Tweens to Teens Real Girl Christian Talk
The Gates in Nehemiah Meaning
In this episode, Coach Mel discusses the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem, the burning of the gates, and the meaning behind each gate.
1). Valley Gate means humility and service to the Lord.
2). The Refuse Gate/Dung Gate represents repentance and cleansing.
3). Sheep Gate represents the hope that Jesus offers
4). Fish Gate which means evangelism/spreading the gospel
5). Old Gate which represents the importance of traditions and foundations.
6). Water gate represents the word of God and spiritual cleaning
7.) Horse Gate represents spiritual warfare
8). East Gate represents the Expectation of Christ's return
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- Duration:
- 8m
- Broadcast on:
- 10 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
Hello and welcome to Tweens, two teens, real girl Christian talk. I am your coach Mel and I'm so happy you're here, if you have any questions you can email me at fosteringtheinterchild@gmail.com. So on this episode I'm actually going to talk about what's called the gates and this is in the first four chapters of Nehemiah. I'm not going to read those four chapters but I'm going to condense it down and just talk about the gates and what they represent. And I thought this was interesting because I've read Nehemiah a few times and I never really went to research what these gates represent. So you know what I did and I was like well this is interesting, I thought I was sharing on an episode, so okay. So starting in the first chapter of Nehemiah, Nehemiah is actually, he's grieving the fact that the remnant of the Jews that had survived were in great distress because the wall of Jerusalem was broken and the gates were burned. These gates as I will get into their meeting later were very important to the Jews. Nehemiah begged God for his ears to be open, he was like Lord please, you know hear my prayer. So Nehemiah went, he went to the king and forgive me here because some of these words in the Bible some names, this is really hard to pronounce, so I'll do my best. Our taxorists but the king disregarded Nehemiah sadness for Jerusalem and the king said to Nehemiah why do you look so sad when you are not sick and Nehemiah he said why wouldn't I, when this very place my father's tomb lies in desolation, destruction you know. But the king did do something nice though because the king, he actually supplied Nehemiah and the Jews with the things they needed to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the gates. So even though he was a little harsh there he did end up sending all of the things that was needed ahead of Nehemiah before he got to Judea. So Nehemiah also as a king he said can you send me to Judea so that you know he could rebuild his father's tomb and so the king granted his wish and then Nehemiah at this point when he gets there he's going out and he's inspecting the gates, he's inspecting the damage to the walls and his first inspection was the valley gate which means humility and service to the Lord and I'll list all these gates in the description so you can have them for yourself. So then he went to the refuse gate which is also called the dung gate and this gate represents repentance and cleaning or cleansing not cleaning. So after inspecting this he then inspected the walls of Jerusalem. The king had like I said helped Nehemiah by getting all the supplies to rebuild. So Nehemiah said to the Jews come let us rebuild but the Ammonite officials and the Geshum, the Arab heard about their rebuilding and started just making fun of them but Nehemiah said God of heaven has appointed us to rebuild so this was God's will for them to rebuild so they knew that it was going to be done, they knew that nobody was going to stand in their way, nobody was going to be able to distract them or do anything to keep them from finishing this project. So then the high priest and his brothers they rebuilt the sheep gate which the sheep gate represents the hope that Jesus offers to all believers. The sons of Hasaniah began rebuilding the fish gate which means evangelism spreading the gospel. The sons of Boseidiah repaired the old gate which represents the importance of traditions and foundations. Next the temple servants repaired the water gate which represents the word of God and spiritual cleansing. Next the priest repaired the horse gate which represents spiritual warfare. Next the Shamaya the sons of Shekinah keeper of the East Gate repaired it. East Gate represents the expectation of Christ's return. This inspection gate was repaired by Malgajah. So there were priests, Levites, nobles, common people, goldsmiths, merchants and various families who actually repaired specific parts of these gates. But when the sandballot heard the rebuilding he became so angry and he was just furious and he ridiculed them all and planned to actually kill them. But here's the thing, the Jews were not afraid of what he was planning to do because they heard they got word that what he was planning but they were like you know this has got a point and we are supposed to rebuild this we are not going to be afraid. But they were also smart you know they knew the Lord was with them but from that moment they laid out a strategic plan of how that they were going to protect themselves during the rebuild of the Jerusalem and the gates. So what they did is they worked with spears in one hand, I mean they had spears in one hand and worked with the other at all times, sun up to sundown even when they went to go get water, a drink of water they had their spears. They were always prepared for battle. And you know how we talked about earlier the, I believe it was the horse gate. The horse gate represents spiritual warfare and so that's what they were doing. That's what they were doing. They were preparing for war but they were also building. They kept building as they held their spears. So that is all of the gates in the first four chapters of Nehemiah that I thought was very interesting and also you know another takeaway from this is that when we always have to be prepared for war just like the Jews were in Nehemiah you know and what I mean by that I mean spiritual warfare. We always have to have you know the full armor of God on and we have to be prepared for battle because the devil's he's out there watching, he's not, he goes the Bible says he goes back and forth across the earth looking for someone you know he's not like God, he's not omnipresent so he you know he can't be in all places at all times like God can but you know we should always be prepared for battle just like the Jews and Nehemiah was and even though that was you know an actual you know in real time not really in spiritual but I take it as both ways but you know always be prepared for war. So that is it for this episode and I will list those gates in the description box and I will see you on the next episode blessings.