The Gates of Hades Shall Not Prevail

Prayer-Soldier

The Gates of Hades Shall Not Prevail

Scripture:

And I will drive you out from your station, and depose you from your ministry. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliacim the son of Helcias, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will strengthen him with your girdle, and will give your power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda. And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.
(Isaiah 22:19-23)

O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.
(Romans 11:33-36)

And Jesus came into the quarters of Cesarea Philippi: and he asked his disciples, saying: Whom do men say that the Son of man is? But they said: Some John the Baptist, and other some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus said to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said to him: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: That you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples, that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.
(Matthew 16:13-20)

Reflection:

God gave humanity dominion over the earth and all the creatures of His creation ( Genesis 1:28 ), but with dominion comes responsibility. Those God annoints, He allows to carry the keys of authority. He calls them to provide responsible stewardship over the blessings He established for the world. Of the children of His creation, He has called those He has made priest, prophet, and king. He looks after those who turn to Him and hides His face from those who reject Him. ( Deuteronomy 31:16-18 ) He raises up the humble and lowly while bringing down the arrogant and haughty. Those who follow Him yield blessings, while those who turn to the darkness bring forth sorrows and miseries. (2 Samuel 22:28, Psalm 18:28, Luke 1:47-55)

The Lord is patient and calls the stiff necked to repent, but sin closes their ears. His desire is to forgive the contrite rather than to condemn, but selfish hearts only serve to disappoint Him. Positions of power corrupt souls which lead to the lamentations of the poor and innocent. When the arrogant raise their swords and wage schemes to obtain worldly desires, the innocent suffer. Such hearts of evil fail to see that they will not withstand the day of justice where the Lord shall gather the faithful into His kingdom and turn the dark souls over to the eternal misery and sorrow they have chosen. (Matthew 25:31-46)

If we take a moment to look around us, we see a grand creation. Beauty and splendor surround us. The complexity we see through so many different forms of life and the elements of the universe should astonish us. We observe, we study, yet, there is so much we do not know and of what we believe we do know, we struggle to comprehend the plan of the One who gave us all these splendors.

We might ask of ourselves, why do we not seek the wisdom of the One who created all which is visible and invisible? It is He who brings us love and guides us in love, yet so many turn away to follow selfish and wicked hearts. We might also ask, how are we to learn when He is in heaven and we are in the world? How are we to comprehend what was written so many centuries ago and spoken in foreign tongues? If we turn to one another, how are we to know who speaks the truth?

What we must seek are those who were taught by His Holy Son, who were given authority to speak His truth, and who endeavored to pass this wisdom to the nations. (Matthew 28:19) Our dillema is that these witnesses are no longer with us, but we should take comfort that our Savior established a church with the keys of authority (Mattew 16:19) and which endeavors to share the truth of His gospel with the nations and the generations.

In days of old, the prime minister or steward of the realm would be given the keys of the kingdom as a symbol so all who saw would know this person had the authority to act and decide in the absence of the king. Those who were appointed would have the power to open or close the gates to the kingdom. They had the power to protect those who served the king and exile sabateurs and violators.

So it was that as Jesus prepared to go to the Father, He gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Simon, the one He renamed Peter, which means rock. As Jesus did, He also conveyed upon Peter and the Apostles the authority of His church to bind and loose. ( Matthew 16:19, 18:18 ) This authority was exercised as the faithful sought to discern what was asked of them by their eternal King (Acts 15:1-29) and they were blessed, in the execution of their responsibility, to be guided by the Holy Spirit. ( Acts 2:1-4, 15:28 )

So was set in motion the generation of His holy church, the church against which Jesus promised would not fall to the gates of the netherworld. A church established so that through those Jesus taught, the generations would be guided in the ways of the Lord so they may prepare themselves for the day He will stand in judgment so He may gather in the faithful and turn away the evil doers. (Matthew 7:23, 25:31-46; Luke 13:22-30)

Questions for further reflection:

What responsibilities does God call us to?

In what ways may we learn from God?

Where may we turn to receive the blessings of His truth?

May the peace and blessings of the Lord be with you always,
Prayer Soldier