(Written by Sheila
Gail Landgraf)
In Nehemiah's day, the beginning of all the building started in a spot that was deemed the most important place in the wall. The place was known as the wall around the Sheep Gate. This gate represents Jesus, our Good Shepherd.
This is the gate mentioned in John 5:2, the
gate beside the pool of Bethesda. It is the gate beside the pool
with five porches, which could easily stand for five types of
ministry.
This is the gate where the sheep were washed and
brought into the temple for sacrifice. Here we are washed of our sins,
just like the sheep in Nehemiah's day. The priest who offered up the sacrifices
were required to live in this area. They had to live next to The
Sheep Gate.
At the time of Nehemiah the High Priest's name was Eliashib. "El" means "God." "Yashib" means "to go back." Reading backwards as the Hebrews do - we can hear a message even in the name of the high priest who worked at this gate. The message says "go back to God" - or REPENT.
So it is recorded by Nehemiah that the wall around the Sheep Gate was built by one whose names meant "repent." This gate is the perfect Old Testament picture of the New Testament sacrifice of The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. This gate shows us the cross.
We are lead to think immediately of the prophet Isaiah's great words about Jesus, "as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." (Isa. 53:7). At the Sheep Gate of our lives there is a principle of death at work. It is the death of the natural self. It is the way we come to our own cross. We are called to obey Christ, to follow Him and to walk with Him. That means that some of our desires, some of our natural longings must be put to death. That is the principle of the cross. This is a gate that must be kept in repair if we want to grow into a strong Christian.
A gate is an opening. The cross symbolized by this Sheep Gate, is an opening to God. A beginning.
On each side of the Sheep gate the walls lead to two towers, one tower in each direction. The first tower is named "Meah." "Meah" means "Hundred." The second tower is called The Tower of Hananeel - which means - "God is gracious and merciful." "Hanan" means "gracious and merciful." "El" means "God." Reading backwards we have "God is gracious and merciful."
Reading the gate and the wall by the meaning of the names of the places in the wall we come to see an Old Testament message with a New Testament meaning: "The walls of Salvation built by one named "repentance" stands between two tall towers that say "God is gracious and merciful to hundreds."
In the Old Testament, in the story of Nehemiah, there is a gate of sacrifice in the middle of a wall of salvation called The Sheep Gate that opens the way to God for mankind. This beautiful picture that God has painted for those with eyes to see, just like a thousand other Old Testament pictures of Christ, brings us hope. It is a reason to hold on to our belief in God and to cling to our faith in all circumstances, even when we appear to be as broken as Nehemiah's walls.
