PEN ART - THE REFLECTIONS OF CHRIST IN NEHEMIAH - PART THREE

(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, The Sheep 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.  The first step to building up the walls in the body of Christ is salvation.  Salvation is obtained here at The Sheep Gate.  This is where salvation begins by opening the door where The Good Shepherd stands waiting on His sheep.   Here we are washed of our sins, just like the sheep in Nehemiah's day.   Jesus hears us, invites us, receives us and takes us and washes us clean. 

 The priest who offered up the sacrifices were required to live in this area.  They had to live next to The Sheep Gate.  They were there to minister to the people who came seeking salvation.   One priest was designated as the High Priest.

 

 In the days 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 The Sheep 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.

Here at The Sheep Gate 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.  Our old self must die and be buried under the water of The Sheep Gate.  That is the principle of the cross.  This is the example that Jesus gave for us as He too died and was buried.  He rose on the third day!

This Sheep Gate in our lives is a gate that must be kept in repair if we want to grow into a strong Christian.  We must die to ourselves and rise to live in Christ.  It is the gate where we leave behind the old man and put on the new man.  Like the sheep in the days of Nehemiah when they came to the pool, we go down in the water with our old sinful lives, dirty and unclean and we come out of the pool clean and made new.

 A gate is an opening.  The cross symbolized by this Sheep Gate, is an opening to God.  A beginning.  A beginning is an entrance to something completely new.  God makes all things new!

 On each side of the Sheep gate in the Holy City of Jerusalem 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 as the Hebrews do, we have a message revealed in the walls around the Sheep Gate:  "God is gracious and merciful."

 Reading the gate and the wall by the meanings 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 is beautiful picture that God has painted and hid within the walls of The Holy City for those with eyes to see. 

It is just like a thousand other Old Testament pictures of Christ that 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 down as Nehemiah's walls.