What a challenge it can be to live in a broken world, where the name of Jesus is used more often as a curse than in praise! Walking on the narrow way that leads to salvation can sometimes be a lonely road, as there are not many along the same path. Each of us has experienced what it is like to be in the minority in some facet. That might be based on race, gender, political belief or religious belief. Regardless, the imposed exile of being a minority can choke the breath from an otherwise acceptable condition.
As Christians, we have been called by God to be strangers in a strange land for the time being. Yet in our future, we will not only be in the majority, but there will be no minority! When Jesus returns to earth to rule and reign from the throne of David for 1,000 years, there will be no person remaining on the planet without a relationship with our Savior.
1 The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
Psalm 24
With the poetic use of personification apparent in verse seven, it is easy to picture the gates lifting up their heads. Though we might envision a gate on a horizontal hinge, this gate is vertically-hinged, like a portcullis. In Medieval times, the portcullis kept enemies from entering a city, yet after the return of Jesus, there will be no need for gates or walls. Instead, all enemies will have been vanquished. That eastern gate of Jerusalem has remained sealed since 1541, when the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I accomplished that task to ensure that the Messiah could not enter. Additionally, Muslims placed graves in the area outside the gate in the Kidron Valley, as the Old Testament teaches that a Jewish Rabbi must not be defiled by touching a grave. Isn’t it ironic that a man sealed a gate to stop a Messiah he did not believe in? How could a grave or stone wall accomplish the feat that hell and death could not?
Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”
Ezekiel 44:1-3
Though it might be challenging to feel alone in the crowd of this world, we rest in the hope of what will come. Imagine that day, surrounded by all believers in man’s history, surrounded by the heavenly host of angels, all singing praises to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who will enter Jerusalem for the Millennial reign! With a choir of millions of voicing blending together sweetly, it will be glorious! Even those without beautiful singing voices on this earth will join in (they must have glorified voices as there are no tears in heaven)! No longer strangers in a strange land, each of us will find the destiny God has desired for us.
Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
Isaiah 26:2
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