconciled to God. After we receive that message, He called us to be ambassadors for His message (2 Corinthians 5:20). In His sovereignty, He can open any doors for us, including in our ministry for Him. I enjoy reading the Acts of the Apostles and the ways God led them and the doors He opened for their ministry. It wasn’t always where they thought they’d go or to whom they were planning (Acts 21:1-14) That is what makes in the narrow door after all. It’s about going through when God calls you, trusting in His wisdom and setting down all that the world tells you is true. Our own best thoughts and wisdom are far below His, trusting Him is like going through door after door as He opens the next one for you (1 Corinthians 2)
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
Colossians 4:3
On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts 14:27
He opens, He shuts, He’s sovereign overall. He’s opened the door to the Kingdom to us and He’ll open the door for us to witness to His glory. That’s always been my prayer over our youngest, that like his namesake, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, that he could be a firm peg – firm is Christ and spending his life opening the door for others. And I pray that we each do the same, that we follow Jesus through the door to the pasture and hold it open for others behind us.