«　WEEK 1　DAY 6　»

　　Eph.6:10-12 Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

　　In their fighting together with God and for God, the children of Israel defeated the king of Arad and destroyed his people (Num. 21:1-3). By doing this, they overcame the first enemy among the Canaanites. God's people also defeated Sihon king of the Amorites with his people and Og king of Bashan with his people (21:21-35). This means that they overcame Canaan's two gate guards. The children of Israel also defeated the Midianites with their five kings (31:1-12). By defeating the Midianites the people overcame Canaan's gate army.

　　The kings defeated by God's chosen and redeemed people signify the spiritual powers, rulers, and authorities in the air. Today we need to fight against these powers and defeat them. The fighting of God's people against the kings was for the entrance into the God-promised good land that the kingdom of God might be spread and established there. The principle is the same with us today. When we defeat the rulers, powers, and authorities in the air, the kingdom of God surely is spread and established. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 355-356)

　　As the priestly army carrying out the holy war, God's chosen and redeemed people bore with them God's dwelling, the Tabernacle of the Testimony with the Ark of the Testimony. This indicates that in the church life today we are bearing God's testimony with God Himself….As long as the church bears the testimony of God, the church is God's dwelling place. The Tabernacle of the Testimony signifies God's chosen and redeemed people built up with Him as His dwelling on the earth (the church in the New Testament). Spiritually speaking, the history of Israel and the history of the church are one…. What is recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers prefigures what is recorded in Acts and in the Epistles.

　　The Ark of the Testimony signifies Christ as the center of God's economy among His chosen and redeemed people. Today we have the ark among us; that is, we have Christ with us in a personal way. The tabernacle with the Ark was the testimony borne by God's chosen and redeemed people. During the years in the wilderness, the children of Israel…did not engage in commerce or work to make a living. God cared for their living by sending them manna and by giving them water from the rock. For a period of forty years, God's people, with the Angel of Jehovah taking the lead, camped and journeyed in the wilderness. In the eyes of the nations, the children of Israel were wasting their time. Likewise, in the eyes of the worldly people, we in the church life who have given ourselves to bear and to care for the testimony of God are also wasting our time. In the sight of God, however, it is actually the worldly people who are idle and who are wasting their time (Matt. 20:3).

　　Numbers is a record of God's chosen and redeemed people being formed into a priestly army to fight for God and to journey with God so that they may be prepared by God to possess the all-inclusive Christ as the good land. The second generation did not pass through as much as the first generation did, but they received the benefit of what the first generation experienced. I believe that the older generation told the younger generation about all they experienced, enjoyed, and suffered. This speaking was part of the raising up, or the building up, of the second generation. What the first generation experienced was not experienced in vain, for it was passed on to the second generation. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 356-358, 368)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4,”The History of God in His Union with Man,” ch. 13