Crystallization-Study of Numbers (1)
Message Two
Israel’s Encamping in Array Typifying God’s Redeemed People Being Consummated as the New Jerusalem
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Num. 2:1-2 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, the children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side.
Rev. 21:12 (The New Jerusalem) It had a great and high wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel:
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl.
Word of Appetizer
Why is it that children of Israel encamping in array typifies God’s redeemed people being consummated as the New Jerusalem?
The New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 has four sides, and each side has three gates. The total number of gates on the four sides of the New Jerusalem is twelve, and on the twelve gates are the names of the twelve tribes. According to verses 2 and 3, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God. The Israelites’ encamping in Numbers 2 was around God’s tabernacle; this picture corresponds to the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Just as the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 has four sides, so also the encamping in Numbers 2 had four sides. The New Jerusalem has three gates on each side, on which are the names of three tribes; similarly, the twelve tribes of Israel encamping in Numbers 2 had three tribes on each side.
Spiritual Burden
God’s purpose in the universe is to be mingled with man in His Divine Trinity in order to become a unit of government; this unit of government can fight for His testimony.
The twelve camps of the army encamped in array in Numbers correspond to the walls of the New Jerusalem; likewise, the coordination in the church is for safeguarding God’s testimony. The administration of each local church should be “three times four, ” which equals “twelve, ” for the divine administration in a locality; this administration is an army that fights for God and maintains God’s testimony.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In Numbers 2:2 Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “The children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side.
The children of Israel encamping in array typifies God’s redeemed people being consummated as the New Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem “had a great and high wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel”.
“The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl”.
The Experience of Life
Christ was wounded for us in order to have us imprisoned in His wound so that He might carry out His secretion over us again and again throughout our entire life to make us pearls for the building of God’s eternal habitation.
His death is the place where He has the position to secrete Himself around us, and this is the only place where we can enjoy and experience His resurrection life as a kind of life-sap secreting itself around our being self around us, and this is the only place where we can enjoy and experience His resurrection life as a kind of life-sap secreting itself around our being to make us a wonderful piece of pearl for the entry into God’s building.
Practice and Application
The children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side; in the coordination in the church, the believers are not allowed to have their own choice; their coordination must come absolutely out of God’s ordination and arrangement.
We can experience His death only by the power of the resurrection of Christ; by the power of the resurrection of Christ, we have the ability and the power to keep our pitiful self on the cross; We also should seek the daily experience of the resurrection of Christ subjectively by the bountiful supply of the Spirit (the reality of resurrection) of Jesus Christ that we may be conformed to the image of the firstborn son of God.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
Num. 2:1-2：Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, the children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side.
Rev. 21:12-13 It had a great and high wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. On the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
II. The children of Israel encamping in array typifies God’s redeemed people being consummated as the New Jerusalem
In the matter of encamping in array, there was no human choice; whichever tribe an Israelite was born of, he had to encamp by the standard of that tribe; in the coordination in the church, the believers are not allowed to have their own choice.
There were twelve standards among the Israelites (three on each of the four sides of the Tent of Meeting), but there was only one central goal; they took the Tent of Meeting and the testimony of God as their center.
There were three camps in each of the four sides; three denotes the Triune God, and four denotes the created man; three times four signifies God in His Divine Trinity being mingled with the created man as one; Thus, according to the numbers in the Israelites’ encamping in array, their formation signifies God in His Divine Trinity being mingled with the created man, forming a unit of eternal and perfect government.
The New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 has four sides, and each side has three gates; the total number of gates on the four sides of the New Jerusalem is twelve, and on the twelve gates are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; According to verses 2 and 3, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God; the Israelites’ encamping in Numbers 2 was around the tabernacle; this picture corresponds to the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.
Key Verses (2)
Rev. 21:12-13 It had a great and high wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. On the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
III. The New Jerusalem “had a great and high wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel”
The wall is for separation and protection; New Jerusalem will be absolutely separated unto God and will fully protect the interests of God.
Its wall will be great and high; today all believers need such a great and high wall for their separation and protection.
In God’s eternal economy, angels are ministering spirits (Heb. 1:14); they serve those who inherit salvation and who participate in the eternal blessing of the New Jerusalem, the center of the new heaven and new earth.
Israel represents the law of the Old Testament, indicating that the law is represented at the gates of the New Jerusalem; That the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed on the twelve gates signifies that the twelve tribes are the entrance into the holy city; as such, they lead people, through the preaching of the gospel, into the riches of the Triune God to enjoy the supply in the city.
Key Verses (3)
Rev. 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl….
Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
IV. “The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl”
Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death: When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a precious pearl; That the twelve gates of the holy city are twelve pearls signifies that regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ is the entrance into the city.
Pearls signify the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects: His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection: Both kinds of secretion (dispensing) require the seeking believers’ daily experience of the death of Christ subjectively by the power of Christ’s resurrection that they may be conformed to the death of Christ; His death is the place where He has the position to secrete Himself around us, and this is the only place where we can enjoy and experience His resurrection life as a kind of life-sap secreting itself around our being to make us a wonderful piece of pearl for the entry into God’s building.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 In the matter of encamping in array, there was no human choice—Num. 2:2; 1 Cor. 12:18
(Please illustrate that in the coordination in the church, the believers’ are not allowed to have their own choice; their coordination must come absolutely out of God’s ordination and arrangement.)
T2 The Israelites have only one central goal; they took the Tent of Meeting and the testimony of God as their center—Num. 2:2
(Please illustrate that in the New Testament both Christ and the church, the enlargement of Christ, are the reality of the tabernacle in these two aspects.)
D2
T1 The Israelites encamped facing the Tent of Meeting on every side—Num. 2:2
(Please illustrate that this means that the testimony of God faced all sides.)
T2 There were three camps of the Tent of Meeting in four directions: the east, the south, the west, and the north—Num. 2:3-31
(The numbers in such an encampment have a particular significance. please illustrate that the spiritual significance of Three times four and Twelve.)
D3
T1 The New Jerusalem has four sides, and each side has three gates; the total number of gates on the four sides of the New Jerusalem is twelve—Rev. 21:12-13
(Please illustrate that the Israelites’ encamping in Numbers 2 corresponds to the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.)
T2 The coordination in the church is for safeguarding God’s testimony—Rev. 21:12-13
(Please illustrate that the twelve camps of the army encamped in array in Numbers correspond to the walls of the New Jerusalem.)
D4
T1 The wall is for separation and protection—Rev. 21:12-13
(Please illustrate the significance of the wall in the New Jerusalem.)
T2 That the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed on the twelve gates in New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:14
(Please illustrate that as such entrance, they lead people, through the preaching of the gospel, into the riches of the Triune God.)
D5
T1 The New Jerusalem ‘s twelve gates were twelve pearls—Rev. 21:21
(Please illustrate the significance of Pearls are the gate in New Jerusalem)
T2 We can enter into the city only through the once-for-all regeneration—1 Pet. 1:2
(Please illustrate that the Triune God is our triune entrance according to 1 Pet. 1:2)
D6
T1 The death of Christ secrets, dispenses to produce the gate of city—Phil. 3:10
(Please illustrate that which two aspects the issue of Christ’s secretion that Pearls signify)
T2 The application of the subjective death of Christ—Phil. 3:10; 1:19
(Please illustrate that how can we put this application of subjective death of Christ into our daily experience.)
