The City

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.   Revelation 21:2

The cities of world history had been laid bare in the heat of God’s judgment. London, Chicago, Jerusalem, Cairo, Beijing, Moscow, Baghdad, Bangkok, and Calcutta were gone! Then John saw a city coming from heaven, recognizing its outline, just as you would recognize the skyline of New York. It was Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is full of significance. God warned his people not to choose their own places of worship; he would choose the place and meet with them there (see Deuteronomy 12:5-7). David discerned that Jerusalem was the place. Solomon built the Temple there. Jerusalem was where God would meet with his people, but access to God’s presence was limited to the high priest on only one day a year.

The new Jerusalem is vast, “1,400 miles” (Revelation 21:16). That’s the distance from New York to Houston. The area of the city would cover about three-quarters of the United States! John had already seen that God’s redeemed people numbered more than anyone could count. God has a place for every one of his people.

This city is as wide and long as it is high—a perfect cube. John would have seen the significance of this immediately. When Solomon built the Most Holy Place, where the cloud of God’s immediate presence came down, it was constructed as a perfect cube—thirty feet on all sides (see 1 Kings 6:20). The old Jerusalem had a holy place where God’s presence came down; the new Jerusalem is a holy place where God’s presence will remain.

There is “no temple in the city” (Revelation 21:22). The whole place is one massive temple, where a vast crowd of people live in the light of God’s presence. That’s why a loud voice said, “God’s home is now among his people!” (21:3). John saw the dazzling light of the invisible God on the throne, but the throne had come down into this city. All God’s people have access to him; they live in the light of his glory, so there’s no need for the sun and no night (see 21:23-25).

It’s as if heaven and earth are joined together. Heaven is made suitable for the people of earth, and earth is made to reflect the glory of God.

For further reading, see Revelation 21