Keys are the emblem of authority, privilege, power. With keys one can admit to, or exclude from, a house, or city, or treasures. In Isaiah 22:22, we have the story of the proud Sebua who had proved unfaithful. How God took the key of the house of David from him and gave it to Eliakim, signifying that this man was henceforth to be the intimate adviser of the King and admit to the royal chamber whom he wanted and excluded whom he wanted to keep out. In Revelation 3:7, our Lord has the key of David and receives and excludes whom He will to and from the Davidic Kingdom and the “sure mercies of David”.
To Peter, as the most prominent member of the Twelve, Christ gave the Keys of the Kingdom, Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:28; and in his Pentecostal address Peter opened wide the door for the whole Israel to enter into the Kingdom, while he used the key to keep Simon the sorcerer out and also Ananias and Saphira. Acts 5.
The key of knowledge had been stolen from the people by the lawyers. Luke 11:52. The figure used here is that of knowledge being a temple filled with great treasures into which the leaders should have led the people, but whose gate they shut, and kept the key with jealous care, even their commentaries rather hiding than revealing the knowledge of God’s will.
We cannot even enter into the treasures of the snow, Job 38:22, unless God unlocks His treasure to us. One scientist photographed 10,000 separate snow flakes, and he found that every one was different from the other, although each was mathematically symmetrical; and so the scientist had not found the treasures even of this one department of nature.
What shall we say then of God’s great treasure box “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Christ has also the keys of Hades and Death. Revelation 1:18. Hence death and the grave could not hold Him. He had the keys and could open the doors from the inside.” “What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord.” Let us worship Him with great joy and love!