Restoration
A Short History of Walls

by Darris McNeely

On a recent trip to Great Britain, our tour stopped at a portion of Hadrian's Wall in the northern part of England. Since childhood I had read about this famous wall erected in the second century by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. In its time, it stretched 73 miles from coast to coast across the country. It was built to keep out the barbarian Picts from the north, in what is today Scotland. It succeeded while it, and the will of the Romans, lasted.

But times change and most walls like this eventually become relics of failed ideas. Rome eventually retreated from Britain. Most of the wall was pulled down and its stones were used to build homes and barns, roads and smaller boundary walls between properties. What is left today can be easily stepped over by an average-sized adult. The section I viewed is in the midst of a modern town. Traffic roars by it, and the locals mostly ignore it.

History tells of other walls. In China before the time of Christ, emperors began construction on a great system of walls to again protect their rule and boundaries from invading peoples. This became one of the largest building projects ever constructed. It worked for a time, but eventually other technologies made it obsolete.

Fourteen years ago this autumn, another wall came down. In Berlin, a wall built in 1962 to keep East Germans from fleeing into the city's western sector came crashing down in a triumphal display of freedom trumping oppression. To have seen the Berlin Wall in its time was to witness the futility of a human government's ability to solve fundamental problems. Walls do not solve fundamental issues of human beings. They can serve a partial and temporary purpose for security and protection. But in the end, they will be rendered ineffective and be torn down through a change in thinking.

In Israel today, another wall is going up. To provide its citizens protection from Palestinian terrorists, a security wall is being erected along the borders between Israeli and Palestinian settlements. In addition to concrete and wire, the system will include sophisticated sensors designed to monitor any movement along the system. Millions of dollars are going into this effort to provide security for a beleaguered nation intent on holding on to its place in the world. If history is any indicator, this wall will one day fall and become another relic of human experience.

In an imperfect world in which nations continue to "lift swords" against each other, a strong case can be made for the temporary protection provided by "walls" of security. Bible prophecy shows that people will one day achieve the security all men seek, not through walls and not by their own efforts. God inspired Ezekiel to write of a time when Jesus Christ will help people to live securely in "unwalled villages" (Ezekiel 38:11).

In the world to come, when all things are restored, peace will be achieved among nations without the need of any kind of wall. Even now, every individual who is willing can seek God's help to tear down the walls that divide people and insulate us from paths of reconciliation—knowing that Christ's supreme sacrifice destroyed the "wall of separation" that stood in the way of genuine spiritual reconciliation to God and each other (Ephesians 2:13-14). Which way do you choose? WNP

 

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