INTRODUCTION
GATES OF THEIR ENEMIES One of the principles
of bible interpretation that we have been taught over the years is that
we must let the Bible interpret its own symbols.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
However, the main
use of the word is as the entrance to a city (Deut 22:24; Jos 20:4; Jud
9:34; 1Sam 17:52).
Another notable
use of gate in the Old Testament is referring to the gates of death (Job 38:17; Ps
9:13; 107:18; Isa 38:10).
THE NEW TESTAMENT
and thura (Strongs-G2374), usually translated as "door": It is difficult
to find any scripture in the Bible the uses the term gate to refer to a
strategic strip of land like a canal, a pass or a island port. Rather,
a gate consistently refers to the entrance to a city, (or as a symbol for
the whole city), or a house or the tabernacle.
So what is the
real fulfillment of the promise that Abraham's descendants will possess
the gate of their enemies?
THE CITY OF GOD So what God
promises to Abraham is that he and his children (the children who are sons
through faith in Jesus Christ) will possess the entrance to the kingdom
of God, the city of God, the temple of the living God.
Yet the prophecy
indicates that it was the gate of Abraham's enemies which he would possess.
Luke 11:52
"Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You
did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered." God's ultimate
reassurance to Abraham is that eventually his children will permanently
possess the gate and enter His Kingdom. But until then they are in
constant danger of losing the gate to those are not sent by God.
Isa 26:2 Open the gates, That the righteous nation which keeps the truth
may enter in.
Prophecy is
one of those subjects that grabs the interest of us all.
In prophecy there are both warnings of terrible suffering and of tremendous
blessings.
Among the most coveted of the prophetic promises in the Bible are those made to Abraham.
They really are quite awesome. In Genesis 17 we read of some of these
promises. God will multiply Abraham's descendants like the stars of heaven
and the sands of the sea. He is going to make him into a multitude
of nations. He is going to give him and his descendants the land of
Canaan as an eternal inheritance. All the nations of the world would
be blessed through Abraham and his descendants.
The promise
that I wish to examine in this study is mentioned in the second half of
Genesis 22:17:
Gen 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."
It is also mentioned
in Gen 24:60 when Rebekah's brothers prophesy the same blessing upon her:
Gen 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her: "Our sister, may you become The
mother of thousands of ten thousands; And may your descendants possess
The gates of those who hate them."
A widely-accepted
explanation of this promise held among the churches of God is that this
prophecy was fulfilled through the British Commonwealth and the U.S.A.
possessing strategic strips of land.
In the book "The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy" it is stated:
....the nations
who are Abraham's descendant are to possess the gates of their enemies.
A gate is a narrow passage of entrance or exit. When speaking nationally, a
gate would be such a pass as the Panama canal, the Suez canal, the Strait
of Gibraltar....Abraham's descendants would possess vital geographic passageways
of their enemies (pg 23-24).
Other strategic
strips of land that were claimed to fulfill these prophecies are Hong
Kong and the Kyber Pass.
The handing back
of Hong Kong at the end of June 1997 will be seen by some among the Churches
of God and other religious groups as proof that God's blessings on Britain
that flowed from the promises to Abraham are being withdrawn because they have not responded to the gospel message. Is this correct?
So how does
the Bible define what a gate is? Why was it and why is it such a blessing
for Abraham's children to possess the gates of their enemies?
The Hebrew word
that is translated as gate is "Sha'ar" (H8179). It occurs about 370
times in the Old Testament, so it is quite a common word.
The first occurrence
of the word is in Gen 19:1, where we read of Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom.
Other usages of the word in Genesis are also in reference to the entrance
of a city (Gen 23:10,18; 34:20:24). The word is also used in Gen
28:17, where we read of Jacob's dream of the ladder to heaven at Bethel,
and where he said "this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate
of heaven."
Throughout the
rest of the Old Testament, it is also used to refer to the entrance to the tabernacle
(Ex 27:16; Ex 38:15,18,31), the entrance to a camp (Ex 32:26), the entrance
to a house or property (Deut 6:9).
Prov 8:3
She [wisdom] cries at the gates, at the entrance of the city.
It should be
a place of righteousness and justice (Ps 118:19-20; Isa 26:2; Am 5:15;Zech
8:16):
Zec 8:16
These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor;
Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace
Instead, it
is a place of injustice (Pr 22:22; Am 5:12):
Amos 5:12
For I know your manifold transgressions And your mighty sins: Afflicting
the just and taking bribes; Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
... and a place
where evil is spoken against the innocent (Ps 69:12). It is the place
where the righteous confront evil (Ps 127:5; Prov 14:19; Isa 28:5-6; Ps
127:5).
Now what about
the New Testament? The New Testament seems to uses two main words for gate. The two words
are:
pule (Strongs-G4439)
used in:
An interesting
example is found in Acts 3 where the two words are used interchangeably.
In Acts 3:2 "gate of the temple which is called Beautiful" uses the word
thura. In Act 3:10 "being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful
Gate" uses the word pule.
From the New Testament we
learn that it is those who share in the same faith as Abraham through Jesus
Christ who are the children of promise (Rom 9:6-8; Jn 8:39). From
the scriptures I have quoted so far, it seems plain that by possessing the
gate of their enemies the righteous have control over entry
into a city. But which city?
Israel did indeed gain possession
of the gates or the cities of their enemies for a time, but the promise
to Abraham seems to indicate something much more permanent than that.
Which city are
we told that Abraham looked forward to?
Heb 11:10
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker
is God. (i.e. the City of God is being spoken about).
The entrance
to the Kingdom of God is called a gate (Matt 7:13; Lk 13:24). The
entrance to the city of God is via a gate (Rev 21:12-15; 22:14).
Turn to Mat
23:13:
Mat
23:13 "But woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow
those who are entering to go in."
Christ gives
his servants the keys to the kingdom (Matt 16:19), so that all those who
should enter can. But it seems that the enemies of the children of
Abraham, through cunning and deceit, continually gain control of the
entrance to the Kingdom of God.
Psa 118:19-20
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I
will praise the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD, Through which
the righteous shall enter.
Have you taken
responsibility for the entrance into the Kingdom of God that God has provided
for you, or are you still willing to give up control to someone else?