Apocalypse Revealed # 349
349. Sealed out of every tribe of Israel. This symbolizes the heaven and Lord's church formed from those people.
A tribe symbolizes religion as regards goodness of life, and every tribe symbolizes the church in respect to every good of love and every truth springing from that good, which produces goodness of life. For there are two elements which form the church: the goodness of love and doctrinal truth. The marriage of these two constitutes the church. The twelve tribes of Israel represented and so symbolized the church with respect to that marriage, and each tribe represented and so symbolized some universal truth accompanying goodness or some goodness accompanying truth present in that marriage.
But what each tribe symbolized has not been revealed previously to anyone, nor could it have been revealed, lest an ill-connected exposition profane the holiness that lies within these things when joined together, since their symbolism depends on their conjunction.
[2] They have one symbolism in the order in which they are listed according to their births (Genesis 29, 30, 35:18). The order there is: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin.
They have another symbolism in the order in which they are listed when they went into Egypt, namely, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali (Genesis 46:8-25).
Still another symbolism in the order in which they were blessed by their father Israel, namely, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin (Genesis 49).
Still another symbolism in the order in which they were blessed by Moses, namely, Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher (Deuteronomy 33) - Ephraim and Manasseh being listed there, and not Simeon or Issachar.
[3] Still another symbolism in the order in which they encamped and set out, namely, the tribes of Judah, Issachar and Zebulun on the east side, the tribes of Reuben, Simeon and Gad on the south side, the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin on the west side, and the tribes of Dan, Asher and Naphtali on the north side, with the tribe of Levi in the middle (Numbers 2:1-34).
And still another symbolism in the order in which they are listed elsewhere, as in Genesis 35:23-26, Numbers 1:5-16; 7:1-89; 13:4-15; 26:5-57; 34:17-28, Deuteronomy 27:12-13, Joshua 15; 16; 17; 18; 19, Ezekiel 48:1-35.
Consequently, when Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, "How good are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel" (Numbers 24:1-4ff.).
[4] On the breastpiece of judgment, namely, the Urim and Thummim, containing twelve precious stones according to the names of the children of Israel (Exodus 28:15-21), the symbolism of the tribes in their arrangement depended on the inquiry to which they provided a response.
But what they symbolized in the order in which they are mentioned here in the book of Revelation, which is still another order, will be told in what follows.
Tribes symbolize religion, and the twelve tribes the church and everything pertaining to it, because "tribe" and "scepter" are, in Hebrew, the same word, 1 and a scepter means a kingdom, and the Lord's kingdom is heaven and the church.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Hebrew מַטֶּה or שֵׁבֶט, and also מַשְׁעֵנָה.
Numbers 23
1
Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams."
2
Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
3
Balaam said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you." He went to a bare height.
4
God met Balaam: and he said to him, "I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar."
5
Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
6
He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.
7
He took up his parable, and said, "From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.
8
How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?
9
For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
10
Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!"
11
Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether."
12
He answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?"
13
Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place, where you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there."
14
He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
15
He said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [Yahweh] yonder."
16
Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and say this."
17
He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, "What has Yahweh spoken?"
18
He took up his parable, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
20
Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
21
He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. Yahweh his God is with him. The shout of a king is among them.
22
God brings them out of Egypt. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
23
Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God done!
24
Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain."
25
Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all."
26
But Balaam answered Balak, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?'"
27
Balak said to Balaam, "Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse me them from there."
28
Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.
29
Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams."
30
Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
