The Gates of Hell
What’s a Siege?
The second Lord of the Ring’s movie presents a beautiful illustration of a siege. In The Two Towers. Aragon, Legolas, Gimli and King Theoden’s forces flee into the massive fortress of Helm’s Deep. The orcs flood into the valley, cutting off any escape. The defenders will survive only if they stop the orcs from getting inside and slaughtering everyone.
Sieges might last for months, or even years. If the enemy army couldn’t break in, the generals would often try to starve the population into surrendering.
But sometimes, cities are captured by the conqueror’s cleverness. Here’s three examples.
The Conquering of Babylon
I’ve often been fascinated by strategy and tactics. Because even unassailable cities can be conquered, if the leader is imaginative enough.
The Euphrates flowed thru the city of Babylon, providing the city’s inhabitants with a good water supply. Cyrus realized the river was a weakness. His engineers secretly dug channels, diverting the river into a huge basin they had dug earlier. That night, as the water level dropped, his soldiers waded in the shallow river and walked under the city’s walls, while Babylon’s inhabitants celebrated a festival.
Daniel 5 tells part of that story.
The Conquest of Sardis
Later, Cyrus the Great also conquered Sardis in 14 days, in 546 BC.
The story goes that during the siege, a soldier inside the city dropped his helmet off a steep cliff. So he climbed down, retrieved the helmet and climbed back up. A Persian soldier watched him do it. That night, the Persians climbed up that same route and entered the city easily. Lydian leaders hadn’t even set a guard. They considered the cliff unscalable.
Sardis’s ruins are located in Turkey. It is one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation.
The Siege of Tyre
A Phoenician city, Tyre protected itself from siege in two key ways. First, Tyre was built on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, Secondly, their outer wall towered 150 feet high (45.72 meters). Finally, Tyre also had a formidable navy. The Phoenicians were the strongest mariners at that time.
Unfortunately, Tyre owed allegiance to the Persian Empire, which put the city-state on Alexander the Great’s naughty list. His siege engines could cave in the wall, but how could he transport his machines over the water safely? The solution? By constructing a very heavy bridge. First, Alexander blockaded Tyre’s two harbors, trapping fighting ships inside. Then his men started dumping large boulders, rocks and rubble into the sea. As the causeway took shape, the men of Tyre harassed the soldiers, using fire ships, archers and catapults to disrupt progress.. Seven grueling months later, the siege engines rolled over Alexander’s broad causeway and broke a hole in Tyre’s outer wall in 332 BCE.
My Spiritual Point – Part 1
Sometimes it takes me years to realize I’ve been reading a verse all wrong. Because in Matthew, Jesus said;
…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18 ESV)
I completely missed the imagery.
Satan’s kingdom is the one under assault. His realm is besieged and panicking. Every time we do what’s right, even when our emotions is screaming at us not to, that’s an assault on his empire.
Every time we repent, obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings, or show kindness and humility to others, the Heavenly battering ram slams into hell’s gates a little harder.
Remember, we don’t see God’s overall strategy. We’re just foot soldiers; we don’t see how the war is going.
My Spiritual Point – Part 2
Jesus fills each person saved with the Holy Spirit. The result? God’s image-bearers live everywhere; There’s very few places on earth where you can’t find us. Even successful persecution works against the enemy. Why? Because a percentage of the persecuted Christians turn red-hot for the Lord. They become unstoppable.
When the Lord answers, our prayers cause earthquakes in the devil’s kingdom. The gates of hell are under constant assault.
Yes, we win in the end. It’s written in the book of Revelation.
But ducked down in our little foxholes, we don’t realize we’re winning right now.
These images came from Pixabay.com.
