Apocalypse Revealed # 862
862. We have said that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people attempted to destroy everything connected with the New Church, both its truths and goods and its fundamental doctrine regarding the Lord and life, as stated in the preceding number. This is the symbolic meaning because the camp of the saints symbolizes all the truths and goods of the church which is the New Jerusalem.
That a camp in the spiritual sense symbolizes everything connected with the church with respect to its truths and goods can be seen from the following passages:
The sun and moon grew dark, and the stars diminished their brightness. Jehovah uttered His voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for numberless are those who obey His Word. (Joel 2:10-11)
I will encamp for My house some of the army... (Zechariah 9:8)
...God has scattered the bones of them who encamp against you..., because God has rejected them. (Psalms 53:5)
The angel of Jehovah encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. (Psalms 34:7)
(An angel of God met Jacob, and said to Jacob,) "This is God's camp." Therefore he called the name of that place Mahanaim (Two Camps). (Genesis 32:1-2)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 29:3, Ezekiel 1:24, Psalms 27:3.
That an army or host in the Word symbolizes the church's truths and goods, and also its falsities and evils, may be seen in nos. 447, 826, 833; and so, too, does a camp.
[2] Since the children of Israel and their twelve tribes symbolize the church in respect to all its truths and goods (nos. 349, 350), they were therefore called the armies or hosts of Jehovah (Exodus 7:4; 12:41, 51), and the places where they stopped and assembled were called camps, as in Leviticus 4:12; 8:17; 13:46; 14:8; 16:26, 28; 24:14, 23; Numbers 1; 2; 3; 4:5 ff., 5:2-4; 9:17-23; 10:1-10, 11-28; 11:31-32; 12:14-15; 21:10-15; 33:1-49; Deuteronomy 23:9-14; Amos 4:10.
It is apparent from this now that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people tried to destroy all the truths and goods of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, and also its doctrine regarding the Lord and life.
The same symbolism is found in these verses in Luke:
When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near... (At length) Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20, 24)
This is said in reference to the end of the age, which is the final period of the church. Jerusalem here also symbolizes the church.
That Gog and Magog, that is, people who engage in external worship divorced from any internal worship, will then invade the church and try to destroy it, is something we are told also in Ezekiel 38:8-9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 39:2, and that the New Church will then be established by the Lord, Ezekiel 39:17-29.
Genesis 33
1
Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids.
2
He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
3
He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4
Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.
5
He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?" He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."
6
Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.
7
Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.
8
Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?" Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."
9
Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours."
10
Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.
11
Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.
12
Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you."
13
Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
14
Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir."
15
Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me." He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."
16
So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
17
Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
18
Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.
19
He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money.
20
He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.
