SUPERNATURAL MATHEMATICS
Part 4
March 5, 2021
The exhaustive use of the number 12
in Revelation as John begins to unfold the picture of the New Jerusalem has
always astounded me. Talk about
mathematical precision. The metaphorical
representations draw a picture of the Bride of Christ in a way you just can’t
miss! I’ve talked about this in times
past, but take another look.
When
John wrote, “And I John
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband,” the angel of the Lord was showing him the
same thing that Ezekiel had seen in a vision.
It was not a city in the sense of a physical or geographical place; it
was the ensample of a principle: a principle which strikes at the very heart of
all that the Lord has been doing in our midst.
The
mathematical revelations of this city are, individually and collectively,
inescapable proofs of the calling, the preparation, and the final adornment of
us as a people for Jesus Christ. As John
was carried about the city in the Spirit, he saw the following:
1) And [it] had a wall
great and high, and had twelve gates,
2) And at the gates twelve
angels, and the names written thereon,
3) Which are the names
of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
4) And the wall of the
city had twelve foundations,
5) And in them the
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
6) And he measured the
city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.
7) The length and the
breadth and the height of it are equal.
(i.e., 12,000 X 12,000 X 12,000 furlongs)
8) And he measured the
wall thereof, an hundred and forty four cubits, according to the measure
of a man, that is, of the angel. (i.e., 12
X 12 cubits)
Before
we continue, let me take you back to two earlier pictures in Revelation which
parallel this picture of the city.
In
Revelation 7:3 - 4, 14, John describes hearing an angel cry, “Do not harm the earth or
the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on
their foreheads.’ And I heard the number
of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every
tribe of the sons of Israel……
“…And he
said to me, ‘These are the ones who have come through great tribulation, and
they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Then
John describes a second group of 144,000 (see Revelation 14:1). “And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was
standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand,
having His onoma, and the onoma of His Father written on their foreheads.
And I heard
a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud
thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on
their harps. And they sang a new song
before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no
one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had
been purchased from the earth.”
Have
you ever considered the significance of this number, 144? It is twelve in its completeness: 12 X 12,
twelve squared, twelve completed and fulfilled.
As
you will easily remember, we have discussed the number, 12, and its
significance on numerous occasions over the years. Twelve is the number of Ekklesia. It is the number of preparation and
processing. It is the number of
tribulation and affliction.
Twelve
in atomic physics, as we have previously noted, is the maximum number of atoms
which can be cohesively related one to another.
It is the number of relationship.
When
Jesus chose His disciples, He chose twelve – not nine or ten or thirteen or
fourteen. Why? Because it was the maximum number of people
with whom He could develop an interpersonal, intimate relationship. It was the maximum number of people (units,
actually; where we define a family as a unit – not just the father or the
husband) with whom a relationship of trust, transparency, openness, faith and
love could develop without becoming watered down or diminished.
Twelve
was the maximum number of individuals who could relate one to another without
becoming divided into cliques or private little circles. It was the perfect number of trust and
transparency. Within the framework of
twelve, relationships could develop in which barriers of distrust and fear
could be dissolved. Processing and
change could take place within the individuals without the fear of
betrayal. (OK, I know the original
twelve had a Judas, but the Lord permitted that so as to fulfill His plan to
have a Bride, free from the bondage of the Serpent. The apostle Paul recognized that he was one “chosen out of due
season”to
replace Judas as a replacement member of the original twelve.)
This
picture was initiated with Israel’s selection as the first Bride in the
earth. Jacob had twelve sons, each of
whom represented one/twelfth of the whole Bride. Some have erroneously concluded that there
were thirteen tribes because of the half-tribes of Joseph: Ephraim and
Manasseh, but Ephraim was chosen to take the place of Levi, whose inheritance
was the Lord – not land and holdings as did each of the other tribes. Levi was instructed to live amongst the other
tribes, being a separate yet joined people who existed entirely as a channel of
communication between the Bridegroom and this corporate Bride.
Anyway,
John sees two distinct groups of 144,000.
The first is taken from the twelve tribes of Israel. The second was “purchased from among men” (in
the larger sense of the earth). Why two
groups instead of one?
Remember
the first Bride in the earth: the Bride who chose the flesh and the Law instead
of the intimate relationship being offered by God? That Bride was Israel. Here is an extraordinary picture of the
Spirit of Grace and Supplications, of whom Zechariah prophesied.
Though
Israel had been divorced by the Lord, though she had been “sent away” into
captivity for her adulteries, and even though the Law specifically forbade
remarriage to one who had been “put away” (see Deuteronomy 24:1-4), the Lord
promised that He would once again call Israel to Himself, that He would take
her back, divorce, warts and all! He
even sent Hosea to live the picture of that promise prophetically before
Israel.
Hosea
was instructed to marry Gomer, a woman who had been a prostitute, and to have
children with her. True to her past
life, Gomer ran off from Hosea after several years of marriage, and married
another man.
Hosea
was instructed by the Lord to go and find her and bring her back to himself,
and in so doing to say to Israel,
Hosea 3:3-5: “Thou shalt abide for me
many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another
man: so will I also be for thee. For the
children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince,
and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the
Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness
in the latter days.”
Jesus
made it clear that there would come an end to the days of His Grace to the
Gentiles (all non-Jewish nations), that Jerusalem (which had been under foreign
occupation and rule since the first days of Israel’s captivity) and Israel
would once again return to a place of relationship with Him, becoming a free
people.
Luke
quotes Jesus as saying, “For there
shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the sword, and shall
be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”(Luke 21:23b-24
NASB)
Then
Paul shares some startling revelation and promises. (See Romans 11:25-29) “For I do not want you,
brethren, to be uninformed as to this mystery, lest you become wise in your own
estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to and in Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in; know therefore that Israel will be saved,
healed, delivered and made whole, just as it has been written, ‘The Deliverer
will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My Covenant with them, when I
shall have taken away their sins.’
“From the
standpoint of the gospel (at this moment in time) they are enemies for your
sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice, they are beloved for the sake of
the fathers; for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were once disobedient to God,
but now have been shown mercy through and because of their disobedience, so
these also have now been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown
to you, they may now likewise be shown mercy.”(RACTranslation& Amplification)
What
he is saying is this: the purpose of the Bridegroom from the beginning was to
permit Israel to fall away so that He could extend His mercy to the nations,
calling them to Himself; and that when the day of His mercy and calling to
those nations is fulfilled, He will – because of their past disobedience – now
again show mercy to Israel and call her to Himself as in the days of old. The promise of the Bridegroom to Israel,
therefore, is His Covenant. In spite of
Israel’s adulteries, and her subsequent divorce from the Lord, the Bridegroom’s
gifts and calling to her are without repentance.
That
this is Truth is evidenced in a stupendous move in today’s Jewish
community. When I first began to work on
this article, I was told that in New York City alone, more than a thousand
Jews per day are coming to know Jesus Christ as their Messiah and
Bridegroom. In Israel, in spite of the
media attention to the uprisings and problems between the Arab and Jew,
hundreds and even thousands of both Arabs and Jews are turning to Jesus Christ
with their whole heart.
Jews
are forsaking their Judaism and legalistic past in staggering numbers. Even though the media spotlight is turned on
the political conflicts, a spiritual peace is in the works which will sweep the
nation of Israel and bring about the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.
I
know this doesn’t seem to fit with many of the contemporary interpretations of
“end times,” but it is happening nonetheless!
We are about to behold a miracle of the ages as the Lord brings about a
peace between brethren: Jews and Arabs.
(And, NO, I didn’t grab this out of thin air, or make it up as some kind
of new doctrine. Isaiah prophesied
it. Ezekiel prophesied it. Jeremiah prophesied it.)
Jerusalem
– the New Jerusalem – the Bride of Christ has, as her gates, the fulfilled, the
completed, the made whole Bride drawn from Israel and seen in the
representation of each of the twelve tribes.
Standing before each of the twelve gates are twelve angels who sound
forth the call of the Bridegroom. But
the New Jerusalem does not only consist of Jews.
Next
week, we’ll wrap up this picture of the New Jerusalem. Maybe these analogies don’t fit with what
you’ve heard or been taught but I want to stir your spirit and cause you to
rethink things. Hopefully, this overall
picture I’ve been drawing for you of the Call to the Bride by the Bridegroom
going forth in the earth today will awaken things in you and cause you to
realize that the Lord has a grand and glorious purpose for His people.
Things
are not unfolding in the traditional ways we’ve been taught. God is working in extraordinary ways with
folks who are responding. This is a year
of overflow for those who walk in commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If
you aren’t experiencing that overflow, perhaps it is time for you to reevaluate
your responses to the Lord. Maybe it is
time for you to junk some doctrines that have kept you in bondage, doctrines
that have kept you from walking in the fullness of all that Jesus Christ is
doing, saying, and breathing into His called-out people.
When you want what God wants for the same reason
that God wants it, you become unlimited and unstoppable!
In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment
of Ekklesia, ourSunday worship gatherings are available by conference call –
usually at about 10:30AM Pacific. That
conference number is (712) 770-4160, and
the access code is 308640#. We are now making these gatherings available on
video usingZOOM. If you wish to
participate by video on ZOOM, our login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the live voice-onlycall, you can
dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code
and listen in later. The video call, of
course, is not recorded – not yet, anyway.
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76502
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