Apocalypse Revealed # 285
285. We are told they "will reign upon the earth" because the earth here and elsewhere means the Lord's church in heaven and on earth. The church in both worlds is the Lord's kingdom. Therefore, lest anyone suppose that people who are redeemed by the Lord all become kings and priests who will reign upon the earth, it is important that we demonstrate from the Word that the earth or land symbolizes the church. This can be seen from the following passages:
Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes (the earth) waste, and will overturn its surface... The land shall be entirely emptied... The (habitable) earth will mourn and... be turned upside down... The earth will be profaned under its inhabitants... Therefore a curse shall devour the earth... and... the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few men will be left... ...in the midst of the land... it shall be like the stripping of an olive tree... ...the cataracts on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is violently broken, the earth is utterly split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard... (Isaiah 24:1-23.)
[2] The lion has come up from his thicket... to make your land desolate... I beheld the earth (when) lo, it was empty and void... ...Jehovah has said, "The whole land shall be desolate... For this shall the earth mourn... (Jeremiah 4:7, 23-28)
How long will the land mourn...? The whole land is made desolate, because no one lays it to heart. (Jeremiah 12:4, 11-13)
The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and withered away. (Isaiah 33:9)
Its land shall become burning pitch...(and) it shall lie waste. (Isaiah 34:9-10)
...I have heard from the Lord... a destruction decreed upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:22)
Behold, the day of Jehovah comes... to lay the land desolate..., and the earth will be shaken out of its place... (Isaiah 13:9-13)
The earth shook and trembled, and the foundations of the mountains quaked... (Psalms 18:7)
...we will not fear when the earth is transformed... When He uttered His voice, the earth melted. (Psalms 46:2-3, 6, 8)
Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? (Isaiah 40:21)
O God, You have forsaken us... You have made the earth tremble...; heal its breaches, for it is shaken. (Psalms 60:1-2)
[3] The earth and all its inhabitants will melt away; I will firm up its pillars. (Psalms 75:3)
Woe to a land overshadowed by wings... Go, ...messengers, to... a nation... trodden down, whose land rivers have despoiled. (Isaiah 18:1-2)
By the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts the land is darkened... (Isaiah 9:19)
...you will be a delightful land... (Malachi 3:12)
...I have given You as a covenant of the people to restore the earth... Sing, O heavens! And exult, O earth! (Isaiah 49:8, 13)
I shall not see Yah... in the land of the living. (Isaiah 38:11)
...who caused terror in the land of the living. (Ezekiel 32:23-27)
I would not have believed I would see the goodness... in the land of life. (Psalms 27:13)
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
I am Jehovah, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens alone, who spreads out the earth by Myself. (Isaiah 44,24, cf. Zechariah 12:1, Jeremiah 10:11-13; 51:15, Psalm. 136:6)
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation... ...thus said Jehovah, who created the heavens..., who formed the earth... (Isaiah 45:8, 12, 18-19)
...behold, I create new heavens and a new earth... (Isaiah 65:17, cf. 66:22)
And in many other places as well, which, if I were to cite them, would fill a page.
[4] The earth or land symbolizes the church for the reason that it very often means the land of Canaan, which is where the church was. That is the heavenly Canaan. Moreover, when the earth or land is mentioned, angels, being spiritual, do not think of the earth or land, but of the human race dwelling upon it and its spiritual state; and its spiritual state is the state of the church.
The earth or land also has an opposite meaning, and in that sense it symbolizes damnation, since when the church is not present in a person, damnation is. The earth or land is mentioned in that sense in Isaiah 14:12; 21:9; 26:19, 21; 29:4; 47:1; 63:6, Lamentations 2:2, 10, Ezekiel 26:20; 32:24, Numbers 16:29-33; 26:10, and elsewhere.
Numbers 15
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,
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and will make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock;
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then he who offers his offering shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of a tenth part [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of oil:
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and wine for the drink offering, the fourth part of a hin, you shall prepare with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
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"'Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil:
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and for the drink offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
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When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace offerings to Yahweh;
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then shall he offer with the bull a meal offering of three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil:
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and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
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Thus shall it be done for each bull, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the young goats.
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According to the number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to their number.
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"'All who are native-born shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
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If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do.
15
For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner [with you], a statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the foreigner be before Yahweh.
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One law and One ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.'"
17
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land where I bring you,
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then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to Yahweh.
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Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering: as the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it.
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Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout your generations.
22
"'When you shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,
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even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;
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then it shall be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering.
25
The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error:
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and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly.
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"'If one person sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering.
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The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
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You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them.
30
"'But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
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Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.'"
32
While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
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Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
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They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
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Yahweh said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp."
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All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
37
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:
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and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
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that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
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I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God."
