“And the Wall hath Twelve Gates: each one of the gates severally was one pearl”.
As many pearls as Gates — twelve; and at each gate an angel; upon each pearl, a name inscribed of one of the tribes of the Commonwealth of Israel: and three of the twelve gates on each side of the city, situated foursquare.
The twelve gates in the wall are the gates of entrance into the city from the east, north, south, and west, from whence are gathered all upon whom the Name of the City is engraved by the Spirit. The names written upon the pearls, show that the gates are representative of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and that, consequently, the members of the New Jerusalem community become such by adoption into the Commonwealth of Israel. Men must become “Jews inwardly,” “Israelites indeed,” to be citizens of “the Israel of the Deity”. At the twelve gates are twelve angels, indicating that messengers were at the gates to invite men to do the commandments of the Deity, “that they may enter in through the gates into the city” (ch. 22:14). These angels at the gates represent “the Spirit and the Bride” who “say Come;” together witH
those who understand, being the constituents of the Bride. They invite all who are athirst and all who are willing; saying, “Let him that is athirst, Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. These are the commissioned angels of the gates of the city — faithful members of the bride in all ages and generations who are able to teach others “the truth as it is in Jesus”. They are in this passage, ch. 22:17, commissioned by the Jasper Light to turn men from darkness, and to invite to enter as heirs of the kingdom and glory of the Deity. This they do by preaching the gospel of the kingdom “for the obedience of faith;” by which obedience a people are separated from “all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues;” and adopted as citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel, in the national hope of that remarkable and favored people. They thus become part of the Israel, styled by Paul “the Israel of the Deity;” which in its glorified state, with the King of kings in the midst of them, was displayed in vision descending from the Deity to Mount Zion, as already explained.
In all the Divine arrangements, the principle laid down in 1 Cor.
The Pearl As A Symbol
Pearls are most appropriate as symbols of the Redeemed. They are found in the depths of the ocean, hidden away from human sight until their “graves” (the oyster shells) are opened, and they are brought into view. The Redeemed are also “hidden . away” in the depths of the sea of nations (Isa. 57:20), or in their graves. Pearls are very precious for not more than one mussel in a hundred holds one. They are formed in the oyster by a grain of sand acting as an irritant, and so forming a nucleus. The oyster coats this with a nacreous substance which hardens to form the coating of a pearl. So it is “through much tribulation”, or pressure, as the word signifies, that the Redeemed develop characters fit for the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). But the pearl must be brought to the light before its full beauty will be revealed. Its outer coating must be peeled away, and its full lustre revealed by the light of the sun. The Redeemed, in fulfilment of the symbol, must shed their coats of flesh, and be clothed with divine nature, thereby shining forth with the reflected light of the Sun of Righteousness (2 Cor. 5:2-4; Mai. 4:2; 2 Thess. 1:10). The trouble that human “pearls” experience is as necessary for their development, as the irritant is for the pearl itself. It is claimed that one of the motives which impelled Caesar to attempt the conquest of Britain was the fame of its pearl-fisheries, for among precious stones the pearl was held in highest rank. In Latin they are given the name of unio (unity), expressing unity in diversity, for it is said, no two are found exactly alike. Shakespeare used the term union for pearl in Hamlet, Act 5, Sc. 2. — Publishers.
15:46, is always observed in regard to the natural and the spiritual — “that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual”. This order of development obtains in regard to “the Heavens and Earth” body, kingdom, world, commonwealth, resurrection, bride, holy city, New Jerusalem, and so forth. The natural is the basis of the spiritual. If there had been no natural sons of Jacob, there would have been no Hebrew Commonwealth of natural citizens; and no natural commonwealth, there would be no spiritual one, or New Jerusalem. There is, therefore, a reality in the twelve sons of the patriarch being set forth as the gates of the city, or polity, as indicated by their names having been inscribed upon the pearls, as they had previously been upon the precious stones of Aaron’s breastplate. All who “enter in through the gates into the city” are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by adoption through Christ, so that the names upon the twelve pearls are as much the names of the glorified saints, as of the twelve men who originally bore them. The names on the pearls represent the “144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (ch. 7:4) become “Israelites indeed” by that which is sealed upon them, first, doctrinally, in the present state; and afterwards, bodily, in the epoch of resurrection.