The Keys of the Kingdom.

This note was written on Fri 22Nov13

Matthew 16: 16 KJV
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

What the Lord Jesus said in reply to Simon Peter in Matthew 16: 17 - 19

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

In verse, 17, the Hebrew word for peter or rock is "eben" sounding somewhat similar to the Malay word "ubin" for tile (a type of rock, if you like). Also the Hebrew for build is "ebeneh", again similar to the Malay word "bina", to build. Thus, if one were to this verse in Hebrew, a kind of rhyme or parallelism between eben and ebeneh would appear i.e.

"Thou art eben, and upon this eben I will ebeneh my assembly, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it . . ."

If we try saying it in Malay, it would be similarly poetic:

"Engkaulah ubin, di atas ubin inilah aku akan bina jemaah ku . . ."

Further on in verse 18, we read that our Lord gave the "keys" of the Kingdom to Peter, such that Peter would have the authority to govern the assembly that the Lord would build. It wasn't an absolute conferment of absolute power, but rather a delegation of agency, for Peter to act as an agent on behalf of his Lord. For the Lord Jesus was later described in Revelations 3:7 as the one " 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;"

This delegation of authority to govern God's people can be seen in the Old Testament example of Eliakim (also known as Azariah) son of Hilkiah, who was described as "over the household" of King Hezekiah.

Isaiah 22:22 (concerning Eliakim ben Hilkiah)
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder;
so he shall open, and none shall shut;
and he shall shut, and none shall open.

A commentary on the symbolic meaning of laying a key upon one's shoulder is given in

http://understanding-ministries.co.uk/eliakim-a-type-of-the-lord-jesus-christ.html

"The reference is either (according to some) to the keys of the temple or, more likely, the keys to the king’s treasury; Jewish Targums imply both meanings. Officials holding keys often had them hanging down on sashes from the shoulder as a mark of their office in both Jewish and Greek cultures, as some magistrates do today. However, a literal key may not be implied, being figuratively spoken as the power of office. The one with the key makes the decisions; he opens the door for new officers and shuts out those who are rejected, he controls the treasury and allows admission to the palace. It suggests high political authority.

The shoulder is symbolic of human power or strength and the one carrying the key is hereby symbolically declared as being strong enough to carry out the tasks required. Access (the power of the keys) rested with him. For Eliakim this responsibility meant control over the kings chambers and resources, and also the decision as to who was responsible in the king’s service."