The Two Ministers (Isaiah 22:15-25).
This passage is presumably intended to come under the general heading of the Burden of the Valley of Vision, indicating problems among the leadership as well as among the people. When a people are dishonest before God it is not long before their leaders become the same. So here two important ministers are dealt with, both of whom were failing in one way or another. They are seen as following the trend and as a corrupting influence in Judah as a result of their bad example. They are seen as two men who shared some of the responsibility for Judah's sinful attitudes. They illustrate all that is wrong with Judah. This demonstrates that underneath all Judah's problems lay the self-aggrandisement and disobedience and sinfulness of the people. It was their attitudes and behaviour that were at fault.
Analysis of Isaiah 22:15-25.
a Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, “Go, get yourself to this Vizier, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ‘What are you doing here, and whom have you here, that you have hewed yourself out here a sepulchre?' Hewing himself out a sepulchre on the height, cutting (graving) a habitation for himself in the rock.”
b Behold, Yahweh will hurl you away violently, O you great man, yes He will wrap you up closely (take firm hold of you). He will surely twist you and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there will be the chariots of your glory, you disgrace of your lord's house. “And I will thrust you from your office.” And He will pull you down from your high position (Isaiah 22:17-19).
c And it will come about in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle (Isaiah 22:20).
d And I will commit your authority into his hand. And he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah (Isaiah 22:20-21).
d And I will lay on his shoulder the key of the house of David, and he will open and none shall shut, and he will shut, and none shall open (Isaiah 22:22).
c And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he will be for a throne of glory to his father's house, and they will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons (Isaiah 22:23-24).
b “In that day,” says Yahweh of hosts, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way, and it will be hewn down, and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off” (Isaiah 22:25 a).
a “For Yahweh has spoken it” (Isaiah 22:25 b).
This is a passage of deliberate contrasts, but both parties fail in their own way. In ‘a' Yahweh has spoken against Shebna because he has used his office for personal aggrandisement. He has ‘hewn' out his own sepulchre in a prominent position to enhance himself in the people's eyes, and in the parallel Yahweh has spoken against Eliakim. In ‘b' Shebna will be hurled away and thrust from office, and in the parallel the nail that has been fastened in a sure place will give way and fall. In ‘c' Eliakim is called and is made strong, and in the parallel Eliakim is to be fastened securely and to prosper in office. In ‘d' Eliakim is to replace Shebna in his responsibilities and become father to the people, and in the parallel the key of the house of David will be laid on his shoulders so that he will be able to open and shut doors.