14
Und die lebendigen Wesen liefen hin und her wie das Aussehen von Blitzstrahlen (Eig. von Zickzack des Blitzes.)
Hesekiel 1:14
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 20
1
The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2
There was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
3
The people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, "We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!
4
Why have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?
5
Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink."
6
Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them.
7
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
8
"Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink."
9
Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him.
10
Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring you water out of this rock for you?"
11
Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.
12
Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you didn't believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."
13
These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.
14
Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: "Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us:
15
how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers:
16
and when we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border.
17
"Please let us pass through your land: we will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go along the king's highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border."
18
Edom said to him, "You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you."
19
The children of Israel said to him, "We will go up by the highway; and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then will I give its price: let me only, without [doing] anything [else], pass through on my feet."
20
He said, "You shall not pass through." Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand.
21
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him.
22
They traveled from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.
23
Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,
24
"Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah.
25
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor;
26
and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered [to his people], and shall die there."
27
Moses did as Yahweh commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.
28
Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
29
When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
