Slices
Prepare
Sing or listen to: ‘Only by grace can we enter … Into your presence you call us … and now by your grace we come’.*
*Gerrit Gustafson, 1990, https://youtu.be/rrYK-jOnGm0
Bible passage
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Explore
The city is ‘as wide and high as it is long’ – in other words a cube. The Holy of Holies in the earthly Temple was also a golden cube, the place where the presence of God rested. It was off limits except for one day a year. Even then only the high priest could enter (see Leviticus 16). In God’s new creation, the atoning work of the Lamb (see Luke 23:45,46) means there is no sin (v 27) to separate the people from the holy presence of God. Ian Paul points out that the city is ‘holiness on a cosmic scale’** as the footprint of the city is a ‘Holy of Holies’ (vs 15–17) large enough to encompass the entire Roman Empire. There is no inner court accessible to priests alone, no court of women, no court of Gentiles. The hierarchy of access to God is gone for good (v 22).
All the gems that make up the foundations (vs 18–20) correspond to the gems that represented God’s people on Aaron’s ephod (Exodus 28:15–21). The message is clear: all God’s precious people have their place here. All who belong to the Lamb (v 27) are welcome into the very presence of God.
**Ian Paul, Revelation – Tyndale New Testament Commentary, IVP, 2018
Respond
Which part of today’s vision for your glorious future with God will you fix in your mind to help you endure your current difficulties? See Romans 8:18.
Deeper Bible study
‘I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.’1
In the details of the city, John is doing his theology by architecture. The Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple was a cube, symbolising the holy perfection of God, and the new Jerusalem is a vast cube. This is the Holy of Holies, but on a colossal scale, stretching (if centred on Patmos) from Rome in the east to Jerusalem in the west. It is the perfect counterpoint to that archetype of imperial oppression, Rome: the value of the letters of ‘Nero Caesar’ when written in Hebrew is 666; the value of ‘angel’ is 144.
The gemstones make the city, the bride of the Lamb, a counterpoint to the harlot’s ‘precious stones’ in chapter 17. The list here draws from both the gems representing the twelve tribes on Aaron’s breast-piece2 and the treasure of the king of Tyre.3 Whatever worldly wealth is gained by greed and exploitation pales into insignificance in comparison with the riches of being the people of God by the gift of his grace.
Given all the allusions to the Old Testament, especially to Ezekiel, it comes as a great surprise that there is no Temple. The Temple signifies the meeting point of heaven and earth, the limited presence of God in the world – but now the whole city is filled with God’s presence as heaven and earth unite. The space occupied by the presence of God is the same space occupied by the people of God – here is God in an intimacy with his people that has no limit. Remarkably, the ‘kings of the earth’ and the ‘nations’ (v 24), who have previously been the enemies of God, are able to share in this privilege.
In what ways have you experienced intimacy with God as a treasure beyond price? How might you grow in that sense of intimacy and its value?
1 Eph 3:17,18 2 Exod 28 3 Ezek 28
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Kings 22; Psalms 60,61
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks for all those who sacrificially give their time to volunteer on Scripture Union events. Ask that God will truly bless them in their service.
