Poem "The Walls"

[duxrow]

THE WALLS by Bob Smith

On the inside--looking out..
From comfort or a prison,
On the outside--looking in..
With envy or derision.

Two sides to every wall
as well as to a penny..
The other side a mystery
not known to very many..

On the inside--looking out..
"It's greener over there!"
On the outside--looking in..
"Life is just not fair!"

The wall is what divides us,
Like truth apart from fiction,
Opinions that are based upon
our private predilection!

On the inside--looking out..
Rahab sought the Truth!
and welcomed the two witnesses
who led her way to Ruth. Mt1:5

On the outside--looking in..
Wondering "What's behind it all?"
Never knowing, until going
'round until they fall!

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The English prisoner-poet Richard Lovelace (1618-57) was no doubt thinking of mental walls when he penned the familiar lines: "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage". Seen as an allegory, this account in the Book of Joshua parallels "Thy Word have I hid in my heart", Ps119:11, and "I and my Father are one", Jn10:30, with the two unidentified spies hidden by Rahab. She married Salmon and they had a son Boaz, so she became mother-in-law to Ruth, and ancestor of David. Her physical house was in the wall when the wall came down!

The salvation precept is stated plainly in Josh6:25 --"And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, ...because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." The allegory says she had the faith, Jas2:25, to oppose and defy her whore of Babylon worldly culture!



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