If we look at the picture in Numbers 2 with the glasses of God’s economy on, we will realise that the children of Israel encamping in array typifies God’s redeemed people being consummated as the New Jerusalem.
The more we consider this picture the more we adore God for His plan, for His sovereignty, and for His creating ability.
First there was Jacob who had twelve sons, each of whom became one tribe. Then God chose one of these tribes, the tribe of Levi, to serve Him in the tabernacle, but Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and, Manasseh filled the gap, so there were still twelve tribes around the tabernacle.
The twelve tribes were on all four sides, three tribes on each side, and they were all facing the Tabernacle of the Testimony. This picture points to the New Jerusalem, which is a city with four sides, and on each side there are three gates, and on each gate there’s a name inscribed, a name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
This is not a coincidence but the masterful design of God, who from the beginning to the end of the Bible wants to gain the same thing – a building, the mingling of God with man to express Him in His glory and represent Him with His authority.
In the Old Testament we have a wonderful picture of the New Jerusalem, and in the New Testament we have the reality in the spiritual realm. Without the pictures in the Old Testament it is difficult to understand the revelation concerning the New Jerusalem in the New Testament.
May the Lord open our eyes and our understanding so that we may see this picture of the encamping of the children of Israel and how this is a type of God’s redeemed people being consummated as the New Jerusalem.
And may we be those who live a three by four Christian life and church life, that is, a life in the mingling of God and man, a life of holding Christ and the testimony of God as our center.
It is when we allow God to be mingled with us and we take Christ as our center that we are actually encamped and formed into an army to fight for the interests of God on earth and for the protection of God’s testimony.
Somehow, in a mysterious yet wonderful way, as we are being mingled with the Triune God day by day and we hold the testimony of God as the center, we are being formed into a unit of eternal and perfect government for God to rule and reign and for the enemy to be defeated. Hallelujah!
How Israel Encamping in Array Typifies God’s People being Consummated as the New Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem revealed in Rev. 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 there are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Wow!
Who in the world would think to make the encamping in array for the children of Israel to be in a similar fashion and for a similar purpose as the New Jerusalem? Who would have ever thought that the people of Israel being arranged and encamping in this way has something to do with the New Jerusalem?
Our God is an eternal God, His thought is eternal, and what is in His mind from the beginning to the end is the same thing, whether in the Old or in the New Testament.
Even in the way He arrayed His people in the Old Testament to be His army, this was with the New Jerusalem in view.
Therefore, the New Jerusalem has to be applied to our Christian life and church life, to our warfare, and to every aspect of our living, for this is the destiny that God set for us. Our destiny is the New Jerusalem!
According to Rev. 22:2-3, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God; the encamping of the people of Israel in Numbers two was around the tabernacle; this picture corresponds to the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.
In Numbers two we see the encamping in array, and in Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem. If we put these two side by side, they are the same. The New Jerusalem was a fixed city with four sides and three gates on each side, and the people of Israel with their encamping was the New Jerusalem on the move.
This is how God fights the battle, by arranging His people in array in a particular way to make them His fighting unit. The New Jerusalem is a fighting unit, and this city is typified by the encamping of the people of Israel.
Just as the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 has four sides, so also the encamping in Numbers 2 had four sides.
Furthermore, the New Jerusalem has three gates on each of her four sides, on which are the names of the twelve tribes; similarly, the twelve tribes of Israel’s encamping in Numbers 2 had three tribes on each of its four sides.
Praise the Lord, in the church life today we can enjoy and experience the mingling of God and man, and we can hold Christ and the church as our center, and in this way we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem and are being formed into the army that fights for God’s interest on earth!
Thank You Lord for showing us Your eternal intention, Your economy, which has to do with God being mingled with man to produce a corporate man to express God and represent Him. Thank You Lord for forming us into an army today by arranging us in a particular array, just as You did with the children of Israel in Numbers and just as the New Jerusalem will be. Amen, Lord, gain the reality of this encamping in an array for battle so that You may have an army ready to fight for Your interest on the earth and for the protection of Your testimony!
God’s Purpose is to be Mingled with Man to Gain an Army for the Protection of His Testimony
The picture of the encamping of the children of Israel in Numbers 2 and its fulfilment in eternity in the New Jerusalem has something to do with us, for it shows us what is God’s eternal purpose, His economy.
This all depicts and shows that God’s purpose in the universe is to be mingled with man in His Divine Trinity in order to become a unit of government, and this unit can fight for His testimony.
God’s way of fighting is different from our way of fighting; we think that, in order to fight, we need a special military action, we need to be aggressive and violent, and we need to have guns and bombs and tanks….
But God’s way of fighting is by gaining the reality of 3 x 4, the mingling of God and man with Christ and the church as the center. When we are mingled with God and hold Christ as the center, we are formed into a fighting unit to defeat the enemy and protect the testimony of God on earth.
We don’t fight with violence; we don’t fight with flesh and blood but rather, we are being prepared by the Lord to engage into battle, and we are being raised up to be His army to fight for His interests by being mingled with God and by taking Christ as our center.
We need to learn to live a 3 x 4 Christian life and church life, allowing God to be fully and thoroughly mingled with us, so that His divinity and our humanity would be mingled to form a unit of government for the protection of His testimony.
When the twelve tribes of Israel were encamped, they were like a city, and the New Jerusalem with the four sides of its wall are the safeguard of the city; we can say that the twelve camps of the army encamped in array in Num. 2 correspond to the walls of the New Jerusalem.
If we were to apply this to our Christian experience today, our coordination in the church is by being mingled with God (three times four), by taking Christ as the center (the tabernacle is the center), and it is to safeguard 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.
If we look around in Christianity today, where does God have an army being formed and arrayed for battle? Where around the earth in the many “churches” and denominations and free groups and organic churches is there the encamping in array for God to have a fighting unit?
What God is after today is for His genuine believers who, after being saved, are in the process of being sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed to the image of Christ, and glorified; these ones need to be arrayed for battle in the church, a proper local church, to fight for God’s interest.
God’s purpose in this universe is to be mingled with man in His Divine Trinity so that God and man may become a unit of government, a fighting unit, which can protect God’s testimony and fight for His interest.
Safeguarding the testimony of God is a crucial matter. We don’t need to go to a “spiritual military school” to learn to fight for God; we simply need to live a life of “three times four”, a life in the mingling of God and man with Christ as the center, and we will be prepared and positioned to be the army to fight for God to maintain His testimony.
This is what God’s economy is about: He wants to first work out the old creation, and then, out of the old creation He uses four dispensations to bring forth the new creation.
The new creation today is the church, in the millennium it will be the New Jerusalem on a smaller scale (represented by the overcomers), and for eternity it will be the New Jerusalem on a full-scale. The consummation of the picture of God’s economy revealed in the Bible is the New Jerusalem.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be formed and arrayed as the army to fight for Your interest on earth by living in the mingling of God and man. Amen, Lord, may our daily life and church life be filled with the mingling of God with man so that we may be formed into a fighting unit for the protection of the testimony of God. May our coordination in the church be in the mingling of God with man for the safeguarding of God’s testimony. Amen, Lord, prepare us and position us to be the army ready to fight for God to maintain His testimony on earth today!
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 Numbers, msg. 3 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 2, Israel’s Encamping in Array Typifying God’s Redeemed People Being Consummated as the New Jerusalem.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Saints of the Old and of the New, / Heirs of the promise God bestowed, / Components of the city are, / Together built for God’s abode. / The number twelve means government, / Perfection which eternal is; / God blent with man it also tells- / Three multiplied by four shows this. (Hymns #979)
# Tis the holy city, / New Jerusalem; / With His saints God mingles, / Makes His home with them. / He becomes their content, / His expression they; / They shall share His glory, / One with Him for aye. (Hymns #971)
# The New Jerusalem, 12 gates, gates 3 x 4, / Reveal to man the Triune God became the door; / All may go in; those chosen and / Redeemed, transformed and glorified. (Song on, New Jerusalem Applied)
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