A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city;
disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel. (Proverbs 18:19)
16 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”
3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. (Judges 16:1-3”)
A phrase that has become common in English now is “gated community.” It is a group of homes that is protected by a gate that must be passed to enter and visit someone . A ”gate” can imply entrance and exit ability. So. when Jesus says he is the “gate for the sheep,” we often think of the entrance into a relationship with God and he leads us out daily. Yesterday we looked at “the gate” as a place of legal transactions as with Ruth for whom Boaz negotiated a marriage with at the city gate of Bethlehem. When we enter into relationship with God, we no longer belong to Evil and cannot be possessed by it.
A gate also protects that within from the evil that is seeking to ruin it. I have often wondered about a little scenario found in Judges involving the life of Sampson. We usually think of him in relationship to Delila but there is also a little story of him staying one night with a prostitute in the city of Gaza. The men gather at the gate to kill him. In the middle of the night, he gets up, and with his strength tears out the gate and posts, carries them to the top of a hill and faces them towards Hebron, the burial place of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. End of story. There must be a lesson in the scene worth pondering for a moment.
We do not particularly support prostitution but even as Sampson, the hero whom we might see as being involved with sin, so are we as Christians even after confessing faith, still sinners. Perhaps it is not prostitution but we gossip, say snarky remarks, and do that which we deeply regret later. One way of dealing with these questionable events inn our life is to question our salvation, repent, and “recommit” our lives to God. Sampson offers another model. Even as saved sinners becoming sanctified, growing in our faith are still prone to sin, God does not abandon us but still protects us and redirects us so that we reposition that gate in our lives towards Hebron, towards God.
The sheepherders we worked with in Kenya, had sheepfolds to protect the sheep but those enclosures were thorn bushes that could move with the nomads and so the “gate” also moved with the sheep. The door always pointed to the rising sun. Our faith is a declaration of identity but it is also a journey of growing and learning about our shepherd. Jesus, our gate, travels with us and when we take a wrong turn, he helps us reposition ourselves so we are facing toward him. I find that comforting.
Maybe today, you need to make some adjustments as you grow with him. He’s protecting you from the enemy that would destroy you. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 