“I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah 2:13 (ESV)
We are still in the middle-of-the-night surveying by Nehemiah and a few of his men. He has taken his 3-day rest and is figuring out what is broken, what needs repaired, and how to move forward. Starting with a gate.
Gates are what allow us in, welcome us to a specific place. But they also keep out that which is an enemy of the good. I remember the rest of being in a safe place with toddlers; where gates could be closed, no breakables were present, and I could relax such stringent focus on preventing trouble.
I’m so glad one of the Names our Savior chose was The Gate. We can come in and be saved from destruction. But we can also freely go out and find pasture and purpose. The Good Shepherd makes use of the gate’s dual purpose.
Nehemiah went through the Valley Gate, but also inspected the Dung Gate – the Hebrew is ashpoth: refuse, ash. The Dung Gate led to the rubbish dump. Scholars also think it could be referring to 2 Kings 23:10 and the babies which were sacrificed by fire to the false god of Molech under Manasseh, king of Judah.
A place that leads to ashes and death.
And the Dragon Spring is also an interesting notation. The Hebrew for Dragon is tannin – serpent. Monster.
Sometimes I think we get lax on what a horrible enemy we have. To be too focused on it is backwards and unhealthy. But to think of the evil as anything less than monstrous is to be vulnerable to his schemes. He would seek to destroy anything of our Beautiful God in our lives.
There is a place in our bedroom where, if I lay my head down, I see only the top of our neighbor’s tree and endless sky. I often lay my head there when I get a friend’s devastating report or hear of heartbreaking world news or something else that feels broken down. That seems to be eaten by the fire of the vicious dragon. The death and hate and ashes which oppose the Shalom He longs to bring – and one day will.
Some days I can’t wait. I know, though, that “if we’re not dead, we’re not done” here. There is more He wants to do in us and through us to prepare us. And the image of a Spring helps see redemption in the pain. Well or Spring is ayin – of the eyes/appearance.
“A fountain known as the eye of the landscape.”
He can turn anything the serpent means for evil into good.
After all, scholars wonder if the Dragon Spring refers to the Pool of Siloam. Where the One Who would crush the serpent healed a blind man. And like this man, you may not have all the answers. But if you have encountered the Most High, you can relate to him.
This you know: once you were blind but now you see.