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 32
1
Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for livestock;
2
the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying,
3
"Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
4
the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock."
5
They said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; don't bring us over the Jordan."
6
Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to the war, and shall you sit here?
7
Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?
8
Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.
9
For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.
10
Yahweh's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying,
11
'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:
12
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have followed Yahweh completely.'
13
Yahweh's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of Yahweh, was consumed.
14
"Behold, you have risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.
15
For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people."
16
They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones:
17
but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
18
We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
19
For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward."
20
Moses said to them, "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war,
21
and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,
22
and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before Yahweh.
23
"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh; and be sure your sin will find you out.
24
Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth."
25
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do as my lord commands.
26
Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;
27
but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says."
28
So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.
29
Moses said to them, "If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:
30
but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan."
31
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, "As Yahweh has said to your servants, so will we do.
32
We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan."
33
Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities of it with [their] borders, even the cities of the surrounding land.
34
The children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
35
and Atrothshophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah,
36
and Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.
37
The children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,
38
and Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities which they built.
39
The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein.
40
Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein.
41
Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its towns, and called them Havvoth Jair.
42
Nobah went and took Kenath, and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
