Wednesday Bible Blurb “The Wall” 3 12 2025
It was great fun for us kids to climb the block wall fences that surrounded the homes in my childhood neighborhood. Solid brick, six feet high and great for being used as a lookout during playing hide and go seek, these walls were a part of our life. Why are walls and fences even built? God told Adam and Eve to dress the garden and keep it but now we have walls and fences around our homes and cities. There are numerous reasons for protective walls in our society. Walls are built to keep things in (people-jail, school yards-kids, fields for animals). Sometimes walls are built for purposes of evil, such as the wall around the Warsaw ghetto in World War II to keep the Jews as slaved prisoners. At other times walls are built to keep the enemy out.
Consider the wall around the ancient city of Babylon. This wall encompassed the entire city of 200 square miles. It was a double wall and so wide that chariot races were held on top of it. It transversed over the Euphrates River and was thought to be impregnable. The Babylonians were so sure of their safety that the king partied away on the very night the walls were breached, and he was killed. (See Dan. 5:22-30 for the full story). No human wall is unbreachable!
Walls are built for safety, comfort, privacy, keeping things in, keeping things out and security. As kids climbing on the neighborhood walls, we were simply having fun. On February 9, 1971, at about 6:30 in the morning, I was shaken awake by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. Our pool was full of water and our neighbor had drained their pool for the winter. Earthquakes are funny things as the water in our pool ended up going over the block wall fence and entering their pool. It was amazing to see the aftermath of the earthquake and to see the walls had NOT fallen yet our pool water was now in their pool. Walls can be very strong, like the walls around Babylon and the city of Jericho.
Have we put up a spiritual wall between ourselves and our God? Do we seek first His kingdom? (Matt. 6:33). Do we have “no other Gods before us”? (Ex. 20:3). Do we strive so hard to save ourselves that we forget only God can save us? Have we created an impenetrable wall of separation between ourselves and our Savior? Do we look outside the Word of God for our salvation? Consider the following verses as we look over our own lives.
“Blessed isthe man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:12-15 [NKJV]). Many years ago, I had a sheep who decided to be tempted by the nice green grass on the other side of the fence. She really thought the grass was always greener over there. Like James spoke against sin, she was tempted, and her reward was the neighbors Rottweiler literally tore her head off her body as she leaned through the fence to get that last morsel of green grass. Are we so enticed by sin that we lean through the fence?
“And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Mark 15:37-38). At the death of our Savior, the wall (veil) separating mankind from God the Father was torn in two. We are now allowed direct access to our God through Jesus. The wall of separation was removed. Are we taking advantage of what God has given us? We are no longer separated by a dividing wall and can go directly to our loving Father.
“…unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. II Cor. 3:13-16). On June 12,1987 U.S. President Ronald Reagan stood in front of the Berlin wall and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Soon the wall came down and those of the eastern bloc communists were able to taste and feel the freedom they so long yearned for. The veil of the Berlin wall was lifted, and access was granted to freedom.
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Eph. 2:14-18). We have free access to the Father by the lifting of the veil of the temple.
Jesus died so the veil of separation between us and God could be lifted. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:14-16). The wall of separation between us and God is gone, and we have access to our God.
Walls are built for many reasons, safety, comfort, privacy, keeping things in, keeping things out and security. The wall around our neighborhood was for privacy and safety. I have built a wall around my little ten-acre ranchette in the form of a fence. I built this to keep my animals in and to keep the hungry wolf like animals out. What I have learned over the last 30 years is my sheep will wander but they come back to the barn at night. It seems my fence is more to keep the killing animals away from my flock of sheep. My human-built fence is not impenetrable, and I have dead sheep to prove it. When my sheep are tempted and lean through the fence, they are subject to harm. Let us stay within the safety wall of God He has put around us in Jesus. Jesus tore down the veil of separation for us. The least we could do is to give Him daily thanks and praise for sacrificing Himself on our behalf and giving us free access to the Father in Heaven.
