There are so many parallels to be drawn between the state of Jerusalem at the time Nehemiah was called to restore it and to the present day state of the church.    The people are not generally living in joy and peace and more often then we would hope, many would define their lives from a perspective of struggle and challenge.     Nehemiah was called to help Jerusalem to rebuild and to restore it to God’s plan.     There is much we can learn from the book of Nehemiah as we rededicate our lives and commit to restoring the walls and gates and Temple to the glorious, impenetrable state the Lord intended.

I will be doing a series on these three elements:  Restoring the wall/hedge around our lives.   Replacing the gates that have been burned down, and rededicating and purifying the Temple.

Let’s start with the gates.  What purpose does a gate in a fortified city serve?   The gate keeps the unwanted elements out and allows the wanted elements in.  Even if the walls are completely intact, a fortified city remains constantly vulnerable to attack if there are no “doors” to shut in the gates.   The verse below tells us that Jerusalem was vulnerable because her gates were burned and her walls broken down.   Therefore a two part repair process was essential.

Nehemiah 1:2-11 King James Version (KJV)

^“2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.  ³ And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.   ⁴ And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,  ⁵ And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:  ⁶ Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.  ⁷ We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.  ⁸ Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:  ⁹ But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.  ¹⁰ Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.  ¹¹ O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.”

 

Scripture admonishes us to guard our hears above all things.   What are the gates that allow things into our hearts?

Proverbs 4 KJV “²⁰ My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.  ²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.  ²² For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. ²³ Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

 

Matthew 6:22 King James Version (KJV)

²² The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

 

Psalm 1:1 King James Version (KJV)“1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

 

The two main gates to our hearts are our eyes and ears.    But our senses in general are the way that are minds/hearts gather information from the world.     We are called to be gatekeepers.   Once we realize that our bodies are actually now the Holy of Holies, litertally the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, how seriously should we be taking our role as the gatekeepers who decide what to let in and what to deny.

2 Kings 23:3-5 King James Version (KJV)  “3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.   4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.  5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.”

Josiah, a powerful type and shadow for us to consider while seeking to understand what it takes to truly repent and be restored to the Kingdom of God, ordered the gatekeepers to clean house as soon as he discovered that the Temple was desecrated and profaned by the forbidden.

1 Corinthians 14:20 AMP “Brothers and sisters, do not be children [immature, childlike] in your thinking; be infants in [matters of] evil [completely innocent and inexperienced], but in your minds be mature [adults].”

Habakkuk 1:13 King James Version (KJV) “13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?”

Matthew 6:33 King James Version (KJV) “33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

1 Chronicles 16:11 King James Version (KJV) “11 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.”

Everything related to the Kingdom of God hangs on us dwelling in His Presence, or more accurate, Him dwelling in us.   Habakkuk tells us that God is too pure to look on sin.   If we read about the Old Testament descriptions of the Temple, we will quickly discovered the sacredness and holiness of the place.  We can be so thankful that we are no longer called to the complex ceremonies and precision that was required to even enter into His presence.   That said, we must not lose track of maintaining reverential fear of the Lord at any time.   God is Holy and has not changed at all.

1 Corinthians 3:15-17 King James Version (KJV) “15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.  16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

It is therefore absolutely essential for us to take up our role as “the keepers of the door”.  What does this involve practically speaking.    Two main things:

First, making sure the gates are doing what they are meant to.   Keeping out all of the things that would allow darkness, evil and the things of darkness into the citadel.  The enemy within is a far greater threat than the enemy without.

Matthew 15:19 King James Version (KJV) “19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”

Mark 7:20-23 King James Version (KJV) “20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.  21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,  22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

We can easily deceive ourselves into believing that we can “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and not be affected…    What we listen to and see and experience through our senses impacts the state of our hearts immensely.    A gatekeeper does not have control over what tries to get in, a gatekeeper does have control over what he opens the gate to.   If we are walking down the road and our eyes chance upon something we know we ought not to see, then we can avert our gaze.  We are firmly closing the gate.   If we are on the internet and there are certain ads popping up when we are on certain sites, we can choose immediately to stop using the offending sites.  If we are having a conversation with someone who starts to grumble, complain or talk about anything that does not belong in our heart, we can gently interrupt and choose to change the topic or leave the conversation altogether if necessary to guard our heart.     If our tongue tempts us to gluttony via the enticing things calling out to it, we can cry out to God for the fruit of His Spirit, self-control and use it as a training ground to crucify our flesh and guard our heart from being controlled by the appetites of the flesh.

The second part, which is equally as important for those of us like Josiah who are discovering God’s Word once the enemy has already taken up residence within the walls, is to remove the defiling items.   This is the beginning of the process of taking back the land little by little.   We cannot do everything in one day.   So we start small and let God direct our paths daily.   It might start with something relatively simple like praying about some of the most obvious offenders.   Both the radio, tv, cable, and newspapers etc are all windows through which things can readily creep into our hearts.

Exodus 23:29-30 King James Version (KJV)

²⁹ I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.  ³⁰ By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.”

Which takes us right back to the beginning when God commanded us to have dominion and subdue the earth…

Genesis 1:27-29 King James Version (KJV) “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Practically speaking, cleaning our homes and our hearts is what naturally follows…   We can ask ourselves, what objects, pastimes, other elements of our life are encouraging us to use our time, energy and resources for things that are unfruitful to the Kingdom and/or the things that scripture forbids us from taking part in.   He is so faithful to show us if we seek what He says in His Word and then purge whatever He calls us to purge.  I could make a list of things that we have purged or are in the process of purging but I truly believe He will walk you through your own journey with Him at a pace you can handle and all the while motivating you at a heart level to do it because of your own convictions and not due to the convictions of another.

Every year the Lord reveals to us new things that have started creeping in or old things we never even thought about.  As a wonderful side bonus, this ongoing purge is simplifying my life across the board which means more rest, less clutter and an increasing sense of calm and serenity as there are less things competing for my time and thoughts.

 

I love meditating on what it must have been like in Eden.  No clothes to fuss with, no houses to maintain, no stuff to own (or to own you), no dishes, no “what’s for dinner” and no endless bills to pay.

God never ever asks us to give up something without having an even better something in mind to give us in return.

Blessings as you pray about it, seek Him, and consider what it might mean in your own life to rebuild your own gates for His Kingdom and glory.

As always, be Berean and abundantly blessed in the Lord.