Revelation Chapter 21
We noted to end Chapter 20 that earth was no more. What more appropriate than a new heaven and earth to begin 21. A new creative act of God to restore the earth and the heavens to their pre-fall and perfect state.
2022, Vs 2,
"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." [Rev 21:2 ESV]...going back to 19:6-10...In vs 7, it says that the time for the marriage has arrived. It says the bride is ready. The angel says blessed are those invited to the supper. There is no specification as to the identity of the Bride in this verse. It does not say the church is the bride. A few verses:
""Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." [Jer 2:2 ESV]
"8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore." [Jer 3:8 ESV]
Ahh....God divorced Israel, but never Judah...
""Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah," not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD." [Jer 31:31,32 ESV]
"18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy." [Hos 2:18-19 ESV] Perpetual betrothal, but no marriage. This looks to be about the Millennial, rather than post-GWT.
"1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." [2Co 11:1-2 ESV]
Paul makes clear that he is about to stretch a metaphor way beyond what it should be.
So I have always heard that the church is the bride of Christ. I cannot really find that in so many words. Is it right? If so, how do we get there?
In the first verse above we have a city prepared "as a bride". Doesn't say "Jerusalem, the bride prepared for her husband". The word "as" is really there. It identifies this picture as metaphor. The city is made ready for presentation. The city is not a bride.
In the next verse, Jer 2:2, we see the nation of Israel "as" a bride in her behavior toward God.
In Jer 3:8, God does not divorce a city, but a people. It specifically says that God divorced Israel for her unfaithfulness. But He did not divorce her sister Judah. God with two wives - sisters? I can't go there...but that's what it says.
From these verses, 31:31, 32, we see that the word is covenant. As it is worded, what is in view is a covenant to replace the previous covenant. Therefore, the whole idea of marriage here is symbolic of a commitment unbreakable except for cause of unfaithfulness. A covenant with sisters is fine, even one as binding as marriage, and requiring specific "divorce" if the covenant is broken.
So...that says that in the OT, marriage was a metaphor for covenant, and was the relationship of God with Israel and Judah.
Applying that same analysis, with whom does Christ have a covenant? Certainly we would say with the church. I prefer to think of the church as the faithful betrothed, at least up to this point in Revelation. I see no marriage. I prefer to think of the relationship between Christ and the church as a binding covenant or unbreakable contract. The bride part is metaphor giving us incite into the depth of the relationship. Not just a contract, but more akin to a marriage contract.
Furthermore, I don't even think it is saying that about the new Jerusalem. It is only saying it is prepared for presentation, the dwelling place of theos on earth.
This verse:
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [Rev 21:3 ESV] This language ties to Jer 31:33,34. The promise God makes to dwell with the chosen people is fulfilled only here. And while this promise is fulfilled to the Jews, note that all the saved in all of history will be here also, included in the fulfillment of the promise.
2022 - This is perhaps the reason for so much confusion on whether the promises to the Jews and to the church are now combined, or remain separate. Based on these verses, we can see that they remain separate through the end of the Millennial and through the end of the corrupt earth and heavens, but are combined in eternity.
2022 - This is fulfilment of the OT prophecies where God will dwell with his own and they will be forever, unbreakably his people, and they are forever his God. These prophecies, it turns out, were NOT about the Millennial but about forever, when Israel - the people of God, and the nations - the people of Christ - become one people, just as Father and Son are one.
Jesus ruled in the Millennial and dwelt on earth, but God himself - that first person of the Trinity - only dwells among men in the New Jerusalem. Earth has been "un-corrupted" and only those made spotless and pure by the Lamb are present. God cannot be in the presence of the impure, and so his dwelling among men could not have come before this point.
2022 - Vs 4 gives us a glimpse of true Utopia. A place where there is never sadness, disappointment, or regret. And no death.
2022 - Now this verse:
"5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."" [Rev 21:5 ESV]
This refers back to 20:11, and the Great White Throne. Who's voice is this? Who sits on the Great White Throne? Look at how he continues in vs 6:
"6 And 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 from the spring of the water of life without payment." [Rev 21:6 ESV]
He speaks directly to John using the same words we saw of a different one back in 19:9 and discussed at length there. "kai lego ego". In that discussion, we learned that it is English, and not Greek that requires a pronoun or noun here. Someone spoke to John, but we can only figure out who it was from other context. So what does the text give us? HE is making all things new. Gen 1:1 says God created. Seems like theos is in view. Then he orders John to write. In 1:19 it was the Son who told him to write. So this points to Christos. But Alpha and Omega, beginning and end? Doesn't this have to be theos? Isn't he the only one to use that title? Well...actually, we only see Alpha and Omega here in the book of Revelation and it is only used here three times. First in 1:7,8...where it says two things; he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. We know that is Jesus at the second advent. But in the very next verse, it is the Lord God who says He is Alpha and Omega. Ahhh...the word for Lord is "kyrios", a title often used to refer to Jesus the Messiah in the NT! As in 1 Thess 4:16, 17 three times, where kyrios can ONLY mean Jesus. Then it is used here, in Rev 21:6. Surely we have to be getting nearly positive that Alpha and Omega refers to Jesus. And last, in Rev 22:13, the wording is nearly the same. Then, add the phrase about living water, which is so reminiscent of Jesus' words to the woman at the well...It is Christ the Messiah on this throne. He is the one who presides at the GWT. BUT, in view of what we said above about Abraham's seed, and all the nations combined into one people after the Millennial, we might ought to also see the one on the throne as the combined author of both those covenants - the Abrahamic and the New. It is Jesus, but it is also theos.
Then in vss 7, 8, the final state of all things is laid out. To the faithful, the conquering, He will be their God, they will be his children. As promised. And for the others, the second death, from which none ever returns, served in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.
Beginning in vs 9, John is again carried away in the Spirit to behold the Bride. This is the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven. Hmm...how is this the church? MSB just says that the holy city takes on the character of its inhabitants, the redeemed. The chapter gives a vivid description of the city.
2022 - This is vision. It is "external to the chronology". It is again one of the seven angels from the tabernacle that offers the vision. This angel will point out "The Bride, the wife of the Lamb". John is not then shown a bunch of people in bright white linen robes, but a city coming down from heaven. We already saw this within the chronology earlier in this chapter, in vs 2. We concluded there that the "bride" reference was metaphor. Now, in vs 10, we are within a symbolic vision. Again, NOT a bride in the sense we usually think of a bride. The city is described in vss 10-21. This is the city we always call heaven. It is not heaven. It came down FROM heaven. This is the new Jerusalem, on the new earth. The earth as it was at Adam's creation, but with a city built by God on it. And now seas.
2026 - In vss 12-14, this year I noted that the names of the 12 tribes go on the gates of the new city, but the city is built on the foundation of the 12 apostles. That seems important. The New Jerusalem is built upon the church - offered to all men everywhere - but accessed through the gate of the 12 tribes. What is that Paul says about how the Gentiles are grafted onto the original olive tree? And about how were it not for the rebellion of Jews, Gentiles would not have been offered a Covenant? So in this sense, in their failure and rebellion, the 12 tribes became our gates into eternity with God. A new city had to be built that would accommodate not only the 12 tribes but the church itself, as built on the apostles teaching. A larger city was necessary in light of these events.
In vs 15, the city is measured with a measuring rod. It is not John who does the measuring, but the angel speaking with him. Only Ezekiel's temple is measured by a man in the OT, and I think John measured the Tribulation temple. Personally, I think they are the same temple. That's why they are the only two measured by man.
These gates are never shut. They needn't be, because nothing impure remains.
2022 - In vs 22, we get this:
"22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb." [Rev 21:22 ESV]
If you look at the word order in the Greek, it is very confusing as to how these words ought to be put together. BUT, that is only because I do not speak ancient Greek. I suspect that the cases of the words identify which are subject nouns and which predicate. So accepting the sentence as presented, we see that the phrase Lord God uses the same word "kyrios" as we saw earlier. Jesus is the temple of the new Jerusalem. BUT, it also says "the Almighty and the Lamb". I think these titles are intentionally linked together so that BOTH of them refer to kyrios. This again says that the Father and the Son are one in the New Jerusalem, their persons no longer requiring that they act in different roles for the purpose or redeeming mankind, but in only one. And where is the Spirit in all this? It was given to all the saved, to indwell. Perhaps it is still there, and so makes the saved also one with the Father and with the Son. At this point, the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son, and we are in the Son and therefore in the Father also. All that confusing language from the gospel of John is perhaps unraveled for us here.
2026 - Vs 22 tells us that Ezekiel's Temple comes before this. There is no Temple at all in the New Jerusalem. The new city is the tabernacle of God, his tent, where he lives. But it is not about a new temple.
2026 - This verse:
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. [Rev 21:23 ESV]....compared to these:
6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. 8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. 9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one. [Zec 14:6-9 ESV]
2022 - These verses:
"24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it," [Rev 21:24 ESV]
There will still be Kings. There will still be nations. There will still be earth, but a far better earth. These Kings will be kings because that will be their reward for their service to God. These will have received crowns at the bema...perhaps...or maybe they are those who were given thrones in Rev 20:4 at the sheep and goat? And from this point forward, there will only be saved people, and sin has no more power to corrupt.