Posted by Elana Janson on May 13, 2013 at 07:02:51:
The measuring of the New Jerusalem
According to my understanding of the book Revelation, the measuring of the New Jerusalem is of the greatest significance in the total message of Revelation.
1 With the vision of the New Jerusalem God connects our lives (also all human life on earth through the ages) on earth with heaven after death. God reveals the unity of heaven and earth.
2 Specifically the measuring of the New Jerusalem reveals that the prophecy of Revelation is a continuation of God’s attachment to mankind through visions - as the visions given to the prophets of the Old Testament. The measuring in Revelation links the reality of earth and history of the Church to the coming reality of eternal life.
God connects our lives (also all human life on earth through the ages) on earth with heaven after death.
The vision of the “New Jerusalem”
Rev 21:1-3
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.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Coming down from God out of heaven
The “new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven”; this magnificent vision I believe essentially bears the message that God wishes in the end time to give man insight into a holistic view of life on earth as part of the continuation of spiritual life after death.
According to my understanding the “New Jerusalem” in Revelation is symbolic of “paradise” (Luke 23:43). It represents the place where those who believed in Jesus the Christ shall live after death. It is “New Jerusalem” because it symbolically combines “earth” with “heaven”. For this reason the name of the holy city on earth is used. It is given in the measures of a cube because in it God wishes to convey to believers how life after death is part of our existence on earth.
The words “coming down from God out of heaven” at the beginning of the twenty-first century reveals that God wishes to enlighten and to reveal to mankind before the Return that the connection of earth and man to heaven is a reality.
How does God make it a reality?
Through the words: “measure”, “length” ,“breadth” and “height”
In the following verse we are told how John saw the angel measure the New Jerusalem, the city, the gates and the wall.
Rev 21:15-16 “And he (one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues) that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.”
The placement of words in Revelation
I must at this point again stress the significance of the words of Rev 22:18-19. In those verses God specifically emphasizes the importance of every word in the book Revelation. The words may not be changed or the positions of the words altered. My understanding of Revelation has revealed the reason for this. The position of a word, where it is repeated, its reference in the verses of Scripture is where the great revelation of God lies. Therefore it is extremely important in the interpretation of Revelation to discover where a word is repeated and in what context.
“He measured the city with a golden reed”
The use of the words “golden reed” are important because the word “reed” is also used in Revelation 11:1 “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood saying Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar and them that worship therein.”
Therefore, when Revelation repeats the word “reed” (used in Rev 21:15) in Rev 11:1 it means that the measuring of the “temple” and the “altar” also relate to the measures of the New Jerusalem.
On this website and in my books I have shown how I measure the “temple”, that is, “the three and a half days” in each millennium since the coming of the Christ. The insight into this understanding comes from the words of John 2:19-21.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
I believe that the words of John 2:19-21relate to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but also to the time of the rise of the Christian faith in the two millennia after the birth of Christ.
Those who read my post concerning this verse on this Forum earlier this year will know that the length of the “temple” in Revelation relates to the rise of the Christian faith in the past two thousand years. In other words “measure” relates to both time from the coming of the Christ, the birth of Jesus Christ, and to the rise of the faith within the Christian church over a period of about two thousand years.
In Rev 21:15- 16 the “golden reed” indicates a measure of the New Jerusalem, and through the repetition of the word ”reed” we can know that the symbolic cube formation of the ‘New Jerusalem’ also relates to the time of the rise of the Christian faith on earth.
The repetition of the word “reed” in both Rev 11:1 and 21:15-16 confirms that the New Jerusalem is about those who accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior – the one who died on the cross for their sins (“the temple of God, and the altar and those that worship therein”).
The “temple” in Revelation includes all the Christians that were part of the Church of Jesus Christ over the past two thousand years.
Through the repetition of the word “measure” in Rev 11:1 and in Rev 21:15 Revelation reveals the unity of the Christian Church with the New Jerusalem. Therefore the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven is given in the measures of “length”, “breadth” and “height” which we know is a symbolic cube measure.
The “height” relates to “heaven” and this “cube” reveals how God sees a Christian’s existence on earth and his proceeding to heaven after death as a unit. It is a great consolation for Christians for they can know that they are in God’s hands till beyond death. Therefore man and mankind are in the realm of the Trinity, from Creation and ultimately to eternity.
Revelation verifies this understanding of earth as part of the cube formation in the words “four corners of the earth” (Rev.7:1).
The “temple” or Church on earth ‘becomes’ the New Jerusalem. I believe this is confirmed in Rev 21:22 “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”
God includes time, heaven and earth.
In Revelation the words “measure the temple” relate to time - from the time of the coming of the Christ till the Return; “measure” also relates to the “length”, “breadth” and “height” of the New Jerusalem.
Through the word “breadth” in Revelation God also includes the dimensions of the earth.
Rev 20:9 “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Through the repetition of the word “breadth” in Rev 22:15 and Rev 20:9 Revelation includes the entire earth in the dimensions of the New Jerusalem. It likely also means that when the nations gather to Armageddon it is the time that man has the understanding of the vision of the New Jerusalem descending to earth.
2 Specifically the measuring of the New Jerusalem reveals that the prophecy of Revelation is a continuation of God’s attachment to mankind through visions - as the visions given to the prophets of the Old Testament. The measuring in Revelation links the reality of earth and history of the Church to the coming reality of eternal life.
Rev 21:15-16 does not stand in isolation in Revelation. This vision that John had of the angel measuring with a golden reed on the island of Patmos is absolutely related to the words of the prophet and priest Zechariah whose prophetical career began about 520 BC
The words of Zech 2: 1-5 “I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I , Wither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof. And behold the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, And said unto him Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.”
In these verses from Zechariah we are told of a vision of a man, an angel, who was going to measure Jerusalem the city with a measuring line. Then God informs Zechariah that God will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem. In other words God will protect Jerusalem no matter what.
One cannot disregard this measuring of the earth city Jerusalem with a measuring line in 500BC in the book of Zachariah in relation to the measuring of the new Jerusalem with a golden reed in Revelation. The repetition of the measuring in Revelation reveals that God is confirming his bond with mankind through the ages.
This understanding of the word “length” relating to time is revealed in Scripture
Deut 30:20 That thou may love the Lord thy God and that thou may obey his voice , and thou may cleave unto him; for he is thy life , and the length of thy days that thou may dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.
Job 12:12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.
Ps 21:4 He asked life of thee and thou gave it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
Proverbs 3:1-2 My son forget not my law; but let thy heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee.
Proverbs 3:16 Length of days is in her (wisdom and understanding) right hand and in her left hand riches and honour.
“breadth” relating to earth is also revealed in Scripture
Gen 13:16-17 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
The measuring in Revelation reveals the greater picture in 2013.
Therefore through the measuring of the temple and the New Jerusalem it seems that Revelation is revealing that in the end time when the nations gather to Armageddon as God said to Zechariah he would be the wall of fire around Jerusalem, in the final time, so he will protect “the beloved city” Jerusalem (Rev 20:9) “and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them”. With the vision of the New Jerusalem God extends the protection to all those who through the ages were within the Church of Jesus Christ (the beloved city) - as we approach Armageddon and the Return – are already within the walls of the New Jerusalem.