This Article: (7 Pages)
- 1. New Jerusalem
- 2. The City in Detail
- 3. The Beauty of the Holy City
- 4. Ezekiel's Vision
- 5. The Analogy of the City
- 6. The detail of the City Analogy
- 7. The Purpose of the two Temples
6) The detail of the City Analogy
The walls are of clear Jasper, a quartz coloured by red impurity. For it to be clear the impurity must be a minimum. To the biblical student this is clear, mankind is 'adam', of the red earth. The holy, or separated, people are transformed to become clear as crystal.
These walls have a dimension of 144 cubits. This is the number or dimension of the redeemed. A cubit is the length of the forearm of an average man. It is with our hands we do things. The cubit is the measurement of a human. The form of the walls is a perfected cube. This a shape that encloses a sphere and suggests completeness and unity. Out of this shines the light of Yahweh. It shows or is 'adorned' with the glory of Yahweh. It is from actions or 'out of' people that the characteristics of Yahweh are shown or manifested.
There is more, as John is told directly that the polis is like “a bride having been adorned for her husband”. This analogy of adornment is further explained when a great voice proclaims, (from the interlined Diaglott) “Lo the tabernacle of the Deity with the men, and he will tabernacle with them, and they a people of him shall be, and himself the Deity with them will be.” So the brides adornment “is the tabernacle of the Deity with men”, or a covering.
The death and resurrection of Yeshua is a covering of sins (Romans 4:7). This covering allows Deity to be at one, or atoned, or with mankind. This then allows mankind to be “a people” of Deity. Therefore the light of Deity is within the polis or political entity of sanctified mankind, represented by the jasper, shining forth through them, to the nations. This idea is represented in the form John sees. The dimension of the whole is not in reeds, but in the first measure of a city, the stadia. The government is 12 fold, or Israeli in nature, called Jerusalem and is represented in thousands, the number of a multitude. It extends to heaven. This is Yahweh in Mighty Ones manifested politically in glory.
In the wall there are gates that belong to the twelve tribes of Israel. A gate is where people enter. The covenant of the separated people is a Jewish one. Both Yeshua and the apostles agree that we become fellow heirs to the Hope of Israel. The saints' separation is achieved by entering through Israel's 'doors'. Being in Christ is being an heir of Abraham. And these doors are singular pearls. Yeshua used this image before. It is the pearl of great price. A pearl is appropriate as it is made through irritation of a foreign particle which is coated and separated from the world ('the world's your oyster' is a saying). The Israelite in the nations is an irritant that makes people aware of their hope. The world either loves and responds to this hope of becoming one with them or hates them.
Illustration: The territory of John's vision of the-City-the-Holy.
The whole structure is built on the work of the 12 apostles of Yeshua, who are precious stones. Yeshua used this image when speaking to Peter. He was a 'stone'. Of all the characteristics of the stone there is only one Yeshua was referring to, the foundation. Without the 12 apostles' work during the ministry of Yeshua there would be no large following. But their work was greater than that, as after the resurrection their eye witness account was the basis for others accepting the work of the resurrection, and it is this work of covering others' sin that allows the holy city to be 'clear' not red.
The buildings or structures inside are gold. Gold, when pure, does not corrupt, or rust. It is an element made of only one atom and is therefore unmixed. To separate, or form it, a fire is used. Gold is never found pure on earth, it must be separated. Fire speaks of trial. A structure refers to people's work or labour, the street to their walk or way or life. This separate people have been made pure in the things they make and do (1Corinthians 3:13-15). The gold is like glass, which is smooth or calm and at peace.
There is no temple or altar in this city. As the separated people have taken on the characteristics of Yeshua and Yahweh, there is no need of the rituals of separation of the altar and temple. The temple at the time of Solomon had an inaccessible most holy, separating Yahweh from his people. Once Yeshua entered into this symbolically through his death (the curtain to the Most Holy was rent) those who become associated with Yeshua also have in effect entered the Most Holy. And the Most Holy place in the temple was a cube. The most holy that John sees has become a complete polis at one with Deity.
In John's vision other nations come to, but not into, this most holy city. This is a fascinating distinction that John made. It is not irrelevant. The holy city that comes down at Jerusalem is complete and is not entered by the nations. Ezekiel's is a temple that the nations enter, go through and leave in the opposite direction they arrived. No-one walks the gold streets like glass, that John sees, they exist only. The walk of the sanctified, or separated, or holy people is perfected gold at the time when the city comes down.
It “has the Glory of God”
The last characteristic of 'the-city the-holy', Jerusalem-the-new, is that it comes down complete. Psalm 133 says that our hope is something that 'comes down' in brethren in unity. Yahweh's governance, now in heaven, will once again be brought down and directly manifested in the saints' rule as kings and priests on the earth.
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10).
The polis, the saints, do not rule to their own glory, they are Yahweh's rule and show Yahweh's glory, and make His judgements. Of interest is that though the polis comes down, the materials it is made of are found on earth. John's vision shows us, in another way, that the future of the redeemed is on earth.
The real thing in this image of a polis is the characteristics of the form and materials. It illustrates, in analogy, aspects of the multitude of people that make up the redeemed, called the 'Lamb's Bride'. All the materials are illustrations of aspects of perfection. They are characteristics of the saints when they have become perfected in unity and made the government of Yahweh on earth.
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