The Dangers of Keeping an Open Mind, Part 1 - City Walls & Gates

In ancient times, cities were protected from attack by a wall which surrounded the city.  There were gates along the wall which provided a means of ingress and egress.  Soldiers were usually stationed on the walls and near the entrances for security purposes.  For example, the soldiers served as lookouts (Habakkuk 2:1) for enemy attacks in order to provide early warnings of enemy assault and watch for and detect spies attempting to enter the city.

During times of war, the attacking nation would often lay siege to a city by surrounding its walls and preventing the inhabitants from escaping when open, hand-to-hand combat was not possible.[1] This is what took place when Babylon attacked the city of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 32:1-2).  Depending on how well prepared the inhabitants were, this could lead to a stalemate that could last for weeks, months, or years.[2]  For example, Jewish rebels held off the Roman Legionaries for two years when the Legionaries laid siege to the mountain fortress of Masada in Palestine.[3]  The last of the Jewish rebels had committed suicide when the Romans finally breached the Masada fortress.[4]  As in the case of the Jews during the Babylonian siege, the inhabitants of the city could die from famine and disease within the besieged city (Jeremiah 32:24).  In Jeremiah 19:9, those behind the walls faced worse deaths such as cannibalism.  Specifically, the bible says, "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them" (Jeremiah 19:9 NIV).
            
Often the attacking nation would attempt to overtake a city by somehow getting past the wall that protected the city. One method of doing so was to destroy a city gate. Consequently, both the city walls and the city gates had to be made of strong durable materials that could withstand enemy attacks.  Once the attacking nation would successfully overtake a city by somehow getting past the wall that protected it, they murdered those who lived there, raped the women, and pillaged the belongings of the inhabitants as part of the spoils of war.[5]  In the case of the Roman Legionaries, it was actually Roman policy for the soldiers to do so as part of their reward for a successful campaign and to intimidate other countries from resisting a Roman attack.[6]


1.         City Walls
 
You may be wondering why it’s necessary to discuss battle techniques and fortifications when the subject is supposed to be about weight loss.  Well, you are actually in a spiritual battle which manifests itself in your physical life.  To put it plainly, your sin against God has allowed you to be led away by the sins of gluttony and idolatry in the same way God allowed the Israelites to be defeated and enslaved by the Babylonians due to their sin.  Although it’s a spiritual battle, there are similarities to what happens in the natural world.  Accordingly, the city walls of Jerusalem represent the physical or natural world because they were fixed structures which were made of wood, clay, stone, or a mixture of materials and which surrounded the city in order to protect its inhabitants.
 
2.         Humanity’s Walls
 
On the other hand, humanity’s walls are represented by the mind but pertain to the spiritual realm.  Your mind is your control center.  In addition to regulating your body functions, it’s also where you make decisions which negatively or positively affect your life and your afterlife.  For instance, in order to pick something up, first your mind has to send signals to your arm and hands to move, and then send more signals to move the object.  If you run away, your mind regulates the complex system that indicates danger and tells your legs to move you to safety.  If you eat something, you use your mind to decide what to eat, whether to cook it at home or purchase it at a restaurant, and how much of it to eat.  When it comes to your salvation, you choose whether or not to believe or not believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
Likewise, your body is analogous to a city, and your soul represents those who dwell behind the city walls because your soul is you.  It’s that intangible part of you that is encapsulated by your flesh while simultaneously animating your body.  It is what makes you who you really are.  Since your mind controls and makes decisions which affect your physical body and your soul, if the mind is conquered, the rest of you will be at the mercy of the conqueror. 
 
In other words, once the mind has fallen, the rest of the body and the soul follow, for better or worse.  That is what happened to you in regard to food and why the enemy constantly bombards adults and children alike with images and sounds about unhealthy eating and living.  It is what happens to everyone else on the planet in regard to their individual sins or unrighteous living.  It’s a divide and conquer strategy.  If the mind is either deprived of knowing about God’s will or convinced not to conform to the will of God, then the ruler of this world can more easily persuade a person to give in to temptation.
 
Unlike the physical walls surrounding a city, your mind is not in a fixed location.  On the contrary, it travels with you wherever you go.  Consequently, the enemy’s attacks could come against your mind because you intentionally or unintentionally, or consciously or unconsciously wandered into enemy territory.  In other words, you put yourself in a bad position.  And just as the inhabitants of a well-fortified city usually did not pick a fight with the invading enemy, you find yourself at war with an enemy with whom you had no intention to do battle.
 
Because you have been blessed with the ability to think and make decisions, however, your mind is also a mechanism designed to shield and defend you against the enemy’s attacks just like the physical walls which surrounded Jerusalem and other fortified cities protected them from invaders and gave the citizens inside a defensive fighting position.  God’s word in your mind is the equivalent of exchanging a wooden wall of defense for a 12-foot thick steel wall.  In other words, it’s much more durable and resistant to the enemy’s attacks.  When God’s word is the basis for your decisions, the enemy is harder-pressed to get you to yield to temptation.  That’s why he works so hard to keep you from learning God’s word as it relates to gluttony, idolatry and every other sin.​

[1] Warrior:  A Visual History of the Fighting Man, by R.G. Grant, Dorling Kindersley Limited, Pages 30-33, Copyright 2007, 2010.

[2] Jeremiah 39:1-2, Babylonian siege of Jerusalem lasted for more than a year.

[3] Warrior:  A Visual History of the Fighting Man by R.G. Grant, Dorling Kindersley Limited, Page 31, Copyright 2007, 2010.

[4] Id.

[5] Id. at 33 under Siege Tactics & Weapons.

[6] Id.