Gates Series - Dung Gate

The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Rekab, ruler of the district of Beth Hakkerem. He rebuilt it and put its doors with their bolts and bars in place. (Nehemiah 3:14)

The dung gate as the name suggests was considered a dump site. It was the conduit through which human and animal feces were discharged. You may call it the septic tank of those days. The dung gate was right next to the valley gate which also was another dumpsite.

While growing up, we lived in a housing structure where the toilets (read pit latrine) was located meters away from the main house. This was for obvious reasons. To keep the smell at bay and to curtail the movement of flies to the living areas and the kitchen. It was a move to maintain hygiene.

That experience tells me that no one likes to sit next to dung. It smells, it is unhygienic and contact with it in the wrong way can cause you an appointment with the doctor. I remember the honey suckers (waste removal services) of those days were very simplistic. A tall lanky smelly guy would show up at midnight and do his extractions while we slept. The smell was unbearable. Sadly these guys mishandled the extraction process and often died as a result of inhaling too much methane gas.

So the dung gate is the conduit for waste disposal. Stuff in our system that we quietly dispose and don’t want nobody to know about. But see what others make of such waste. They use it for fertilizer, gas etc. There are specialists in recycling of waste. What we call smelly, dirty, yuk and disease infested, others see it as the transformative agent of a seed into a crop, a kilowatt of power into the electricity grid etc.

We all carry and deposit spiritual waste at various points in our lives. Perhaps we haven’t deposited yet, maybe we are suffering from indigestion or constipation. Nonetheless there is waste that soon will be expelled from your system. Waste of addiction, pornography, corruption name it. It is stuff you don’t want others to know about. Smart suited up people almost may pass like they never visit the washrooms. How misinformed.

  

We need the dung gate. The conduit to expel waste from our system. Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, and said ‘it is finished’. That indigestion of addiction is finished. That guilt that you aborted is finished. That feeling of emptiness is finished. You need to expel that waste from your system.

The dung gate was located next to the valley gate where vegetation grew. It is likely that that area was the most fertile part. The waste found its way on the ground and quickly transformed the soil to support new life. Wham! Isn’t God amazing? Your waste is someone else’s agent of transformation. The stuff you don’t want to talk about is just what someone needs to set their purpose a seed into a plant.

We have been saved by grace not by our good works. That grace is what will sustain our testimonies even when we openly share about our wasted past. The dung gate though a conduit for waste disposal can be the beginning of a transformation journey for someone out there who is crying out to be heard. Use the dung gate with the boldness and the conviction that transformation is real both inward and outward.