In world history, there have been too many walls built for various reasons. I have decided to focus on not so many of them but the Sumerian Wall built for the Amorites, The Great Wall of China built in the style of the Chinese Dragon god and the Russian Berlin Wall that divided one city. In the Bible, I will only talk about two walls, and that is the Jericho wall and the damaged walls of Jerusalem that Ezra and Nehemiah endeavoured to restore.
The Sumerians’ Amorite Wall:
The ancient Sumerian rulers Shulgi and Shu-Sin constructed a massive fortified barrier to keep out the Amorites, a group of nomadic tribesmen who had been making incursions into Mesopotamia. This was a protective wall. It was a fence to help protect the pasture of the Sumerians from the herds of the Amorites. It was a wall built on what is God given.
We live in a world where people and systems have built walls on what is God-given. God created the land and man invented land-titles. God created the world and men invented the world map with borders. The Sumerian Wall served two purposes: it prohibited the Amorites from accessing the resources, and also restricted and affected the sociology of the Sumerians and the Amorites.
It’s been said that good fences make good neighbours but these Walls we build do make more bad neighbours than good ones. The walls we build in life have implications on our sociology. There is a way we feel about that neighbour who builds a wall around the village well that is within his land.
Sometimes you need to fly-overs and bridges over these walls for Amorite-like nomads to use the pasture within your walls that you have no use for. The wall was intended for Amorites but these walls starved innocent animals to death. Sometimes our walls in life target specific people but victimize other innocent parties. The next time you build a wall for someone, look at the innocents who will suffer because of the fight between both of you.
The Great Wall of China:
Construction of the fortifications began in the 3rd century B.C. under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but the most famous sections were erected between the 14th and 17th centuries A.D. to defend the Ming Dynasty against the enemies in the north. Gates were positioned along key strongpoints and trade routes, and watchtowers were used to send smoke and fire signals in the event of an attack. The completed wall was once the largest manmade object in the world, but despite its grandeur, it often proved ineffective as a defensive barrier. The Great Wall of China built in the dragon form was a wall of security. The Bible says that:
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Psalm 127:1).
This was fulfilled on the great china wall when the Mongol leader Altan Khan famously bypassed the wall and raided Beijing in 1550, and the Manchus later broke through in 1644 and brought about the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Today, nations have built nuclear power walls, economic walls, but the word assures us that the only safe wall is not in the form dragon gods or in any other power but in God himself. Building a religious wall for the safety of your salvation is in vain. Your salvation is not secure in the religion wall. Just like in life, however, thick your walls are, the thieves will always find a way in, so is the spiritual life.
However religious you are, it doesn’t matter, salvation is only in one name and that is Jesus Christ. Our walls might be strong enough to save us from various dangers, but no wall is strong enough to protect us from death. Only the wall known as Jesus Christ has that power.
The Berlin Wall:
After the Second World War, the four key players and superpowers of then got involved in what we know as the Cold War. The major players were Russia and America. These four countries divided Germany and segmented it in four parts: one for Russia, the other for America, then the UK and lastly France. America, UK, and France shared both their political and economic ideology. However, Russia had a different approach altogether.
To make matters worse, the part of Germany that Russia had taken was where the capital city was located. Again, since it was the capital city, all the other three had what they called sectors in the city. Gradually, Russia realized that these other superpowers, through their propaganda, were influencing and inciting the metropolitan Berlinians against the philosophies of Russia.
Russia decided to build the Berlin wall that divided those on the side of the west (The US, UK and France) and those on the side of the East (Russia). The Germany capital city Berlin was divided and undocumented immigration from one part of the city to the other was restricted. People could not access their relatives on the other side, others lost their jobs on the other end.
The Russian leadership put guards on the wall with orders to shoot and kill whoever attempted to cross. Some tried to escape using parachutes, others tried to swim across, but many were killed in the attempt to escape. The Berlin wall was not just sign of how bad the cold war was, but also how Walls are significant in the lives of human beings. The Berlin wall was a restriction of the western propaganda of democracy and a preservation of the Russian dictatorship. It was a wall of ideological prohibition and preservation.
Walls are constructed vertical structures which are thick in mass. Walls can be built on all sides even at the roof. Walls are defining objects, Walls are defensive units. Walls are limiting measures. Let me start with defining walls.
Defining Walls:
We can tell who you are depending on the walls that you are within. The people in hospital walls are either doctors or the sick. The people in prison walls are not necessarily criminals but prisoners. The people behind church walls are not necessarily Christians but religious people. The people in discotheques and bars might not necessarily be drunkards and gluttonous but people who love pleasure. If we are within grave walls, then you are clinically dead. You do not have to consult with the gods in the shrine, as long as you enter the walls of a shrine, you already have qualified as a diviner.
Walls define us, not only do they define us but in the process, they influence our thoughts and action. Always in life mind the walls you are within, for they occasionally define who you are. There is a way people take long to believe that you are married to the person you are within a guest house.
Walls define us. They label us, and that tag communicates volumes to those outside these walls. We need to understand that for purposes of our identity, some walls should be walked into while other walls should by all means and at all costs be walked out. The Bible says in Zachariah 2:4-5 that:
“Run, say to that young man, `Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it. For I will be to her a wall of fire round about, says the LORD, and I will be the glory within her.”
Defensive Walls:
Walls defensive units. Walls are structures we put up to defend us against the arrows of this life. Walls of our houses defend us from the cold and heat that weather can supply sometimes. We put up defensive walls after we have realized where the danger is coming from. We raise our walls against the rumour we know will kill our relationships.
Sometimes you need to deny access to your life to people who are spoilers. You need to raise a wall to defend you from people who come into your life and take advantage. You need to raise a wall against people and situations that are parasites, those that feed on you without returns. Sometimes you need to raise a wall high enough to defend your spouse from their addictions. Some have poor shopping habits, others have all sorts of weaknesses and vulnerabilities. They need a wall raised high for them to be defended. Your children, especially the adolescents, need a specific kind of wall around them.
We all need to come to grips with ourselves and be honest as we build walls around our trigger points. The defence that walls provide can be for our good but they can turn into defensive walls. The Bible says 1John 1:8 that: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. There are times when we build high defensive walls around our sin. High defensive walls around our mistakes. High defensive walls on our failures and disease.
Limiting Walls:
The Bible says in Joshua 6:1 that:
Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went out, and none came in.
The Walls of Jericho were restricting. They were not the only problem to the Israelites who were outside but also had turned out to be a problem to those within. We all, once in a while, suffer Jericho walls in our lives. Sometimes it is fear that keeps us locked in. We fail to start or even do what we can because of fear. To others, it is the worry of what if?
To some, limiting walls are cultural, you can’t do this or be this because your cultural wall forbids you to. Others are actually limited by the wall of pride. To some the wall before them is religion, I can do this job but my religion does not endorse it. To the majority, the biggest wall before them is the wall of ignorance.
What people don’t know limits them but again, knowledge also is a limiting wall. Some people do not start because of the information they have, while others start because of the information they don’t have. Limiting walls make a man suffer in the midst of opportunities and possibilities.
A limited man is a restricted man who suffers in the midst of plenty. Limiting walls are like long ropes tied to us, we can only go as long as these walls are. Some are limited by their past mistakes, they can’t live the present because of their past. To some emotions like anger, pain and frustration are the high limiting wall that constrains their progress.
Friend, walls are part of our lives. Some walls are natural and others are supernatural. The lord through Apostle Paul has warned us in these words:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:10-12
God bless you, I invoke Truth, Reason and Faith
Am Pr.I.T.White.
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 