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[Revelation Ch.21: New Heaven and New Earth] New
Heaven and New Earth
A little girl, visiting the countryside, was awed by the brilliance of its night skies. "Mother!" she exclaimed. "If heaven is so pretty on its wrong side, how much more on its right!" The longing for a future glorious city of God may be traced back to the Old Testament patriarchal period. Abraham, tenting wearily in Canaan, "looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 12:22). The apostle Paul described this city as "the Jerusalem which is above" (Gal. 4:26). On the sea-swept island of Patmos, the apostle John was suddenly granted a lingering glimpse of this longing of the ages, the New Jerusalem. REV
21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth This is evidently not the old world renovated or rejuvenated, but an act of new creation. Logically, if the earth were simply revitalized, it would still be round-shaped and limited. And, given eternity to enjoy it, it would have been fully explored. Perhaps the new earth would not even be round but would extend on and on forever. Its geographical limits would be endless. REV
21:1 ...and there was no more sea. The apostle John was keep captive in an island surrounded by sea. The sea separated him from his beloved friends, relatives, and churches. He seemed to long for the day when there would be no more sea. REV
21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem We believe this holy city to be the capital and center of the New Heaven and Earth. Is is resplendent beyond compare. It is also called-- The Holy City (Rev. 21:2; 22:19) The Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22; 11:16) Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22) The Bride, the Lamb's wife (Rev. 21:9) REV
21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them Today, we go to God in prayer and, by faith, meet Him face to face. However, someday it will become reality. We shall know in full the Object of our worship. God will be with us, in the fullest sense of that term. REV
21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be
any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Human life may be characterized with one word: Tears. From birth to death, and all along, tears have followed mankind. Our friends or we ourselves may wipe the tears away, but the tears still come. However, when God wipes the tears, explains each drop, it will be eternal joy and perfect happiness. We shall be so joyful and satisfied that perhaps we may wonder why we had ever cried before! REV
21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all
things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and
faithful. Many descriptions in these last two chapters of Revelation are fantastic and other-worldly. But they will be realized because it is God Himself who will create them. Everything will be made new. And God guarantees it with the phrase "these words are true and faithful." REV
21:10-12 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem ... And had a
wall great and high The encircling wall of the New Jerusalem is not, of course, intended to keep out thieves and evil people. It is intended to serve merely as boundary and set physical limits in that celestial world. The low height of the wall, compared to its gigantic height, makes this point clear. REV
21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in
them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The names of the twelve apostles on the walls' foundations recognizes the presence of the apostles representing the church, and the church's participation in the activities of this city. This the Old Testament brings us to the gates of the city, while in the New Testament we find the foundations on which the city is built. REV
21:16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large
as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand
furlongs This city of God is the grand culmination of the Divine Architect's wisdom and skill. And when He does things, He does it B-I-G! A furlong is 582 feet, and this makes the city 1323 miles in all directions, giving it a total base area of 1,750,329 square miles. And this is not counting its height which reaches far over the atmosphere into space. In terms of geography, it means a city from Maine to the tip of Florida, and from the Atlantic to the state of Colorado. From the Pacific coast, it would cover the entire United States as far east as the Mississippi River. All cities in the world are mere villages in comparison with the New Jerusalem. REV
21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and
four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. The 144 cubits of the wal would measure out to be 216 feet high (one cubit equals 18 inches). The measurements taken are such as are in common use use among men. In other words, a man's measurement of a cubit is from the elbow to the fingertips, and that is also the angel's! Incidentally, might this lead to the conclusion that angels are not of super-human stature? We do not see any giant-sized or dwarf-sized angel in the Bible. When they appear, they always appeared in the size of an average person. REV
21:18 and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. The apostle described heaven's building blocks as "gold"--not "like gold." However, pure gold is not transparent but opaque. Is heaven's gold a special element alien to that in this world? Or are they the same but heaven's gold glitters and shines with brilliance like highly polished glass? A.B. Simpson of the Christian and Missionary Alliance comments: "This does not represent so much its transparency as its translucency. It is finely polished like a mirror." Heaven's gold is so pure that men seemed to look into and through its clear depths as they walked upon it. REV
21:19-20 And the foundations of the wall of the city were
garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was
jasper ... sapphire ... chalcedony ... emerald ... sardonyx ... sardius
... chrysolite ... beryl ... topaz ... chrysoprasus ... jacinth ...
amethyst. These twelve eye-popping precious stones are very brilliant in colors and will be the foundation stones of the resplendent City of God. Although they vary greatly in hues and brilliance, the precious stones may be classified according to four general colors-- BLUE--sapphire, jacinth, amethyst GREEN--jasper, chalcedony, emerald, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus RED--sardonyx, sardius YELLOW--chrysolite A question is often asked: Is each city foundation itself one vast gem? Or is each one decked with small precious gems? No one is sure, but the former seems more reflective of the arrangement of gems on the high priest's breastplate (Exo. 28:17f and 36:17f). As for the question of whether the twelve foundations are in twelve separate sections or of twelve layers, one above the other and each layer circling the city, again we accept the latter because it is much more appealing. A foundation of separate sections tends to minimize color-matching and symmetry of effects. But when brilliant colors blend round upon round up to the jasper city, the sight is irresistible. REV
21:21a And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several
gate was of one pearl
Some commentators note that it is unnatural for such big-sized pearls, as there are no gate-size oysters. However, the Divine Architect said: "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5). REV
21:21b and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were
transparent glass. REV
21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it. It is hard to imagine that there would be no separate structure called "Temple" or "Church." But the whole place is one temple of God, and no separate structure would be necessary for worship. It would be Sunday every day! REV
21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon,
to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof.
The Scriptural record colors the New Jerusalem under the figure of "jasper stone, clear as crystal." The jasper stone is our present-day diamond, a very lustrous and colorless stone. In Revelation 4:3, John saw "a rainbow round about the throne...like an emerald" (green color). And so, this picture emerges of a city lustrous as the diamond but shot with the green tint of the emerald bow which swept the throne. With the Lamb as its lamp, the city of God seen from a distance will certainly look like a magnificent prism of inherent light, shining inside and out like a new kind of sun, sending its blessed rays into the depths of eternal space. REV
21:24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the
light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour
into it. Who are these "kings"? Some scholars think that the New Jerusalem would first descend on the millennial earth and later descend on the New Heaven and Earth. If so, these "kings" would be those Gentile rulers (under Christ) administering the affairs of the millennial kingdom on earth. Other commentators maintain a single descend for the New Jerusalem. In which case, the word nations or Gentiles is seen as theologically logical throughout eternity. In the eternal state, the racial and spiritual backgrounds of different groups of saints will still be respected.
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