Harry Martinez, a resident of Albany, is a retired minister who served a nondenominational congregation in Florida. His weekly column appears in several South Georgia newspapers.

In many homes, near an entrance door, a coat rack will be mounted on the wall having decorative pegs to hang articles of clothing. Though generally secure and strong enough to hold a heavy coat, eventually they can become loose or weak and must be repaired.

However, in ancient times, pegs or spikes were not mounted on walls but rather embedded in the soft mortar between the stones of the building. They served a two-fold purpose; that of reenforcing the wall and as an object on which to hang items. In the homes of wealthy individuals, gold and silver drinking vessels, valued ornaments, war implements and ornate clothing were hung throughout the house to display their memorabilia and opulent life style.

Scripture references nails or pegs in several ways. Probably the first thought that comes to mind are the nails used to crucify Christ. Driven into His hands and feet, they secured the humanity of Christ to the Cross. God the Son had become flesh that He might pay the penalty of sin for each individual in human history. His Work would provide anyone relationship with God, simply receiving by faith what Christ did on their behalf.

You will recall that Thomas was absent from the gathering when Jesus showed Himself resurrected from the dead. “The other disciples therefore were saying to him [Thomas], “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25 NASB). For eight days, Thomas needlessly grieved over the death of the Savior, failing to remember the words of Jesus … “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40 NKJV).

The Old Testament references two pegs in the Book of Isaiah. The prophet speaks of a secure peg firmly embedded in the wall and another one, though appearing secure, to be broken. The prophecy contrasts two individuals but has a common time period noted as “in that day.” As with many prophecies, there is an immediate fulfillment and a more distant one. The secure peg is Eliakim, analogous to Christ, and the one destined to fall is Shebna, symbolizing the antichrist. Of Eliakim the prophet said … “I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so, he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, and he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house” (Isa 22:21-23 NKJV).

Isaiah concludes his prophecy with a pronouncement of judgment that seems to contradict what he had just stated. “In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the LORD has spoken’” (Isa 22:25 NKJV). However, be assured; there is no contradiction in God’s Word. The prophet had previously described an impending judgment on Shebna. “Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “Go, proceed to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say: ‘What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have hewn a sepulcher here, as he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, who carves a tomb for himself in a rock? Indeed, the LORD will throw you away violently, O mighty man, and will surely seize you” (Isa 22:15-19 NKJV).

Eliakim and Shebna represent contrasting pegs regarding man’s eternal destiny. Choose the secure peg; choose Christ!