Ed. note:Let not the comparative length of this article cause the reader to pass over it. The
thoughts contained herein, leading up to, on page 16, "the immense importance of having things
right at the gate", are of timely value.

"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, running 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 1st 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."

(1) 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
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 tight,
nor memorial, in Jerusalem" (vs. 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 (vs. 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 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 did build 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 today, 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). (To be continued D.V.)

FRAGMENT
"The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." Psalm 87:2

"Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my
doors." Proverbs 8:34.

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:be thankful unto him, and
bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;’ and his truth endureth to all
generations." Psalm 100:4, 5.