Hanging a picture is more complicated than it looks—especially if the picture you want to hang is in a large or heavy frame.
You need a nail of adequate length and strength. And you need to pound that nail into something substantial enough to bear the weight of the frame. In short, what you need is a strong nail in a firm place.
Anything less than that, and the best you can hope for is a frame that hangs crooked. At worst, your frame will succumb to gravity and shatter on the floor—and quite possibly, it will pull the nail out of the wall and take a chunk of drywall with it, leaving an unsightly hole instead of a pretty picture!
Isaiah prophesied at a time when the people of Israel had hung their hopes on the nail of their nationality, their religious heritage, and their human leaders rather than on the person and promises of God.
A man named Shebna ambitiously climbed to power, and some viewed him as a nail in a sure place, but they were wrong.
God, in His grace, raised up a leader named Eliakim to replace Shebna. God drove Eliakim “into a firm place” of power so that everything could hang off him. But Eliakim’s position was only temporary.
Today many Bible teachers and scholars see Eliakim as a type of Christ, meaning his life foreshadowed a greater nail still to come. After all, only Jesus truly fulfills the ultimate description of a “peg” or nail in a “firm place.”
Forgiveness, salvation, new life, right standing with God—it all hangs on Christ. We will one day enjoy the eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17) because Christ bore the awful weight of our sins on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).
We can pin our hopes to many things—financial assets, good looks, membership in the right clubs, and career accomplishments. But none of those things are strong enough to hold us forever. Only Jesus is the nail in a firm place.
Your regrets and failures, your hopes and dreams—you can hang it all, good and bad, on Christ. He will never let you fall.
Where do you tend to hang your hopes?
