Walls, Bars and Gates
“I will go up to the land of unwalled villages … having neither bars nor gates.”(Ezekiel 38:15)
There is evidence that WALLS, BARS and GATES symbolically relate more to faith than natural defenses. They are the essential emblems of a city. The building of cities grew out of the desire for conveniences, safety, trade, concentration of wealth as well as the expression of human pride. The first city was named Enoch after the name of Cain’s son (Genesis 4:17). The earliest cities were located on the trade routes as in Canaan: Megiddo, Shechem and Jericho. Before these were Ur, Sumer, Nineveh, Nippur, Kish, Lagash and Hazor.
After the flood, cities became a special expression of pride and ambition of human endeavors. Genesis 10:5-12 details some of the early ambitions. The city was a central place of worship as Babylon and Nineveh. In the case of Jerusalem, the object was to give glory to Jehovah with the central site of the temple. Yet here too human pride hindered the noble cause.
The city had all the potential for concentrated vice and evil. Man became more separated from the labor in the God given field and more cumbered with commerce, wealth and vain imaginations. So it was with Sodom and Gomorrah. The city had a way of asserting man’s ownership in buildings and possessions and lost sight of God’s ownership of all the land. Man is only a tenant and caretaker of God’s possession. This is ordained in Leviticus under the law of redemption as part of the Sabbath and Jubilee ordinances (Leviticus 25:23). “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants” (NIV). The land is God’s heritage! Within the confines of a city, man glorified the work of his own hands. He decorated the walls of Babylon with magnificent gardens and the streets of Athens with the gods of their imagination. A city built on a high platform or hill as Megiddo or Masada or built with a high wall as Hazor, had the “high ground” and defensive advantage against an enemy. The wall became a shelter to those within and a barrier to the enemy without.
Of necessity a city had gates as avenues for transport, commerce, sojourners, etc., else the city would be a prison. In time of peace the gates were places of commerce, and trade and a place for public forums, and reading of laws.
Here judges sat and verdicts were read. The poor and lame sat in gates for alms and aid. In the book of Esther, it was in the king’s gate that the confrontation with Mordecai and Haman occurred. Towns are a natural result of the aggressive principle in human nature. In the time of the Patriarchs we find towns surrounded with fortifications, so as to make them “fenced cities.” The walls of fortified cities were formed in part, at least, of combustible materials (Amos 1:7, 10, 14). The gates were covered with thick plates of iron or brass (Psalms 107:16; Isaiah 45:2). Within the city were citadels or towers which served as observation points and to which the inhabitants might flee when the city could not be defended (judges 9:46-52). Watch towers on the walls were used to watch for the enemy and to provide an early warning system.
In time of war the gates were subject to siege by an enemy. The gates were secured with bars and the walls manned for defense. This might be successful as in Hezekiah’s defense against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, or result in a defeat as in the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. But cities did not always carry a corrupt connotation. God provided Levitical “cities of refuge” in the case of involuntary homicide until the offender was released from banishment by the death of the high priest (Numbers 35:6, 13, 15; Joshua 20:2, 7, 9). God provided separate jubilee laws affecting the walled cities (Leviticus 25:29-31). Isaiah uses the symbol of a city with walls and bulwarks as a most positive prospect of Israel’s refuge in the bonds of the covenant in millennial kingdom conditions.
“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shall call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise” (Isaiah 26:1, 11, 18).
Here God provides walls of salvation for Israel’s faith secured by his word. Psalms 61:3 and Proverbs 18:10 also speak of the Lord as a strong tower of defense against the enemy for the righteous.
Upon Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem, one of his first works was to restore the GATES. In Nehemiah 13:19-22 this is said to be for the purpose of preserving the sacredness of the Sabbath, ie., to secure against the flow of commerce on this holy day. Building the gates related directly to preserving the faith of a recovering nation.
This brings us to Ezekiel 38:11 where Israel is invaded by the forces of Gog. They ponder the prospect of invading “the land of unwalled villages … them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” This chapter is dealt with somewhat in Volume 4, pages 553-556. Some have suggested that dwelling safely in unwalled villages may indicate the vulnerability of the Kibbutz movement in Israel. Surely this frontier is being invaded by Palestinian demands. Another suggestion is that the lack of walls, bars and gates shows a lack of military preparedness. But Israel is not without military might.
We would like to follow another suggestion that “safely” indicates over-confidence. In the light of the Isaiah texts cited above, this would be self confidence and not faith in the true “walls of’ salvation.” In fact Israel may have a strong military arsenal and international agreements. But these are not the walls that would give them true courage against the enemy. Being without faith and praise secured in the word of promise is truly being without walls, bars or gates. Ezekiel seems to draw on the language of Deuteronomy 28:50-52, a portion of which reads:
“A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young … shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.”
They are without walls when first regathered because they have not full faith in the Lord who will be that wall in their hour of trial. His showing himself as their wall will awaken faith when the God of Israel is seen as the wall of salvation. Self-made walls are no defense at all.
An enemy sees this wavering faith as a breach through which to invade. A nation or army without a moral and spiritual cause are seen as vulnerable and capable of being demoralized despite technological resources. In the struggle of Gentiles to declare the superiority of their gods over the God of Israel, they will dare to invade when Israel’s faith is at a low ebb.
The outcome of this final trial is found in Ezekiel 39:25-29. “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now I will bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have bome their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”
Zechariah prophesied in 2:4-5: “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein [those things normally considered security]: For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.” The result of this conflict will be that God will be sanctified in the eyes of the Gentile nations as the God of Israel. Israel will have her walls of faith and salvation restored.
If we are faithful watchmen, let us consider the privilege and responsibility indicated in Isaiah 62:6-7. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
– Jerry Leslie