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.
Numbers 13
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2
"Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall Send a man, every one a prince among them."
3
Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh: all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
4
These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.
5
Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
6
Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
7
Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
8
Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
9
Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
10
Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
11
Of the tribe of Joseph, [namely], of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12
Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13
Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
14
Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
15
Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
16
These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
17
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up this way by the South, and Go up into the hill country:
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and see the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
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and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;
20
and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes."
21
So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.
22
They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23
They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two; [they brought] also of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
24
That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.
25
They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.
26
They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27
They told him, and said, "We came to the land where you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is its fruit.
28
However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, [and] very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
29
Amalek dwells in the land of the South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan."
30
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."
31
But the men who went up with him said, "We aren't able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we."
32
They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.
33
There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
