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I like to start my word studies by looking in the Hebrew. In Hebrew, the letter dalet refers to a door. Dalet is spelled dalet, lamed, tav. As I just mentioned, the dalet symbolizes a door. The lamed symbolizes a shepherd’s hook. Tav can mean truth. I just love the picture that is right there in the word DALET itself.
The dalet is an open door. We must allow the shepherd to goad us with his shepherd’s hook which can mean provoking us, annoying us, or stimulating us to get us to act or react to get us through the open door. It is through that open door that we will find truth.
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 10:9
Jesus tells us in John 10:9 that He is the door. Jesus is the dalet.
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
John 10:14
In John 10:14, we see Jesus as that loving shepherd who goads us through the door with His shepherd’s hook. Jesus has the lamed or shepherd’s hook in his hand.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6
John 14:6 declares that Jesus is the truth. He is the tav.
Every letter in the word dalet is a picture of Jesus. Speaking of pictures of Jesus! The ancient sheep gates which were used to give the sheep a safe place to sleep where predators couldn’t get to them is also a picture of Jesus since the shepherd would sleep sitting in the doorway to make sure the sheep stayed in and the predators stayed out.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Genesis 4:7
Scriptures Mentioning Door
So many of the doors mentioned in scripture are beautiful pictures of Jesus.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without[a] blemish, a male [b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
Exodus 12:1-7
The blood of the lamb keeping the angel of death away looks a lot like the shepherd keeping predators from the sheep. We can easily see Jesus in the door posts that kept the enemy out on Passover (Pesach).
Noah’s Ark is another place in scripture where we can see Jesus in the door. There was only one way to enter the ark… through the door.
So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:16
The Lord Himself shut them into the ark where they were safe through the devastating flood. Yet another door that looks just like the shepherd perched at the doorway of the sheepgate keeping his flock safe during the dangerous night.
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were one-fifth of the wall. 32 The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. 33 So for the door of the sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, one-fourth of the wall. 34 And the two doors were of cypress wood; two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. 35 Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.
1 Kings 6:31-35
Why are cherubim on the doors to the temple?
So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:24
Cherubim (angels) are guarding the entrance to Eden to keep people from the Tree of Life just like the cherubim symbolically guard the entrance to the temple to keep people out of the Holy of Holies. Now, check this out.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Matthew 27:51-53
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
Matthew 28:1-6
We went from doors closed and guarded by angels in 1 Kings 6:31-35 and Genesis 3:24 to angels rolling away the stone from the door of Jesus’s tomb in Matthew 28:1-6. More than likely, it was an angel that tore the veil in the temple, too. That was a dramatic shift. Jesus’s death and resurrection opened doors!
Of course, his resurrection opens doors! He is the door. He is the shepherd who goads us through the door. He is the truth that we find once we heed his leading and go through the door.