“Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem” Rev. 21:9, 109And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, (Revelation 21:9‑10).
OF the glory of this city there is no question. It is the city of Jehovah’s love. Who can tell it? Perfection of all perfections! Union of all glories, and the reunion of all the glorified! The consummation of all the purposes and counsels of God from everlasting, even of Him who is the Eternal and Infinite One, and who has purposed and planned all for His own happiness and glory! What words of attractive beauty are those by which it is described How they ravish the heart! “The Bride,” “the Holy City,” “the New Jerusalem.” And who that reads the description of all its beauty and glory could be satisfied with any hope of less? The prayer of our souls is, “Lord, keep this glorious city near our hearts; make us in spirit meet for its blessedness; and, though here, let us live as those who have already imbibed its spirit and breathed its atmosphere.”
“Come hither,” or “hither!” as the word is, the angel said to John, and “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” (v. 9.) Safe guide truly for John and for us. Accordingly, in chapter 21, from verse 9 to chapter 22, he describes the city as coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; but the scene of it there, I believe, is not in the new heavens and new earth, as in chap. 21:1-7, but over the millennial earth, with which it will have glorious connection during the thousand years of the earthly blessedness. It will belong thus first to this time-state, and not, as afterward, exclusively to eternity. We know this from the fact that during the millennium. the leaves of the tree of life in its midst will be for the healing of the nations. There are no nations, as such, in the eternal state; and if there were, none of them would need healing.
To meet the Lord in the air, according to 1 Thess. 4, is our immediate hope. To be forever with Him in this city is our eternal portion. What a long reach of eternal blessedness! and how far back the first notices of it! “At the first,” as has been said, “the garden was the limit of Adam’s inheritance and enjoyments. Adam knew heaven only as he saw it above him, and by its lights dividing his day and his night. But he had no thought that linked him personally with it.” Since then, as through a long and ever-brightening vestibule of divine knowledge, redemption has been unfolded; heavenly glory opened to us, disclosing a far richer inheritance than the garden, or all else that Adam lost. Abel, in dying, is present with the Lord. Enoch and Elijah, without dying, are translated to heaven. “In the translation of Elijah,” remarks Archbishop Trench, “the lineaments of the ascension of Christ appear―the ascension of Him who, not rapt in a chariot of fire, nor needing the cleansing of that fiery baptism, in the far sublimer calmness of His own indwelling power, rose from the earth, and with His human body passed into heavenly places.” Since Elijah’s day the Son of God has come, and has shown us the way to the Father. He died for us here, and has gone again into heaven to prepare mansions for us. The heavens have received Him, whence now we look for Him again. Eph. 24But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:4) and 1 Peter 1 both tell us of our interest in His death and resurrection and ascension into heaven; how that we are “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance [not like that of Eden or Canaan] incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4; 54To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:4)
4And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:4)).
Many, who appear to envy Adam in the garden, and would be satisfied with it, seem to forget how limited were his hopes compared with ours. How different from the first knowledge of Adam, in the mere creature innocency and perfectness of his condition in the garden, are such notices as these: “Wherein are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:44Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4)). “A better country, that is, an heavenly;” “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10, 1610For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10)
16But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)). Our citizenship is in heaven, “from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20, 2420For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:20)). “The New Jerusalem;” “The Holy Jerusalem, coming down from God” (Rev. 21:2, 102And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)
10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, (Revelation 21:10); John 14: 2, 3). “I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3)). Thus have we been growing in our knowledge of the heavens; nor less have we grown in our knowledge of the earth. Innocence was lost, the garden was lost, and man was cast out on the earth to toil upon it, and to be buried in it; but as by the sin of one we were lost, so by the righteousness of One, all has become changed again.
What will be the future glory of the earth, and of Israel as a nation, and of the nations of the millennial earth, we have seen in our meditations on Jacob. The day is coming when “in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in Him;” and this will be, not by the departure of the spirits of just men made perfect to heaven, as in the past, or by those who sleep in Jesus being “present with the Lord,” as now, but by the descent in glorified form of all those from heaven who will come with Christ to or over the earth, as we shall now see in our contemplation of this holy city.
It will be in that city, on its descent over the earth, that the glorified saints―all of them, I believe― will reign over the earth. This is important to know. For many who do not believe in the pre-millennial advent of the Lord with His redeemed say, “What! are you not carnal, earthly? After having been in heaven you want to bring us back to the earth again for which our resurrection and glorified bodies will be totally unfitted!” Moreover, they add, “the absurdity is obvious, inasmuch as the earth could never contain all who then would have to dwell upon it; and if it could, how incongruous that glorified beings could be happy where evil will again break out, as it will at the close of the earth’s millennium.” Our answer to all this is, that it will not be on the earth at all. The glorified saints during the millennium will have their abode in the heavenly Jerusalem above the earth, distinct from it, yet connected with it, where they dwell and reign with Christ a thousand years. Still they will visit and re-visit this earth as angels now do, but who do not live here. They belong to a heavenly abode, and yet come down upon ministrations of mercy, as we sing―
“Angels elect are sent down
To serve the elect of mankind.”
But “unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world [or age] to come, whereof we speak.” That will be the prerogative of the risen glorified saints. They will occupy themselves in millennial work. “What Gospel messengers,” writes the late H. W. Soltau, “we shall be as risen saints! What a Gospel we shall tell far and wide! Men upon the earth will see the Gospel in the risen saints! they do not see it now as they might in us. They will see it then, and say, ‘Here is salvation; now we understand what salvation is.’” The risen saints will be in their glory, but the inhabitants of the earth will be still in their bodies of flesh. It is perfectly in accordance with what has occurred in the past human world, that there should be intercourse between the one and the other.
“While the earth was undefiled,” remarks J. G. Bellett, “the Lord God walked in the garden; and afterward, though He was in some sense estranged from the earth, yet He was ever ready to visit it―to visit it in the behalf of His elect, as in the histories of Abraham, Joshua, Gideon, and others. So that bright and memorable hour, when Jesus was transfigured in company with Moses and Elias, in the sight of Peter, James, and John; so the occasional appearances of Christ to His disciples after He had risen; and so the vision of the descending and ascending sheet. The heavenly things at such moments unfold themselves to the eye of man, and give sweet notice of their nearness to us. We do not as yet perceive their nearness; for the glory is not yet in its millennial place over the city of the Jews; but in the millennial kingdom all this will be to sight. The heavenly glory, or glory of the golden city, will shine over the land of Israel; the one Jerusalem above the other;” that is, over the Jerusalem of the land of Israel. Nothing can be plainer than that the Jerusalem now trodden down of men is to be rebuilt; and the people of Israel will be the great metropolitan people of the millennial earth. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord... It shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.” The city will be the metropolis of all the families of Israel; and Israel the means of blessing to the whole earth. How beautiful the promise: “He that [now] scatters Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd Both his flock... They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord... their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” (See the whole of Jer. 31; also Jer. 33:7-97And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. 9And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. (Jeremiah 33:7‑9)). Also Heb. 8:1010For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (Hebrews 8:10): “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Such will be, as it were, the foot of the ladder on earth, whose top will reach to heaven, telling of the glory above; yea, uniting Israel and the earth with the glory-bearing city in the heavens. On all her habitations the glory will be a covering. The ladder will be erected with its head in the heavens, and its foot on the earth. The same blessed Lord will be the center of all things; and, as in the different parts of one temple, the services of praise and joy will be celebrated, every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Equally plain are the words that tell of the moral happiness which will be enjoyed by reason of this intercourse. The following is interesting on this: “The pure moral happiness that will be enjoyed by reason of this intercourse is sweetly pictured in different types and prophecies. As at the meeting of Jethro and Moses, of Solomon and the Queen of the South; as in Isaiah 60, or on the holy Mount, or in the holy Jerusalem. What right affections do we find in all these intercourses! What pure social pleasures are, as I have said, pictured before us! All these shadowy expressions of the social delights of millennial days will be deeply prized by us, if we love the exercise of pure unselfish affections.
But in this coming intercourse of the heavens with the earth thus, when the people of the heavens go up and down the mystic or millennial ladder, I have thought that Scripture leads us to judge that there will be a certain veiling of their proper glory, when they come down and have communion with the earth beneath and under them.
The expression of this we get in the Lord’s appearance after He rose from the dead; for then He could assume any veil which suited the business He had to do, whether that of the gardener to Mary, that of a companion to the two going to Emmaus, or that of a courteous stranger on the banks of the lake to the fishermen.
Blessed, favored inmates of such a scene! Yet not all who are redeemed will be in the city. The land and nation of Israel, both restored, will bask beneath its glory, and the nations that are saved will walk in the light of it. But Moses and Elias on the holy Mount prefigure the glory of those who will be in it. The patriarchs were the first to know any promise of a heavenly city. They “looked for a city” ―the city, a heavenly one― “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Its very name tells of those who died in faith. The materials which adorn the city are the same as those which adorned both the tabernacle and temple of old. The names of the twelve sons of Israel are on its gates; those of the twelve apostles on its foundations. Not the names of “apostles and prophets,” as in Ephesians, but of patriarchs and apostles, those apostles being the apostles of the circumcision. Often did the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, tell in their day, for the joy and consolation of those who believed, of bridal relationship.
Moreover, those martyred under the coming Antichrist will doubtless live and reign with Christ over the earth in this city of the glory. Having died, they will have resurrection, and so will reign; otherwise, they would simply have been reigned over. Therefore, the word “henceforth,” i.e., from that time of tribulation for Christ, “blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” Those, with all of our own dispensation and those of the past dispensation, who have died in faith will have their place in this coming glory. Look at Heb. 11:39, 4039And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39‑40), “And these all [the Old Testament saints] having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Thus the saints of the Old Testament dispensation are waiting for the pre-millennial resurrection of the just; that then, with the saints of the present dispensation, they may be gathered from the grave, and enter into their glory.
If so, when do they enter upon their inheritance? In Dan. 12:1313But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:13) we read, “But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” “I do not apprehend [I quote from another] that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Daniel will each have a little plot of land in Palestine when raised from the dead. I believe that they will have a sphere in the heavenly glory of the resurrection; and my belief is that they will fully enjoy their blessing on earth also, and see the promises of God fulfilled, and, having a body capable of dwelling in heaven or earth, will be as the angels of God ascending and descending, as it was with the vision of Jacob’s ladder; heaven will be opened, and a communication between heaven and earth established.”
How one loves to think of them! and already to have fellowship with them! But without us they could not be perfect. That there are many glories, and one glory differing from another, Paul shows us in Heb. 12:22, 2322But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:22‑23) where, speaking to Christians (to ourselves), he says, “ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Many make mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Church of the firstborn to be all one and the same; but the copulative “and” shows that they are distinct. Mount Zion (a glorious height) will, I believe, some day adorn the brows of the earthly Salem of the land of Israel. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, is that of which we are now speaking, the name “heavenly” making it distinct from the Jerusalem of the earth. See also Gal. 4:2626But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:26).
The name “assembly,” or “Church of the firstborn,” carries with it its own meaning, the “Church” (as in Ephesians) forming a distinct place in the love and purpose of God. Whatever they all are, however blessed and glorious, we shall lose nothing, for “we,” says the apostle, are come to them all. Not come to them as a matter of experience, though the knowledge of them gives blessed experience; but we are come to them by faith in the plan and purpose of God. Just as in Rom. 8:3030Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) it is said, “Whom He justified, them He also glorified,” the one in the purpose of God as much as the other. So in the mind and purpose of God, to the eye of faith we are come to all these; but we are to come to them in fact―to mount Sion, and to the holy Jerusalem, and to all else to which Christ Himself has come. They are all ours. The Church being one with Christ, all things are ours.
Now let us fix our eye on THE CITY ITSELF―on the blessedness it represents. And here we must stand with the beloved apostle, or rather with the angel who describes it for us, leaving the apostle and us to supply the sweet moral lessons which it suggests.
1. The city is as “A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND” (Rev. 21:22And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)). Words of life-like beauty! ravishing the heart! I have thought that any lengthened exposition but hinders rather than aids our contemplation of them. She is “a bride” ―a “bride adorned for her husband.” If ever there is attractive loveliness and perfectness it is with such. No earthly raiment is more taintless or faultless than the wedding garb; and never are sympathies more unselfish or benevolent than those of the friends of the bride, and which are sure to be awakened by the sight of her when she comes forth adorned for her husband. If ever heavenly glories will appear more attractive or more fresh at one time than another, it will be when the redeemed thus come forth, as the bride of the Lamb― perfect and beautiful and glorious, and are ready for the marriage, all blessed on their part, and all suited to His own delight. Oh, think of what will be their beauty, their adorning! and what the lavishment of His love and His joy upon them. His joy and theirs! who can measure?
2. The scene whence the city comes is from God out of heaven. Hence no one spot of sin, with nothing that defileth, but “HAVING THE GLORY OF GOD” (Rev. 21:1111Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; (Revelation 21:11)). It is now with Israel “the gloomy night of Ichabod;” for the glory once in their midst has departed. It was oftentimes disturbed, and looked forth only to judge, when in the cloud of old. But now without any such disturbance it will come again. And this city, or shall I say these glorified beings, will be the favored bearers of it to this poor, benighted earth. For long ages there has been no more any pillar of cloud by day, or of fire by night, as at the Red Sea; no shekinah of glory, as in the tabernacle and temple of old. We see in Ezekiel how reluctantly, as it were, the glory departed from the earth. We in our dispensation have seen the glory of the only begotten of the Father. We all with open face beholding as in a glass, or reflecting the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. But this heavenly city will bring the glory near to the earth, the glory of God and the glory of the Lamb. Before that glory all other glories will hide themselves; sun, moon, and stars shall hide their light amid a greater effulgence than their own.
3. “THE LIGHT OF THE CITY IS MOST PRECIOUS, EVEN LIKE A JASPER STONE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL” (Rev. 21:1111Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; (Revelation 21:11)). Thus the glory will shine as light to lighten those on the earth; it will take up a visible position. Hence, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” The jasper stone is the elect stone to show forth the glory of God. This will be the mission of the city, as she takes up her station over the earth, to give to the earth the light of the glory of God. That glory will shine from Christ; for it will be the glory of Christ, the stone, that will be reflected in and shine through all the other stones. Divested of figure, the glory will radiate through the jasper walls or the outer glories, on and over the redeemed earth, just as the glory of the Transfiguration shone through the human tabernacle of the Glorified One upon the disciples on the holy Mount, so that His very “raiment was white and glistening” (Luke 9:2929And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. (Luke 9:29)). Are we not reminded that it is now as Christians that Christ dwelling in us should shine forth through us? “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give [or rather, as the word is, to “give out”] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)). Hence the exhortation, “Shine ye, as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:1515That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Philippians 2:15)). Christ Himself will be in the midst of the city. Thus the city is the medium through which Christ and His Church will shine forth to all creation. There will be no longer need for the vessel containing the treasure to be marred or broken in order to show the light, as with Gideon’s pitchers and our earthen vessels; it will be Christ’s glory in its own elect home, making itself felt through His redeemed over the earth, yea, over all creation, in its own natural, perfect, and unhindered way. Oh, that now, in our own souls, His light may be so perfectly there, that we may indeed let it shine before men, that they may glorify our Father who is in heaven!
4. The city had “A WALL GREAT AND HIGH” (Rev. 21:1212And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: (Revelation 21:12)). The wall was of jasper, the same elect stone for glory and for beauty. And besides this we have the idea of security. Israel had only a hedge, which has long since been broken down. We, as we now are, have no absolute security against evil; good, alas! may leave us, and evil may come in; our hearts well know this. But here is a wall which secures all to God Himself. How blessed! Nothing that defileth will ever enter. The evil nature that is in us, and the Evil One, will have no place there. How sweet to let the heart free, and never to fear that it may relapse again into evil.
5. “AND AT THE GATES TWELVE ANGELS” (Rev. 21:1212And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: (Revelation 21:12)). Around the Palace of the King of kings will be seen., the palaces of His saints―each one a king and priest. Angels are at the gates. Angels are unwearied of their employment now. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:1414Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)). So that I have thought it blessed to feel that for every devil seeking our downfall there may be an angel guarding us. But in the day of this glory angels will be doorkeepers in the house of our God. Unselfish is their ministry. They were passed by as to their nature, being taken when the Lord of glory became incarnate, yet they sang over the event with joy. And when we are repentant they rejoice over us and minister to us; and when finally we are inside the glorious city, yea one with Him who is the glory, they will joy in seeing and knowing their charge eternally secure. Mark here the relative nearness of saints and angels to Christ. and His Church, the center. Next, glorified beings, corresponding to transparent walls and gates of pearl. The angels are at the gates. It is to all these we have come, as in Heb. 12:2323To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23).
6. “THE CITY HATH FOUNDATIONS” (Rev. 21:1414And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:14)). We have nothing settled here. All is changing! yea, how much has changed! We have no continuing city. Job says: “Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.” What a contrast is Psalm go and Eph. 114Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14). In the psalm we are in the ruin of the first Adam; “the days of our years” are all limited, and death and the grave are at their end. In the epistle chronology has no place; we are in Christ before the eternal times. Years have nothing to say to our life there, or the life that we now have, which is eternal. Death and the tomb have no place in it. It will be in this scene that the Church will enjoy its true life, its long eternal bliss. Being one with Christ, wherever He is, it is ours to be forever with Him in the same glory. What a rest for the heart! We have a life and a lot which are established, the same as His, unchanging and unchangeable, forever.
7. “AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WALL OF THE CITY WERE GARNISHED WITH ALL MANNER OF PRECIOUS STONES.” Here we have beauty and stability combined. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. That is, the glory is varied; broken up into beauteous, distinctive hues, answering to the varied and holy loveliness of the redeemed, such as David and Daniel, Joseph and Solomon, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and countless others, who yet have a common likeness, being one as to their salvation, equally dear to God, and equally redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Thus the onyx stones on the shoulders of Aaron were all the same. Those on his breast were all varied. Those on the one were borne up high before God, looking up, as it were, into His face. The others were on the breast, as if close to the heart of love.
8. “AND THE TWELVE GATES WERE TWELVE PEARLS; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” No shadows can be equal to the, glorious substance; but I have found it a happy exercise to compare 1 Kings 6:3030And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. (1 Kings 6:30) and Rev. 213And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: (Revelation 22:3) respecting the floorings of the tabernacle, temple, and the New Jerusalem city.
(1) In the tabernacle there was no floor, only the bare earth; or, more correctly, the sandy desert. But looking around and above, all was gorgeous and glorious―gold, purple, blue, and scarlet, along with purest white, reminding Aaron of the divine and the heavenly; but looking down, all was mere earth, reminding him of the wilderness, and how in holiest worship or service the path here was still the desert.
In Solomon’s temple it was different. All was pure gold. Every inch of flooring was of gold. Not a particle of dust to remind any more of the wilderness. There will be no such wilderness as now in the day of the true Solomon glory. Outside, indeed, of the temple of old was the laver. Why it was there we shall see presently.
But in our heavenly abode, this holy Jerusalem, there is no such temple. It is all a glorious home and house of our God. Every street is gold. And what is so interesting is to view these three places in connection with the provisions of the laver and sea of glass. On the way to the holiest in the tabernacle was the laver. Aaron could not go in to the service without its use. He must die if not perfectly clean, and this he could not be without his hands and feet being cleansed by the water of the laver. We are perfect before God in Christ. We should die if we were there otherwise; but we have daily, hourly keeping by our High Priest, who is in the presence of God for us, and who says unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.
In Solomon’s temple, though it was all gold inside, yet outside the streets were not gold. It was not wilderness; yet it was not heaven. So we find a sea, a vast laver of brass, was provided for the cleansing of those who ministered. But in the New Jerusalem it is all gold. The streets are gold. That on which men walk will be only perfectness, and will never cause assoilment. There is no coming from any part of it but over what is pure. Hence, instead of a laver, there is a “sea of glass;” not for washing, but for reflecting. After millions of ages, it will show our feet as clean as on the first day we were there. Unsullied cleanness, eternal perfectness, will be reflected by it. No need of washing; none of being kept. It is all gold, pure gold; divine, perfect; and because perfect blessed for evermore!
9. The gates have ON them THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; the foundations those of THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE LAMB―the apostles of the circumcision. These surely tell the character of the city―that it is “the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:2626But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:26)). Literally, “which is our mother, and not therefore ourselves.” Gal. 4:2626But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:26) assuredly points to those who of the past dispensation were faithful, and had promise of this city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
10. “THE CITY IS OF PURE GOLD, LIKE UNTO CLEAR GLASS.” Not only the streets of the city, but even the city itself. Men think much of gold now; but, as we have seen, it is all gold in our heavenly home, this representing the divine. Is not this golden city representation of how God has formed His redeemed ones out of Himself? All one as to their nature with Himself, in a glory and excellence surpassing all else that He has made. The gold, we are told, is like “transparent glass;” as another has said, “Holiness fixed without a flaw.” What a contrast to that on which we walk here! Oh, to breathe more freely the air of this city now! Alas! here, if we do not watch and pray, or our hearts are worn in watching, and we contract the soil, we weary with ourselves the more. Yet is there, even now, a blessed provision. The office of the priest was to separate that which was unclean from the offering. So our great High Priest presents us perfect, undefiled before the Father, He Himself having purified us.
Oh, what rest will be ours in this home in the skies! what relief to want no more conscience there! everything we come into contact with being suited to God, and suited to the nature He has caused to spring up in our hearts. It will surely be a heaven in heaven even to think of such a heaven.
11. “I SAW NO TEMPLE THEREIN.” Because it is all temple. There is no more any one favored spot like that of the holiest, or like that which the priests occupied in the temple of Solomon. None will need, as then, to withdraw for worship; none need to seek for the presence of God; His presence will be always with us. Down here we have no temple, but we are all priests before God above, made nigh in the very holiest, where all is rest to our souls. We are “made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:1313But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)). This is what in spirit, by faith, we are now enjoying; but in glorified bodies, with unveiled faces, we shall worship and adore in this heavenly city, where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.
The great object in the earthly Jerusalem was a temple; and, as Ezekiel unfolds, it will be so again for the worshipper in the land of Israel, when its people will be all righteous. It has been observed how strikingly fitted is each instrument God uses in the ministration or revelation of His thoughts. His vessels are chosen happily and well for the work they have to do. Who would be the most fitting instrument to unfold the great Gentile empires in their rise and fall? Of course a prime minister. Therefore we have a Daniel, “greatly beloved,” doing his work well. The capability of the vessel is recognized and employed, but kept from human infirmity by God’s overruling hand; while it never loses its identity on the moral features, even in the things of God. See the herdsman Amos! Who could better use the figures he does?
Who could so speak of the cow going out of the breach that was before her? or of Jehovah pressing the place of His people, as a cart is pressed under sheaves? or of the impossibility of plowing on a rock with oxen? or of the sifting of corn in a sieve? etc. Ezekiel too, the priest, is the man chosen of God to tell us of the temple in the earthly city, of the day of glory when the Lord will be there. We might also instance Paul, Peter, and John in their respective lines in the New Testament.
Are we wearied with the very opulence of this description? If our hearts are suitably affected we are not.
12. “THE CITY HAD NO NEED OF THE SUN.” There were no windows in the tabernacle of old. All material light from the sun, moon, and stars was carefully excluded. It had no need of it. There was the glorious shekinah in the holiest, and the golden shaft, with its seven lamps, in the holy place. The heavenly reality of all this is in us now; for no light of reason or nature ever led us to God. The knowledge we have is supernatural. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His. Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:1010But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10)). This, God by His Spirit through the truth has done now, but the more manifested reality we shall see in this city of the glory.
“The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof” (Rev. 21:2323And 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. (Revelation 21:23)). Is there not here again a representation of Christ and His Church? who will dwell as one in this city of the skies―the greatest expression ever given of the glory of God. The glory of God will be seen forever in Him, and in His Church, which will be to the praise of His glory; also a mirror to the whole universe of the exceeding riches of His grace. Oh, sweet indeed is the part of prophecy which describes for us such a home, and such glory, for the saints!
“The Lamb’s blest home, with four-square jasper wall,
Jerusalem;
Built of pure gold, redemption’s bridal hall,
Jerusalem.
No night is there; no lamp, or sun, or moon
Can shine amid its own unchanging noon.”
13. But further, and still beautiful and blessed, “THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT AT ALL BY DAY; FOR THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE.” Night is the symbol of sin, of death, and of hell. Satan is the prince of darkness. And night is not in heaven. No sin, no death, no grave are there. Gates are shut at night. Pleasant is the simple confidence which bolts no door at night. Yet here there is no night, and therefore no shutting of gates. “A shut door,” it is said, “is suggestive that evil may approach.” The gates are not shut at all by day; and if not, never; for all is day. Uncertainty, insecurity, fears, and even darkness of soul are felt here; but there they are unknown. Nor is this all. Instead of fear they of the city will have irresistible power. They shall reign over the nations, and shall rule the ungodly with a rod of iron. The Empire of Satan shall be broken, the reign of sin shall be swept away―the boasting of infidel science shall be silenced in darkness, and all power, knowledge, dignity, and wealth shall be transferred from the man of the world to the man of God. During this reign from the heavens the whole course of things shall be inverted; the worldly man shall serve where once he ruled. The nations of the earth looking up to the Heavenly City and gazing with wonder upon its ineffable beauty shall exclaim with a different tone than that of formal repetition― “Thou art the King of glory, O Christ!”
14. “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 honor into it.” Thus there is one glory of the earthly, and another glory of the heavenly―Israel and the nations on the earth, basking in the light of the New Jerusalem in the heavens. The earth will own that the heavens do rule.
15. “And there shall in NO WISE ENTER INTO IT ANYTHING THAT DEFILETH, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Oh, what relief to the soul in this! Have we not hated ourselves when we have known the defilement that is in us? But that very hatred shows we are fitted in sympathy for the place. That we hate the sin that so easily besets us and mourn over the evil that is still in us, is one of those sure elements which quickens our footsteps in the heavenly race.
16. “And He showed me A PURE RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” This distinctly shows it is not the eternal state; for there are no nations there, none needing to be healed. Admit this city as over the millennial earth, and all is easy to understand; for there will be nations on earth needing the healing in millennial times. The tree of life will be in the city. Those in the city will eat immediately from it; receive immediately from Christ.
How inexhaustible all this imagery is—the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal; and the Throne of God and the Lamb whence it proceeds; and then in the street, on either side of it, is the tree of life! Inexhaustible, I say―for it is Christ Himself we see in these. But there will be no eating of the tree of life unless we now, by faith, have the Lord of life, who died for us.
17. “THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE” ―the face of the Man of Sychar, the Man of Calvary How sweet once to me were the parting words of a dying friend, one truly eminent in the Church of God. He said, “I have been thinking how you and I are to see the face of the Man of Sychar together.” Oh, the sight of that face, what bliss it will be! So different from the days of His sorrows when “many were astonished; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:1414As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: (Isaiah 52:14)). That head once in the dust of death we shall see crowned with glory and honor.
18. “AND HIS NAME SHALL BE IN THEIR FOREHEADS.” The reflection of looking upon Him will be that His name will be in our foreheads. It will be where He Himself will forever see it—in our foreheads. Ah, what brows of beauty and of glory then Unlike those of the wilderness care, or of the dying couch. How perfect; how glorious! None of the lines of sorrow or of suffering left; weeping days are all passed by; as we sing―
“We’ve seen those faces in days of yore,
When the dust was on their brow,
And the scalding tear upon their cheek;
Let us look at the laborers now!
We think of the lifelong sorrow,
Of the wilderness days of care;
We try to trace the teardrops,
But no scars of grief are there.
The long waiting days are over,
They’ve received their wages now;
For they’ve gazed upon their Master,
And His name is on their brow”
Such will be this heavenly abode during the earth’s millennium, and such will be its connection with the earth then in its glory.
But now as we have seen the glory of the heavenly, let us look for a little upon the earth, at the city and country over which that glory will shine. This will form another landing stage in our meditations on this fruitful theme. The New Jerusalem will have intimate connection with the land of Israel. The nation will have been restored, according to the words given by God to Moses in the far wilderness days of Deut. 30:1-41And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, 2And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 3That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. 4If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: (Deuteronomy 30:1‑4), where it says: “And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,.. that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee.” No one will doubt that Israel has endured the curse which the Lord had set before them. But shall the curse befall them, and shall they not have the blessings also? It was on the ground of sin that they received the one. It is on the ground of grace that God will yet bestow the other. He had a secret in reserve by which, notwithstanding their sinfulness, He could minister the blessings. That secret, shall I say, was Christ, on the ground of whose death (for He died for the nation) He will yet bestow them. And their hearts will be suited to the grace. “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.” Blessed condition over which the Lord will rejoice! “For,” it is said, “the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers.”
After such words as these, who can doubt God’s delight in His people Israel, or their return to their own land? And who, with the words of the prophet Ezekiel before him (chap. 40 to the end), can doubt the glory which will adorn their city when rebuilt; or the beauty and riches of their land when restored?
The seer is set upon “a very high mountain,” from which he sees the “frame of a city on the south;” also its temple of vast dimensions to be the resort of all nations. Its chambers are described; its measurements and its ornaments; the ordinances of its altar, and the ordinances of its priests; its laws of worship, and its system of justice; the glory which fills it, and the fountain of water which will issue direct from it. The glory which the seer beholds as returning to it is the same as he had seen departing when prophesying concerning the destruction of the city. That destruction, we know, was literally accomplished, and the glory literally departed. Can we reasonably doubt that the restoration will be literal, or that the return of the glory will be literal?
The seer next gives us the suburbs of the temple set apart for the Lord Himself, along with all the borders and divisions of the land, all laid out by the wondrous hand of God. The returned tribes, moreover, are appointed to their possessions by Him. The boundaries of the possessions also are marked out; not indeed according to the land’s present limits, but according to those foretold to Abraham, reaching “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
Both Ezekiel and Zechariah tell of grand beneficent physical lineaments of the land which had never previously existed: a luxuriant valley, and a river, or rivers, flowing through it to the sea. These are to occur when the Lord shall again stand on the Mount of Olives. That mount, as if to spread itself in honor at His feet, divides itself in twain. The result is that a new and luxuriant valley, beautiful as Eden, is created, extending in its course as far as Azal. “And half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” This valley is to be the scene of broad flowing rivers, connecting, it would appear, Jerusalem itself with the waters of the ocean. This truly is of deep interest in the light of Jerusalem becoming the metropolis of the whole earth.
“This Azal,” writes the author of “Palestine Re-peopled,” “has been conjectured to be Ascalon, on the Mediterranean; and to some it has seemed that the formation of this valley to Jerusalem will be with a view to admit the ocean waters to the Dead Sea. These, it has been supposed, will overflow by the southern end of the lake, and sweep away the sand drift that now in the Wady-Arabah alone obstructs the progress of the waters, so completing the Straits of Azal into the Red Sea. Thus would Jerusalem be made at once the center of the earth, and become the emporium of commerce to the East and West; for the water transit, now so imperfectly provided by the Suez Canal, would be amply afforded by this natural arm of the ocean.”
I welcome here the testimony of another. “Deliverance,” he says, “comes not to Israel till the Lord’s feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, and the tribes, in deep contrition, recognize Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the King of Israel. The Mount of Olives shall be cleft asunder, into a deep and far-extending valley. The same convulsion of nature shall cause a deep and inexhaustible fountain to burst forth in Jerusalem, swelling into a mighty river as it flows westward to the Mediterranean, and eastward into the Dead Sea, purifying its waters, fertilizing the contiguous desert, and probably continuing its beneficent course as far as the Persian Gulf (see Zech. 14:88And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. (Zechariah 14:8); Ezek. 478Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. (Ezekiel 47:8); Joel 3:1818And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. (Joel 3:18); Isa. 358Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. (Isaiah 36:8)). Jerusalem will become geographically and commercially the metropolis of the earth. Then ‘Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit’” (Isa. 27:66He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:6)).
But whatever will be the course these waters may take, however they may peacefully meander beneath the glory in the heavens, lovely beyond all precedent is the description given of their fertilizing influence. They cause beauty and healing wherever they come. On their banks “grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new [principal] fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.”
Through their healing, that sea, which for ages has been called “Dead,” will be no longer such. “Fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kind as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many” (Ezek. 47:10-1210And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. 11But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. 12And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. (Ezekiel 47:10‑12)). Now is fulfilled the promise which the Lord had made of the land: “I lifted up Mine hand to give it unto your fathers. And this land shall fall unto you for inheritance” (Ezek. 47:1414And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. (Ezekiel 47:14)). That inheritance will be the well-ordered and long-promised Immanuel’s land. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth” (Psa. 48:22Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. (Psalm 48:2)). Matchless Promiser! Glorious land of Palestina! Who can tell with what interest it will be seen and known in these the days of heaven on the earth? In looking back, with what wondrous interest will be remembered the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! And how will all the prophets of the olden time be called to mind! And the Incarnate One Himself, where He trod in humiliation, and died His atoning death; and where now He will be seen King of kings, and Lord of lords. Besides the associations of the past will be the marvels of the present—the wonderful phenomenon of the Holy City, seen from the city on the earth, peacefully situated in the heavens, the one in intimate connection with the other; so intimate that “the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it” (Rev. 21:2424And 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 honor into it. (Revelation 21:24)).
That special visits will be made to Israel by the nations Zech. 8 shows: “Many people and strong nations shall come and seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem to pray before the Lord.” Chapter 14 shows: “That every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” Should any lightly esteem this privilege, God will put His mark of disapprobation visibly on them: “On their land there shall be no rain.” This is said with special reference to Egypt, that ancient land for which, because of its connection with Israel, the Lord has blessing in reserve.
How different is all this from the Jerusalem that now is, the abode of degradation and humiliation, especially as seen amidst the remains of its temple, where poor Jews meet to bewail the desolations of Zion. Concerning which they say: “Is this the city that men call ‘The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?’” Its dark walls, and the glance you get of the narrow, slippery streets, with ill-built houses, and a poor, ill-clad population, suggest no idea of the magnificence of former days.
The same also with the Dead Sea, now the dreariest solitude, surrounded by arid, burning deserts, with no pleasant thing or living creature upon its waters, or upon its borders, to cheer the eye, corresponding with kindred dreary hills and valleys, the scene of no healthful vegetation, but sadly characteristic of a hopeless brokenhearted land.
What a burst of splendor after long ages of misery—those ages beginning with the disastrous collapse and ignominy brought upon the nation by the sin of Rehoboam, will this glorious restoration be Amidst this burst of splendor, it is interesting to think how the ancient foe of Israel will have come to her doom. Some suppose that the site on which Babylon stood was where the flowers of the garden bloomed: certain it seems that the “Euphrates and Hiddekel or Tigris,” remarks an ancient writer, “were rivers of Eden,” and that “though the flood may have effaced many other features of the antediluvian earth, still we find these two rivers again. These two rivers were identified with the powers that were to be the ruin of Israel and Judah respectively. Nineveh, city of the Tigris, was the capital of Assyria, which carried the great mass of the tribes of Israel into captivity. Babylon was the power afterward used by God for the captivity of that which seemed to stand firm for God, no less than for David’s house, but which afterward fell into greater unfaithfulness than backsliding Israel.” In its first rise and long subsequent history Babylon has become the symbol of all that dark mystery of iniquity which in the Word. bears its name.
“Babylon,” remarks the author of “Earth’s Morning,” “stood upon Euphrates. It was the great enemy of Jehovah and His people, as well as the representative of their enemy, through all ages.”
Hard by Paradise, it may be on the very spot, was Satan permitted to rear his mighty citadel. He had driven man from that happy seat; he had blighted its beauty; and now, as if in defiance of God and man, he rears his city upon the faded flowers of Eden. One has asked―
“Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there?”
So was it with Satan, whether we regard Babylon as actually reared on the site of Paradise or merely in some corner of the wider circle of Eden. God’s garden and Satan’s city close by each other, as if the latter were triumphing over the former! The emblem of the heavenly Paradise and the symbol of the great city, mother of harlots, side by side with each other! The earthly pattern of heavenly things passing away, and replaced by the abode of darkness, the cage of unclean beasts, the counterpart of Satan’s own dark dwelling below But now instead of the emblem merely, which had faded, we have in our city above the heavenly Paradise itself. And on earth, instead of Babylon, in whom was found the blood of the prophets and saints, and all the slain upon earth, we have “the land that was desolate, whose people were scattered in the cloudy and dark day, become like the garden of the Lord,” and instead of waste and desolate cities “I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate” (Ezek. 36:3636Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:36)).
As to Jerusalem it will be the crown of cities. Who that reads Isaiah 60 but must see this? No longer in heaps, but in perfected magnificence it will be told to “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee... Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” We need no speculation as to what the light and the brightness will be; for in their presence the light of the sun will be hidden by day, and the moon and stars by night. “The sun shall be no more thy light by day: neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Isa. 60:1919The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. (Isaiah 60:19)).
Fertility and natural loveliness will bask beneath this effulgence. The heavenly city being over the earth may produce the change to take place in its CLIMATE. No longer arid and barren of verdure, “there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters.” Think of its plenty as incalculable: “The mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. The floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.” This is no mere figure.
Lands elevated or low―it will be all the same. “Lebanon,” with its ten thousand feet of elevation, and on which rests the snows of ages, “shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.” The waste places even will yield to this munificent change: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Isa. 35:11The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. (Isaiah 35:1)).
Remains of Eden we now have—beauty of the earth that yet lingers. How often has one thought, when some scene of natural loveliness and sublimity has burst upon the view, what will it be when the curse is utterly rolled away, and the covering cast over all nations; not an insect, not a fly even remaining to hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain! At that time death will be swallowed up in victory. That which now is a vast vortex, swallowing up the generations of men, from Adam downwards, will itself be swallowed up; for the Lord will plant a mightier vortex around death. We rejoice now that his sting, which is sin, has been taken on the cross; but then the enemy himself will be gone. All this, objectively for the heart, by faith to dwell upon is blessed; but it will be all literally enjoyed in the most exquisite scenes of the more than Paradise restored, which the land of Israel will yet be. Truly the Lord “will comfort all her waste places, and He will [thus] make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord” (Isa. 51:33For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. (Isaiah 51:3)).
As to how long these “days of heaven on earth” (Rev. 20:44And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)) will last, we read of a thousand years. What a harvest of grace and glory will then be reaped by Him who endured the cross, despising the shame; and in the very scene where now He will see His seed, and prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Think of the innumerable company of His redeemed, when, through a thousand years of the earth’s glory there will for the righteous be no more death, and when all nations will call the Redeemer blessed, during which glorious time the six thousand years of its present sin and ruin would appear as nothing.
How delightful will it be then to look back on the days of Deut. 28, when Israel was promised by God to be “SET ON HIGH ABOVE ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH,” and to see, after the lapse of ages, by grace their city and land, “a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord” (Isa. 62:33Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. (Isaiah 62:3)), lifted, it would seem, to an eminence physically, to bask in the new light of the heavenly city. From that eminence she gives forth blessing to all nations. “Gentiles come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising” (Isa. 60:33And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:3)). The isles, as if in attendance, wait upon her. “The Tarshish first, to brine her sons from far, their silver and their gold with them” (Isa. 60:99Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. (Isaiah 60:9)). Men shall call her “The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 60:1414The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 60:14)). No marvel, when all the nations of the world are thus to be blessed through Israel, that more than one-half of the Bible is taken up with its long, interesting, and eventful history! It is significant as marking the difference between the earthly and the heavenly in the day of this glory; that in the heavenly there is no temple, and no thought of evil, and no infliction of forfeits, as with those who come not up to worship. On the earth there is the temple, and the worship is according to the ordinances of former dispensations (Ezek. 45:46), ordinances known in the wilderness days of Moses and Joshua; and in the land as in the days of David and Solomon, of Josiah and Hezekiah.
But these ordinances will be retrospective. As in the Lord’s Supper, now, we look back upon the cross, remembering the Lord not so much as He is, but as He was, so those millions of worshippers in the feast of tabernacles will look back with wonder at how their fathers dwelt in booths or tabernacles in the desert. In the burnt-offerings they will see the type with marvel, how it sets forth the perfectness and acceptance of Him who is Lord in their midst, and whom they will see―the King in His beauty.
In the sin-offering and offerings for sins, they will see how sin was condemned on the tree, and how all their sins and iniquities were put away by the sacrifice of Himself. These great truths will be explained, and told in true, vast, intelligent ritual before all nations, who will call the Redeemer blessed.
And all this will be as on an earthly pedestal to show forth to the whole world God’s truth and grace. At the time of the earthquake the land, we are told, shall be “LIFTED UP,” and shall (being lifted up) “ABIDE IN HER PLACE” (see margin) “from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be” [LIE, as the word is, amidst all her glorious suburbs and environs] “SAFELY INHABITED” (Zech. 14:1010All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. (Zechariah 14:10)). This being lifted up “in her place” would seem to be a material elevation. The spiritual blessings are clearly told. The people shall all be righteous. “Trees of righteousness” they shall be called. They will be holiness to the Lord―a crown of glory, spiritually and physically to die no more. Death to them will be swallowed up in victory. The sinner only will die. As to the city itself, its name indicates its character, which is Jehovah-shammah, “The Lord is there.”
The connection between the heavenly and earthly in the day of the earth’s millennium has already been noticed, as prefigured by Jacob’s ladder and the associated happiness of the earthly with the heavenly, on the holy mount. The Lord will reign on Mount Zion, but His throne will be in the heavens. It is not improbable that Mount Zion, in its new elevation, may reach to, or even penetrate into, the glory of the heavenly; so, like Jacob’s ladder, there may not only be a connection, but a positive contact, the one with the other. Ezekiel, prophesying of these days, speaks of “A VERY HIGH MOUNTAIN;” and Isaiah says that in the last days, “THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD SHALL BE ESTABLISHED IN THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND IT SHALL BE EXALTED ABOVE THE HILLS” (Isa. 2. 2). That no such elevations exist now is plain; but how easily they may be produced Zech. 14 shows, as it is said, “THE LAND SHALL BE LIFTED UP, AND INHABITED IN HER PLACE.”
Of the social intercourse which will exist during the millennium between these glorious scenes of the heavenly and the earthly we have already remarked. Blessed, however, as this state will then be—and it will be blessed—its duration will not be eternal. Other scenes will follow, and another age will come; the eternal one will at length succeed when all other ages and dispensations shall forever have passed away. But Calvary and Golgotha will bear their greatest fruit on the earth in these days, when the New Jerusalem shall come down out of heaven from God, and shall reign over the earth, and all nations shall call the Redeemer blessed. Truly wonderful it all is. Well may we ask, What is man, that thus God’s mind should center in Him who is the Son of Man, and in us as associated with Him? We have seen as to the order of things in the coming glory. (1) The first resurrection. (2) The marriage of the Lamb in heaven. (3) The descent of the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, over the earth. (4) The reign of Christ with His saints. (5) The millennium―Jerusalem having been rebuilt. and Israel restored. The earth, too, made glorious and fruitful, its seasons doubtless altered owing to the great physical changes described in Zech. 14, and to its nearness to the heavenly city which will be over it, giving it light beyond that of the sun, in which all who share in the first resurrection will live and reign with Christ a thousand years. Truly wonderful, it all is.
Ere we close, let me add that after the millennium, without affecting the happiness of the redeemed, there will yet be on the earth during its post-millennial state the last manifestation of evil.
“Those who would share eternal blessings, even in the millennium,” remarks H. W. Soltau, “must be born again.” The solemn words of Jesus to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)), will be true then as now. Nothing can benefit a man but birth from above. Though men during the millennium may live under a risen Christ, in the midst of all the blessedness of a partly-renewed earth, with the devil gone, shut up in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, yet if not born again, they will still be corrupt, evil, and unchanged. Through all the dispensations of God there has been a climax, and then declension. So in the thousand years, people will be born under the blessing: children will be born in the habit of looking upon the living Christ, of seeing risen saints. They will get accustomed to it, and they will not believe and be saved. Look at the hardening effect at the present time of being accustomed to the Gospel without receiving the Gospel. This is an important lesson for our souls. Were we to find an unregenerate man in heaven, he would not be the better for being there. How false the thought that some people have when they say, “I wish I could live my life over again.”
If so, you would live it worse. The experience you have got up to this time would make your life worse if you were not “born again.”
At the end of the thousand years Satan, let loose from his prison, will lead to a last rebellion against the Jerusalem on earth. But this will eventuate in his final overthrow, and the final overthrow of all those in league with him. He who is in the heavens will take note of his designs, will meet him in judgment, give him his last defeat, and consign him to his final doom. He will be cast alive into a lake of fire, where the beast and false prophet were cast a thousand years before. And then comes the closing history of this present earth. It is swept away before the presence of the Lamb. “No place is found for it;” and instead of the heavens and the earth, one vast white throne, one vast white object of purity, of righteousness, fills the site of earth and heaven. It is the one object of the gaze of every human individual that has ever lived. The assembled multitudes of earth who have lived in their sins are raised. What an assembly! Antediluvians, that vast company of men, buried in the Flood, raised; men of note, conquerors, nobles, raised; men that have been worshipped by men, whose writings have been handed down as wonderful, raised; small and great, young and old, raised to stand before that great white Throne.
The great white Throne will have upon it the Lamb that had been slain; multitudes will be gathered before it; all who have lived ever since creation there! What a company! How varied! How different one from the other! No two alike; but, yet, alas! too much alike; sinners in their sins, unsaved; each having his own sad, sad tale of rebellion against God; each having his sad memories of salvation disregarded, of mercy despised; each having the gnawing worm in his bosom, which is never to die. They are judged out of the books; and if their name is not found written in the Book of Life, the sinner is cast into a “lake of fire;” also death and hell are cast into a lake of fire, which is the second death. Then a new heavens and a new earth; then the holy city―New Jerusalem―comes down, re-descends from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; then a voice is heard saying, “The tabernacle of God is with men.” This, you will observe, is all in God’s eternity, when the long ages of the whole of man’s time will have forever ceased. The city will remain a scene of glory through the eternal years of the new heavens and the new earth, and will be the glorious and eternal home assigned to us by infinite grace and love, to be enjoyed with Himself in His own heavens. What a home! What a duration!
Rev. 21:1-51And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And 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. 5And 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. (Revelation 21:1‑5) is all that is said of what is final and eternal―a few words―few compared with those which described the first heavens and the first earth, and few compared with those which describe the millennial earth, or the golden city over it. But what words! “THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN; GOD WILL DWELL AMONG THEM.” Mark, the city will not be simply over the earth as during the millennium, but on the earth during its perfected and eternal state. Dispensations, as now, will be overpast. Those on the earth are no longer spoken of as Jews or Gentiles as during former ages, but as “men” ―in keeping with the first notice in the garden that God made man in His own likeness, so now God will be all in all, dwelling in the midst of men. Thus we have a hope beyond the resurrection, after we have been raised with Christ. That hope, the new heavens and the new earth; no remainder of the former heavens and the former earth; all new. And God all in all, His tabernacle will be with men. Doubtless this same city― “heavenly Jerusalem―” is that in which God will specially and eternally dwell with men.
“And they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. 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 [how precious! how comprehensive I]: for the former things [all these ages of evils and changes, and the succeeding ages of earth’s glory] are passed away” (Rev. 21:44And 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. (Revelation 21:4)).
Truly blessed it all is! But how distant it seems Paradise is near; only to die, and we enter it. And resurrection too is near; only Paradise, or the Lord’s return, between us and it. The Father’s house too will be reached when He comes to take us to Himself. But this city lies beyond it all―beyond Paradise, beyond resurrection, beyond the judgments to befall this earth, beyond the removal of the Church! It shines over, and is seen again beyond the thousand years of the earth’s millennium. Its final and eternal scene is the new heavens and the new earth.
Still though it seems far to us, yet how precious is our hope respecting it! We shall be there; for our portion is to be “ever with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)). And in our glorified bodies we shall be like Him; we shall share with Him His millennial glory, and be one with Him in the eternal state amid the ages of ages, when all the streams of dispensational blessedness will have flowed back to their source, and God Himself will be all in all. May the thought of it influence our souls to live the life suited to so vast a hope!