Day 192: Luke 23:32-33

When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left (v. 33).

If you study the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus, you will find that they come in a dazzling variety of forms. In some places the predictions were clear. They obviously pointed to the coming Messiah. In other instances they were veiled. Join me now as we look at an absolutely fascinating passage—these words that apply so beautifully to Christ at this moment. In their immediate sense, they were written about Eliakim, the palace superintendent during the Assyrian invasion of Israel, but you can see their ultimate significance in terms of the cross of our Christ. In the passage God said,

“I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father” (Isa. 22:21–23).

Note how God said He would give His servant the key to the house of David, opening a door no one can shut. He said He would “drive him like a peg into a firm place.” As unfathomable as the process is to you and me, the cross was the means by which God chose to position Christ in the seat of honor for the house of His Father. The cross is the open door no man can shut.

Isaiah 22:23 says, “I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place” (kjv). The original word for “firm” in the NIV and “sure” in the KJV is aman: “in a transitive sense to make firm, to confirm . . . to stand firm; to be enduring; to trust.”

Nothing was accidental about the cross of Christ. The Son of God was not suddenly overcome by the wickedness of man and nailed to a cross. Quite the contrary, the cross was the means by which the Son of God overcame the wickedness of man. To secure the keys to the house of David and open the door of salvation to all who would enter, God drove His Son like a nail in a sure place. A firm place. An enduring place.

When God drove His Son like a nail in a firm place, He took the written code, finally fulfilled in His Son, and canceled our debt to it. With every pound of the hammer, God was nailing down redemption.