During the last decade of hosting tours to God’s Land, Israel, I have had the honor of welcoming many visitors from all over the world to Jerusalem.

It is always a joy for me to see the expression upon the faces of the people as they see Jerusalem for the first time. This experience is always mixed with tears of joy and anticipation. The amazing thing is that it doesn’t matter where the person comes from, be it male or female, or the color of their skin; they all react in the same way!

I can only imagine the joy and excitement of the pilgrims in King David’s time upon entering Jerusalem. In those days, walls surrounded the cities for protection, with various gates through which people would enter.  These pilgrims would travel from all over the Land to God’s city…the anticipation, long journey, and then finally, the moment of standing at the gates of Jerusalem with so many others who also journeyed to see it and worship the LORD together.

What’s interesting is that within the gates of the city, there is a sense of security and rest. Once we enter the gates, we leave behind the troubles and exhaustion from the long journey, and we enter the place of His dwelling, the place were He chose to put His name.

Until today, when I am at the gates of the ancient city of Jerusalem, I sense something special. There is sacredness to the place that I don’t sense in other places.  When one stands at the southern steps and looks up to the place where the gates of the Temple once stood, one feels something remarkably different and unique in that place.

I also believe that the picture of “standing at the gates” is also a metaphor of reflection, and what awaits us in our eternal inheritance. Before we enter the gates of the city, we are to reflect upon the One whose dwelling is there. We are to reflect upon our lives, our iniquities, the things that we are to repent of, and let go of that which we can’t carry with us as we walk into the city. There is holiness within the city, and anything which is unholy must stay outside the city.

There is a day that each of us will stand at the city gate of the new Jerusalem; some will have the right to enter into the city, and others won’t. It will be God’s sovereign right to decide.

Would you join me as we reflect upon our lives, repent, wash our robes, and be prepared for that glorious day?

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” Rev 22:14

Shabbat Shalom,

Moran