Apocalypse Revealed＃364
364. To number in the spiritual sense means, symbolically, to know the character of something, because a number in the Word does not symbolically mean the number, but the character of a thing (no. 10). Consequently the reference here to "a great multitude, which no one could number," means in the natural sense, literally, that there was such an immense multitude, but in the spiritual sense that no one but the Lord alone knows their character. For the Lord's heaven consists of countless societies - societies distinguished according to the varieties of their affections in general, and likewise of all the inhabitants in each society in particular. The Lord alone knows the character of everyone's affection and arranges all people in an order in accordance with it.
To know this character is what angels mean by numbering, and likewise what is meant in the Word in the following places, as when Belshazzar drank wine from vessels of the temple in Jerusalem, and the writing appeared on the wall, saying,
You have been numbered. You have been numbered. (Daniel 5:2, 3, 5, 25)
...I shall go to the gates of hell; I have been numbered... (Isaiah 38:10)
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms...! Jehovah of hosts is numbering the army for war. (Isaiah 13:4)
...see who has created these things, who has brought out by number their host. (Isaiah 40:26)
(Jehovah who) numbers the host of the stars... (Psalms 147:4)
...the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who numbers them. (Jeremiah 33:13)
...my steps are numbered. (Job 14:16)
The houses and towers of Zion and Jerusalem were numbered (Isaiah 22:9-10; 33:18-19, Psalms 48:11-13). Numbering stands for knowing the character of.
From the symbolic meaning of numbers and numbering, it can be seen why David was faced with punishment for numbering the people, the tribes of Israel, and why he said to the prophet Gad, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done" (2 Samuel 24). Moreover, why, when Moses numbered the people and all its tribes, the command was given for each man to "give a ransom for his soul to Jehovah when they were numbered, that that there might be no plague among them when they were numbered" (Exodus 30:12). The reason was that numbering symbolized knowing the character of the people in respect to their spiritual state, thus in respect to the state of the church, meant by the twelve tribes of Israel, which only the Lord knew.
2 Samuel 24
1
Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."
2
The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, "Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people."
3
Joab said to the king, "Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"
4
Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
5
They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer:
6
then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon,
7
and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.
8
So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9
Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10
David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
11
When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12
"Go and speak to David, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"
13
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me."
14
David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."
15
So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
16
When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17
David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house."
18
Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
19
David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.
20
Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
21
Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."
22
Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:
23
all this, king, does Araunah give to the king." Araunah said to the king, "May Yahweh your God accept you."
24
The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25
David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
