Revelation 21:1-27

THE NEW CREATION (Revelation 21:1)

21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had gone; and the sea was no more.

John has seen the doom of the wicked, and now he sees the bliss of the blessed.

The dream of a new heaven and a new earth was deep in Jewish thought. "Behold," said God to Isaiah, "I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, or come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17). Isaiah speaks of the new heaven and the new earth which God will make, in which life will be one continual act of worship (Isaiah 66:22). This idea is equally strong between the Testaments. It is God's promise: "I will transform the heaven and make it an eternal blessing and light; and I will transform the earth and make it a blessing" (Enoch 45:4). There will be a new creation accomplished which will endure to eternity (Enoch 72:1). The first heaven will pass away, and the new heaven shall appear; the light of heaven will be seven times brighter; and the new creation will last for ever (Enoch 91:16). The Mighty One will shake creation only to renew it (Baruch 32:6). God will renew his creation (2Esdr 7:75).

The picture is always there and its elements are always the same. Sorrow is to be forgotten; sin is to be vanquished; darkness is to be at an end; the temporariness of time is to turn into the everlastingness of eternity. This continuing belief is a witness to three things--to the unquenchable immortal longings in man's soul, to man's inherent sense of sin and to man's faith in God.

In this vision of the future bliss we come on one of the most famous phrases in the Revelation--"And the sea was no more." This phrase has a double background.

(i) It has a background in the great mythological beliefs of John's time. We have already seen that the Babylonian story of the creation of the world is of a long struggle between Marduk, the god of creation, and Tiamat, the dragon of chaos. In that story the sea, the waters beneath the firmament, became the dwelling-place of Tiamat. The sea was always an enemy. The Egyptians saw it as the power which swallowed up the waters of the Nile and left the fields barren.

(ii) It has a much more human background. The ancient peoples hated the sea, even though, by the time of John, they were voyaging long and far. They did not possess the compass; and, therefore, as far as possible, they coasted along the shores. It is not till modern times that we come on people who rejoice in being sea-faring.

Matthew Arnold spoke of "the salt, estranging sea." Dr. Johnson once remarked bitterly that no man who had the wit to get himself into gaol would ever choose to go to sea. There is an old story of a man who was weary of battling with the sea. He put an oar on his shoulder and set out with the intention of journeying inland until he reached people who knew so little of the sea that they asked him what strange thing he carried on his shoulder.

The Sibylline Oracles (5: 447) say that in the last time the sea will be dried up. The Ascension of Moses (10: 6) says that the sea will return into the abyss. In Jewish dreams the end of the sea is the end of a force hostile to God and to man.

(1) THE NEW JERUSALEM (Revelation 21:2)

21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride adorned for her husband.

Here, again, is a dream of the Jews which never died--the dream of the restoration of Jerusalem, the holy city. Once again it has a double background.

(i) It has a background which is essentially Greek. One of the great contributions to the world's philosophical thought was Plato's doctrine of ideas or forms. He taught that in the invisible world there existed the perfect form or idea of everything upon earth, and that all things on earth were imperfect copies of the heavenly realities. If that be so, there is a heavenly Jerusalem of which the earthly Jerusalem is an imperfect copy. That is what Paul is thinking of when he speaks of the Jerusalem that is above (Galatians 4:26), and also what is in the mind of the writer to the Hebrews when he speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22).

That way of thought left its mark on Jewish visions between the Testaments. We read that in the Messianic Age the Jerusalem which is invisible will appear (Esther 7:26). The writer of 2 Esdras was, he says, given a vision of it in so far as it was possible for human eyes to bear the sight of the heavenly glory (Esther 10:44-59). In 2Baruch it is said that God made the heavenly Jerusalem before he made Paradise, that Adam saw it before he sinned, that it was shown in a vision to Abraham, that Moses saw it on Mount Sinai, and that it is now present with God (Bar_4:2-6).

This conception of preexisting forms may seem strange. But at the back of it is the great truth that the ideal actually exists. It further means that God is the source of all ideals. The ideal is a challenge, which, even if it is not worked out in this world, can still be worked out in the world to come.

(2) THE NEW JERUSALEM (Revelation 21:2 continued)

(ii) The second background of the conception of the new Jerusalem is entirely Jewish. In his synagogue form of prayer the Jew still prays:

And to Jerusalem thy city return with compassion, and dwell

therein as thou hast promised; and rebuild her speedily in our

days, a structure everlasting; and the throne of David speedily

establish there. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the builder of

Jerusalem.

John's vision of the new Jerusalem uses and amplifies many of the dreams of the prophets. We shall set down some of these dreams and it will be clear at once how the Old Testament again and again finds its echo in the Revelation.

Isaiah had his dream.

"O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will

set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with

sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of

carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones" (Isaiah 54:11-12).

Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall

minister to you.... Your gates shall be open continually; day

and night they shall not be shut.... You shall suck the milk

of nations, you shall suck the breast of kings.... Instead of

bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver;

instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron.... Violence

shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction

within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your

gates Praise. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for

brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord

will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw

itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days

of mourning shall be ended (Isaiah 60:10-20).

Haggai had his dream.

The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the

former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give

prosperity, says the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:9).

Ezekiel had his dream of the rebuilt Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40:1-49 and Ezekiel 48:1-35) in which we find even the picture of the twelve gates of the city (Ezekiel 48:31-35).

The writers between the Testaments had their dreams.

The city which God loved he made more radiant than the stars

and the sun and the moon; and he set it as the jewel of the

world and made a Temple exceeding fair in its sanctuary, and

fashioned it in size of many furlongs, with a giant tower,

touching the very clouds, and seen of all, so that all the

faithful and the righteous may see the glory of the invisible God,

the vision of delight (The Sibylline Oracles 5: 420427).

And the gates of Jerusalem shall be builded with sapphire and

emerald,

And all thy walls with precious stones,

The towers of Jerusalem shall be builded with gold,

And their battlements with pure gold,

The streets of Jerusalem shall be paved

With carbuncle and stones of Ophir,

And the gates of Jerusalem shall utter hymns of gladness,

And all her houses shall say, Hallelujah!

(Tob_13:16-18).

It is easy to see that the new Jerusalem was a constant dream; and that John lovingly collected the differing visions--the precious stones, the streets and buildings of gold, the ever-open gates, the light of God making unnecessary the light of the sun and the moon, the coming of the nations and the bringing of their gifts--into his own.

Here is faith! Even when Jerusalem was obliterated, the Jews never lost confidence that God would restore it. True, they expressed their hopes in terms of material things; but these are merely the symbols of the certainty that there is eternal bliss for the faithful people of God.

(1) FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD (Revelation 21:3-4)