Gate
Gates" in ancient times had a significance that does not hold in the modern world. Cities then were enclosed by walls for protection; gates in the walls let people in and out to do their business, but were also the weak points in the cities' defenses. In the Bible, cities on one level represent the minds of individual people. On a broader level, they represent beliefs shared by a community. The gates, then, represent openings where the Lord can feed us an understanding of truth and a desire for good. They also represent points where the hells can invade and sway us with false ideas and evil desires. We are kept in balance during our lifetimes, with influences from both the Lord and from hell. Ideally, we will over our lifetimes continue to invite the Lord farther and farther in and drive the hells back until ultimately the Lord can occupy our minds completely. And that point our belief in Him and His power and love will hold the gates and deny evil any entrance. As individuals, we at that point become angels. As communities, we at that point become part of the Lord's church. And at that point the gates become an entry point, introductory truths that allow people to enter churches and start bringing the Lord into their lives.
Genesis 12
1
And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of they father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
2
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.
3
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed:
4
So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran.
5
And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Chanaan. And when they were come into it,
6
Abram passed through the country into the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.
7
And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8
And passing on from thence to a mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name.
9
And Abram went forward, going, and proceeding on to the south.
10
And there came a famine in the country; and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land.
11
And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beautiful woman:
12
And that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep thee.
13
Say, therefore, I pray thee, that thou art my sister: that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.
14
And when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful.
15
And the princes told Pharao, and praised her before him: and the woman was taken into the house of Pharao.
16
And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen, and he asses, and menservants and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
17
But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram's wife.
18
And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife.
19
For what cause didst thou say, she was thy sister, that I might take her to my wife? Now therefore, there is thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
20
And Pharao gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
