Open Door

Jesus has the key of David to open and shut (Revelation 3:8). He puts an “open door” before the angel of Philadelphia. 

Which way is the angel to go: In or out? 

The passage is typically understood with reference to mission. The angel is pictured on the inside of some enclosed space, and Jesus opens a door so He can go out. No one can shut the door and keep him in.  The imagery would be similar to that of Acts 14:27, where Paul returns from his missionary trip to Antioch with the glad news that God “had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” The picture seems to be this: The Gentiles are hiding in their strongholds, but God pushes His way in so that Paul can proclaim the gospel to them. Behind this would be the history of David himself, whose keys Jesus bears: Not even the Jebusites of Jerusalem can keep David out (2 Samuel 5:6-10), much less the Philistines and the Ammonites (2 Samuel 12:26-31).

If that is the imagery, what is the angel “inside”? What is the “outside” to which the door leads? Both is unspecified. That doesn’t mean that the open door is not an image of extended mission, but a few other details of the text suggest that there is, at least, another angle to this.

“Keys of David” refer in the first instance to Isaiah 22, where a steward of David’s household is replaced by another. In that passage, the doorkeeper opens the doors primarily to permit entrance. In Revelation 3, Jesus would be saying that the church of Philadelphia will have unshuttable open doors so that people can flock in, anticipating the always-open gates of the new Jerusalem, through which kings bring their treasures (cf. 3:12 and 21:25-26). The angel is pictured as being in the palace of David, and Jesus, the steward of the house, admitting people to audience.

That fits with the sequel in Revelation 3:9: “I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews . . . I will make them come and bow down at your feet.” Jesus will keep the door open so that the Jews will be able to pay homage to the angel of Philadelphia, positioned as “David.” He does, after all, already wear a crown (3:11).

But there is yet another layer here. Most of the references to doors in the Old Testament are to the doors of the sanctuary, to which access was restricted. The church in Philadelphia, though, will be a new kind of temple, one with an open-d0or policy. But if the inside is the inside of the temple, then the angel of the church is in the position of Yahweh – inside, looking out, with Jews entering to pay homage. He already seems to be sitting where Jesus promises the overcomers of Laodicea will sit, “on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (3:21).