"His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob" (Ps. 87:1,2).
"Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem" (Ps. 122:2).
Read Neh. 3.
The wall of a city was for protection-to keep in, and to keep out; as the wall of a sheepfold was to keep in the sheep, and to keep out the enemies of the sheep.
The wall of Jerusalem went farther. Jerusalem was " a city set on a hill, which could not be hid "; it was an object-lesson for the nations, that they might learn how Jehovah governed His house.
He had in sovereign grace put His Name there, His sanctuary was there, and it was this which gave character to the city.
The sanctuary was the inside, the wall was the outside. The sanctuary spoke of what Jehovah was to the people; the wall spoke of what the people were for Jehovah before the world.
This is an important and far-reaching principle, Tunning throughout Scripture.
Abraham was a man of the altar and of the tent:the altar speaking of what God was to him, the tent
showing what he was to the world-a stranger in it:a stranger in the world because at home with God; hence a pilgrim, a tent-dweller, because he was going to his home.
The wall of Jerusalem was the practical expression of the prophecy, "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations " (Num. 23:9).
But what I wish to speak about more particularly is concerning the gates of Jerusalem named in Neh. 3. The gate is what might be called the executive part of the wall. The root from which the word comes means, "to separate," "to discriminate"; the gate of a city being the place where causes were heard and settled. It was at the gate of Bethlehem that Boaz had the cause of Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess legally settled.
There are ten gates named in this chapter, and ten is the number of man's responsibility, the full measure of it, both toward God and toward his fellow, as we may see by the ten commandments. The very idea of the wall is responsibility, the responsibility of those within to those without:so that the number of gates mentioned is in harmony with the fundamental idea of the wall.
There is a peculiarity about Nehemiah which must not be passed over:the people were not exactly building the wall, but repairing it. They were not setting up anything new, not contracting the walls to limits suited to the feeble strength of the little remnant just returned from Babylon:they were repairing the old wall. What they were building might not be of sufficient strength to resist battering-rams, or withstand a long siege, but it would mark where the old foundation stood; and, in general each man repaired before his own door. It is of immense moment to see that this city set on a hill is just a working model of the Church of God today:the Church, not as the Body of Christ as set forth in the epistle to the Ephesians, but as the house of God set up here on earth, as the first epistle to the Corinthians unfolds it to us:set up in the world, but fenced off from it, to be a testimony against it.
The same view-point is seen in i Tim. 3 :15- "The house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar -and ground of the truth."
(I) THE SHEEP-GATE
is the first to be repaired, and this seems very fitting:as a fold, it is first of all for sheep, God's sheep:that is fundamental. Isa. 53:6 would apply here with great force:"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way ":as also i Peter 2:25:"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
Very appropriately does Eliashib the high priest, the spiritual leader of God's people, arise, with his brethren the priests, and build this gate. Eliashib means, "God will restore," and suits the connection very well, and we might conclude that in all this we had a good beginning, were it not for the after-history. There are two omissions, however, which should be noted. In general, each man built before his own door. Eliashib did not; others did it for him, as we see from verses 20 and 21. Again, the locks and the bars of the sheep-gate are not mentioned-a serious omission, for of what use is a door, to shut out enemies, without a proper fastening ?
The word "gate" here seems to designate, not that which closed the opening in the wall, but the opening itself, while "the doors thereof" marked the means used for closing the opening. In each of the other gates which are said to have been repaired " the locks thereof and the bars thereof " are in their places, but here they are significantly omitted.
In chapter 13, where "the book of Moses" is being consulted, and the "mixed multitude" is being weeded out from Israel, we find the reason for this omission of bolts and bars. Eliashib had been tampering with the enemy. Tobiah was an Ammonite, one who was by law excluded from the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation, even forever (Deut. 23:3-6); and Tobiah was most prominent and persistent in his enmity toward the whole matter of repairing the wall. When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, and "Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved [him] exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel" (chap, 2:10).
When the returned remnant heard of the good hand of God upon Nehemiah, and concluded to build, " Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do ? will ye rebel against the king ? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build:but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem " (vers. 19, 20).
As the work went on, Sanballat was wroth, and mocked the Jews, and said, "What do these feeble Jews ? will they fortify themselves ? will they sacrifice ? will they make an end in a day ? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned ? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall" (chap. 4:2, 3).
As the wall was approaching completion, Sanballat and Tobiah, with their associates, "were very wroth, and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it" (chap. 4:7, 8).
'' When Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief" (chap. 6:1, 2).
Later on, these enemies wrote an open letter, charging Nehemiah with treason, and inviting him to take counsel with them (verses 4 to 9).
Still later, Tobiah and Sanballat hired a false prophet to deceive and entrap this faithful servant of God (vers. 12, 13). What a fearful responsibility attached to these men who set themselves so persistently to oppose this work of God!
Again and again we read, "When they heard" of what Nehemiah was doing. What if Eliashib had furnished the channel through which these enemies received their information ? It is far from improbable, for in chap. 13:4 we read, "And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chambers of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah:and he had prepared for him a great chamber. . . . And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me sore:therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah" (chap. 13:4-8).
In chap. 13:28 we learn that one of Eliashib's grandsons had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, and was chased away as having defiled the priesthood.
How awfully solemn is all this!-the spiritual leader of this little remnant, linked by marriage to Sanballat on the one hand, and allied to Tobiah, for whom he had provided a chamber set apart for holy uses in the house of God!
Is it any wonder that Eliashib omitted the locks and bars from the sheep-gate, or that some one else must needs repair before his house ? He was not the man to insist upon locks and bars when he had an Ammonite in a select place inside!
Who can tell how much of the hindrance to this work of repair was due to this man's double-mindedness, and lack of decision in the things of God!
The wall would be of no use without gates; the gates would do little good without doors; and these would be quite ineffectual without locks and bars. Inside that wall was what was of God-divine principles governed; outside was what was of the world:to leave one door unbarred was, in principle, to obliterate the wall, and to invite the ruin which had carried them to Babylon.
Can it be that Eliashib built the sheep-gate merely for the sake of maintaining a correct exterior before the people ?
Outwardly he was in full sympathy with this work of God, but at heart he was in league with the enemies of the truth. How different the spirit and temper of Nehemiah! "The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build:but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem " (chap. 2:20).
Applying this to the assembly of God to-day, we see the immense importance of having things right at the gate. Laxity there is sure to lead to confusion. The Lord has committed the keeping of the door to His assembly (Matt. 18:18), and that only should be received which is consistent with the character of the house. "Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God " (Rom. 15:7). We come now to
(2) THE FISH-GATE.
This the sons of Hassenaah built (chap. 3:3), "who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." Discrimination appears to be the leading thought in this gate. In Deut. 14:9 and 10 we see that certain fish are called clean, and others unclean. In Matt. 13, in the parable of the net, every kind is gathered into the net, but the good are gathered into vessels, while the bad are rejected. This takes place at the end of the age; but we are to be in the spirit of that even now. " Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ? Know ye not that we shall judge angels ? how much more things that pertain to this life ?" (i Cor. 6:2, 3 ) The present time is the opportunity for practice in these things, for learning to use "strong meat," becoming "those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5:14).
But fish as a symbol has another application which must not be passed over, and that is, ministry. Fish is often used in symbolic language to suggest ministry. (See Matt. 7:10.) Our Lord fed the multitude partly with fishes (Matt. 14:19; 15:36; cf. also 17:27). Even He Himself was so ministered to (Luke 24:42).
The fish-gate then most beautifully fills its numerical place as the second gate, the number two speaking of difference, hence of discrimination, as also of ministry, aid, help; the two thoughts being brought together in the verse just quoted from Heb. 5, vers. 12 to 14, placing those requiring milk, needing to be taught first principles, the unskillful in the word of righteousness, on the one hand; whilst the full grown, feeding upon strong meat, those who by reason of habit are able to distinguish both good and evil, are placed on the other.
What qualities are suggested as called into play by those who would " sit in the gate" here! Skill, patience, vigilance, tenderness in handling-all the qualities of a bishop, in fact. And '' the sons of Hassenaah built" this gate. Hassenaah means, " the thorn bush." Having the article, it is definite, and must refer to "the bush" of Ex. 3:2-6; cf. Acts 7:30-34. The thorn is the badge of God's curse because of man's sin. But here is a thorn-bush burning but not consumed because occupied by One
who has heard the cry of His people, and has come down to deliver them; and because of what He is, they are not consumed. "I am Jehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed " (Mal. 3:6).
"The thorn-bush," then, reminds us of what we were, of what He is (He must consume what will consume), and of what we are by His grace-deeply fundamental lessons; and it is eminently fitting that the sons of "the thorn-bush" should repair this gate. J. B. J.
(To be completed in our next number.)