Chapter 29 The New Jerusalem
CHAPTER XXIX
Chapter 21: THE NEW JERUSALEM
21.9: There came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials, who were laden with the seven last plagues, and he spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.
The new heavens and the new earth come into being for the saints of 20.4-6 at the beginning of the Millennium. The New Jerusalem becomes their spiritual home at the same time. They are the Bride with whom the Lamb enters into marriage in 19.7-9. As so often, though, to press the figures too far in terms of their literal content would only produce confusion. The saints raised to glory at the end of the Millennium, too, then become part of the system of the new heavens and the new earth. They enter into the New Jerusalem. And they, too, are incorporate in the Bride of the Lamb. That John is meant to understand this is shown by the fact that it is one of the angels charged with the Vials who takes him to see the vision of the Bride, which must mean that the pouring out of these has not long ceased. There is nothing lacking in the blessings of the saints whom the Lord glorifies on His return. All they await as the 1000 years runs its course is the completion of their numbers which the end of that period will bring.
21.10: He carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God (-21.1 la).
On just such an eminence did Ezekiel stand (Ezekiel 40.2) to behold "the frame of a city to the south", and see visions relating to the future restoration of his people after the flesh, natural Israel; and from that height he saw the culmination when "the glory of God", which had forsaken the city so long ago, returns to its temple (43.2-5). On such a mountain, too, stood the Lord Jesus to behold "all the kingdoms of the world and glory of them" during His temptations (Matthew 4.8 ). The Lord Jesus' vision was of the whole world over which He would rule, and, fittingly, this Lord is to be the Bridegroom of a Bride drawn from all nations, which this New Jerusalem represents. This is "the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" as they will really be when the Lord, Who resisted the temptations to take them in all their tawdry worldly splendour, will transform them into the place where God's glory can truly dwell. So it will be when the city which all the saints since Abraham have been looking for, "which
hath foundations, whose builder and Maker is God", is set up on the earth (Hebrews 11.10,16; 12.22).
Of course no-literal city descends from heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ, "Who is our life" is He Who appears, bringing with Him the lives of the saints He guards (Colossians 3.4); them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him (1 Thessalonians 4.13). The saints have, though they lived on earth, been spiritually in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1.3; 2.6), so it is their abiding reality which is revealed when He returns, and what He brings with Him is their "house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens", with which they earnestly desire to be clothed (2 Corinthians 4.16-5.4). This is the incorporation of "the hope laid up in heaven" (1 Peter 1.4). In short, all that is treasured up in the keeping of the Lord, Who is "able to guard that we have committed to Him against that day" (2 Timothy 1.12) then comes down and assumes reality.
21.11: Her light was like to a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal: having a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 21.13: On the east three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 21.14: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The jasper stone represented the brightness of God Himself in 4.3,6, once more emphasizing the presence of God in the blessed estate of His children. "The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" will then be seen, not as now in a glass darkly, but face to face (1 Corinthians 13.12; 2 Corinthinas 3.8). Jasper is said to be the material of which the wall is constructed (21.18), as well as constituting the first of the twelve foundation stones (21.19). The "wall great and high" was, according to 21.17, 144 cubits high, or somewhere around 216-250 feet, or 66-76 meters, "according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel". This "cubit of man" is drawn from Deuteronomy 3.11, in connection with the size of the bed occupied by Og the giant. The cubit is normally taken as the distance in a normal adult from elbow to finger-tip (though the unit in Ezekiel 43.5ff is larger by a hand-breadth, or something around two feet or 60 cm.) The need to define the cubit of a man in Deuteronomy presumably arises from the fact that Og, as a very tall man, would probably have had forearms in proportion, and his bed in terms of his own 'cubit' might not have sounded very large. If the same reason applies in our present passage, it would mean that the angel was of normal dimensions, which supports all that we have learned from the
appearances of angels in other places. The wall, therefore, is very high, as high as a 20-25 storey building. But it is not the wall of giants' cities (1 Kings 20,30) where men of gigantic stature live. It represents superlative protection for people of normal height, within which those who live are safe from any assault, not of people only, but also of sin and death. No doubt it is for this reason that the size is given as the perfect multiple of a perfect number, on the lines of the symbolic total number of the saints themselves (7.4ff).
The words "twelve gates on which are the names of the twelve tribes" are taken directly from Ezekiel (48.31-34), where the names and directions of the twelve tribes are given: Reuben, Judah and Levi northwards; Joseph, Benjamin and Dan eastwards; Simeon, Issachar and Zebulun southwards; Gad, Asher, and Naphtali westwards. This arrangement corresponds neither to the camp in the Wilderness (where additionally Levi is omitted eecause of its special place round the Tabernacle), nor to the listing in Revelation 7 (from which, as we have seen, Dan is omitted); nor does it correspond to the strips allocated to the tribes in Ezekiel 48.1-29. These loose ends are not easily tied up, but we should in any case expect the twelve tribes in Revelation to be understood as they are in chapter 7, of the redeemed of all nations, for this new Jerusalem is no city of natural Israel.
There were twelve angels at the gates. We are no longer concerned with seven angels pouring out their deadly Vials in vengeance, but with attendants at each of the gates, emphasizing the sanctity and security of the city they watch, seeing that no intruder enters, but ensuring the free passage of those with the right to enter. How different this is from the cherubim with the flaming sword, which barred the way into the old Eden to Adam and to us all, until the day of regeneration should come (Genesis 3.23-24).
The city had twelve foundations, on which were written the names of the twelve apostles, an evident reference to Ephesians 2.20, in which the church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone". There is no value in trying to identify whose names precisely stood on those stones, whether Judas Iscariot's name has been deleted, and whether that of Matthias or of Paul takes its place. What is perhaps more to the point is that, if in this city the twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes, and the twelve foundations bear those of the twelve apostles, some connection is to be looked for between the two: and immediately there spring to mind the words to of Jesus to His followers, "Ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19.28; Luke 22.30). It was the same Lord who revealed both truths: what conclusions was He inviting us to draw? Could it be that, real though the second coming, the restoration of natural Israel, and the resurrection of the apostles and saints will be, something different from a literal connection is to be looked for between the apostles and the tribes? In view of the evident mortality of the prince over the whole land in Ezekiel (for he has sons, and needs instructions in fair dealing when he gives them possessions by inheritance (46.16-18), it would be strange if the apostles were to occupy positions over twelfth-parts of his domain, presumably as his subordinates. There is evidently much to learn about the structure of the administration of the kingdom of God which we can hardly expect to apprehend unless and until we see it put into operation.
21.15: He that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof and the wall thereof. 21.16: And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal. 21.17: And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
Ezekiel 40.3,5 still provides the general pattern on which this picture is based. The golden reed replaces the "reed like to a rod" of 11.1. There the 'rod' was a rhabdos, a term used for an ordinary traveling staff (Matthew 10.10 ; Hebrews 11.21; 9.4); a sceptre pertaining to a king (Hebrews 1.8,8), and also of correction and chastisement, particularly in this Book (2.27; 12.5; 19.15; 1 Corinthians 4.21; the related verb is also used in Acts 16.22 and 2 Corinthians 11.25 of beatings suffered by Paul, and the serjeants of the magistrates bear the name rhabdoukhos in Acts 16.35,38). Too much should not be made of this, for no other name for 'rod' is found in N.T., and there is no element of chastisement in measuring "the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein" (11.1). It might be at least as appropriate to think of the rod as belonging to a travelling man, a stranger and pilgrim, who has not yet reached his settled abode, which is very typical of the situation in chapter 11, and then to draw the contrast with the elegant and rich symbol of permanence and glory with which the New Jerusalem is evaluated.
The whole structure, gates and all, was measured in detail before the eyes of John (11.15), as in Ezekiel, but none of the figures save the overall dimensions of the city and the height of the walls are given to us. God knew to the tiniest detail what went to the make up of this holy city, but it is not important that we
should know. If all is plain in the mind of our Maker, that is all we need to be concerned with.
The square structure of the city is like that of Ezekiel's Jerusalem, but the dimensions of the New Jerusalem are incomparably greater. Ezekiel's city is 4500 reeds square, or about 10 miles, or 16 kilometres, square. That of John is 12,000 stadia square. It was stated on page 267 that a stadium and an English furlong were roughly equivalent, but we may need more precise figures, so we commence with the statement of The Shorter English Dictionary that a Roman mile of 8 furlongs was 1618 English yards. That being so the furlong would be 0.115 of an English mile, and the edge of the city would thus be 0.115 x 1500 = 1380 English miles. If this were a real city, it would occupy about half the area of the United States of America, or 20 times that of the United Kingdom, and if anyone were perched on a tower at one corner of it, and with excellent eyesight wished to see the opposite corner, that tower would need to be 450 miles high, compared with the highest mountain on earth, which is less than 6 miles high!
This is quite enough to show that the city is not literal. But there is one measurement which could possibly be significant, and even if it is not it is certainly an exciting coincidence. That is that the distance between Jerusalem (the city of the Great King), and Rome (the capital of the Empire which then controlled Jerusalem and the world) is somewhere very close to 1400 miles.
Now this is most extraordinary, if coincidence it is. The two figures, for the side of the city and the distance from Jerusalem to Rome, cannot differ by more than a couple of percent. No round figure in furlongs could have been chosen which would have expressed it more accurately. This discovery was so exciting that an immediate search was made in the available commentaries to see whether the point had been noted. It was not in Alford, who capriciously makes the 12,000 furlongs the entire distance round the city. It was not in Speaker's Commentary, though this came in with the interesting observation that the figure is exactly 100 times the dimensions of ancient Babylon as described by Herodotus, who also called it 'four-square'. Any substantive comment whatever is conspicuously absent from Adam Clarke and from Ellicott. It really does look as though the possibility has been missed.
But how appropriate it is. The city which John sees has a length which extends from the one most important capital city to the other. What better picture of universality could be offered? This is a world-wide kingdom taking in both of its predecessors, not unlike a picture of the kingdom in O.T., where "a highway from Egypt to Assyria" unites the ancient rivals in the harmony of a divine rulership (Isaiah 19.23-25).
"The length and breadth and height are equal". In this case the city is a cube, which presents the double problem: how could any city be 1400 miles high? and how could a cubic city have a wall of 144 cubits round it, and for what purpose? To the mind of this writer the best answer is the humblest: we do not know and we cannot picture it. God is not obliged to talk in three-dimensional terms as though there was nothing in His universe other than that which our puny minds can comprehend. The city represents a divine structure reaching out into the experiences to be enjoyed by immortalized beings, and 'there are more things in' the new heaven and the new earth 'than ever were dreamt of in our philosophy.' We have the same problem in drawing pictures of that picture of the heavenly splendour shown us in terms of the cherubim of Ezekiel 1.4-28.
If the three main dimensions are equal, then this corresponds on a hugely enhanced scale to the cubic shape of the Most Holy place (Exodus 26.33), and would emphasize that the communication between God and His saints in the coming age would eclipse the few moments which the old high priests, once a year, were permitted to spend in the symbolic presence of the Almighty under the old covenant (Hebrews 9.7). And since 'height' moves upwards to God, the equality of vertical and horizontal measurements would show that the tabernacle of God is indeed with men, and that God now dwells with His children in a way He never has before (21.3). When that time comes, how much truer than ever before will it be that the saints will be "strong to apprehend what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of God that passeth knowledge," being "filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3.18-19). Were things like this some of the "visions and revelations of the Lord", which Paul saw and heard, and which it "was not lawful" at that time "for a man to utter?" (2 Corinthians 12.1-10).
21.18: The building of the wall thereofwas jasper, and the city was pure gold, like to pure glass. 21.19: The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second sapphire; the third chalcedony; the fourth emerald; 21.20: the fifth sardonyx; the sixth sardius; the seventh chrysolite; the eighth beryl; the ninth topaz; the tenth chryso-prase; the eleventh jacinth; the twelfth amethyst.
The walls are of jasper. The city as a whole will display the glory of God, so that those who live outside, for as long as there is any outside world, will see the glory which has become manifest among men, and which awaits those who will yet respond. "Pure gold, like pure glass" seems to combine the opaque and the transparent in one. Yet if the gold is refined of all its dross, and polished to a mirror smoothness, its very reflected images will be so clear as to suggest transparency. The word employed, hualos (as also in 21.21), certainly does refer to a transparent object rather than to a mirror, but that might be the right expression to use for this mirror. Men will no longer be seeing "through a glass darkly", but seeing face to face, knowing as they are known (1
Corinthians 13.12).
The identification, and therefore the interpretation, of the precious stones presents a major problem, which the table below will illustrate:
Revelation 21
Exodus 28
LXX
1
Jasper
1
Sardius
2 3
Sapphire (RVm lapis lazuli) Chalcedony
2 3
Topaz Carbuncle (RVm emerald)
Emerald
4
Emerald
4
Emerald (RVm carbuncle)
Carbuncle
5
Sardonyx
5
Sapphire
6
Sardius
6
Diamond (RVm sardonyx)
Jasper
7
Chrysolite
7
Jacinth (RVm amber)
Ligure
Beryl
8
Agate
9
Topaz
9
Amethyst
10
Chrysoprase
10
Beryl (RVm chalcedony)
Chrysolite
11
Jacinth (RVm sapphire)
11
Onyx (RVm beryl)
Beryl
12
Amethyst
12
Jasper
Onyx
This is altogether too confused a picture to permit even of confident identification, to say nothing of interpretation. Only 8 of the 12 names correspond, even using AV and RV text, and these are'not in sequence. Marginal modifications occur in 9 of the 24 places, and LXX adds 5 more. In Exodus the stones are to be "according to the names of the children of Israel" (28.21), which is plainly quoted in Revelation 21.12. But in default of any precise and unequivocal identification we can certainly note that the city is adorned with "every precious stone" (21.19), which can be compared with "all manner of precious stones" such as David prepared for the temple (1 Chronicles 29.2). These were the merchandise of ancient Tyre (Ezekiel 27.22), which formed the model for the adornment of the false religious system of Revelation 17.4; 18.16. The idolatrous merchandise and jewellery of the harlot is turned over to the beautification of the city of the saints. With a truer instinct than the disciples showed on Olivet, the saints of the future will be able to exclaim to their Lord, "Behold, what manner of stones and what manner of buildings!" (Mark 13.2; Luke 21.5).
21.21: The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
The gates are 'portals', vestibules or gate-towers for a walled town, or porches for fine houses, pulon, found in Matthew 26.71; Luke 16.20; Acts 10.17; 12.13-14; 14.13; Revelation 21.12-25; 22.14), as distinct from a mere closure to a road or premises, pule, found in Matthew 7.13-14; 16.18; Luke 7.2; 13.24; Acts 3.10 — rather an exception, this one! — 9.24; 12.10; Hebrews 13.12). Even in the symbolism the pearls must have been for ornamentation only, for "the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall be no night there" (21.25). It is doubtful whether the
word 'pearl' occurs in O.T., for the word so translated in Job 28.18, gabish, which occurs only once, is simply transliterated in LXX. In N.T. it symbolizes the precious message of the gospel (Matthew 7.6; 13.45-46), is once used of actual adornment of the person (1 Timothy 2.9), and, as with the other precious stones, is found on the clothing of the Harlot in 17.4; 18.12,16,21. Each of the true apostles was concerned with proffering the pearl of great price to the world, and it is fitting that the open entry of every saint through the gates of salvation should be so symbolized.
The street is of pure gold. Then the saints will walk the road to their rewarded faith, and can look down at the pavement beneath their feet, and see a reflection so clear that it is as though the real person walked foot-to-foot beneath, showing nothing displeasing to the eye.
21.22:7 saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine on it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb (-21.23).
In view of the many parallels with Ezekiel 40-48, already noted and yet to come, this is a remarkable statement. John's eyes had evidently been searching the city as it descended from heaven, looking for its temple, and it simply was not there! The contrast with Ezekiel is plainly intentional, and intended to provoke our thought. For the O.T. prophet describes the future temple minutely, with its ministry for a repentant Israel (43.1-12), its offerings (43.18ff), its altar for which atonement must be made, as in the original Tabernacle (43.20), its gate closed to all, even the Prince who would reign there (44.1-3); its priesthood of the house of Zadok, plainly mortal in that they must not wear "anything that causeth sweat" (44.18), nor incur the risk of going drunk to the service of their God (44.21; cf. Leviticus 10.1-11), and in that they may marry and be given in marriage (44.22; contrast Luke 20.34-36), and have mortal parents, children, and brothers and sisters (44.25). In all these particulars the city of John is contrasted with the city and temple of Ezekiel, and now there comes this most dramatic of all: "I saw no temple!" Yet it is consistent. The change in no way reflects on the literality of Ezekiel's prophecy in relation to trie natural Israel which it concerns. There are problems in that field too, but they are unaffected by the taking over of the language of Ezekiel by the Lord Jesus in Revelation. What Ezekiel's Jerusalem is to natural Israel (and through them to the rest of the mortal world), so is John's New Jerusalem to spiritual Israel. Those who enter into this city
are the redeemed bf the Lord; for them the sacrifice for sins has been offered once and for all. Even while they lived as mortals they had free access to the throne of grace in the heavenly Most Holy at all times: and now all this holy city is their holy place. It does not have a temple because it is a temple. They are in the constant company of their Redeemer and their God.
For them, too, there is no darkness, as the elaborate quotation from Isaiah 60 which now follows shows convincingly:
Isaiah 60
Revelation 21
60.2
The LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
21.11:
Having the glory of God.
21.23:
The glory of God did lighten it.
60.3:
Nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
21.24:
The nations (of them that are saved) shall walk amidst the light thereof.
60.11:
Thy gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night.
21.25:
The gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there).
60.11:
That men may bring to thee the wealth of the nations.
21.26:
They shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it.
60.19:
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to thee; but the LORD shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
21.23:
The city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.
Since the passage in Isaiah relates primarily to the restoration of natural Israel, the references to sun and moon not shining mean that God will not forsake His penitent people. The same will be true in redoubled measure of the saints, whose New Jerusalem enshrines life that shall never end, and such a presence of God and His Son in their midst as might indeed, despite the symbolic character of the words, cause them to experience a light which man has not known before. The God Who said, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1.3), and Who has shined in the believers' hearts through the gospel (2 Corinthians 4.6), has doubtless greater and more glorious light, which mortal eyes cannot bear, yet to display in the time of blessedness to come. If the face of Jesus did "shine as the sun" at His Transfiguration (Matthew 17.2), then His glory can hardly be less when that fleeting glimpse of the kingdom of God coming with power is translated into permanent reality.
21.24: The nations (of them that are saved) shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. 21.25: And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there): and they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it (-21.26).
It does appear that the words "of them that are saved" ought not to be there, as though the scribe who might have inserted them was asking what mortal nations were doing, having free access to the new Jerusalem, which is the province of the immortal saints. And of course this is true. When the Lord judges "all nations" in the sense of Matthew 25.31, it will be the accountable of those 'all nations' to whom the worldwide preaching has been carried out, as described in 28.19-20, thus will "the nations of them that believe" be selected. Yet there is a sense in which even the subject nations will be involved, as 21.26 shows, for it is the "glory and honour of the nations" which will be used to adorn the city of the saints. We have already seen in Isaiah 60.11 that the wealth of the nations will be used to beautify the Jerusalem of restored natural Israel, and the same theme recurs elsewhere in the prophets. The reading of Haggai 2.7-8 in A.V., "the desire of all nations shall come", so temptingly ascribed to Messiah in Handel's oratorio, should really be understood as in R.V.: "The desirable things of all nations shall come. . . The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the LORD of hosts." The splendour which was brought to Jerusalem by the navies of Solomon will be eclipsed by the ornaments to be presented to the Great King by the adoring nations of the coming day; and in that glory of His, the saints who live and reign with Him will surely share, so that their exalted state represented by their city of New Jerusalem will also be garnished and garlanded with their praises.
21.27: There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie; but only they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
We have considered this under 20.15 and 21.8. It is the fulfilment of the Scriptures quoted on page 357 concerning those sins, the continued practice of which will exclude from the kingdom of God. It is the final demonstration that in the New Jerusalem we are concerned solely with those who are blessed with immortality, first at the Lord's return (when the survivers of the nations will bring their tributes to His gates), and finally when the blessing of the remaining faithful at the second judgement completes the redeeming work of God in the earth.
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