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JUNE 1
THROUGH THE GATE
“Go through, go through the
gates; prepare ye the way of
the people; cast up, cast up
the highway; gather out the
stones; lift up a standard
for the people.” (Isaiah
62:10)
Go through - from the Hebrew
word “abar” meaning to go
over or beyond. There
remains with us that biding
challenge to reach out,
travel on, “then shall we
know, if we follow on to
know the Lord: His going
forth is prepared as the
morning.” (Hosea 6:3). Not
to exchange the confines of
one fenced in pasture for
another of like
restrictions. Bondages of
man-made traditions,
programs, ceremony and
ritual are daily being
stripped away from His
elect, that we might go on
to perfection, to know Him
more and more.
The gates – “shaar”
referring to the gate, or
door, or the entrance of the
city. In Old Testament times
much activity surrounded the
city gate. (1) The place of
public resort, to hear the
latest message brought by
the messenger from another
place, or to glean news of
local happenings. (2) The
place of justice, the
courts, the elders had their
seat there, for the
defending of rights,
transaction of legal
business. (3) The public
markets, with all the buying
and selling.
Many prefer to remain by the
gate where the crowds are,
rather than to go through
and beyond, blazing a trail
for others to follow. Once
Phillip, involved with a
great stirring and joy in
the city, was told by the
Spirit to go beyond the city
gate “toward the south…
which is desert.” (Acts
8:26). He obeyed, and came
upon the eunuch, to whom he
ministered the Christ-life.
We go beyond the place of
defending our rights, or
even the rights of others –
yes, even trying to defend
God and why He does, or does
not do this and that. We go
beyond the “buying and
selling” of merchandising of
religion. “For I am not a
peddler of God’s message,
like the most of them, but
like a man of sincerity,
like a man that is sent from
God and living in His
presence, in union with
Christ I speak His message.”
(2 Cor. 2:17, Williams)
Beyond the gate, beyond the
strife,
One in His will –
o’erflowing life.
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