“And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass
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And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

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.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22:1 And he shewed 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.

And 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: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” - (Re 21:15-22:5)(KJV).

Air travel in this age is often maligned for the lack of creature comforts, bad food, and issues like delays and misplaced baggage. What it does offer, for those willing to look out of the window, is a wonderful view of the planet we live in – and nowhere is it more beautiful than looking down at cityscapes on a clear night. Cities sparkle like diamonds set in the midst of a golden dew encrusted, spider web-like, table cloth of lights. That beauty pales in comparison with the vision that we are shown of our eternal home!

Last week we were shown the City from the outside (as the apostle saw it descending). The walls, the foundations, the gates were features visible from a distance. As it gets closer to earth, more details are revealed and we zoom in, finally entering into the heart of the city itself (almost like an animation!). We have split up this week’s text into paragraphs that break out all of the detail we are shown, and will try to convey, as best as we can, the magnificence that is revealed.
First of all, we are given the dimensions of the city. We are told that the foot print is square, approximately 1400 miles wide by 1400 miles long, and it is 1400 miles high. A metropolis of this size in the middle of the United States would stretch from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the California border. It is bigger than the subcontinent of India which currently houses over a billion people (this would be the ground floor alone).

As for height, jet aircraft today fly at heights of 4-5 miles, with the International Space Station orbiting the earth about 200 miles up. As you can see, this city goes up well into space! The shape of the city could be pyramidal or cube shaped – if cube shaped, and we use the standard definition of stories, this city has apartment blocks that are 600,000 stories high that go up into space!

Now imagine a 200-foot-high wall of jasper (cf Strong: precious stone of various colours - some are purple, others blue, others green, and others the colour of brass. There is one kind called the Aeizusa, like to air and another Crystallizusa, clear as crystal), and a city of this size built of transparent glass like gold, even down to the streets. We set such a high premium on gold, yet in His economy, it is as common as asphalt! This wall goes on for 5600 miles (all round the perimeter)!

Zooming in, we see the foundations of the wall decorated with precious stones. Our God personally designed the garments of the High Priest in the OT and decorated his shoulders and breastplate with stones. (Exodus 28:6…) Onyx inscribed with the names of the tribes on his shoulders (two stones with 6 tribes each), and 4 rows of 3 stones each on the breast plate (sardius, topaz, carbuncle-emerald, sapphire, diamond – ligure, agate, amethyst-beryl, onyx, jasper). The stones are very similar to those decorating the foundations.

Now we are entering the gates – and each gate (remember the wall is 200 feet high) is a single pearl. These are the pearly gates we often hear St. Peter being in charge of – but if we read our Bibles we realize that these are the gates to a city and are guarded by angels. We are now inside, and looking around, we see the street and the buildings – transparent gold!

We cast our eyes about to look for a temple but are told that there is no temple in it! There is no need – since it is filled with the Presence of God and the Lamb – and that in turn means that there is no need for artificial or even natural light. He Who IS light is present there, and light of the sun and moon pales in comparison! New York City is famous for being called the city that never sleeps, but here we have a city where there IS NO NIGHT! In fact, the radiance of the city gives light to the whole planet!

We turn our eyes to the inhabitants and are told very clearly – there are several kinds. First, those written in the Lambs book of Life (they come from the both the first and second resurrections). These are the only people that are allowed to enter the city. We are told that there are nations outside the city, that walk in its light, that give their tribute to the “kings of the earth” – who bring it into the city.

We are reminded of the parable of the ten servants and the ten talents/minas (Luke 19:12-27), where a nobleman gives his servants money to invest. On his return, those that invested wisely, are given dominion over cities. It is a parable of the return of our Lord after receiving His kingdom, but also one of rewards for faithful stewardship, and here, we see what He was talking about when He says – “Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. (Lk 19:17). This is the dominion of the saints in the rule over the earth – and their office as priests, to represent the nations of humanity on the new earth – to bring their glory and honor and offer it to the Lord. The people they represent could be the ones denied access to the city, but still living in the new planet (as we remarked last week).

Before we go any further, we need to address a very important question. Is the punishment of the unsaved temporal or eternal? There are many passages that say it is eternal –our Lord Himself in describing His judgement of the sheep and the goats (cf Matthew 25:31-46) says that the punishment of the wicked is eternal. (It is chilling that the sins the “goats” are punished for are sins of OMISSION – they sinned against Christ by NOT helping their fellow man.) In Rev 14:11, those that worship the beast and receive his mark are said to be tormented day and night, and the smoke of their torment rises forever. This surely spans the gamut between doing nothing and actively rejecting God!

Hell was designed for the devil and his angels. It is a place where those that do not want God are shown what the absence of Him looks like (no light, no hope, no mercy, no love, no food, no water, no healing, no beauty, no life). He does not have to actively punish – just withdraw His light – that is Hell. (What a contrast from the city we are shown!) Humanity is deceived and ensnared by the devil, with God allowing him to go after those that willfully reject him – He gives them over to be destroyed by their own foolishness – rightfully so, since they ignore all the evidence around them, and choose death willingly.

All we will say is that but for the Grace of God we would be in the same boat. All we like sheep have gone astray, and there is none righteous – no not ONE! The greatest High Priestly Prayer of Christ was on the cross – when He said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.” It is that same heart that beats in us that recoils from the thought of eternal punishment of our fellow man. All we can do is appeal to our Father on behalf of them (as priests) to be gracious and merciful, as He has shown us mercy.

We are told that God through Christ, was reconciling all things to Himself (“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” – Col 1:20). This verse has been used to further an erroneous doctrine of Universal Salvation (i.e. Christ dies for all humanity and everyone gets saved). We pray and hope that there is a two-step process –the Gospel of reconciliation which we preach in this life, and a ministry of reconciliation which we see (shadows of) that SEEMS to reconcile a population that has sinned against God, paid for their sins in Hell, is released but sentenced to live outside the city.

The last feature of the city we see is a river of the water of life, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, in the midst of whose stream, and on either bank, stand trees (plural!) of life – that yield their fruit every month (different each month). Here is an interesting feature that implies that time still flows as we are used to, with a calendar year, and months, marked by the flowering of the tree of life! That is the clock, now that the sun and moon are no longer required! The tree that was once guarded by a flaming sword to PRESERVE it, now blooms from the life force of God Himself. The saved have a right to the fruit from the trees of life, and to eat from them. There is a ministry of healing and reconciliation from the leaves that is hinted at – where the leaves apparently are allowed to be taken outside the city and used to minister to them that live outside it.

The contrast between the City and Hell could not be greater. Dear Friends, let us resolve to pray earnestly and daily for our loved ones, and our fellow man – that God would be gracious and merciful to them in this life, to open their eyes, and rescue them from the snares of the enemy.

There is but one life, and after that, the judgment.

How can we rest in peace knowing that there is such a great need for the love of Christ to be demonstrated to a world that so badly needs it? How will we face our Lord when His flaming eyes look at us and ask, what kind of servants have we been, servants who have been entrusted with the riches of the Gospel, who have hoarded it for ourselves – and not shared it with those that are in danger of severe punishment.

Let us pray daily that we may be made channels of His Grace and look to leverage every opportunity to demonstrate our faith by our actions and words!

Hallelujah!