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GLEANING FROM THE GATES Nehemiah 3:1-32 This chapter records for us the account of the children of Judah that returned from the Babylonian captivity with Nehemiah and helped to rebuild the wall and the gates around Jerusalem. Since Paul tells us that these things were written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), and even for our admonition (I Cor. 10:11), I thought we’d spend a little time today studying the various gates in this wall and their significance for you and I. You know, the Bible says a great deal about gates. Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” (Mat. 7:13) We read in Revelation chapter twenty-one that New Jerusalem has twelve gates bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Psalm 87:2 says “The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” David says in Psalm 118:19, “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD.” Well, in a sense, that’s what I hope to do today. I’d like to open these gates one by one, take a closer look at them, and, hopefully, encourage you to revisit them regularly in your Christian journey. Now, here in Nehemiah chapter three God’s people are desirous of rebuilding and repairing the wall around Jerusalem. But it would be useless to rebuild a wall and not rebuild the gates in the wall, so both are being done. What’s interesting is the fact that each gate contains some spiritual truth for you and I. There are actually ten gates mentioned here, and then a couple more are mentioned in chapters eight and twelve. Also, with the size of the city and the wall constantly changing, the number and names of the gates change throughout history. So, to cut down on confusion, we’ll stick with the twelve mentioned in the book of Nehemiah. I. THE SHEEP GATE “Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.” (Neh. 3:1) It’s not without design that this account begins with the sheep gate, because this represents the very beginning of the Christian life. We were as sheep that had gone astray (Isa. 53:6), but Jesus the “good shepherd” gave his life for the sheep (John 10:11). In fact, Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8), which takes us all the way back to Genesis 3:21 when God killed an innocent animal (or animals) in order to provide acceptable coverings for Adam and Eve’s nakedness. The sheep gate was the gate that the sheep were brought through for sacrifice, and it is the only gate that is said to be “sanctified.” This is quite fitting—that the sheep gate be sanctified—because Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” That “one offering” was the “Lamb of God” that taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and every Christian life begins with him—with the Lamb of God. Jesus is likened unto a sheep, like us, because he became a man, like us, and laid down his sinless life as a sacrifice for our sins. He is likened unto a shepherd because he cares for the sheep, leads them, and even dies for them. In fact, he is called the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the Great Shepherd (Heb. 13:20), and the Chief Shepherd (I Peter 5:4), representing his offices of prophet, priest, and king, and you’ll find this emphasis well laid out in Psalm 22, 23, and 24, where the past, present, and future ministry of Christ is foretold. So, clearly, the sheep gate is not without significance. Now, get this. Nehemiah 3:1 says, “even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.” The word “Meah” means “an hundred,” and the word “Hananeel” means “God has graciously given”! Well, how about that? Did Jesus not say that a good shepherd who has an hundred sheep (Luke 15:4) would leave ninety and nine of them just to find the one that is lost? And did he not say that the good shepherd “giveth” his life for the sheep? Ah, yes, the Sheep Gate speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “straight gate” (Mat. 7:13-14) and the “door of the sheep” (John 10:7) that all must enter, if they are to be sanctified and know eternal life. II. THE FISH GATE Verse three says, “But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.” Now, the fish gate shouldn’t be too hard to grasp. This is where the fishermen would bring their fish to sell after catching them in the Sea of Galilee or even in the Mediterranean. The fish gate is located near the sheep gate because every Christian has the responsibility of being a fisherman and catching other people for Jesus Christ. One of the first things that Jesus said after starting his public ministry was, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mat. 4:19). Rather than use the artificial “bait” of the world, the best bait we can use is the word of God. After all, if a sinner is to be born again, he must be born again by the word of God (I Pet. 1:23). So the best thing we can do for lost people is give them the word of God repeatedly and pray for them. If you invite someone to church services, then you are fishing. If you support missions, then you are fishing. If you witness to someone verbally, then you are fishing. If you hand out a gospel tract, display a scripture magnet or sticker on your vehicle, or if you wear a scripture t-shirt, then you are fishing for Jesus Christ, and that’s a responsibility that we all have. Before we move on to the next gate, please notice a little thing in verse five: “And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.” That’s an interesting way to put it. There are always some people who just will not stick their necks out for the Lord. They have made comfortable little nests for themselves, and they aren’t going to do anything that might challenge their lifestyles in any way. Listen, we need to be like Priscilla and Aquila who “laid down their own necks” for the apostle Paul (Rom. 16:4). If not, souls will suffer in hell, we’ll be fruitless as Christians, and the true soldiers of the cross will put us to shame in the day of judgment. III. THE OLD GATE “Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.” (vs. 6) Now we come to the Old Gate. The Old Gate reminds us that every Christian should have a special place in his heart for old things, things that the devil hasn’t tampered with and changed. We are told in Proverbs 24:21, “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change.” Hope and change is the devil’s business, not the Lord’s. In fact, one of the marks of the coming antichrist is that he we will think to change times and laws (Dan. 7:25). The true believer who has come through the sheep gate and the fish gate understands the value of the time-tested old ways of God. Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” The old way of God is the good way, it says, but they said, “We will not walk therein.” Why not? Because that’s for the old fogies who are all out-of-touch with the new age in which we live, or at least that’s what they think. Instead of bearing the old rugged cross, this modern crowd says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” (Rev. 3:17) They think they have need of nothing, yet they have need of the old rugged cross, the old King James Bible, and the old-time religion of Paul, Peter, John, and men like Billy Sunday, Charles Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, George Whitfield, and Shubal Stearns. God blessed their labors, and he can bless ours too, if we can get our minds off of new things (Acts 17:21) and get back to the old gate where we belong. As Isaiah 58:12 says, we need to be restoring the old paths and breaches, not looking for new ones. Let’s always cherish the Old Gate. IV. THE VALLEY GATE “The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.” (Verse 13) The next gate on our journey is the valley gate. Just beyond the Valley Gate lay a long and deep valley, later named the Tyropean Valley (Valley of the Cheesemakers) by the Jewish historian Josephus. It reminds us of the many valleys that we must go through as believers. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psa. 23:4) The Lord doesn’t allow us to escape the valleys, but he does promise to go through them with us. “Thou art with me,” David said. In fact, the Lord is called the “lily of the valleys” in Song of Solomon 2:1, unlike the wording in most hymnals that titles the song “Lily of the Valley” (singular). You will go through many valleys along life’s journey, so the Lord promises to be there with you in each one. To emphasize this, the Lord records for us a neat little story in I Kings chapter twenty. The Syrians had just suffered a great defeat to Israel, so they started making excuses for the loss by saying, “Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” (I Kgs. 20:23) Then God sent a prophet to the king of Israel saying, “. . . Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” So they fought again and Israel whipped them again, killing another hundred thousand soldiers (vs. 29), and twenty-seven thousand more died when a wall fell on them (vs. 30). So the moral of that story is obvious: God is God all the time. He’s the God of the valleys as well as the God of the mountains, so let’s not be afraid to go through the Valley Gate and bear our burdens. It’ll make us wiser and stronger, and we’ll become more equipped to help others. V. THE DUNG GATE Verse fourteen speaks of another gate, the Dung Gate: “But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.” This is believed to be where most of the city’s garbage and waste was carried—through the dung gate and on down past the Tyropean Valley into the Valley of Hinnom. It was in this area that a garbage pit called “Gehennom” or “Gehenna” burned day and night, a picture of hell. In fact, “Gehenna” is a Greek word for hell. The lesson here is obvious: God wants us to keep the dung out of our lives. God says something instructive about dung in I Kings 14:10. He says, “Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.” That’s what we need to be doing with the dung in our lives: making regular trips through the dung gate and hauling all the waste and garbage from our lives—till it be all gone. You know, if you have a major surgery, they won’t even release you to go home until you’ve made a successful trip to the restroom. That’s how important it is to remove waste from your body. Well, it’s even more important to remove waste from your Christian life. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Just as we make regular trips to the restroom, we need to make regular trips through the Dung Gate and keep the waste out of our lives. VI. THE FOUNTAIN GATE But it’s not enough that the Christian merely keep unclean stuff out of his life. The Bible says that we must be filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Rom. 8:14). So right past the Dung Gate we come to the Fountain Gate. Nehemiah 3:15 says, “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.” This gate was near the pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man in John chapter nine. The water here was fresh spring water that flowed through Hezekiah’s tunnel into the Old City. Because of this the water here was commonly called “living water,” and this is probably what Jesus alluded to in John 7:38 when he said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” We are told what he meant by this in verse 39: “(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” So the Fountain Gate typifies the need that we have for the filling and the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, a fresh supply of spiritual water for our thirsty souls.That’s why Proverbs 25:25 says, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” The good news is the gospel, and it came from the far country of heaven. But it should never stop. Like a fresh water fountain, it should flow through us regularly and cause our cups to run over and touch the lives of those around us.Notice also that the “king’s garden” was supplied by this fresh water. That’s what we are, plantings in the King’s garden! (Hence: John 20:15!) Let us always feel right at home near the Fountain Gate. May we always be well watered as we grow and produce fruit for his glory. VII. THE WATER GATE The Water Gate appears in verse twenty-six: “Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out.” Now, we could say that this Water Gate represents the same as the Fountain Gate, but I think that would be a mistake. A fountain is a source of water, representing the Holy Spirit that is like “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14) But the Water Gate seems to have a different association. We read in Nehemiah 8:1-8 that it was at the Water Gate that the people gathered to hear Ezra the scribe read the word of God. In fact, the Water Gate is mentioned three times in that chapter, yet only once here in chapter three. Since Ephesians 5:26 speaks about the “washing of water by the word,” I think we can be safe in saying that the Water Gate can picture the word of God that provides us with regular cleansing. Yes, we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus when we confess sin, but what brings the sin to our attention? The word of God does. When we read it or gather to hear it preached and taught, God shows us things about ourselves that need to be repented of. Jesus said, in John 15:3, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” Psalm 119:9 says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” So the word of God is like the laver at the tabernacle that the priests used for regular washing. It’s like the bathtub in your home that you use for regular washing. The Fountain Gate is like the water you drink in your kitchen, typifying the Spirit of God, and the Water Gate is like the water you wash with in the bathroom, typifying the word of God. This truth is further enforced by the fact that this gate did not need any repair: the word of God is perfect and needs no improvement. VIII. THE HORSE GATE The next gate is the Horse Gate, mentioned in Nehemiah 3:28: “From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house.” Being near the king’s palace (2 Chronicles 23:15), this is where the king’s horses came in and out of Jerusalem. There were likely some troops stationed near the king’s palace, and this is the gate that they would go through when going to war. A horse is known for his strength and power. Even in this modern day of engines and technology when horses are of little use, their mark on history is preserved in the common term “horsepower.” So horses in the Bible speak of strength and power. Job 39:19 says, “Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?” Revelation 6:4 and 6:8 speak of the horses of the apocalypse going forth with power, in fact, power to kill. This should remind us that we are soldiers of the Lord in a great battle, and we must “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” (Eph. 6:10) None of us should ride the “high horse,” but we should all ride the war horse as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. IX. THE EAST GATE Then verse twenty-nine tells us of the East Gate: “After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate.” The East Gate was near the temple and faced the Mount of Olives. It is believed that Jesus entered through this gate when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The East Gate is sealed shut today, as a fulfillment of Ezekiel 44:1-2, but some believe Jesus will enter through this gate when he returns since it faces the Mount of Olives and since Zechariah 14:4 says, “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, . . .” Matthew 24:27 also speaks of Jesus coming from the east. So the East Gate should remind us that the Lord is coming and that we should love his appearing and be ready for him (II Tim. 4:8). X. THE MIPHKAD GATE Verse 31 says, “After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner.” The word “Miphkad” means “appointment” or “judgment.” So, when Jesus returns, we will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. I find it interesting that Malchiah the goldsmith’s son was working at this location. We are told in I Corinthians 3:12 that the best rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ will be like gold. So, as we approach the end of our Christian journey on this earth and the Judgment Seat of Christ draws nearer, let’s go for the gold and get the best reward for our labors. XI. THE EPHRAIM GATE Now, I didn’t mention this gate earlier because it isn’t mentioned in Nehemiah chapter three. But it is mentioned in Nehemiah chapter eight: “So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.” (Neh. 8:16) The Gate of Ephraim was actually located near the Old Gate and could have been the fourth gate in our study, but the Lord didn’t mention it until chapter eight, so we’ll honor his word and leave it at that. Maybe God’s reason for not mentioning the Gate of Ephraim until later is found in the meaning of the name. “Ephraim” means “double fruitfulness,” or as we learn from Joseph in Genesis 41:52, “And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” We are in a strange land of affliction, yet God can cause us to be fruitful if we’ll remain faithful to his word. So the Ephraim Gate is not mentioned in Nehemiah until we reach chapter eight, the only chapter that mentions the “book of the law” three times. Friend, as we approach the Lord’s return, do you want to be found fruitful? Then stay in the book! Let us not give heed to the worldly gimmicks and philosophies that are taking so many believers into apostasy. Let us remain faithful to God’s word that we’ll “neither be barren nor unfruitful” (II Pet. 1:8). XII. THE PRISON GATE Finally, chapter twelve mentions the Prison Gate: “And from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood still in the prison gate.” (12:39) Some believe the Prison Gate is the same as the Miphkad Gate. Whether it is or not, I’m not sure, but the word “prison” sure doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? If nothing else, this gate can stand as a reminder that we all deserved the eternal prison of hell. Just as the Bible closes by making reference to the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:15), our journey through the gates of Jerusalem closes by reminding us of what Jesus saved us from, the eternal prison of the universe. So, the next time you read the book of Nehemiah, please slow down and “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”