Revelation 22
22:1 (Text ESV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
...the throne... Since the beginning of the revelation in heaven in chapters 4 and 5, the throne has been the centre and the source of the revelation. Even before, in the revelation on earth, when Yochanan is still on the island of Patmos, in the messages to the seven assemblies, we hear of the promise of the throne:
To the one who overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Rev. 3:21
We have learned that the throne is the eternal Messianic Throne. It is the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is at the centre of the Revelation. In the new and eternal creation where will the throne of God be found? In the final vision of the Revelation, the flow of the river of life, comes down the central avenue of the New Jerusalem from the throne. This tells us where the throne of God is to be found in the New Creation. We know that it is to be found at the head of the central avenue of the New Jerusalem. It is the source of the river of life that flows down the middle of that avenue. God and the Lamb not only dwell with Adam, with Israel, in the Temple City of the New Jerusalem. And their throne is the very centre and source of all things in this new, redeemed world of Adam.
There is something more of great importance to be noticed here. Unlike how the vision pictures most everything else that it speaks of, the verse does not picture the throne or where it is. The great prophets of Israel saw the throne in their visions. Here in the vision of the New Jerusalem, the vision of the Eternal World, it is as if the throne was already so clearly within Yochanan’s sight that a vision of it did not have to appear. There was no need for it to appear. We have in this, as it were a fulfillment of that prophetic word of King David:
I shall envision Your Face in [the world of] righteousness. When I awake [from the dead] I shall find myself in your likeness and be satisfied.
And this is according to the word of Yochanan in his 1st letter:
We know that when Mashiach shall appear that we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.
We see that the throne and the one who sits upon the throne is the centre of the New Jerusalem and of all things in the eternal creation, but, unlike the case of the visions of the prophets, we do not see a vision of the throne itself, nor the one who sits upon it. Yochanan and the angel who guides him, however, sees all, even while the Revelation itself conceals it.
There is an aspect of revelation in which those who are born of God can stand before the throne of God and envision the face of God and live, for they are not subject to the second death. While, at the same time, there remains an aspect of concealment within the revelation from the worldly reader. It is a concealment of the throne of glory. There is something to be seen here only in the Spirit, only through hearing what the Spirit says to the assemblies, as in Revelation 3:21.
The throne itself is not new to Yochanan's sight here. What is new to Yochanan’s sight here is where the throne is eternally located at the centre of the New Jerusalem come down from heaven to earth. What he has also not seen in his visions before, is how the river of both water and Torah that came out from the Temple during the final millennium, (Joel 3:18; Ezekiel 47:1), signified this river of life pouring out of the throne of God and the Lamb at the centre of the eternal New Jerusalem. He knows it’s water is the water of life. The judgment of God from the throne, the justice of God and mercy of God, is that the life of the Lamb should pour out as water from the throne. Yochanan, saw the river flowing like a water of clear liquid crystals. It was emitting light as it flowed. He understood the meaning of this well.
Indeed, when the New Jerusalem came down from the new heaven to the new earth, judgment from the throne had already been rendered. This is why the water of life coming from the throne is pure. Its contains only life. The judgment of God has been passed and His Sentence has created all things new. There is nothing unclean, nothing corrupt or corruptible found in the new creation. The eternal Torah, the express will and instruction of God to Adam is received only as blessing, only as light, only as the water of life, only as the word of God's sentence of justice and mercy toward Adam embodied in the Lamb of Israel. For eternity every commandment of God's Torah shall be preformed as a unique testimony to the goodness of the work of Mashiach.
...angel showed me... From chapter one of the Revelation, from the very first words of the Revelation, it is this angel, the angel of the Lord, as introduced in the first verse, who has been showing Yochanan the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach. The angel has finally come to this place of showing Yochanan, on the behalf of all the servants of Mashiach, this window into the eternal world, this close up picture of the city of the New Jerusalem, beginning with the river of life coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb within the heart of the city. This river, itself, will be seen, therefore, as the innermost aspect of the Revelation. In the vision of this river is the summary of all that reveals Yehoshua HaMashiach.
...river of life... First, what can be said about the spring of the water of life in 21:6 can be said about the river of life here. There we read:
And he said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give as a free gift from the spring of the water of life.
There is no condition but that one is thirsty for this water. As we have said, it is recorded in two places that he said, "It is done. It is finished." Here and when he was on the cross. When he was on the cross he also said, "I am thirsty." They gave him vinegar and water on a sponge with a pole. But it was not that for which he was thirsty. As recorded in Yochanan chapter 4, he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well of a water that when a person drinks of it they will never thirst again. It is in dying in hope for this water, as was Yehoshua on the cross, that one is thirsting for it.
From what is said here, the spring of the water of life, as the source of the river of life, must arise from the throne of God and of the Lamb itself, as we have said. This spring is the judgment of God, arising from the throne of God. And what is this judgment of God that becomes a river of life? It is the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah, which is the judgment whereby God, through the Lamb slaughtered for Israel's redemption, turns the death of the old creation into the life of the new creation. The river of life is the outgoing flow of the water of this spring of truth and revelation, which is the Spirit of Mashiach, which sustains the existence and the life of all things eternally. First, it sustains Jerusalem and Israel, then also all the nations who enter through her gates.
This is true today, for those who hear His Voice. and it is made known in this revelation and shall be revealed fully and made manifest in all creation in the world to come. However, those whose prayers do not enter through the twelve gates of the Jerusalem Above cannot perceive, nor receive the water of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. For the Lamb came to his own and made atonement for his own who did not receive him. And all born of Rebecca who hope in the promise of Mashiach given in Isaac have received of the water of life in that hope, even those whose eyes have been blinded by the greatness of the light of the river of life.
The people of the twelve tribes of Israel were given to Mashiach by his Father, those who were counted by Him alone, and Mashiach has prayed for them, and none of them will be lost, (Yochanan 17). Among them also will be all those families of the earth who bless themselves in the atonement made for Jerusalem and for Israel, those whose prayers enter through the twelve gates of the tribes of Israel. And all shall walk together with Yochanan in that day along the banks of the river of life.
22:2
through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
...middle of the street... We will learn to understand that the water of life flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb flows as the judgment of God from God’s Throne. And we will learn to understand that this judgment becomes the life in the fruit of the tree of life growing as twelve trees along that river of life.
First we learn that from the throne of God and of the Lamb comes the water of the word of judgment and truth. This water is taken up by the roots of the Tree of Life. Concerning this tree, we must look back to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden. The whole Garden of Eden was planted as the Garden of the Tree of Life. and this Tree of Life was rooted in the ten sayings of the six days of creation, which themselves issued forth from the waters that arose out of the first saying, the imperative statement that, "In the beginning God created the [elements of] the heavens and the [elements of] the earth." Concerning the river that issues forth from the Millennial Temple we read in Ezekiel 47:12:
All kinds of trees for food will grow up on both banks of the stream. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail; they will yield new fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the Temple. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
The Tree of Life is tied backward to the origin of the first creation and forward to the redemption of that creation in the new creation.
With the water of that word of eternal justice and mercy comes a light, saving us from the existential darkness of uncertainty and falsehood. This light is the blessing upon the food, the energy, the fruit of the Tree of Life that sustains us. Then we see and truly understand that the judgment of God is mercy toward Adam. It is the water of the Spirit of the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah for the world. The office and position of corporate head has been removed from the first Adam in judgment and has been given to the last Adam, the Mashiach of Torah Israel in mercy. Mashiach is the Lamb, through whose sacrifice for Torah Israel all has been accomplished. Jerusalem, in whom all Torah Israel is comprehended, is his Bride. This word, this spirit, this water is the lifeblood, giving life to all who walk in witness upon the main street of the New Jerusalem. It is the lifeblood also, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, of the tree of life, on either side of the river, with its produce going out to all the nations and to all creation.
...each month... There are twelve kinds of fruit of the tree of life, one for each of the twelve months of the Torah calendar, for its lessons are eternal. And the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, for month by month, lesson by lesson, the nations also will be healed from their ignorance of the God of Torah Israel. Just as the twelve crops of fruit for the twelve months mean twelve kinds of Torah lessons in accordance with the Torah character of each month, so, with the corresponding leadership of the twelve tribes, Humanity learns and eternally grows in lessons of praise and thankfulness for its redemption and new creation.
22:3
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
No longer... anything accursed - No curse and therefore no accursed. The blessing and the curse were to themselves aspects of the nature of the first creation, that is to say, the first ordering of creation. For the new creation is the same creation with a completely new nature, rebuilt with new laws and principles of physics and a new order of spirituality in which all is blessing. There is no curse, as there is no further need for correction or perfecting.
No longer need for such chastisement. The Throne being in the city itself, not above it.
the throne of God and of the Lamb - God and His victorious servant by whom He rules all things... the Lamb’s throne...in whom and through whom God is the God of Israel and, therefore, known to all Adam... in truth and by all Adam corporately and so also individually.
The throne is the city core. The city is the Temple. Israel is God’s Temple in the Eternal World, (See notes on 21:3).
"Believe Me, woman," Yehoshua replied, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." John 4:21
That is, not in Jerusalem in the first creation but in Jerusalem in the new creation. For...
...a time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. John 4:23
What the Father seeks He accomplishes in The New Jerusalem and its eternal world.
Yehoshua knew that The New Jerusalem was contained in his heart and soul. He knew that he would give rise to it through his death, that Jerusalem must die with him and through his resurrection live again. The joy set before him, (Hebrews 12:2), was to see Jerusalem begin to arise from the dead in his own person and know she would, at the appointed time, arise out of the judgment bringing the complete ending of time — as the heart and soul of the new eternal creation. For the worshipping of God, the holy love that He desires, that was prophetically foreshadowed through the Torah and fully manifested in the work of Mashiach in Jerusalem, will be performed by all Adam and all God's angels in The New Jerusalem in the eternal world to come.
22:4
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads
on their foreheads - this is in their tefilin. The Lamb will be their eternal Master of Prayer. As the eternal tefilin forms the prayer of their minds, so it forms the prayer of their hearts.
They will see his face - because His name will be on and in their foreheads. These are not separate elements. No eye in this world of death sees his face and lives. But there is an eye in the world of life which will see his face and live. The eye with which they will see his face and live is his name, which forms a means of seeing that is written in their foreheads. For just as the Son of God sees the Father and lives, so will the members of the New Jerusalem, his bride and body. They will see the Father and live. For as the Father is a spirit, so is the eye that is formed by his name an eye that is given to the resurrected body. For they are recreated from the dead in the second life by the power of his name, which transformed their minds and animates their hearts.
22:5
And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
night... no more... no sun - Will the sun and stars be redeemed? Not for the purpose of sight. For Adam’s eyes will see with the light of God. Redeemed as Israel, under the headship of the Mashiach of Israel, Adam will fulfill the purpose of their creation, seeing all things according to their nature and purpose and elevating all things to be worthy of the glory of God, to the joy of God.
night will be no more - This is the fundamental marker of the transformation from the first order of creation to the new order of creation. That there will be no more night means that all things will be conformed to the resurrection of the body of Yehoshua the Mashiach. The whole of the new creation will be as a creation resurrected from the dead. This in accordance with the resurrection of the last Adam. For Adam was created in order to preform the service of bringing all creation out of the darkness and night of its unworthiness of it Creator freely into the light of intimacy with his word, when he spoke in the beginning and said, “Let there be light!”
The sun and the moon and the stars were set in the night sky to create the daytime and the nighttime for the meantime. And for their service they will not be forgotten in that Eternal Day. Like the human body itself, the stars, planets and moons will be made spiritual bodies with gravity subject only to the designs of the Torah of God.
22:6
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
These words are trustworthy and true - These words are the vessels of faith.
the Lord, the God - HaShem the God of the spirits of the prophets of the Revelation of the Israel of the covenant fathers and the covenant Mashiach has sent these words to the children whose vessels need to be vessels of faith.
soon take place - All is immediate. Yehoshua HaMashiach is come in the flesh. (For more on this, see below.)
22:7
“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
And behold, I - The one who reveals and is revealed says...
Soon - There is a mystery to this word. We know that no one but the Father knows the day or the hour. All those who try to calculate the time fail. Here, the word "soon" points not so much to the objective time but to the subjective time, the waiting. It means his presence and power can be known to the members of his body, to those who are one mind with his purpose. An artist who is immersed in her creation does not have her mind set anxiously upon the time of the end but filled with joy in every moment and stage crafting the creation toward its goal, which can only be revealed in its time.
22:8
I, John, (Yochanan), am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
I, Yochanan - His testimony... There is a great matter alluded to here concerning the coming of Yochanan's testimony in the last days, that is foretold at the end of chapter 10 and his relationship, or the relationship of his testimony to the Two Witnesses and to their testimony. I will discuss this in another place.
I, Yochanan - He takes responsibility... for every yod and every stroke of every letter, that all is complete. He knows the burden of the weight of the carrying forward of the Revelation. Therefore he is in awe at the work that the Angel has done in bringing all the Revelation to him. He concludes that Angel is come in the body of the new creation, as the Angel of the Lord having been made fully one with the body of the Lord. Therefore he concludes that he is standing in the presence of the Lord himself, as conveyed to him by his Angel. Concerning this conclusion the Angel corrects him, saying to him that he is not himself an aspect of the Revelation. He is only himself and is not conveying to Yochanan the Divine Presence.
22:9
but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
I am a fellow servant - ..the relationship of the Lord and the Angel of the Lord... see the previous note on this subject.
Worship God - Let us worship God together and praise Him for the glory of this Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach, the slain Lamb of God and of Israel, and for having made us vessels in the service of this, his Revelation.
22:10
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near."
Do not seal - as Daniel was commanded at the end of the book of Daniel. We see the parallel drawn to the end of book here, indicating to us that both revelations are one. Daniel’s prayer for revelation was for the sake of Jerusalem. So here. But what was not revealed to Jerusalem then because Mashiach had not yet come, should be revealed to her now!
22:11
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
Exodus 10:1
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
This is a conclusion drawn from the fact that the time is near. The final command to repent is given. No other will come. God will demonstrate, for the sake of the conversion of the world, that He is God and there is no other, that the idolatrous imaginations of a self-creating and self-sustaining universe are foolishness. God will speak to the heart and mind of corporate Adam, which is the heart and mind in the seed of all Adam. The collective opinion of sinful human beings shall be struck silent with awe! For as God began to reveal Himself in the redemption of Israel from Egypt, so He will complete His act and finish His purpose in time by His redemption of Israel from among all nations. The hearts of all peoples and nations shall be hardened against HaShem and against His Mashiach and against His redemption of Israel in Jerusalem, but the end shall come upon them and Humanity will be saved only in Jerusalem. Through this, corporate Adam shall be converted and shall return to obedience to the commandment of God.
22:12
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done."
soon - See 22:7 and notes there.
I am coming soon - The first in reference, in 22:7, was stated in reference to those who are his. In that case, "coming to them soon" means that while he is already with them in many ways, he will soon be with them in every way. "I am coming soon" is repeated here in relation to the nations who do not repent. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush it meant Moses was coming soon to bring judgments upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Only after that would Israel be immersed into Moses and into The cloud of the Divine Presence. In the final phase of redemption with Mashiach, all who are his, concluding with Jerusalem herself at the conclusion of the testimony of the Two Witnesses, will be fully immersed into Mashiach before he comes to bring an end to the rule of the rebellious nations.
22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Alpha and the Omega - In Genesis 1:1 we read that in the beginning God created the aleph-tav of the heavens and the aleph-tav of the earth. Alpha and omega are a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew aleph and tav, which are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Because these letters used together in Hebrew for the particle, "et", serves a unique grammatical function in the language as a direct-object marker, (similar to a punctuation mark), we might be justified in thinking that this word formed by these letters has no actual meaning in Genesis 1:1. We might think that it was just a coincidence that Yehoshua identifies himself as being the first and the last letter of the alphabet. We might read his statement as being a figure of speech. Such is the normal conclusion of scholars. The conclusion of faith, however, is, I believe, quite different.
Having said all, the one whose word is revelation is now identifying himself and proclaiming his authority to bring this word of revelation. He is the one who is the author of the first creation and of the author of the last creation. He is the author and finisher of our faith. From this, we are being given to understand that on a level of meaning rising out of, but higher than, that meaning residing in the formal grammatical structure, in Genesis 1:1 was concealed the revelation of the creation of the eternal heavens and earth, together with the revelation of the temporal heavens and earth. The one who brings us the revelation that the eternal world and the temporal world were created together as one in the beginning, now assures our faith that he is coming soon to transform the temporal into the eternal.
22:14
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
wash their robes - This is an allusion to immersion in the crossing through the River Jordan of All Israel with Yehoshua HaMashiach, which is accomplished through the blood of the Passover Lamb. It is the washing of the priestly garments. It is the washing of the garments of witness to God, that is to say, cleansing of the testimony itself. One's testimony must be made clean from all self-reference in its confession of redemption faith. This means all the replacement theology from among the nations must be removed by this immersion. Otherwise their witness will not prove true when cross examined. This is the message of what the Spirit says to the seven assemblies. See there.
12 gates - The confession of faith in the corporate good news of Israel and Her Messiah is a confession of prayer that can only enter the city through its proper gate. This is the mystery of the 12 gates and the 12 tribes, about which we will learn more later.
Song of Adam
The Good News of Israel
And Her Messiah
To the Jew first
and also to the Greek
The first will be last
And the last will be first
Then we will all stand
Before the judgment seat
While He who owns my name
The name He will give to me
Will defend me
The Judge will not sentence me
Until His Radiance comes for me
To stand and then to rest
To sit at the Illuminant Judge’s right hand
He is the Good News of Israel
He is Her Anointed Lover
For Her sake
He will give me a white garment
That I might be caught up
In the glory of Her love
For Her most Beloved
And for the Father of Her Beloved
The Father of Lovingkindness
Who gives birth to a universe of mercy
In this my sin will be forgiven
And I will walk hand in hand
With the children of Israel
Whose life the Holy One has justified
Whose corporate prayer
On that day
will sit incarnate
at the right hand of the Father of us all
22:15
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Outside - outside this hope. Outside this hope to which we give witness in garments of a cleansed testimony... outside of this there is only false witness, only the testimony of sinners.
22:16
“I, Yehoshua, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the gathered assemblies. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
gathered assemblies - The seven gathered assemblies of chapters 2-3 are they to whom the whole of this book is addressed. This brings us back to the beginning. It has been confirmed to us here at the end that this book is not addressed openly to the world but to the members of the seven gathered assemblies. The end introduces the beginning. All is tied together by these words as one message for all the branches of the one tree, the one menorah. It will be revealed to us and we will learn who the seven gathered assemblies are.
Morning star - The light of the first day now the light of the planet above in the world to come, which is a resurrected planet, as all things in the world to come are made new and resurrected in the body of Mashiach. This is promised with the promise of ruling the nations — creation.
22:17
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
The Spirit and the Bride - Knesset Israel: the now engaged Bride, being indwelt by the Shechinah, says come.
Come! - The marriage of the Lamb is for the sake of every soul and every spirit of creation.
let the one who hears say, “Come.”- The great commission of the new, the redeemed, the eternal declared into the old, the corruptible, the temporal...
22:18
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
I warn everyone - Those subject to the plagues are those who pervert the words of God here given. Essentially, this was already said in verse 7. It is here spelled for the sake of the courtroom judgment that is about to come.
the words - Matthew 5:18 - The World English Bible translates the passage as:
“For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished”All things, every yod and every stroke of every letter of the Torah and of all the Scriptures, indeed, of this revelation, will complete the work it is given to accomplish, to build the creation of redemption of Jerusalem, as the soul of an Eternal World.
22:19
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book
his share in the tree of life - There is no soul in life but the soul in God’s word. The fruit of the tree of life is the lifeblood of the Holy City, and the Holy City is the lifeblood and soul given to Mashiach as God’s gift to the Eternal World which God created through him, through the labour of his suffering in love. There is only one way to take away from the words of the book of this prophecy. That is to interpret them falsely. In actuality, no words, no truths, can be taken away from the revelation in this book. But from one's own soul, which is given subsistence by the word of God, falsely interpreting the words of the book of this prophecy life can be removed. The words of the book of this prophecy reveal the Good News of Yehoshua, the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah. A false interpretation of any of the words of this book, of this prophecy, obscures that good news and conceals it from one's soul.
22:20
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
I am coming - Yehoshua is with Israel (1 John 4:1-4)
Amen - Yehoshua is with Israel.
soon - Yehoshua HaMashiach is come in the flesh... to the body of Knesset Israel, his espoused bride. Come quickly! — to fully unite with Knesset Israel. When he appears we shall appear with him.
We are also concealed. He in heaven, with those who have gone on before us. And we are concealed here on earth. For we appear to be from this time before the resurrection. And we wait here in this time. But though who we were before was from this time, who we are in him is not, for in him we are from the time beyond time. And so it shall be revealed when he comes.
Colossians 3:3 NIV adapted
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Mashiach in God.
1 Thessalonians 4:14 CJB adapted
Since we believe that Yehoshua died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way God, through Yehoshua, will bring with him those who have died.
1John 3:2 NIV adapted
“Dear ones, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Mashiach appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
