Walls of Refuge
Jerusalem has a wall that was built to protect it from it’s militaristic neighbors. “Today, the wall of Jerusalem is approximately two and a half miles long. It has an average height of almost 40 feet and an average thickness of 8 feet. The wall also contains over thirty watchtowers and eight gates.” It’s protection has been sung about in the following lyrics:
Israel, Israel, God is speaking.
Hear your great Deliv'rer's voice!
Now a glorious morn is breaking
For the people of his choice.
Come to Zion, come to Zion,
And within her walls rejoice.
Come to Zion, come to Zion,
And within her walls rejoice.
From the hymn “Israel, Israel, God is Calling”
In Texas, most ranches have high fences and gates. On a slightly more nuanced level, most people have “walls.” Walls keep unwanted things out and selectively allow good things in. Walls protect valuable assets including family, wealth and freedom.
When Jesus was alive, he shared a story of a vineyard with a hedge wall and a tower for keeping an eye out for danger. The owner installed a husbandman or men to do the work of tending the vines. When he sent servants to collect the harvest, the husbandmen beat or killed his servants including the owner’s son. This story was used to condemn the local people for rejecitng his message. (Matthew 21:33-43)
In a similar story, a nobleman tells his servants to plant twelve olive trees in a certain vineyard. He asks them to build a hedge wall and a tower to protect it. While the nobleman is away, the servants consult among themselves and decide not to build the tower. When an enemy comes, the hedge is broken and the vineyard destroyed. Of course, the nobleman is distraught because he specifically asked them to watch for danger. (D&C 101:43-57)
In Ezekiel the prophet condemns the false prophets for not protecting the Israelites. He talks about a wall that has a defective “untempered” mortar (Ezek 13). Anciently mortar was made of hydrated lime and sand. When making a mortar, if you add additional water, it’s called retempering the mortar and it significantly reduces the strength of the mortar because it breaks up the crystals that are forming. The longer a mortar takes to harden, the better, because it gains strength over time. That is why it is good to make and use mortar on a calm, overcast day.
A poor use of faith is to assume God will protect you when you have taken no steps to build a wall or watch on a tower for danger. Humility acknowledges one’s own insignificance and faith is an action by which belief in a higher power is translated to behavior. In spite of modern-day challenges, Jesus says we only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed, which is pretty small. (Luke 17:6)
A protection made of faith in God is like a wall. If God were to stand at the door, you would surely open it. You control what enters and what doesn’t. So when a bad thing happens to you, how is it that God is to blame? Is it not more accurate to say that the wall failed or that you let a dangerous thing in through the door?
Ezekiel seems to think that the false prophets with their soothing ideas have created an “un-tempered mortar” for patching people’s walls. The idea that everything is going great when really there is danger all around, gives people a sense of security when they should be vigilant. If we use the ideas of others to patch the cracks in our faith, we might feel betrayed when the security isn’t real. True strength comes from the inspired words of prophets and Christ the Lord.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) I believe that God is our refuge or safe place. Yet, our faith in God is the strength of our wall. If our faith contains elements of untempered mortar - half-baked ideas or new fangled truths, it might not hold up in the storms of life. God remains even after the storm but faith can be cracked or destroyed.
So what can we learn about strong mortar? It is best mixed on a calm, overcast day. If it is hot or windy, it can dry out too fast. The slow curing time is what makes it strong like a rock. Building faith when life is not too hectic is better than coming to the fount of mercy only when it’s an emergency. Anticipating the work we must do to build the wall and watch for danger is a sign of humility. Expecting protection without making logical and needed preparations reflects an inflated sense of one’s importance in relation to local or global forces of nature. Nature may not care if you live or die but Nature’s God does. He can make bad things easier to bear, reduce the duration, send help in the form of others and sometimes, if it is his will, save us from evil.
He has also promised to destroy us if our lives produce bad fruit. In a story told by Isaiah from the point of view of God, the reader is asked to understand God’s reason for destruction. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste.” (Isa 5: 3-6) A person may not appreciate God’s destruction especially if it feels like the entire world is reduced to ashes. More often then total destruction, God prefers to prune out the bad wood to encourage our good traits to thrive. There is nothing that God does that is not motivated by love. Understanding his love requires humility and faith.
Sources
“What is the significance of the walls of Jerusalem?” https://www.gotquestions.org/walls-of-Jerusalem.html web 2020.
“Lime – a time-tested chemical” https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/474-lime-a-time-tested-chemical. web 2020.
“How to make the mortar on your brick home last.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2017/08/29/how-to-make-the-mortar-on-your-brick-home-last/ web 2020.