Few subjects appear in the Word as frequently as that of Wisdom, and Understanding is not far behind. Scriptures that talk about Wisdom appear 222 times and Scriptures that deal with Understanding appear 156 times.

Have you ever noticed how many times we see the number Seven in the Word? Seven is a number in Scripture which metaphorically represents completeness — a finishing of something.

We got started last week on this look at the number, 12, and the significance it plays in the picture of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem, of course, is the portrayal of the Bride of Christ John saw and wrote about in Revelation 21. Because the number 12 has such significance as a metaphor for the completed Bride, the Bride who has gone through the fire, been tested, and overcame all in order to become the Counterpart and Other Self of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see all of the other intricacies of this number unfold before us.

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.