Revelation 21:18

And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. THE BUILDING - `the structure' (Tregelles) [ endoomeesis (G1746a)]. GOLD, LIKE UNTO CLEAR GLASS - ideal gold, transparent as no gold is (Alford). Excellencies will be combined, now incompatible....

9-21 God has various employments for his holy angels. Sometimes they sound the trumpet of Divine Providence, and warn a careless world; sometimes they discover things of a heavenly nature of the heirs of salvation. Those who would have clear views of heaven, must get as near to heaven as they can, on the mount of meditation and faith. The subject of the vision is the church of God in a perfect, triumphant state, shining in its lustre; glorious in relation to Christ; which shows that the happiness of heaven consists in intercourse with God, and in conformity to him. The change of emblems from a bride to a city, shows that we are only to take general ideas from this description. The wall is for security. Heaven is a safe state; those who are there, are separated and secured from all evils and enemies. This city is vast; here is room for all the people of God. The foundation of the wall; t...

Verse Revelation 21:18. _THE BUILDING OF THE WALL OF IT WAS_ OF _JASPER_] The oriental jasper is exceedingly hard, and almost indestructible. Pillars made of this stone have lasted some thousands of years, and appear to have suffered scarcely any thing from the tooth of time. _PURE GOLD, LIKE UNTO CLEAR GLASS._] Does not this imply that the walls were made of some beautifully bright yellow stone, very highly polished? This description has been most injudiciously applied to _heaven_; and in some public discourses, for the comfort and edification of the pious, we hear of heaven with its _golden_ _walls, golden pavements, gates of pearl_, c., c., not considering that nothing of this description was ever intended to be literally understood and that gold and jewels can have no place in the spiritual and eternal world. Bu

AND THE BUILDING OF THE WALL OF IT - The material of which the wall was composed. This means the wall above the foundation, for that was composed of twelve rows of precious stones, Revelation 21:14, Revelation 21:19. The height of the foundation is not stated, but the entire wall above was composed of jasper. WAS OF JASPER - See the notes on Revelation 4:3. Of course, this cannot be taken literally; and an attempt to explain all this literally would show that that method of interpreting the Apocalypse is impracticable. AND THE CITY WAS PURE GOLD - The material of which the edifices were

EXPOSITION REVELATION 21:1 AND I SAW. The usual introduction to a new vision (cf. Revelation 20:11, etc.). Having described the origin and progress of evil in the world, the final overthrow of Satan and his adherents, and the judgment when every man is rewarded according to his works, the seer now completes the whole by portraying the eternal bliss of the redeemed in heaven (cf. on Revelation 20:10). The description is based upon Isaiah 60:1. and Ezekiel 40:1., et seq.;...

AND THE BUILDING OF THE WALL OF IT WAS OF JASPER,.... Which is expressive of the impregnableness, duration, brightness, and glory of salvation by Christ, the jasper being a very hard, durable, and bright stone; and salvation can never be made void, and of none effect; it will last for ever, and in this state will come forth as light, and as a lamp that burneth; it is represented by the same precious stone as God and Christ themselves are; see Revelation 4:2. And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass; it was made or built of gold; its parts, buildings, houses, and palaces, were all of gold, and that the best; and it was like to transparent glass; that is, either the city, as most copies read, or the gold; for the Alexandrian copy reads, ομοιον, and so the Vulgate Latin version; the gold of which it was is different from common gold; and as this city, the new Jerusalem,

Revelation 21:1. _And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea._ Astronomers tell us that, within living memory, several starry worlds have burnt out, and vanished out of sight. The apostle Peter has told us that this world also will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterwards be renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first firmament and the first earth shall have become extinct. God means that this planet should continue to exist after it has had a new creation, and renewed its youth. The regeneration of his people, their new birth, is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves while we wait for the fullness of that new creation. «The first heaven and the first earth were passed awa

CHAPTER 21 Revelation 21:1 . And now the eternal state comes into view. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and the sea is no more.” This is the revelation concerning the final and eternal state of the earth. “Thou hast established the earth and it abideth” (Psalms 119:90); “But the earth abideth forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4). These divine statements are now fulfilled. Many Christians have a very vague conception of the eternal state of the earth and the abode of the redeemed. They think of it as a spiritual state destitute of any locality. But it is not so. The earth and the heaven abide as definite places throughout all eternity. Wha

REVELATION 21:1 TO REVELATION 22:5. THE VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. The doctrine of the new heaven and the new earth goes back to Isaiah 65:17, and is derived from the belief that the present world was so corrupt that it could not possibly be the seat of the Messianic kingdom, at any rate in its present condition. The idea was developed in the apocalyptic literature, especially in Ethiopic Enoch, the Apocalypse of Baruch,, 4 Ezra. Some expositors hold that the New Jerusalem was established with the foundation of the Christian religion, and that the history of the Church is the history of the building of the city. But such an interpretation is mere allegorising. The writer of Rev. indicates in the clearest possib

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 heav