Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The gatekeepers: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their brothers (Shallum was the chief), who previously served in the king’s gate eastward. They were the gatekeepers for the camp of the children of Levi. Shallum was the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his father’s house, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent. Their fathers had been over Yahweh’s camp, keepers of the entry. Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them in time past, and Yahweh was with him. Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper of the door of the Tent of Meeting. All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred twelve. These were listed by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer ordained in their office of trust. So they and their children had the oversight of the gates of Yahweh’s house, even the house of the tent, as guards. On the four sides were the gatekeepers, toward the east, west, north, and south. Their brothers, in their villages, were to come in every seven days from time to time to be with them, for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and over the treasuries in God’s house. They stayed around God’s house, because that was their duty; and it was their duty to open it morning by morning.”
(1 Chronicles 9:17-27)

“He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.””
(Luke 11:46-52)

According to Merriam-Webster, the prime definition of gatekeeper is ‘one that tends or guards a gate’. A positive thing. This is the kind of gatekeepers that were set up over the physical building of the Temple. They opened the gates in the morning. They closed them at night. They preserved the appropriate access to the Temple by making sure that the people were able to enter in and meet with God. They tested no one. They stopped no one. They were all about keeping the way in open so that we could come to God in the ways God said were right and good.

According to Merriam-Webster, the secondary definition of gatekeeper is ‘someone or something that controls access’. A negative thing. This is the kind of gatekeepers that had grown up around the Law. They determined that since you couldn’t ‘work’ on the Sabbath (one rule), you couldn’t walk more than x number of steps, you couldn’t kindle a fire, you couldn’t turn on the heat, you couldn’t pass something over the boundary of your home to someone on the other side, etc (many rules). They set up gates of rules around God’s rules to make sure that God’s rules weren’t violated. But in doing so, they made a system that could be followed into something almost impossible to follow AND robbed it of much of the blessing that was inherent in the system. They believed that violating the human-made rules and restrictions was just as bad as violating a commandment of Yahweh God Almighty. They were all about keeping the rules because of what they said was right and good while ignoring the heart intent of the rules that God said were right and good.

Summary

Humans are clever. But humans have a limited point of view. Just because we see it or feel it, doesn’t make it true. This can be seen by every parent or teacher dealing with young children. Just because something comes into their minds as right and good does NOT mean it is. Or that it is in fact beneficial to ANYONE (including themselves). Even though we age and ‘grow up’, we still have a limited perspective. We don’t like thinking in those terms, but it’s true. We need to consistently take the time to keep our minds open to God’s point of view. To open our bibles and study them. To find out what God thinks about something. To find out what God says is true and good and right. And then to align ourselves with that point of view. To keep the way open to fellowship with God by humbly submitting to what HE says is good. Only God has an objective point of view. We don’t always like what we find, but we need to acknowledge it is true and good and righteous – and then use the Word to train ourselves to accept and cooperate with God over it.