The Book of Nehemiah Series #4
THE JERUSALEM GATES # 2
The Gates of Spiritual Progression - Part 2
By Pastor Jim May
Last week we began a study of the gates of Jerusalem that Nehemiah and the Israelites rebuilt under the direction of King Artaxerxes (Cyrus) of Persia. God had sent judgment upon Israel for its idolatry and proclaimed that for 70 years Israel would be enslaved to a foreign power. Now those 70 years of captivity for Israel were coming to an end. God’s punishment had been accomplished and Nehemiah was commissioned to rebuild Jerusalem.
Nehemiah and his small band of workers began the task of rebuilding the city walls by building the Sheep Gate. We noted that this gate was the way into the city for the sacrificial lambs that were bound for the temple. In a spiritual sense we learned that this represents our entrance into the family of God through the spiritual “Sheep Gate”, Jesus Christ our Lord as the sacrificial lamb, slain from the foundation of the world for the remission of our sins.
After the Sheep Gate they rebuilt the “Fish Gate”, the “Old Gate”, and the “Valley Gate”. Finally, last week we finished our study at the “Dung Gate”.
Each one of these gates have a great significance in our lives.
The Fish Gate representing the fact that we are made fishers of men.
The Old Gate reminding us that we are to stay in the paths of holiness and righteousness and not be pulled aside with every wind of doctrine.
The Valley Gate reminds us that we are often sent into the valley experiences of life where we must face trials and tests so God can test our faith and prove our commitment to him.
The Dung Gate is where we are forced to cast aside the weights that so easily beset us in our service to the Lord and where we are force to allow the power of the Holy Ghost to burn away every sin so that we can begin to turn around and become victorious in our walk with the Lord.
This is where we will begin this week.
Looking at the layout of the gates on the screen, you can’t help but notice that after we have finally laid aside the things of this world and we begin to move on that we will come to a sharp corner in the wall. Until this time we have been building southward. Each section of the wall and each gate that was rebuilt were symbols of how we must correct and reconstruct our relationship with God through the means that he has provided for us to approach him.
We have just rebuilt the Dung Gate and we have turned the corner. What lies ahead? What do the gates of Jerusalem still have to say to each of us? Let us continue to build the wall of separation and protection along with Nehemiah and rebuild the gates so that we may discover some great truths that are hidden in this story.
Nehemiah 3:15-31
As you will notice in the picture of the outline of the city of Jerusalem, once we have completed the work needed at the Dung Gate, then the walls of the city make a sharp turn northward. What does that sharp turn represent to you and I?
When you have had the garbage washed from your life and every little weight and sin that so easily besets you is burned away then you can really start to live a victorious life.
Some people take a long time to get past the Dung Gate. They love to hang on to the things of the world too long. They aren’t ready to forsake all to follow Jesus. Until that day comes, when we finally surrender our will to His completely, we must continue to go back and forth from the Valley Gate to Dung Gate, time and time again, until we are finally cleansed and we forsake our old life of sin.
Once that has been accomplished, then we are finally ready to begin our life in Christ and to take steps of faith toward that heavenly Jerusalem and a closer walk with God.
Nehemiah continued to build the wall until we came to the next gate. One brick at a time; one stone at a time; lay the stone upon the foundation, add the mortar to hold it in place and then keep on keeping on until the work is done and we can move on to the next section.
Isaiah 28:10-11, "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people."
One day at time, one step at a time, and one prayer at a time – little by little we build a strong wall of separation from the world and get one step closer to Jesus.
The next gate that Nehemiah rebuilt was the Fountain Gate
Nehemiah 3:15, "But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king’s garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David."
The Fountain Gate appeared to be the gate that was in the worst condition. It was so bad that the ruins of that gate actually blocked Nehemiah’s journey when he made a secret reconnaissance of the city walls during the night. When he got to the Fountain Gate he had to turn back because he could go no further until it was repaired.
Many historians believe that the Fountain Gate must have been at the very center of the concentrated attack during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army. The great significance to this tradition is that it is the “True Fountain of Living Water”, the Lord Jesus Christ that bore the full brunt of the attack of all the powers of Hell.
I could not find a picture of the Fountain Gate and perhaps that’s symbolic in itself.
Isaiah 53:1-4 says, concerning Jesus, the Messiah, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."
There are a number of places of importance mentioned in the Bible that are associated with the Fountain Gate. Some of these places could only be reached by passing through this gate.
·The King’s Pool - Pool of Siloam where Jesus told the blind man to wash and receive his sight
·The King’s Garden
·Steps to Zion, God’s Holy Hill
·Tomb of David
The Fountain Gate got its name from the fact that it was the primary access to the Fountain located at the Gihon Spring.
This spring was Jerusalem’s only really reliable source of water. In times of drought, the Gihon Spring would still flow freely. This fountain represents the source of life, God Himself (Psalm 36:9; Isaiah 8:6).
Before Israel had been led off into captivity, Jeremiah had prophesied:
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" Jeremiah 2:13.
Israel had committed many sins before God’s judgment began to fall but of all the sins that brought them down, these two sins were singled out by God as the most severe. These two sins remain the most severe in the Church too:
Forsaking the spring of living water – leaving Jesus to chase after the things of the world believing that things have the power to make us fulfilled.
Building broken cisterns – we build ourselves great empires, well-planned lives, and provisions for retirement, but we forsake the things that really matter for eternity.
A cistern was like a well, built into the ground, but had no independent source of water. Water was brought from another source to the cistern, through different types of conduits, such as ditches, pipes or aqueducts. The Lord likens those who trust in their own resources to those who build broken cisterns - their lives leak joy, peace, faith and strength. The conduits that connect them to the source of life, Jesus Christ, have been broken, cut off and destroyed.
Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well when he said in John 4:10-14, "… If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Jesus mentioned his identity as the only source of living water again in John 7:37-38, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
That’s what we find at the Fountain Gate! At the Fountain Gate we find that True and Living Water, and the fruitfulness of our lives that comes from Jesus in us.
If you will look with me at Revelation 22:17, you will find that when Jesus comes for His bride, she will be found drinking from the fountain at the Fountain Gate.
Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
The Fountain Gate represents our building of a strong relationship with Jesus. Drinking of that Living Water means that we are continually drinking of his mercy, his grace, his love and his salvation power. We are ever seeking and needing more and there is never enough to last for long without coming back for more,
Since this water of life was unending and Jerusalem could last a lot longer with good clean water, Nebuchadnezzar’s army centered its attack upon the Fountain Gate.
The devil knows that your source of life is that Fountain Gate of living water that you drink from when you stay in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and that’s where Satan will always center his attack in your life. He will attempt to destroy your relationship with Jesus Christ and cut off that living water.
The devil knows that if he can get you to stop your prayer life, quit reading and studying the Word, and get you away from the church, your Christian friends and the preaching of the Word, then he will be successful in conquering you.
You will notice from the picture that the Fountain Gate is located very close to the Dung Gate. In other words, after a Valley Gate experience where rubbish in our lives is cleared out and true faith comes forth, then the fountains begin to flow and it doesn’t take long until you are under attack again.
Thank God that Jesus is a never-ending fountain of living water. He is an ever-present help in time of trouble. It is at the Fountain Gate where we see the Holy Ghost come in to endue us with power to live for Jesus and to accomplish his will within us.
The old hymn says it this way:
There is a fountain filled with blood, flowing from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath its floods lose all their guilt and shame. Thank God for the Fountain Gate and it’s life giving, cleansing power.
Now let us continue going northward, rebuilding the wall of the city, for protection and strength against any enemy. We must continue to walk humbly and prayerfully before the Lord.
After rebuilding the Fountain Gate, Nehemiah moved on to the Water Gate.
Nehemiah 3:26, "Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out."
Reading that same verse from the Amplified Bible we read, “And the servants of the priests dwelling on Ophel (the hill south of the temple) repaired to opposite the Water Gate on the east and on the projecting tower.
In Scripture, water often represents the Word of God. And the word of God was closely associated with the Water Gate. In our study of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness we will see that the Laver, filled with clear water, shining like a mirror, is also associated with this Water Gate. Only the temple servants, or priests, living on the hill of Ophel (Mt Zion) were ordained to repair the Water Gate.
Looking ahead with me for a moment at Nehemiah Chapter 8. In Chapter 8 we can read where the Water Gate was going to be the site where Israel would once again come together to hear the Word of God being read to them.
Nehemiah 8:1-4, "And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose…"
The date recorded for the commencement of this reading was the first day of the seventh month, which was the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets.
Three things happened during this time:
·The Book was opened
·The people were instructed
·The Word was made clear
Most of the people had not heard the Scriptures before because they had been away in captivity for 70 years and so there were four principal reactions to the Word:
1.Worship
2.Weeping
3.Rejoicing
4.Obedience
The spiritual meaning of the Water Gate is this. As God’s Word is opened and we act in obedience to that Word, we will finally begin to grasp in our heart what God is saying to us and we can’t help but cry out for forgiveness, rejoice in praise for God’s great promises, worship God for his great love and mercy and then do everything in our power to obey his commandments.
It’s not just a coincidence that we have passed through the Fountain Gate to reach the Water Gate. Once we have drunk of the water of life freely, the natural course of action is to desire to be more like Jesus, the source of life. And where do we find out about Jesus? We learn more of Him by reading and obeying his Word.
As we read it and learn it, the Word of God begins to cleanse us and lead us into a sanctified and holy lifestyle that is right for the Bride of Christ to follow after so that we may remain pure and holy before the Lord.
Ephesians 5:25-27 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
Next week we will continue to build. The work of rebuilding is progressing and Nehemiah is getting nearer to the end of his task. But there are still some more gates to build before the walls are complete.
