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Jesus the Door!

Hosea 2:14-15; John 10:7-9 Re 4:1

The door, Our Old testament reading, refers to Hosea 2:15 the door of hope. Understanding the Semantic mind lends to better understanding of this prophetic illustration. The context, His reference "Valley of Achor" is a reference to the stoning of Achan in Joshua 7:26. The "cleansing of the sin of Achan" led to a sure victory over the city of Ai. This passage warrants an entire lesson as the battles of Joshua have illustrated examples of many aspects of success of the Spirit led life. Achan had taken the gold, silver and clothing of the pagan city. The name Ai means "heap of Ruins."

As Joshua has been compared to the walk into victory for the Spirit filled life,
This, the second battle to be won to occupy Canaan is the victory over the ruins of the past. This is another way of saying:Forgettting those things behind, I press towards the mark..Phil 3:14 . *****
The Middle Eastern mind focuses not on the past sin and respective failure, but instead on the door of hope that was provided..Only by complete obedience to the prophetic word of God may a person win victory over the failures of the past. Through out the hundreds of years following, the Rabbis called the Valley of Achor symbolized by a monument of stones high enough to cover Achan, his family , his goods and his livestock. Such was the valley of hope. Not lost on the Hebrew listeners was the meaning of the word, Ai. This summoned memories of smells of the city dump, thoughts of past failures, and things better forgotten. The hope comes when we actually do "forget", an act of choice, those things behind. Instead one who overcomes must purposely focus of the Door of Hope. We now know that hope to be Jeshua.

Jesus calls himself the door of the sheepfold. Remember a few weeks ago we studied the Good Shepherd. In the section we spoke of the shepherd walking the sheep home from the hills and pastures. The last image of the sheep "coming home " for the evening pictures the shepherd counting the sheep into the safe place for the evening. It was here that he counted them into the small pasture. My family called this spot the "trap." It was here Jesus reminded that the Shepherd would "leave the ninety and nine as they would be safe. This place might be a cave or a dugout if the side of a hill along with a little pasture fenced off around the opening. There remained a small opening four to six feet wide through which the sheep would enter and depart. This also is the place where Deut 28:6 would be blessed in going and coming. The opening itself would be called the door. We focus more on the material that closes off for the evening when we think of the door. The hearer of the illustration focus only on the opening. A little earlier in the chapter. Jesus boldly states any other entry point would be entered only by a thief or outlaw! He also declares he is the only way to approach the Father. Some in the culture say there are many paths to God, but Jesus only says i have other flocks that you know not of. So to contend that any other path to heaven would require the careful use of an Exacta knife to remove that verse. But if that were removed there would be other verses to be removed to yield comfort to all these readers.

Now the image "the door" actually controls egress in both directions.The sheep is safe during the storms that often come at night. Only those sheep actually belonging to the shepherd ever enter into these portals. The door in the Greek sounds like "through." This is also an indication as to the derivation.
A similar thought as to the image we have of the door, is that of the Roman shield. This is the image we have of the picture of the spiritual armor piece called the shield. This item is as large as the door we usually think with the word. Large enough to stand behind and be completely covered in case of an arrow. This thought clearly pictures an image of the sheep being completely safe in the sheepfold. Now in the image of the door we have two sides. One side, from the outside closes to all not part of the flock. The other closes to the inside, and closes in for the night. The sheep remain "safe" form all of the "terrors of the night!" A parallel safe spot in out world is that provided by observing Sabbath. It is a safe place whereby we may withdraw from the evil events of the world. For twenty-four hours we neither consider the "things coming upon the world" nor engage in such activity. By this we enjoy the safety of the sheepfold.


Revelation 4:1
1 ¶ After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
Remembering that the door was a portal, a simple opening John is describing the vision. This use of the word describes that a person comes into a new awareness, a new understanding. The angel immediately says I will show you things that are, that are to come. Then he sees the four and twenty elders kneeling around the throne. This portal is some how a picture of Jesus and the things that he will show unto the earth. Proceeding from them was the incense which are the prayers of the believers. From each vial (Rev 5:8) there emitted two spirals one of the prayer and one of the answer. Realizing that with every prayer according to God's word, God hears and if He hears, we know that we have the answer is and so the answer is paired with the request, so they each (the prayer and the answer) spiral up before the throne for eternity to show the faithfulness of the Lord our God!

My hope is that you enter daily into the portal of Jesus whereby you may enjoy the safety of the presence of the Shepherd.