Revelation 21 jumps back and forth between the spiritual descriptions of the New Jerusalem and the physical descriptions of the New Jerusalem.
At the end of time and the beginning of a new eternity, a New Jerusalem will come down from heaven to the center of a re-created garden of Eden. Then God will fill it with his presence and rule his universe from there.
“The one who was speaking with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. The city is laid out as a square, its length being the same as its width; and he measured the city with his rod — 12,000 stadia (about 1,400 miles); its length and width and height are equal. He measured its wall also — a 144 cubits (about 200 feet), according to man’s measurements, which are (also) angelic (measurements). The wall was built of jasper; and the city was pure gold, transparent like clear crystal.”
— Revelation 21: 15-18
God is surveying the New Jerusalem, and we all know what that
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means — it’s real and God is establishing his ownership.
One of the first things we did when we bought our house was to have it surveyed, and we filed that survey at the county courthouse. It told us two things — this is a real property of a certain size and it belongs to us.
Do you remember the story so far? God created the heavens and the earth, he created a man and a woman, and he gave them the earth to care for and rule over.
But when they obeyed the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, ownership of the earth passed to Satan. Then, in the New Testament, when Satan illegally crucified a sinless Jesus, ownership of the earth passed back to God, and he’ll re-create it and give it back to us — meaning God has not given up on his plan for an earth filled with his people and his presence!
The Roman Empire built the Arch of Titus in 80 A.D. to celebrate its victory over Israel. Now the Roman Empire is dead, and Israel is alive.
The Jews were attacked, defeated, scattered across the face of the earth for 2,000 years, oppressed, persecuted, and now protested. But the tiny nation of Israel was re-created in 1948 and continues to stand as a symbol of God’s promise to all of us that God will re-establish his kingdom on earth!
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
