Protection & Glory

Walls are boundaries around a space. In at least one instance, school officials found that walls around the playground give children a sense of security. Without them, they play close to the school building. With them, they play right to the parameter of the playground.

Jerusalem was a walled city. Those walls meant security from outside forces, but also suggest separation from the world. When Ezra and Nehemiah sought to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, they met with violent hostility. Putting up that wall was a difficult challenge.

In the Christian community, that wall of protection and separation is also important. As my devotional guide says, Satan doesn’t like it and would rather put walls between believers than see us live in a manner that is holy and distinct from the rest of humanity.

As for the protection of walls, if I feel threatened, I want to be within the walls of my home, or even feel safer in my car. It works the same with animals. Horses have died when their barns were on fire because they ran back inside to what they thought was a safe place.

Sometimes I’m also as foolish as those horses. I put up walls of indifference, aloofness, or just silence, or try to protect myself by being defensive, or selfishly insisting on my own way.

Today’s verse reminds me that no matter the presence or absence of walls, or the condition they are in, the Lord is my ultimate protection. Zechariah 2:5 says, “‘For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her (Jerusalem), and I will be the glory in her midst.”

Even though this verse is about a city, Jesus also promises to protect me. He will never leave me or forsake me. He sovereignly guards my life and promises that no matter what happens to me, He will use it for my good, to make me more like Himself (which is of course the ultimate good). He is my wall of protection; nothing can come in without His permission.

The last part of the verse is mind-boggling; Jesus is also “the glory in the midst” and, while this verse again is about Jerusalem, it also means God lives in the midst of His people, collectively as the church and individually as believers. We are His tabernacle, His dwelling place, and the glory of the Lord is in us. Wow!

Jesus prayed, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

No wonder Satan tries to divide Christians; God’s glory is seen in our unity. Furthermore, by that unity the world may know that God sent Jesus and that He loves them just as He loves His Son. If Satan can build a wall between me and other believers, the glory that He has given us will be hidden and those outside His wall will not know the wonder of Jesus and His love for them.

His Spirit prods me to apply this to another kind of hiding—the walls I put up to defend myself, to hide the real me, to keep others from seeing my weaknesses. These too have the power to hide the glory of Christ. If I want His glory to be seen, I cannot mask it. I must be transparent.

Today in Banff, in misty rain, I’ve a tangible reminder of how even little things like droplets of water can hide something large and incredible. Like the mountains hidden by the mist, even small and foolish sins and the building of my own walls can block the glory of Christ from those who most need to see Him.