Weekly Devotion: The Gate of Heaven

“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:16, 17

A “gate” is basically a point of controlled access by which one is allowed or denied entrance. Jacob was allowed to see, in a dream, the “house of God” and “the gate of heaven” by which angels were ascending and descending. Earthly Jerusalem was later patterned after heavenly Jerusalem by constructing it with 12 gates as recorded in Nehemiah and Revelation 21. Currently “wisdom” stands at these heavenly “gates”, calling unto the “sons of man” to listen and receive understanding.

“Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?  She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man… Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.” Proverbs 8:1-4, 34

Although there are 12 entrances into Jerusalem, there is only one gate / door into the actual temple. In a spiritual sense, Jesus Christ controls that entrance to “Jerusalem which is above” (Galatians 4:26), in fact he calls himself “the door” by which, “any man” can enter in and be “saved” (John 10:9). To enter “the gate of heaven” we must go through “the door”! The method of entering “the door” into Christ’s body is by being “born again” (John 3:3). Jesus promises that once we are in his body, the “church”, that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.

“…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Mt. 16:18b

So “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22) is the Christian’s city of refuge by which we can flee, to avoid being prevailed against by the “gates of hell”! Jesus spoke of these two ways by which all men trod; and he described one as being strait and narrow, and the other as being wide and broad, and pleads with us to “enter” the “strait gate”!

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13, 14

As you can sadly read, “many” enter into “destruction” but only a “few” find the way into “life”. Which path are you on friend? Jesus provided the only “way” to the Father (John 14:6) because he “suffered without the gate”, “that he might sanctify the people with his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12). One day the “gates of death” (Job 38:17) will receive us all, if the Lord tarries, and we will either spend eternity in the splendor of “life everlasting” (1 Timothy 1:16), or suffer the torment of a Christ-less eternity in “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Like Jacob you too can see God’s house, which Christ said has many mansions in it; by coming to him in faith. Don’t be foolish, open your “mouth in the gate” and ask Christ, who is the “wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24) to come into your heart and save you today.

“Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.” Proverbs 24:7