Neh 8:2,3; “Then Ezra the
priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen
with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. He read
from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early
morning until midday.”
A few weeks ago there was an important
date in the Jewish calendar. The date I am referring to is the 1st
of Tishri, which signals the beginning of a new civil year. (Their religious calendar
commences on the 1st of Nisan). All around the world Jewish people
were celebrating what many of us know as ‘Rosh Hashanah’ or ‘The Feast of Trumpets’.
During this time I was drawn to the only biblical noted observance of this
particular feast. Mentioned in both Ezra and Nehemiah, the same story is told.
We read about God’s people returning to Jerusalem after their 70 years in
captivity in Babylon. The scene is set, and all the people are gathered
together at the Water Gate whilst the Law is heralded to them by Ezra the
faithful scribe.
There were many things that attracted
my attention in these passages, but none stronger than the structure we know as
the Water Gate. There were ten gates around the city of Jerusalem and yet this
is the gate that they all met at. Sitting to the north of the Fountain and Dung
Gates, the Water Gate would keep a constant flow of water into the Holy City.
There may have been certain circumstances that led them to meet at the Water
Gate rather than any other gate but I find it tantalizingly thought provoking
to say the least. On this special day in their history, this 1st of
Tishri, this New Year’s Day, there was about to be a new beginning and it was
all going to be centered on God’s Holy Word. A Revival and Spiritual Renewal
were about to take place in the great city, that had not seen since the days of
King Josiah and the high priest Hilkiah. So what is the spiritual importance of
the Water Gate?
The Apostle Paul states in his
letter to the Ephesians that there is a ‘Spiritual Cleansing’ when we are ‘washed
in the Word’. Furthermore, In the Gospel of John we see Jesus state that the
disciples were clean because of the ‘word He spoke to them’. If then, the Word
of God has a cleansing aspect to it, it is fitting that the Water Gate is where
everyone gathered. The question for you and I today is this; Do you/I need to
revisit the Water Gate? Do we need to be submersed in God’s Word in ways that we
have not been before, so that a ‘Spiritual Renewal’ can take place? Let us then
surround ourselves with God’s Word, let us not neglect it and cease to bathe in
it. If we visit the Water Gate and hear His voice, I pray that our journey to
the neighboring Fountain Gate, where the living waters of Christ flow in
abundance, will in turn flood the earth with blessing….
