LEARNING DAILY

 

Revelation 21:9-10, Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

 

The old heaven and earth are destroyed and there is no more sin; “the affects of sin will be absent from the New Jerusalem” (DJSB).  All of us have heard expressions of pearly gates and golden streets.  Those expressions come from the description of the city.  There are twelve gates and twelves foundations based on the twelve tribes of Israel which is continuity between the Old and New Testament (LSSB).  Notice the immense size of the city; it is shaped like a cube.  The length, breadth, and height are equal in length – twelve thousand furlongs or about 1,500 miles in length.  DJSB notes this to be ”1,960,000 square miles (about four times the size of Alaska)”.   Revelation 21:17 states the height of the wall around the city is 144 cubits (216 feet) high.  That is much shorter than the height of the city; its purpose is to outline the city’s limits (DJSB). 

 

Revelation 21:22 states that there is no temple to worship in.  There is no need since the entire city will be filled with the presence of God – filled by His glory and His holiness.  John states that the city is “illuminated by he light of the Lamb”.  Its main characteristic is holiness.  The next verse is interesting.  It tells us that there will be nations outside of the walls of the city on the new earth.  The nations are made up of people and kings who are free come and go through the gates in order to give glory and honor to the Lamb.  The gates to the city are never closed because there is no fear of any attack.  Perhaps we can say the New Jerusalem is the capital of the new earth. 

 

I have done some research on who the people are that make up the nations outside the walls of the New Jerusalem.  I must admit I have been left scratching my head.  There are some pretty strange thoughts about this.  Revelation 21:26-27 says, “And they shall bring the glory and the honor into it.  But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  All I know is that Believers, those whose name are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be inside the city serving and worshipping God. 

 

What will that be like?  Tomorrow we look at the blessings John saw in the New Jerusalem.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.