Having a Foretaste of the City with Twelve Gates – New Jerusalem – in the Church Life

Both Ezekiel and Revelation end with a city with twelve gates, which is Jerusalem (in Ezekiel) and the New Jerusalem (in Revelation).

The result and consummation of what God has been doing with and in His people is a city with twelve gates – the city of Jerusalem, a type of the kingdom of God.

The result and issue of all that God is doing in and among His believers is the holy city of the New Jerusalem, which is a foretaste for one thousand years to the overcomers, and a full enjoyment to all the believers in Christ for eternity.

The city of God with the temple of God is the result and issue of the enjoyment of Christ, the reality of the good land. When we enjoy the allotted Christ, the all-inclusive Christ who is our everything both personally and corporately, we are being built up as the church to be God’s house, His temple, and His city.

The ultimate result of our enjoyment of Christ as the good land is that we become His corporate expression (the temple of God) and we exercise His dominion (the city of God). This is seen in type in the book of Ezekiel, it is being fulfilled among us in the church age, and the consummation is clearly seen in the book of Revelation.

In Revelation we see how the consummation of all of God’s work in and among His people, and the consummation of the process that we as His people go through, is the New Jerusalem, which is a foretaste for 1000 years for the overcomers and a full taste for all God’s people for eternity.

Today we can experience a foretaste of the New Jerusalem as we enjoy Christ and draw near to God. As we draw near to God, He shines on us and exposes our sins and shortcomings, we confess them under God’s light, and we are cleansed and qualified to enjoy Christ and be priests and kings to God.

We need to be those who today stand on the position of being a priest and a king to enjoy the Lord, be infused with Him, be filled with Him, be under His ruling and reigning, and reign in life through Him.

When we live as priests, we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem as the temple of God, and when we live as New Testament kings, we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem as the city of God. May we be the priests and kings of today, those who live the church life having a foretaste of the New Jerusalem!

The City with Twelve Gates in Ezekiel is a type of the New Jerusalem, the Mutual Abode of God and the Overcomers

In Ezek. 48:31-34 there is a city with twelve gates, three on each four sides or the city, and on the gates there are the names of the tribes of Israel. This city must be Jerusalem, which will be the dwelling place of the restored Israel with God in the earthly part of the millennium.

As such, this city typifies the overcomers in the church and the overcoming saints in the Old Testament, who will be the New Jerusalem as the mutual abode of God we the overcomers in the heavenly part of the millennium (Rev. 3:12), which is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.

The city with twelve gates in Ezekiel 48 is a type of and points to the New Jerusalem, the city which has four sides with three gates in each side, and on the gates there are the names of the tribes of Israel inscribed.

The fact that the number of the gates is twelve, composed of three times four (not six times two) signifies that God’s holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the mingling of the Triune God (signified by the number three) with His creature man (signified by number four).

The city with twelve gates is actually a mingling, the mingling of God with man. Today God is mingling Himself with us day by day more and more for the producing and building up of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. For eternity we will live in and as the city of mingling, the Triune God mingled with man.

The number twelve also signifies absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration. In the Bible the number twelve also indicates a perfect government and administration in completion.

The holy city, the city with twelve gates, is not only a mingling of divinity with humanity; there is also a perfect government which comes out of this mingling.

This indicates that the New Jerusalem is not only the eternal mingling of divinity with humanity (signified by three times four, the city with twelve gates) but also a perfect government that comes out of this mingling.

For eternity, this city will exercise full authority for God’s complete administration (Rev. 22:1, 3, 5).

First, when Christ returns, the 1000 years millennial kingdom will begin, and there will be an earthly part in the restored Jerusalem (where the saved Jews will be as priests), and the heavenly part is shared by the overcomers both in the Old and the New Testament, as a mutual abode, enjoying the New Jerusalem as a foretaste. Praise the Lord!

A day is coming when Christ as the stone cut without hands will come and smash all the human governments, and He will bring in the kingdom and rule of God on earth, a rule without any corruption or politics, a rule that is perfect, pure, and just.

And today we can have a foretaste of this by enjoying the Lord and being mingled with Him day by day and moment by moment. The more we are mingled with the Lord, the more we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem, the city with twelve gates.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be mingled with You more today for the producing and building up of the New Jerusalem, the holy city with twelve gates. Keep us in the process of mingling today, and have a way to bring in Your administration and government in us, through us, and among us. May the church life today be a foretaste of the New Jerusalem, the city with twelve gates, the city of mingling and the city of God’s perfect government!

The History of Israel is a Full Type of the History of the Church

As seen in the books of Ezekiel and Exodus together with the New Testament, the history of the children of Israel is a full type of the history of the church. Paul applies the history and experiences of the people of Israel to our spiritual experience as the church in 1 Corinthians.

The history of Israel began with Israel’s corporate experience of the passover during the exodus from Egypt (see Exo. 12), and this history will continue until the Lord’s second coming.

When the Lord returns, Israel will be restored and will build the earthly Jerusalem with twelve gates, where they will serve God as priests on the restored earth.

The history of the church began also with the Passover, which is Christ who has been sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7), and it will go on until the millennium, in which the overcoming saints will be the heavenly Jerusalem – a foretaste of the New Jerusalem – with its twelve gates.

After one thousand years of such a foretaste for the overcomers, the heavenly Jerusalem as the city with twelve gates will be enlarged to become the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.

This city will include all of God’s redeemed ones – both the redeemed ones from Israel and the ones in the church, and this city will be the expression of God and the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity future.

According to Daniel 12:1, those of the people of Israel who are found written in God’s book of life will be delivered out of the hand of Antichrist.

When Christ comes back to set up the kingdom, there will be a small number of remaining Jews – the remnant of Israel – and these ones will see Christ descending in the air; they will repent, receive Him, be saved, and regenerated.

But because they will be part of the “later believers”, they will not participate in the heavenly section of the kingdom as kings and priests; rather, they will be kept on earth to be the priests of God (see Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23) in the earthly section of the thousand-year kingdom.

It is very interesting and enlightening to see that the history of Israel is a full type of the history of the church; this really shows that God has only one plan, one purpose, and one people, which is the people of Israel (His earthly people) and the church (His heavenly people).

Now we as God’s heavenly people enjoy God’s heavenly blessings, and we enter into the experience and spiritual reality of the things that the children of Israel have experienced, such as,

• The Passover – Christ is our real Passover, He died as a unique sacrifice for our sins, so that God’s judgement will pass over us.
• Crossing the Red Sea – we can be baptized into Christ to be delivered from the world and its usurpation.
• Eating the manna and drinking the water from the smitten rock – Christ is our daily food supply, the real manna, and He has been smitten on the cross to flow living water for us to drink.
• Being healed at Marah – our bitterness and sickness is healed by the application of the cross of Christ.
• Amalek is being defeated – We have a continual war with the flesh, which has been crucified on the cross and needs to be crucified in our daily experience.
• Crossing the river Jordan to enter into the good land – We cross river after river until we enter into the full enjoyment of Christ.
• Enjoying the good land and laboring on it – Christ is the all-inclusive good land for us to labor on and enjoy in our daily living.
• Building the temple and the city of God – the issue of the enjoyment of Christ is the building up of the church as the temple of God and the city of God.
• Having the city with twelve gates – we today have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem in the church life, and we aspire to be the overcomers who enjoy the heavenly Jerusalem in the coming age; eventually, we will all be and live as the New Jerusalem, the city with twelve gates.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 27 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Ezekiel (2), msg. 11 (week 23 in the HWMR), The Holy Temple and the Holy City in the Holy Land.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
  # All the gates are pearls assigned / In the city of gold, / And the street is gold refined / With foundations twelvefold. (Hymns #978)
  # Twelve city gates are each one pearl; / Thus man is through redemption shown / Reborn and as a pearl transformed, / Entering to a realm God’s own. (Hymns #979)