Revelation 21 INTRODUCTION
Is. 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
Is. 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your [Israel's] offspring and your name remain.
2Pet. 3:13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The summary of the work of the redemption of Mashiach's redemption of the Kingdom of Israel can be found in 1Cor. 15. A vision of the reign of Mashiach in the last era of this creation has been given in Scripture elsewhere. Mashiach is the source and the beginning of the new creation, and in him is the resurrection of the dead. Yet, nowhere in the Holy Scriptures has an actual vision of the New Creation, the Eternal Creation, been given before. In the final two chapters of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach a vision of the beginning of Eternity is given.
However, the old nature cannot perceive the new nature. The fact that the new creation involves the redemption of the old creation does not mean that there is any continuation of the old nature in the new. There is no attainment of the new by the old. Just the opposite. This redemption is through the blood of the Lamb. There is a progression in the old from sin to repentance but that repentance is not itself what eradicates sin, or corruptibility. The repentance that can take place in the old nature is only the preparation that is accomplished by the work of the Spirit, which conditions the conscience and brings it into that state where it can be redeemed through death and resurrection and regenerated into eternal faith and repentance. For if this regeneration were not to take place the repentance evoked in the natural heart and mind could be again corrupted by sin.
Is. 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
Is. 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your [Israel's] offspring and your name remain.
2Pet. 3:13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The summary of the work of the redemption of Mashiach's redemption of the Kingdom of Israel can be found in 1Cor. 15. A vision of the reign of Mashiach in the last era of this creation has been given in Scripture elsewhere. Mashiach is the source and the beginning of the new creation, and in him is the resurrection of the dead. Yet, nowhere in the Holy Scriptures has an actual vision of the New Creation, the Eternal Creation, been given before. In the final two chapters of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach a vision of the beginning of Eternity is given.
It is by clearly seeing the vision of the literal New Jerusalem in the opening of the new, eternal form of creation, that we can best recognize how it is that creation that has entered into us now, according to which we are to live. It is the eternal faith and eternal repentance of thanksgiving of the New Jerusalem which now saves us.
Revelation 21:1 (Text ESV)
Then I saw ya new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
...the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... Time and space no longer exist as they did, but event and place exist, as space and time are now redeemed.
...no more sea... The sea as it was is not needed for the life of fish which are like angels. And so their sea also, having been the focus of the first waters of creation, is now become an aspect of the new heavens and the new earth, that intersection wherein the material realm is made one with the spiritual realm by the power of the Mashiach's resurrection from the dead.
This is The Eternal World To Come. After the Millennium, after the Final Judgment of God, when Nature itself is changed completely — through the death and resurrection of the Mashiach of Israel. All is absolutely new! But not through condemnation of the old heaven and earth but rather through salvation of the old. No longer are there painful consequences, as was the way of the old, for eternity all is new and experienced as new and good. And for all eternity all the new and all the good declare the glory of God’s redemption of creation. All discovery involves discovery of a new thankfulness for that redemption.
21:2
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
...new Jerusalem... The great event and place in Eternity is The New Jerusalem. There is a new heaven and earth in the eternal state. The distinction remains. But the relationship changes. With the descending of redeemed Jerusalem to earth the Creator’s dwelling place is now with Adam. See verse 3.
That Jerusalem descends from heaven in the New Creation means that in the redemption and re-creation of all things Jerusalem, unlike everything else that was of the earth in the first creation, is, at the outset of the new creation, heavenly. This is a result of her unique status as the bride of Mashiach.
At the point, All Israel is seen as being encompassed in Jerusalem, as in the days of the 3 festivals.
21:3
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with Humanity. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
...with Humanity... Israel, corporately represented in Jerusalem, is God’s Temple in the Eternal World. All Humanity, coming from all the families of the earth, will be given its eternal corporate identity through the redemption of Israel, the branch of Adam which God chose in which to fulfill His judgment of death and resurrection.
This was the goal of God from the beginning of the call of Abraham.
When the New Jerusalem descends from heaven to earth she descends to a place, her place, her mountain in the Land of Israel. That she descends to the mountain, the mountain of the Land of Israel, the mountain that is the glory of the earth, results in the mountain itself singing praise to HasShem for the salvation of all things since the beginning, since God's utterance of the letter, "beyt," the first letter of the Bible, the beginning of the Torah.
Jerusalem is the Land and the Land is her, the place of HaShem's dwelling with Adam. This is the new creation and this is the resurrection of the dead, all things new and all old things made new. The wall of the open gates of the city is therefore eternal. For the whole Land of Jerusalem is full of a thankful memory that is eternally unique, different from the rest of the earth and the heavens, and yet it is eternally one with the entire new creation. No longer, as in the old creation are those things in earth or in the heavens which are different from one another ever at odds with one another. For this eternal harmony was the goal of the justification of life.
21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
...every tear... He will have wiped every tear from their eye in the transition from old to new, wherein Jerusalem finds herself to no longer be on earth but in heaven and to be All Israel.
Eternity will not provide a narrow view of God’s providence. All will be understood by all and by each at their level, with the level of all ever growing higher.
Isaiah 65:16-19
21:5
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
...Write this down... Opposite to chapter 10 “Do not write it down!”
...these words... The Torah learning now is learning how God has made and is ever making all things new.
21:6
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
... It is done... He was on the cross when he said this.
...To the thirsty... The spring of the water of life is the source of the Tree of life.
...I will give... The promise here is coming back from Eternity to the present to invite faith in the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah.
21:7
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
...conquers... Conquers the evil inclination.
As given in previous verse, this is through faith in the finished work of Mashiach through which repentance and obedience in all things are made perfect.
...be my son... my child. The Daughter of God and of Adam, Mashiach’s Bride; the Torah being the marriage contract. The Daughter and the Son are one body and one soul through Divine union.
21:8
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
...their portion... Again, the message comes back from Eternity to be heard now. Apart from repentance, the soul that sins is facing the second death. Fire and sulfur represents the condition of destruction when all that can end does end, when the space and time of the old creation passes away and everything sinful and all possibility of sin with it. The new creation is alive with God and nothing that clings to sin can exist there. We are being told this truth in order that we will repent. We are not here being told about God's judgment of souls and spirits, which is to come. Rather, we are being told by a voice coming to us from that new creation which is eternally with God that the portion of all sinners is now and will be forever the separation from God which is at the heart of sin, unless they repent.
21:9
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
...the seven angels... The seven judgments brought through the seven angels helped with the overthrow of the great Babylon. Therefore it should be the angels who are rewarded by being able to introduce The New Jerusalem. .
..the wife of the Lamb... To speak of the Wife of the Lamb is to speak of a corporate body. To speak of the Groom, the Husband of this Wife, as the Lamb is to speak of him as her redeemer, the redeemer of the corporate body. The language speaks of Mashiach as being the redeemer of what we are, the redeemer of the corporate body of Adam, of corporate Humanity, as claimed and chosen by God. This is corporate representative of Adam chosen by God, claimed as his own, is Israel, ultimately assembled to meet with him in Jerusalem. It was God's choice to remove the first Adam from the headship of Humanity in the new creation and to make the Lamb, the Messiah of Israel, the eternal head of corporate Humanity. This is the judgment of God and this is the mercy of God, by which all creation is saved.
21:10
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
...a great, high mountain... There is a vantage point from which to see the city of The Eternal Heaven coming down to The Eternal Earth.
The high vantage point is required in order to answer the question, why should the city of the Eternal Cosmos need to come down to earth?
The answer is that the New Creation is a re- creation, a creation by redemption. Those on earth are redeemed from sin. The heavenly realm also is redeemed through the redemption of the earth. Therefore the place of the highest authority in the Eternal World comes down to the earth, to the place of the redeemed of the earth, the place of learning God’s Torah and Salvation by revelation and by experience.
21:11
having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
...its radiance... Its brilliance, though created and redeemed, is the brilliance of Divinity, for "they two shall be one flesh".
As in Noah’s ark and the Temple, so here, there is a light that radiates out into all creation. It is like the spiritual light that radiates into our hearts from God. This is Mashiach Yehoshua.
21:12
It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed —
...the twelve tribes... The wall is the wall of the city but is specifically of the radiant gemstone; the wall radiates with the light of Mashiach. Also each of the twelve gates radiate with the light of Mashiach. Indeed, it is the twelve tribes themselves which now radiate, each with their own facet, together as one, with the light of Mashiach.
Not only did the cosmic city come down to earth but it has a wall and twelve gates. The world is inside and outside the cosmic city. The New Jerusalem could be the whole of the World To Come itself, but it comes down to earth. It has also walls and gates. These attributes speak to the testimony of redemption and the way of knowing God that is Eternal Life. Live in this world is a way of knowing. Eternal life in the world to come is another way of knowing. Eternal life is the way of God’s grace, of knowing His mercy at the foundation of the world, His mercy glorifying His strict justice, giving existence to creation forever.
A Special Window Looking Forward
The twelve angels of the twelve tribes and the seven angels of the seven assemblies
The factors of 12: 2, 2, 3. The added factors: 2,2,3 = 7. In order to begin to understand how the 7 angels of the 7 assemblies are also the 12 angels guarding the 12 gates with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel in the wall of the Eternal City of Jerusalem, we can say that the 7 assemblies, about which we read in chapters 1-3 of the Revelation, are factors of the 12 tribes of Israel. 2x2x3 =12.
There are different levels upon which the letters to the seven assemblies can be read and understood. Here, I will speak of one of those levels. Most often, the messages are read in contrast to one another. Altogether, however, there is one Menorah and one Assembly. As the assembly in Ephesus is the first of the seven, this assembly representing the whole seven as one, in seven different aspects. As we will see when we come to study it, Ephesus is seen as being held to be perfect in its original form, but having fallen from this state and being in need of repentance, there will be certain steps to be taken to return to its original perfection.
We will find that this is the structure: 1+1 repeated + 1+1 repeated x 1+1+1. These are the 7 aspects or the 7 factors of 12. We will see that these are the steps of repentance required for the assembly of the 12 tribes in order for them to return to the service of God in the time of the great trial of the nations.
When the one nation was twelve it was perfect. The seven assemblies represent the 12 tribes of Israel in exile, in captivity in the Mystery Babylon. When the 12 tribes were one nation they were dwelling safely in the Land. When they became divided they fell and went into exile.
This is the story, on this level of understanding, represented by the assembly of Ephesus. The assembly of Smyrna represents 1+1. In Smyrna we see the story represented by Ephesus now repeated under the conditions of the exile. The story of Smyrna is that an anti-Jewish replacement spirit is being tolerated. This anti-Jewish replacement spirit is the beginning of Mystery Babylon. Chastisement is already coming upon them. Ephesus is the story of the fact of the galut. Smyrna is the revelation of the nature of the galut. Together they form the first factor of the 12 tribes. This first factor, Ephesus and (Ephesus and) Smyrna, is the first "1+1," the first 2 in 2x2x3. It is the factor, or aspect, of the fact and nature of the galut.
The next 2 is composed of (Ephesus and) Pergamum and then (Ephesus and) Thyratira. Pergamum is the assembly where not only the spirit, the seed, of replacement theology is tolerated but its seed is allowed to bear fruit through immorality of assimilation to the doctrine of gentile supercessionism with its antinomianism. This 2 is galut and antinomianism, or in other words, assimilation. This is the combination: galut and replacement theology and galut and assimilation. This combination will be repeated in two other forms, completing the accounts of the first 4 assemblies. Then the 4 will be multiplied 3 times as represented in the last 3 assemblies. These are the factors of the 12 tribes when all of these factors have been processed the 12 tribes will be revealed as 1 again.
God willing, these matters will be clarified soon, when I begin again with these commentary notes on The Book of The Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach, which will begin with chapter 1. At this point, I have attempted to write enough on this in order to show the relationship of the twelve tribes and the seven assemblies and the revelation given through them.
21:13
on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
...east, north, south, west... The 4 camps of Israel in the Return to the Land...
21:14
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
...twelve foundations... The foundation of the wall is The Good News. Redemption is through mercy founded on the divide of justice. This divide is between the twelve tribes of Israel and the seventy nations. The divide is built into a wall of eternal life through the testimony in the twelve tribes and from the twelve tribes of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
21:15
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.
Both the the city itself and its gates and wall have a foundation. The city is to be measured. The foundation stones of the city are to be measured. And the wall is to be measured. All with one rod. What rod is this? This measuring rod is the measure of an angel, the same angel who swore to the certainty of the time of the end in chapter 10, the Angel of the Lord. In accordance with all the elements of the Revelation that were required to bring about the conclusion of the judgment of the nations and the redemption of Jerusalem, as announced through the angel, in accordance with those elements the city and its gates and walls have been built.
21:16
The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
Why the cube?
Is it that this is the shoe of the Holy of Holies?
...foursquare... This another form of allusion to 144,000? {4x12,000 = 48,000 x3 = 144,000} {4 sides = 4 camps x 3 tribes in each camp} = ESV note 12,000 stadia = About 1,380 miles; a stadion was about 607 feet or 185 meters
21:17
He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement.
Why 144 here? The 144,000, 12,000 from each of Israel's tribes is the Tikkun of the 12 tribes. God willing, I will return to this.
...which is also an angel's measurement... Not only in every part the city is measured according to the revelation that has been brought through the Angel of the Lord, but also in its whole. The wall is the demarcation of the whole of the city. It is the eternal standing testimony of the Good News — that it was through the redemption of Israel in Jerusalem, from captivity to the fallen Adamic nature as expressed by the four empires of the nations, that the earth was overturned and re-created and the heavens were made new.
21:18
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
... jasper...gold like glass... The new creation is material but what material is this? Not of this creation! This is a jasper that is eternal, more incorruptible than the gold of this creation. This is a city that is made of a gold that is eternal, so pure it is translucent, radiating outward to the nations the light of God and of the Lamb that is within her.
21:19
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,
...adorned... As if the city had become the High Priest. Just as in the beginning of the Torah in this creation the Highest of the Levitical Priests was adorned with precious jewels, so in the creation remade, the eternal creation, the foundations of the wall of Jerusalem herself are adorned like the High Priest. Indeed it was her whom the High Priest foreshadowed, even as she is the glory of the Lamb. And as each tribe of Israel was represented according to its attributes on the breastplate of the ephod of the High Priest, so they are each represented in the testimony of the Good News in the wall of Jerusalem.
21:20
the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
...the fifth...the twelfth... All of these gemstones now, as being eternal, are in their chemistry transformed and able to magnify light according to their material attributes, according to the letters of their names, which are the spiritual attributes of those tribes of Israel whose testimony to HaShem and to the Lamb sustain their existence.
21:21
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
...a single pearl... We are not told what is the exact size gates? We are told that this gate of pearl, twelve times over, is not built from a composite of pearls but is built of a single pearl. And this we are told with the knowledge that a pearl is a stone created by an oyster. What size is this oyster? Indeed, is this an oyster of this order of creation? It is not. It is an oyster of an altogether new creation, a new earth wherein there is no sea. In truth, the creator of this pearl is also the creator of resurrected 144,000 virgins of the twelve tribes. Again, God willing, we will return to this in the future, when we come again to this chapter.
...the street.. The city has a main street. We will see that it is the street upon which is found both the river and the tree of life. The street is made of the same material as the outside wall. This is the material that most transmits the light of the testimony of HaShem and of the Lamb.
21:22
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
...temple in the city... Can God be His own Temple? The meaning is not that there is no temple but that there is no temple within the city of the New Jerusalem because the New Jerusalem is now itself within the Eternal Temple. HaShem the One and only Power and the Lamb and his revelation are the Eternal Temple. The Temple in this world was the place of seeking unification with God, the place of the mystery of existence and therefore the central place of the history of our coming to know God as the redeemer of Israel. Its true nature is the place of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach. This “place” is the Temple of worship and prayer for eternity.
21:23
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
...sun or moon... In the eternal creation, all things are transformed in accordance with the resurrected bodies of the children of God. Spiritual light becomes, as it were, the physical light.
21:24
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
...By its light... The salvation of God is one for Israel and the nations, but the distinction is eternal with the testimony of praise. This, as we have begun to see, is the meaning of the wall that surrounds The New Jerusalem and the meaning of the gates of the wall. The eternal testimony of praise of Israel is one, and the eternal praise of the nations is another. In the Lamb they are melody and harmony.
21:25
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
...never shut... As above. The distinction is eternal but the gates are always open. Those whose testimony is harmony to the city's melody will never be hindered from coming into the city.
21:26
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
...they will bring... The grandeur of the nations is its gospel testimony to Israel’s salvation, which saves all creation. As they were in this world given grace that they might bring the children of Israel back to the Land of Their Inheritance, in accordance with the covenant of HaShem, so in the eternal world to come the will bring into the city the testimony of the grace that was given to them.
21:27
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
...nothing unclean... We hear again the voice from eternity coming back to us to speak to our concern at this time in this present world. It is only because of our limited faith that there is a concern that there could be something unclean that might enter into the eternal city. Indeed, there might be in us the fear that something unclean might even remain in us, ourselves, and we might hope that nevertheless we could find our way into that city. We are told that we have nothing to fear, nor do we need to allow ourselves any false hope. All true hope will be fully purified. In the New Jerusalem, in the eternal creation, all that was unclean is gone.
As the New Jerusalem shall be only pure, so the way there from this world is made by God to be only pure. How do we know this? How do we understand this? As it is written:
Only those written in the book of life are there. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
Isaiah 34:7 And the dry place shall become a pool, and the thirsty place [shall become] springs of water; in the habitat of jackals, a resting place, a grassy place for reeds and rushes.
Rashi: And the dry place shall become a pool: He who longs for salvation shall be saved.
Isaiah 34:8 And there shall be a highway and a road, and it shall be called the holy way; no unclean one shall traverse it, and it shall be for them; the traveler, even fools shall not go astray therein.
Rashi: and it shall be for them: And that is the road of those blind, deaf, lame, and mute mentioned above. They shall travel on this road, and even if they are fools, they shall not go astray, for I will straighten it for them.
Isaiah 34:9 No lion shall be there, nor shall a profligate beast ascend thereon, it shall not be found there; and the redeemed ones shall go.
Rashi: a profligate beast: The boar out of the forest (80:14). There is none as profligate among the beasts as the boar, and also “the lions from his thicket” (Jer. 4:7), i.e., Nebuchadnezzar, shall not be found there.
nor shall: ascend thereon: On that road....as it is written (Ex. 18:20): “The way upon which they shall walk.” (Lit., on her.) Comp. (Deut. 28:7) “In one road they shall come out to you.”
it shall not be found: any wild beast there.
Isaiah 34:10 And the redeemed of Zion shall return, and they shall come to Zion with song, with joy of days of yore shall be upon their heads; they shall achieve gladness and joy, and sadness and sighing shall flee.
Rashi: with joy of days of yore: (joy that is from days of yore, which they already experienced on the way of their Exodus from Egypt, “and the Lord was going before them by day” (Ex. 13:21).
..shall flee: The sadness and the sighing shall flee from them.
By this we know from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures that as the eternal New Jerusalem is pure, so by the power of the grace of God the way from here to there is also made pure.
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