Hearing at the Door(s)
Transition highlights a theme in our lives. I’ve been thinking about how doors and gates represent a backdrop to a range of experiences in hearing God throughout the story of Scripture, from Creation to the Fall to Redemption to Restoration. Like battlelines and passageways, they mark transitions and defining moments for hearing the Word.
Creation highlights life, and one scholar, Peter Leithart, sees the settings of doorways as signifying birth in Israel’s story. We see this with Sarah’s news of a promised child while in a doorway in Gen. 18:10; the Passover blood on the door leading to the birth of Israel as a nation in Exod. 12:22; and Hannah in 1 Sam. 1:9).
The Fall brings judgment and death, which corresponds to right after the Fall when Yahweh “stationed cherubim and the flaming sword” to block the way to the tree of life in Gen. 3:24; how He closed the ark behind Noah (Gen. 7:16); how Phinehas the gatekeeper of the tent of meeting killed the couple sinning in Yahweh’s presence (Num. 25:6–8; 1 Chron. 9:17–20); and to Eli’s sons and their sin at the door of the tent of meeting (1 Sam. 2:22).
Redemptive hope for passing faithfulness from generation to generation included writing Moses’ words on their doorposts (Deut. 6:9). Jesus, the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), declared Himself to be the door for the sheep to salvation pasture (10:7–9). Restoration rule belongs to Jesus who also stands at the door and knocks to enter and commune with those who hear and open the door to Him. Those who repent and receive Him will rule with Him (Rev. 3:19–21).
Transitions and decisions can represent battlefronts and points of passage in our stories. Whether we turn toward redemption and restoration or lose our way depends on hearing and obeying the Word. Let’s continue to check our hearing at whatever doorway we find ourselves, opening our collective ears together so that “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 3:22).