Vital and Necessary! (Nehemiah 3:25-26)

After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh 26 and the temple servants living on Ophel repaired to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower.

THE STUDY:

          This morning we are going to skip a few verses due to the understanding that it took many to rebuild the wall and “all” were instrumental. Today we want to look at the “Water Gate.” The “Water Gate” led from the palace-temple complex to the Gihon Spring (cf. 8:1, 3, 16; 12:37).^[1]

          The Nethinim were servants, and it is only fitting that they should have the care of this gate, for water is very generally a type of the word of God. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word” (Ps. 119:9).

          We do not read of any repairs being made here, only that the Nethinim dwelt over against the water gate. Possibly this port needed none. At any rate, we know that of which it speaks needs not to be repaired, for the word of God liveth and abideth forever. All vain man’s assaults upon the word of God have left it uninjured and unchanged. We are called upon to defend it, contending earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the people of God, but it would be irreverent to attempt to patch or improve it.

          The water of the Word is what Christ uses to wash His disciples’ feet and to keep them free from defilement (John 13:1–16; 15:3). It is written: “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word,” etc. (Eph. 5:25, 26).^[2]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding that just as the “Valley Gate” resembled humility, the “Dung Gate” resembled cleansing, and the “Fountain Gate” resembled the filling of the Spirit, the “Water Gate” resembles the watering of the Word of God that is needed in one’s life.  

APPLICATION:

Billy Graham said: “In August of 1949, I was so filled with doubts about everything that when I stood to preach and made a statement, I would say to myself: I wonder if that is the truth. I wonder if I can really say that sincerely. My ministry had gone."

 “I then took the Bible up into the high Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I opened it and got on my knees. I pled, ’Father I cannot understand many things in this Book. I cannot come intellectually all the way, but I accept it by faith to be authoritative, the inspired Word of the living God! ’”

I am convinced there is nothing more significant, more important, or more powerful than the word of God. It needs to be the very water we bathe with every morning before we take a shower. Today, let God’s word become like the air you breath: vital and necessary!

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Breneman, M. (1993). Vol. 10: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (electronic ed.). The New American Commentary (191). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

^[2] Ironside, H. A. (1913). Notes on the Book of Nehemiah (44–45). New York: Loizeaux Bros.