Nehemiah Part 39. The Twelve Gates in Nehemiah

Nehemiah PArt 39. The Twelve Gates in Nehemiah.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sheep Gate – NEH 3:1,
The gate through which the sheep were brought into the city to be used at the altar.
This foreshadows the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

(2) Fish Gate – NEH 3:3; When ‘fish’ is mentioned in the scriptures, it points to two major principles; Fish are a provision of food for we all need to grow. Fish also symbolizes a people with a special calling who will be involved in feeding the hungry.

(3) Old Gate – NEH 3:6; ‘Old’ speaks of that which is past.
It also speaks of that which is solid and unchangeable like a foundation.

(4) Valley Gate – NEH 3:13; The Valley Gate would be at the low point in the terrain around the city. It speaks of where we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and learn in experience that Christ is OUR life and that He doesn’t wish to share His Throne with us.

It is also the place of growing … not much in the way of growth comes from the mountains.

There are the high places in our walk and testimony, and it takes two mountains to form a valley.

As Psalm 23 declares, the valley is something you walk through.

Do not stop and dwell in those dark situations but rejoice in the Light that produces the shadow. The ‘Old’ Testament acts as a sort of foundation to the New Testament provided that one does not try to literally reproduce
“The Old” in any form.

The fruit of the Spirit will be the evidence that you have been through the dealings of God in relation to this Gate.
GAL 5:22-25, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

(5) The Dung Gate ‘Dung’ is all that is left over from yesterday’s manna!

Old teachings have given up their nutrition and now need to be discarded.

When the Law starts to replace grace in your spiritual life, then the letter of the Law must go because it becomes dung and out it must go.

ROM 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
ROM 12:17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
ROM 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
ROM 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
ROM 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Push out all items away that do not produce life with those that do.

NEH 3:15, here is a member of the royal class willingly working in a filthy place where he could smell the stench from the valley of Hinnom below.

You have one official who willingly works near the garbage dump and another official who gets to work by the pool near the king’s flower gardens.

Some of the people were willing to work in more difficult places than others, without complaining.

“zealously” = charah comes from a word that means “to burn or to glow.”

Just because you work willingly at a task, does not necessarily mean you are working with a glow.
The name Baruch represents those who work – and smile while they are at it.

Some of the people who were able to work, would not.
Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters.

We are not told why, but we are informed by Nehemiah that there were some who refused to help.

The tasks related to ministry are filled with “ordinary” people with a zeal for the Savior.

1CO 1:27-28, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world 2.to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,

All the people who worked with their hands revealed the condition of their hearts.

Churches should be more like construction sites than palaces and winter resorts.

It may not be glamorous work, but it is a place where God is honored and the work is never done in vain.

1PE 4:10-11, As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

He reminds of Jesus who “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (PHI 2:7).

PHI 2:5-7, Keep on thinking this [doctrine] within yourselves which was also resident in Christ Jesus, who, although He preexisted in the essence of God, did not think equality with God a gain to be seized, but He deprived Himself of the proper function of deity when He had received the form of a servant and was born in the likeness of men.

Once as a demonstration of His loving and serving heart, TLJC washed His disciples’ smelly feet
(JOH 13:5). Sinful pride makes us want only the glorious jobs.

The Dung Gate spiritual meaning is that the OSN, which is smelling bad and destroys our heart and mind must be put away by the dying of the flesh.

God removes the rubbish from our lives is by bringing us into times of trial. God is not interested in what you do but how you do it and why you do it!

DEU 28:45-47, “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things;

It wasn’t because they did not serve God but because they didn’t serve him with joy and a glad heart.

2CO 9:6-7, Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Human limitation is a fact of life, a hard truth that makes life easier when we accept it.

“We’re all ordinary people,” said G. K. Chesterton, “and it’s the extraordinary people who know it.”

2Co4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

Unaided humanity is useless; “the flesh [human effort] counts for nothing”
(JOH 6:63).

JOH 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

2CO 13:4 For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we shall live with Him because of the power of God {directed} toward you.

“We are weak in Him,”
is not a cliché,
but a certainty.