The Golden Gate and the Returning King

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Wed, 26/07/2017 - 20:46

This is Jerusalem's Golden Gate, or by its Jewish name, Gate of Mercy. It led directly onto the Temple Mount and is one of the few gates facing east. It probably dates from a Byzantine construction, although it may have been built on the site of the Beautiful Gate of Acts 3. Jewish tradition says the Messiah will enter through it, perhaps based on a reading of Ezekiel 44:

Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”

Both Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent, famous Muslim rulers, blocked it up, possibly for defensive reasons, possibly to thwart the Jewish Messiah's return.

This poses little difficulty for me; they attempted to bolt the stable door over a thousand years after the Messiah came. Should Ezekiel be referring to His second coming, however, I very much doubt that some stones and mortar will prevent the return of the King.