The New Jerusalem
What will heaven be like and what will hell be like? This is hard to say in detail, but the book of Revelation gives us some insight.
The structure of the chapter
The chapter has a similar feature as the lion who is the lamb or the army of God who are the worshipers from all the nations coming from the Great Tribulation.
Here John hears about the bride of God who he sees as the New Jerusalem which shows that this is not a literal description (women and towns are significantly different), but a symbolic description and a strong emphasis to not neglect that we have Jewish roots.
We can structure the passage as follows:
21/1–8: Introduction to the New Jerusalem which is summary of the subsequent passage (similarly to Isa. 60)
- 21/2 -> 21/9–11
- 21/3 -> 21/22–24; 22/3
- 21/6 -> 22/1
- 21/8 -> 21/27a
22/9–22/5: The New Jerusalem
- 21/9–14: first impression of the town
- 21/15–17: measurements of the town
- 21/18–21: material of the town
- 21/22–27: internal features of the town
- 22/1–5: symbols of Gods presence
Introduction of the New Jerusalem
Everything is new
“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”
“New” is not just referring to something new, but describes a quality: The first is temporary but the new is permanent.
Here many of the Old Testament promises will be fulfilled.
No more sea
It is said, that there will be no more a sea. The sea is
- the place of the origin of evil as in Revelation or by describing the sea monsters Leviathan or Rahab or by personifying evil kings as sea monsters like Pharaoh, evil kings in general, or the sea itself as an evil medium.
- the place of the death along with Hades.
So if there is no more sea, then there is no place where evil can dwell and oppress the faithful. The sea is rather outside of the town.
Jerusalem the Holy town
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
Jerusalem is the beautiful dressed town in Isaiah, which is further developed which gets a new name and has an intimate relationship with God — God rejoices over her.
This thought is picked up in the New Testament as
- God has prepared a city for the faithful
- we have a citizenship in heaven
- there is a heavenly Jerusalem
- Jerusalem is free
The is an interesting parallel to verses 10 and 11:
Verse 2: new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband
Verse 10–11: Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God
The beautiful dress of the bride is the glory of God. And Gods glory is His mercy and compassion which also the church should reflect
God lives with the people
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
The loud voice was there before in the judgment of the kingdom of Satan and the judgment of Babel.
That God lives with his people is a promise in the Pentateuch, picked up in Ezekiel, when he returns to the temple and even including the nations. This is also a topic in the New Testament and in Revelation.
Wipe away the tears
““He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”
This is another promise form Isaiah, where tears and death flee, but also crying and sighing.
The first will be gone with all its mourning and we should with this vision not look back but forward.
All things new
“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”
All things new is fulfilled in Jesus who started with us the new creation.
Living water
“He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
This is the fulfillment from Isaiah, where God gives for free to drink. The Term “without cost” is used in John, Matthew, the epistle to the Corinthians, Galatians, Romans and the Thessalonians and very often used with gift for free.
The living water has it source in God, he gives abundant to drink, even overflowing and of course fulfilled in Jesus with the woman on the well and as a promise to all believers in him.
The overcomer
“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
Isaiah links the covenant with God with the water to drink.
The churches that overcome in chapter 2 and 3 will see here the promises
- Ephesus is promised to eat from the tree of life
- Philadelphia is promised to be a pillar in the new temple, be part of the New Jerusalem and Gods name is written on them
- Sardes is promised to be in the book of life and have white clothes
- Pergamon and Thyatira are promised to have a light stone(s).
- Thyatira and Laodicea are promised to rule with Jesus
- Smyrna is promised to be excluded from the second death
Ready for the second death
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.’”
The list of these people are counterparts to the overcomers.
Cowardly are the ones who don’t act out of fear and is the counterpart to have peace, trust in God and know that God never leaves them.
“Murderer, sexual immoral, those who practise magic arts and idolaters” can be unbelievers or people in the church that compromise like in Pergamon and Thyatira.
They are all linked to idolatry:
- murderer like sacrifice children or killing believers
- sexually immoral linked to temple prostitution
- practise magic arts links with idolatry also with Jesebel
Liars have betrayed the faith as they call themselves apostels, act in Satans way, bring false testimony, disobeying his Jesus word, denies that Jesus is Lord, who hates his brothers or sisters and who don’t believe we have eternal life in Jesus.
The list is repeated at the very end and in a shorter version at the end of the chapter, but in all cases ends with liar as it is important that we are consistent with our words and deeds.
The ultimate liar is Satan and we want to be very distinguished from him.
Details of the New Jerusalem
First look
The New Jerusalem is the counterpart to Babel when we look at the larger context. The New Jerusalem represents a woman (the bride) just as Babel represents one (the harlot), which is also reflected in Isaiah.
- Babel is the economic system distributed with the power of the ruler, and immorality is done with idolatry (unfaithfulness), but Gods people are faithful to him
- Babel causes suffering while Jerusalem removes suffering
- Babel destroys itself and Jerusalem stays forever
- Babel gets rich by exploitation and persecution but Jerusalem is rich as Gods gift
The twelve gates refer to the 12 tribes and the 12 foundation stones refer to the 12 apostel. The 2 times 12 reflect the eternal worship in heaven, but also is a reminder to look for reconciliation between Jews and Non-Jews which conflict is described throughout the book.
The strange thing is that the apostel are the foundation of the tribes (church foundation for Israel), but this makes sense when looking that Jesus the fulfillment of Israel is which is worked out by the church. Judah is in the book also listed as the first of tribes reflecting Jesus.
The measurement of the city
The measuring of the city is based on Ezekiel which shows the security against destructive forces and is a contrast to the old Jerusalem which walls were destroyed.
In Ezekiel the temple is measured as square while the town has a different shape but the temple in the middle.
In Zechariah God measures the city, so that people find refuge as God has mercy again over Jerusalem.
As you see much of the language in this chapter is taken from the description of the temple, especially from the last 9 chapters of Ezekiel.
But there will be no temple.
When you look further you will see the strange shape of the city, which is a cubicle. If you look in the Old Testament, you will find only one object with this shape: The Holy of Holies. Why is that?
Because that was a problem with the temple: God stayed in the Holy of Holies and the farther you are away from that, the farther you are from God.
Now everyone is closest to God. But not only that. All the unbelievers are outside the city which means outside of the Holy of Holies, which means: You are either completely in or completely out.
Another aspect is that the size of the city is about the size of the Hellenistic world (Roman Empire) at that time, so there is room for everyone who is willing to enter.
The material of the city
The material reminds on the restoration of Jerusalem after her suffering. The reference to gold reflects Gods glory (of all the stones like jasper).
The 12 stones reflect the breast piece of the high priest (which contain the lots to ask for God will and is square). Each stone represent one tribe of Israel. Now these represent the 12 apostels. We are also called living stone on Gods house.
Interesting is that also the temple of Solomon is build with four rows of stones as the breast piece.
Our translation says that the “the first foundations is decorated with jasper”, but a better translation is “the first foundation IS jasper”.
The mention of the street in the New Jerusalem reminds of the two witnesses who’s dead body were exposes, but now the street is in honor of them. Our former shame will be replace by eternal glory.
The internal features
The statement that the city don’t need sun or moon is a reference to Isaiah, where the last passage “your God will be your glory” is replaced by “Lamb is its lamp”, so Jesus is Gods glory/beauty. This is also the fulfillment of verses 2 and 5 of Ezekiel 43.
The statement that the nations will come and bring their splendour and glory and honor into the city can be better understood looking at Isaiah, where the same phrases are used but glory and honor is replaced there with wealth.
“Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. …, to you the riches of the nations will come.”
“The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it.”
and
“Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations — their kings led in triumphal procession.”
“On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it.”
In Isaiah they bring their wealth to acknowledge that God is with Israel and will therefore not suffer with others. They are coming to bring the good news from the salvation by God.
The statement “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream” in a later passage also links the gift of the nations to peace with Israel.
The glory and honor and splendour is not what is an attribute of the nations but what they give God (not their own glory/riches as they get from Babel).
They will bring themselves to serve God.
But who are these kings? Will all nations be saved? It seems that some of them repent and give God the glory but unfortunately not all. The context in Isaiah which we look at before describes good and bad kings which is also written in other passages.
Israel’s calling is now fulfilled. It started with Abraham to be a blessing to all nations, it went over to Israel where it started with the Exodus and it was finally fulfilled in Jesus who brought the nations to Israel (aka the Church). And now the nations are coming. These nations are not all of the nations but only those who believe in Christ, because the last verse includes unbelieving nations.
The gates are not open to have exchange with the outside but to show the result of the action and show the security (there will be no night).
While the faithful can come in, the unfaithful can not which is also reflected in two passages in Isaiah where shortly before pools of waters flow, and here in Revelation the water comes after this verse.
Symbols of Gods presence
- the river from the altar,
- the river when Jerusalem is rebuild and
- the water from the house of the Lord watering the trees
There is also a description in the creation story where the rivers there related to precious stones as in Revelation.
The source of all this is (the throne of) God and the Lamb. Water is often associated with the Holy Spirit
- when God gives us a new heart,
- born of water and Spirit
- living water and worship in the Spirit
- water and Spirit as witnesses
Finally, the circle is closed to the beginning (of creation and fall): The Tree of Life is back and everyone has access to it.
All the evil is gone and we can fully focus on serving God.
The name on the forehead was originally on the priests forehead and shows that the character of God is imprinted on them and now us.