22nd August 2024 – Revelation 21:9-27

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.


Another significance in the measurements of the holy city is that they speak of a complete symmetry. The city has perfect proportions, and this speaks of a glorified Church perfectly proportioned and with no kind of imbalance. What is suggested is the harmony and symmetry of a perfectly proportioned life, and one has only to think of the sometimes ludicrous, sometimes tragic 'lopsidedness' of character that we see in those around us in the Church, and suspect also in ourselves. The question of imbalance is, as a matter of fact, one of the most vexing of all problems in the Christian life. Sometimes our minds develop far more than our emotional natures, and when this happens, we have the unedifying spectacle of a man with a first class intellect but emotionally quite adolescent and immature. The fact that perfection of symmetry and proportion is the final fruition of God's dealings with us should encourage us to realise that even in this life grace (which is but 'glory begun below') can effect at least some approximation to that blessed state. At all events, we should seek to avoid the dangers of a merely traditional and orthodox concept of sanctification which is content with the removal of generally accepted marks of worldliness and carnality, and forgets the work that needs to be done in the deeper reaches of personality and which can produce increasing maturity of character and all-round development towards wholeness. It may be that in this connection there is significance in the idea of the precious stones (19ff), for it is only whole men that really sparkle with life and vitality. The truth about most of us as we are is that we are rather dull and uninteresting people. This, did we but know it, is the mark of our sinfulness more truly than other more obvious manifestations of it. Nor can any pattern of sanctification that leaves us dull still, be an authentic, biblical pattern. It is time we realised that the question whether we are dull and colourless or vital and sparkling is one of first importance for the Christian. A great deal depends on the answer!