The Gatekeeper

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

2 Kings 7:11: Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king’s household.

The gatekeeper serves a special role in the house. He determines what goes in and what goes out of the house and what is no allowed to leave or enter the house.  They guard and so have to be strong mentally because their work is highly demanding, and needs a high level of alertness. They are like watchmen.

The bible says that the watchmen over Jerusalem must not keep silent but must bother God day and night until he makes Jerusalem praiseworthy throughout the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7). They want to let God in as gatekeepers to make changes in the place. Watchmen also shut the gate against the operations of the devil, as it is written: what you bind (restrict) on earth is bound in heaven and what you lose (in the reality of God) on earth is loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18).

Gatekeepers in a spiritual sense do their “gate-keeping” in the place of prayer. Samuel, though disappointed with the choice made by the children of Israel, to seek for a king, rejecting Samuel, declared that he does not have any other choice but to continue to pray for the children of Israel, as a true gatekeeper (1Samuel 12:23), binding and loosing things on their behalf. The gatekeeper is a person of spiritual authority.

Jesus said that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). Hell has its gatekeepers while the kingdom of God also has its gatekeepers, since God is Spirit and the devil is also a spirit, they both need conduits of their wills on earth, they need people willing to be gatekeepers for the advancement of the alternative kingdoms.

That was why the incarnation of God in Jesus, was a master stroke of divine genius. God (the Son) himself became the gatekeeper on the earth (rebuking the Pharisees and releasing healing and truth) with total commitment to his own cause.

It was a foolproof arrangement to achieve salvation for the world. There was no loophole. It was God offering himself as sacrifice to appease God; it was God having shedding his blood to save us, with Jesus as the gatekeeper for the life of God to come to the on the earth. Everything starts and ends with Jesus, who is the alpha and omega of our faith (Revelation 1:8, Hebrews 12:2).

When Jesus was leaving the earth he prepared replacement gatekeepers, his disciples, who will be conduits for the Holy Spirit, the representatives of heaven. They would be gatekeepers of the church. Paul wrote that when Jesus was ascending to heaven, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men: apostles prophets, evangelist, pastor, teachers, these are to be gatekeepers to the saints (the church) (Ephesians 4:18-24), bringing the goods of heaven to them, protecting them from false doctrines. One of their mandates is to equip the saints, so that they are not moved to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

It was a wind of doctrine/teaching which destroyed the chance Adam and Eve had to continue to live in the Garden of Eden, in that place of blessing (Genesis 3). They were moved from standing firm in the word of God. But it was Adam who was made the gatekeeper of the garden, with Eve as his helper.

He was told to keep and tend the garden, which was his assignment and territory; he was supposed to guard it against any invader. But they were not on guard against the devil because he did not look threatening when he called on them in the Garden. Satan did not invade the garden with chariots and horses; he invaded the thoughts of Eve, making her believe in a different doctrine from what God gave them they fell. That is why the bible says we should guard our hearts with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23). The gatekeepers need to guard the hearts of the people, allowing only truth to enter and preventing falsehood from taking root.

Paul in writing to the church in Galatia said he was afraid lest in the same way that the devil deceived Eve, they have also been moved away from the simplicity of the devotion to Christ, to another gospel and another Christ. In his letter as a gatekeeper, he wanted to rid the hearts of the Christians there of false doctrines.

Jude also performed the work of a gatekeeper in his letter. He wrote about certain people that his audience should be on the lookout for and that to not fall into their errors, they should build themselves up on their most holy faith as they pray in the Holy Spirit. The watchman comes with warning and may sometimes be seen as overly negative.

The watchman has his eyes on possible invasion, and has the task of sounding the alarm so that the people will be ready, or else their blood will be on his neck (Ezekiel 3:17-21, 33:1-11), as God told Ezekiel.

Peter was a gatekeeper. Before he departed from earth, he warned the people about false teachers, who are on assignment for their own ego and belly and that when not checked they will cause a lot of damage to the church (2Peter 2:1-3). He wanted the people to be on guard.

Jesus by the spirit of prophecy warned seven churches in Asia through Apostle John(Revelation 2-3). He was operating in John as a gatekeeper. John wrote that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, which means the reality of the living Jesus is expressed when the spirit of prophecy is in operation and Paul said when we prophesy the secret things get revealed.

So Jesus revealed the things that were going on in the churches of Asia, addressing the letter to the leaders of those churches who are also gatekeepers of the individual churches, he told them what he wanted the church to change: to remove or include, to stop or start. He needs the gatekeepers to take action.

Jesus told some of his disciples: watch and pray so they would not fall into temptation (Matthew 46:41). To watch means to be on guard, so in our own lives we need to be on guard as our own gatekeepers.