Walls and Gates - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

The Jews that had escaped, who were left of the captivity … said to [Nehemiah] … the wall of Jerusalem is in ruins, and its gates are burned with fire.
Nehemiah 1:2–3 JND

Walls and Gates
Taking a general view of this particular movement of the Spirit of God in these last days, can we not see the revivals are analogous to those in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah? In the revival of the early part of the 19th century, God used men of great spiritual and intellectual endowments, men of great force of character, who in any sphere of life would have been leaders of men. Through these men, great truths concerning the Church were revived. Later there came to the front those who gave an immense impetus to the study of prophetic truth, and by their ministry the blessed hope of the coming of Christ, and all the glories connected therewith, were revived to the Church.

Today, the conflict is not so much about the exposition of the truth itself, but about the walls and the gates by which the truth is maintained. If holy separation—of which the walls are the symbol—and the exercise of godly care in discipline and access to the privileges of God’s house—as set forth by the gates—are not maintained, the truth that has been recovered will soon be lost. And as in Nehemiah’s day, so in our day, the attempt to build the walls and set up the gates entails conflict, strenuous opposition from within and from without.

And as then, so now, every possible plea is urged against the maintenance of the walls and the gates. The flesh is ever ready to plead the demands of the Lord’s service, the liberty of the servant, the help of saints in human organizations, the preaching of the gospel to sinners—things so right in themselves—in opposition to the walls and the gates. And on the other hand, let it be noted that legal flesh is quite capable of misusing the walls and the gates for sectarian ends and party purposes.

-- Hamilton Smith