'And at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.' Thus it was in the vision of the prophet, when he was taking a view of the pattern of this city: 'And the gates of the city,' saith the angel to him, 'shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel' (Eze 48:31). Which saying John doth here expound, saying, the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel were writ or set upon them.
This being thus, it cleareth to you what I said but now, to wit, that the gates are called twelve, to answer the twelve tribes, for their names are written thereon. This must therefore, without all doubt, be a very great encouragement to this despised people; I say great encouragement, that notwithstanding all their rebellion, blasphemy, and contempt of the glorious gospel, their names should be yet found recorded and engraved upon the very gates of New Jerusalem. Thus then shall the Jews be comforted in the latter days; and truly they will have but need hereof; for doubtless, at their return, when they are thoroughly sensible of the murder they have committed, not only upon the bodies of the prophets and apostles, but of the Son of God himself, I say this must needs, together with the remembrance of the rest of their villainous actions, exceedingly afflict and distress their bleeding souls. For 'the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward' (Jer 50:4,5). Mark, 'going and weeping'; there will not be a step that these poor people will take in the day of their returning, but will be watered with the tears of repentance and contrition, under the consideration of the wickedness that, in the days of their rebellion, they have committed against the Lord of glory. As he saith also by another prophet, 'I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon, and the land shall mourn' (Zech 12:10-12).
Wherefore, I say, they both have and also will have need of twelve gates, and on them the names of their twelve tribes, with an angel at each, to encourage them to enter this holy and goodly city; and to tell them that yet he counts them his friends in whose house he received the wounds in his hands (Zech 13:6).
But again, As by the names of the twelve tribes written on the gates, we may see what encouragement the Jews will have, at their return, to enter in at them; so we may also understand that by the names of the twelve tribes here written, God would have us to perceive how all must be qualified that from among the Gentiles at this day do enter in at these gates; namely, those, and those only, that be cut out of their own wild olive tree, and transplanted among the children of Israel, into their good olive tree. Such as are Jews inwardly, the Israel of God, according to the new creature, they shall enter, for the holy Gentiles also, by virtue of their conversion, are styled the children of Abraham, Jews, the chosen generation, the peculiar people, the holy nation; and so are spiritually, though not naturally by carnal generation, of the twelve tribes whose names are written upon the gates of the city (Gal 3:7; Rom 2:28; 1 Peter 2:9,10). 'And it shall come to pass,' saith the prophet, 'that in what tribe the stranger,' that is, the Gentile 'sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God' (Eze 47:23). Thus the Jews and Gentiles shall meet together in the spirit of the gospel, and so both become a righteous nation; to both which the gates of this city shall stand continually open; at which also they may with boldness demand, by the faith of the Lord Jesus, their entrance, both for communion with the God, grace, and privileges of this city, according to that which is written, 'Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in' (Isa 26:2). Thus much of the number of the gates, and now to proceed to the order of them.
[The order of the gates.]
Ver. 13. 'On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.' I shall not speak anything to the manner of his repeating of the quarters towards which the gates do look; why he should begin at the east, then to the north, afterwards crossing to the south, and last to the west; though I do verily think that the Holy Ghost hath something to show us, wherefore he doth thus set them forth. And possibly he may set them thus, and the west last, not only because the west part of the world is that which always closeth the day, but to signify that the west, when Jerusalem is rebuilded, will be the last part of the world that will be converted, or the gate that will be last, because longest, occupied with the travels of the passengers and wayfaring men in their journey to this Jerusalem. But I pass that.
From the order of their standing, I shall inquire into two things. First. Why the gates should look in this manner every way, both east, west, north, and south? Second. Why there should be three, just three, on every side of this city? 'On the east three, on the north three, on the south three, and on the west three.'
First. For the first, the gates by looking every way, into all quarters, may signify to us thus much, that God hath a people in every corner of the world. And also, that grace is to be carried out of these gates by the angels in their ministry into every place, to gather them home to him. As it is said of the living creatures, 'Whither the head looked they followed it, they turned not as they went' (Eze 10:11); so whithersoever the gates look, thither the ministers go, and carry the Word, to gather together the elect. He 'sent them two and two before his face, into every city and place whither he himself would come' (Luke 10:1; Matt 28:19; John 11:52).
Again, the gates, by their thus looking every way, do signify to us, that from what quarter or part of the world soever men come for life, for those men there are the gates of life, even right before their doors. Come they from the east, why thither look the gates; and so if they come from north, or west, or south. No man needs at all to go about to come at life, and peace, and rest. Let him come directly from sin to grace, from Satan to Jesus Christ, and from this world to New Jerusalem. The twelve brazen oxen that Solomon made to bear the molten sea (1 Kings 7:23-25), they stood just as these gates stand, and signify, as I said before, that the doctrine of the twelve apostles should be carried into all the world, to convert-as in the primitive times, so now at the building of New Jerusalem-and to bring in God's sheep to the fold of his church. Now, I say, as the Word is carried every way, so the gates, the open gates, look also into all corners after them, to signify that loving reception that shall be given to every soul that from any corner of the whole world shall unfeignedly close in with grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, therefore, men 'shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God' (Luke 13:29; Psa 107:1-3).
[Second.] 'On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.' Having thus showed you in a word, why they stand thus looking into every corner or quarter of the world, I now come to show you why there must be just three looking in this manner every way.