084. "The Key Will I Lay Upon His Shoulder"

"The Key Will I Lay Upon His Shoulder"

(Isaiah 22:22) "The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder."

It is quite the custom in the Orient for people to carry their key on their shoulder. The handle is made of brass or silver, or wood, and often very elaborately carved. The corner of the handkerchief is tied to the ring, and the key is then placed on the shoulder, and the handkerchief hangs down in front. Sometimes you will see men with a huge bunch of these large keys, then they will have half on one side of the shoulder and half on the other side. For a man to be marching along with a large key on his shoulder shows that he is certainly a person of importance. "Whose key have you on your shoulder?" he would be asked. The key of the house of King David was to be on the shoulder of Eliakim.

There are still many buildings in Palestine which have enormous locks, with keys of course in proportion. Many of them are a real load to carry. The locks are made so that no false key could fit them, and they become more complicated in proportion to the number and position of the wards into which the metal drops are required to fall.

These huge locks are found on the inside of doors of gardens and outer courts, and inner rooms too. The only way the owner can unlock them is to cut a hole in the door, put his arm through the hole, and insert the key. Many of the garden doors are locked this way today. in the Song of Solomon the bride says, "My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door," that he might enter.