“God’s Glory in the New Jerusalem”
Revelation 22:22-22:5
“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” [Rev 21:23]
Way back in the books of Moses is the record of the “Shekinah” glory of God in the Tabernacle and then in Solomon’s time the Temple. God’s glory filled the Tabernacle [Exod 40:34-35] and God’s glory filled the Temple [1 Kings 8:10-11].
It was, however, a veiled glory because the fullness of God’s glory could not be contained in a Tent or Temple. Even though the Holy of Holies proved fatal to those without a proper sacrifice [i.e., Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16]; that inner place in the earthly Tabernacle was a veiled glory in this “old heaven” and “old earth.”
In the New Jerusalem, however, the Holy Jerusalem that resides within a “new heaven” and “new earth” [ref. 21:1]; Heaven itself, where the fullness of God’s Glory dwells, has no physical Temple [ref. 21:22]. For “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
In the Eternal State we will dwell with God and the Lamb in the fullness of God’s holiness and glory because the curse of sin will be no more [ref. 22:3]. There will be no need for a physical Temple to meet with God because we shall “see His face.” [22:4]
The continuous illumined glory of God will cease darkness. “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.”
The New Jerusalem is radically different from even the Creation account in Genesis. It has no sea, no sun, and no moon. “And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and kings of the earth bring their glory and honor to it.” [21:24]. There will be “nations” of resurrected saints who will worship and serve God and the Lamb [ref. 22:3].
It is beyond comprehension. On this side of Heaven, we can only imagine, in faith, how radically good the New Jerusalem will be.
You know, there really is little Scripture that describes Heaven. Revelation 21 and a handful of verses in Rev 22 are it.
But in faith, however, we can know, that without a doubt, the best is yet to come.
This place is not our home. We are sojourners here and looking upward and forward “to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” [Heb 12:22]
