We “Look For new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13).
This is the second of three ‘heavens’ of which the Scriptures speak. The first, the Mosaic, has long vanished away, whilst the third, that which Paul was privileged to see, was so wonderful that he found himself unable to find words to describe it to us (2 Cor. 12:4).
When we come to the closing chapters of the book of Revelation we find both the second and third ‘heavens’ before us in symbol. The third heaven is pictured to us in 21:1-8 as “the holy city, new Jerusalem”, ruling over a world where “God Himself shall be with them”, where “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”. “No more death”: truly this is the time spoken of by the Apostle Paul when that “last enemy” has been destroyed and God is “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:2428). This third heaven is therefore a symbol of spiritual Israel beyond the Millennium.
The second heaven
There are, of course, substantial differences between the second and third heavens, even though there is a great similarity between them. Both are symbolised by a “city”, even “Jerusalem”, but the Spirit is careful to make clear to us that these two cities, whilst similar, are not the same. Whilst the city of Revelation 21:1 is described as “new Jerusalem”, that whose description begins in verse 10 is “the holy Jerusalem”.
That we are expected to go back in time when we come to this description of the second heaven (in v. 10) is clear, not only from the general pattern of the book of Revelation, wherein we are always given the end of the matter before we are shown how we get there, but also from the fact that we are introduced to this second heaven by “one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues” (v. 9), one of the angels therefore involved in the events that immediately precede the establishment of the Millennial reign of Christ. Further, this “city” is described as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, whereas the “city” of verse 2 is “a bride adorned for her husband”, her “husband” being her Maker, God Himself (Isa. 54:5). The second heaven is therefore the saints, ruling over natural Israel and all the nations in the period of the Millennium, and is styled “the holy Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:10).
The wood of life
Now let us look at the vision of things as they are at the beginning of the 1,000 years in a little detail. We have a symbolic picture that begins in Revelation 21:9. We have a vision of a city, with walls, foundations and gates. From the city flows a river, and on either side of the river we find the ‘wood of life’, as described in 22:2. The purpose of the river is clear: it is to water—to sustain in life—the trees.
The vision that Ezekiel had, and which he describes in chapters 40 to 48 of his prophecy, has so many similarities with that which John saw that we must conclude that they are related; but they are not the same. What Ezekiel saw was real: it will be built in Palestine, at Jerusalem. What John saw was a symbolic vision, where the various elements of the vision represent various elements of the ruling power in the Kingdom.
The wood, with its twelve different sorts of trees, has a purpose which is clearly described to us: it is the “healing of the nations”. Surely that is clear enough; the number twelve is our clue. Here we have Israel, the nation, ruling the world under the guidance of the saints, the link being the water that flows out from the throne (v. 1). Here we have the fulfilment of that wonderful prophecy through Isaiah which was addressed to the people of Israel:
“Arise, shine; for thy light (Jesus and his brethren) is come, and the glory of Yahweh (Jesus and his brethren) is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but Yahweh shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee (Israel). And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (still Israel)” (Isa. 60:1).
So the prophet goes on to describe the glory of the nation of Israel in that day, and declares in verse 12: “the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (Israel) shall perish”. We have a righteous nation: “Thy people also shall be all righteous” (v. 21). So Israel are part of the “heaven” of which Peter spoke, “wherein dwelleth righteousness”, ruling with Christ and his saints over an “earth” which they will have to lead in righteousness. The leaves of the trees in that wood are for the “healing of the nations”.
The exposition in Eureka
In conclusion perhaps we should just mention that the foregoing exposition of a few of the details of Revelation 21 and 22 is wholly in harmony with that presented by our Brother Thomas in Eureka. He demonstrates that the heaven and earth of Revelation 21:1 relate to a “constitution and order of things beyond the thousand years”. He reminds us of the declaration of Deity concerning the nation of Israel, that “though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee” (Jen 30:11), going on to point out that the phrase, “no more sea”, indicates that the end of all nations other than Israel has now come. So we are at the end of the Millennium, with Israel as the “new earth”.
Brother Thomas relates the symbol of the wood to the Bride. He speaks of the leaves breathing the Spirit, and harks back to the Day of Pentecost. The events of that day will have a greater fulfilment in the nation of Israel when their King comes, for of that nation it is written:
“your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit” (Joel 2:28,29).
The people of Israel have a great work to do in the Kingdom to come!
Editor’s note
The preceding article contains some intriguing interpretations upon which readers may care to comment. In particular, the suggestion that the marriage of the bride, the body of the redeemed saints, takes place in two stages, firstly to the Lamb and later, at the end of the Millennium, to the Almighty, is very interesting. Similarly the argument that the ‘wood of life’ is a symbol of natural Israel ruling the nations during the Millennium may also provoke a response from readers.
One point raised by Brother Stallworthy should perhaps be queried at this stage. The opening statement of the article, that Peter’s “new heavens and .. . new earth” (2 Pet. 3:13) are the “second of three ‘heavens’ is debatable. In the same chapter Peter refers to the world that was destroyed by the flood (“the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished”, v. 6) and also to the “heavens and the earth, which are now” (v. 7). Whether this last phrase is interpreted as a reference to the pre-A.D. 70 Mosaic constitution, as a reference to the 20th-century political heavens, or as a reference to the literal heavens, it is the second that Peter mentions and the second chronologically. Thus the “new heavens and .. . earth” must be the third, and not the second.
Finally, without wishing to start a debate on how to understand what Brother Thomas wrote in Eureka, my own reading indicates that he viewed Revelation 21 as referring to only one symbolic Jerusalem, the body of glorified saints, who as an immortalised body politic will “come down from God out of heaven” and place their seat of authority on mount Zion in the literal Jerusalem.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One