Trekking To The End
Thank you for joining me on this ramble around the Jerusalem Gates. I love the company when I am exploring. I am always surprised at what is available to us on every venture we undertake. Our God stands ready to enrich us in every way. If we let Him.
Most sources give us 10 gates at the Old Jerusalem wall. Yet, there is another one. It is not a major gate. However, it does exist, and I’d like to include it as “sub-gate,” to coin a word if I may.
Double Fruitfulness
Situated by the Valley Gate, this opening is called the Ephraim Gate. Looking out toward the land of Ephraim, some accounts call this an entrance denoting double fruitfulness, including Jews and Gentiles.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they were to go in and take the promised land. A land of milk and honey. This land had been promised to Abraham and his descendants generations before. When the scouts came back, they carried dates, pomegranates and giant grapes on a pole between two men to prove the truth of rumors. Those must have been some arbors to hold such large grapes. What a promise from God!
Yet, they did not go in and wandered for 40 years until a new generation grew up and went for it.
Chosen
The Jews are God’s Chosen People, this is truth. But it is also true that God has chosen people from the beginning of history. Those whose hearts would turn to Him. Those who would pause for His instructions and then bear fruit for the abundance of His plans. Are we on board with Him?
Finishing Well
I like this gate because of its connotation to abundance and fertility. Work is always rewarded. Sometimes with money, goods, or a satisfaction of talents used and a job well done.
Building a wall, as Nehemiah and Company did, takes courage, common sense, plans, direction. But if not done under direction of the Master Builder, can it survive the test of time? Or eternity?
For Consideration
Are you building a life by consulting the Master Builder? How have the Jerusalem Gates intersected with your life? Are you showing fruit?
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” John 15:16.
That “sub-gate” has a powerful message, Linda Jo! Here’s to daily . . . er, make that hourly . . . consulting times with the Master Builder (and sometimes moment-by-moment). May he raise something fine and lasting through our lives! Great series, LJ, thank you.