How’s your vision? Or, maybe the question is what are you looking at?

The people are rebuked for not looking to God. They didn’t “see Him who planned it long ago.”

They are doing their own plans. They are fortifying walls and making pools, but they aren’t looking to the one who planned the city in the first place.

Do you? Do you go on with your plans without consulting the Planner?

And when God does give an order, they go on with their own plans and desires.

God tells them they should mourn, but they have a glad feast. They say, “Let us eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die.”

That’s when they should have been mourning, humbling themselves. God’s desire is to show mercy. Turn from your sin, humble yourself, and seek mercy. Never say, “Oh well!”

In this chapter we read about the appointment of Eliakim as head of Hezekiah’s household.

This house steward has the key of the house of David placed on his shoulder, meaning he’s been given the responsibility for the house of David, the king’s household.

Then it says, “He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”

That’s a line describing his authority. What he says goes, and no one will be able to stand against his authority and decisions. This verse is referenced in Revelation 3 in the letters to the churches.

To the church in Philadelphia are given “the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” He says that he has “set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.”

They have been given access to the kingdom. It won’t be taken from them. No one can separate them from the love of God. No one can shut the door. They will have to enter through the door, which Jesus tells us is Himself, but the door is open to them. No one gets to say otherwise.