The Gates of Jerusalem

Lamentation 2.9

Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars He has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD.

Certainly the second part of this verse is the more severe and serious spiritual issue. The two go together in some  ways however. As long as the gates of Jerusalem stood the law was able to be observed, the prophets could speak and the king was on his throne. With the gates being broken down and covered in the dust and rubble, the city was no more. No more prophets, priests of kings,  just rubble and ruin.

Psalm 87:1-2 He has founded his city on the holy mountain. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. 

Her gates were very special.

1. The Importance of Gates.

Entrance to the cities. 

one of the Hebrew meanings of the word gate is "to split open".

They opened the way into the city in the day time.

Protection from the enemy.

They were the most vulnerable part of the wall of a city. The attacking army would often try to get through them.

To posses the gate was to possess the city.

Genesis 22:17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 

Lookouts were posted on the gates to see the enemy approaching from afar.

The time of attacks were usually during the watches of the night.

Place of commerce

A further meaning of the word gate in Hebrew is "to calculate"

Rooms were provided for merchants. 

Buying and selling took place there. Weights, etc. to measure out grains, etc.

Place of meeting

Another Hebrew meaning of the word gate is "to reason out".

The shade provided by the high walls made it a good place for meetings.

The gate was also a place of public speaking with the listeners  sitting on stone benches. It was the place where local justice was dispensed.

Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the assembly at the gate he has nothing to say.

Proverbs 24.7

2. The Meaning of the Gates.

Deep History

Names tell the story

Let's look at four of the gates which were part and still are a part of the Old City of Jerusalem. By Old we mean the walled city.

The Sheep Gate

Nehemiah 3: 1 And Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests. And they built the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it and set up its doors. Even to the Tower of Meah they sanctified it, to the Tower of Hananeel.

It was through the Sheep Gate that the lambs were brought for the temple sacrifices. They were brought here and taken to the Pool of Bethesda where they were washed and examined.

The Golden Gate

Also called the Gate Called Beautiful or the Eastern Gate.

It was though this gate that Jesus rode on Palm Sunday. Bible scholars believe it is the gate through which He will ride through again after He returns to earth.

Acts 3:1-2 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 

This was the only gate that went directly into the Temple left. It has been walled up by the Muslims to still Messianic Hopes. It ill be opened again.

Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. 

The Damascus Gate

This is the gate that if you follow the road you will go to Damascus. It was also the gate through which Jesus carried the cross to Golgotha.

No doubt the Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus went out that gate on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians and met Jesus on the way!

The Dung Gate

This is the gate out of which the refuse of the city is carried.

Paul, the apostle words are very interesting:

Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 

3. The Spiritual Blessing of the Gates

Psalm 122:1-4 I rejoiced with those who said to me,“Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up—the tribes of the LORD—to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel. 

Psalm 147:12-14 Extol the LORD, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion. He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. 

Yet the gates of Jerusalem in 586 were all destroyed, brought down. The horror of what Jeremiah saw and wrote about is really nearly unimaginable.

On September 11, 2001 two very large towers came down in what was the first capital of or nation and the financial capital of the world. It represented the commerce America did with the world. The World Trade Center Twin Towers. Then the building that represents our military was struck and severely damaged. There was great loss of life. The greatest in civilian death in our history. It was symbolic spiritually as well. those who launched the attack were from the same area of Israel's and Judah's enemies in 586 BC. 

What gates are being broken down in America by the Enemy of Our Souls?

*The family

*Marriage

*Purity

* Economic and Financial Solvency

*Proper Talk We have become a profane nation. God's name is profaned.

*Respect

Why do we worry about Ebola when the very foundations upon which this country were built are being destroyed?

Psalm 11:3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” 

4. The Gates of Hell.

Where decisions were made for the city.

The gates of hell may prevail against America but never against the Church of Jesus Christ!

The places where the Devil lays plans to destroy the church. The places where he meet with his demons, etc. All the calculating will not overcome it.

Proverbs 21.30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.

We are in the Ark of Safety. We are in Christ Jesus. As Jesus said:

John 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. 

5. The gates of the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 21.25

These gates have no doors. They are never shut.

No night there.

No fear of any attack.

No enemy.

No danger. 

no sin.

The Gates of Jerusalem were destroyed in Judgement from God. Jesus died outside the city gate to make His people holy through his own blood. He is preparing a place for us, the New Jerusalem which will come out of heaven one day, like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Our names are written down in heaven. We are citizens of the New Jerusalem. 

Revelation 21.12-14

It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Revelation 21.22-27

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.