“The New Jerusalem”

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Throughout 2024 we gave an increased focus to the city of Jerusalem and how God used it in various parts of the Bible. The point was never to prepare for some upcoming quiz; rather, it was because God continued to use Jerusalem as a spiritual archetype, even after the city’s destruction in AD 70. In fact, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that its destruction—which served in some ways as the back cover of the metaphorical book of the Israelite covenant—actually added to its usefulness in this New Testament role.

It shall come to pass in the latter days

        that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

        and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

        and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

        to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

        and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

        and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

(Isaiah 2.2-3)

Consider all the hints contained in these two verses, which God delivered more than seven centuries before his Son’s death, burial, and resurrection. First we have “in the latter days,” pointing to some far-off period, in a new age. Then, there’s a prediction that the temple mount will become the highest of all mountains. It’s obvious that this either would require some drastic reforming of the earth’s surface, or else it has a figurative meaning; either way, we’re in that same, New Testament territory of the cataclysmic shifting of heaven and earth. But he’s not done, and we haven’t even exhausted verse 2! He says “the nations” will gather to that same mountain. This is one of many predictions that God would bring gentiles into his coming kingdom. And it wouldn’t just be to recognize God as the creator of all the earth and give him his due worship, either. That would be something in itself, but Isaiah tells us that these gentiles would be eager to learn God’s ways, not just as an academic curiosity, but in order to “walk in his paths.” A transformation of these unrighteous, idolatrous nations was afoot! Finally, he caps off this portion of the prophecy by saying that “the law” and “the word of the Lord” would proceed from Jerusalem.

But after Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70, you can imagine how difficult it became to mentally reconcile these predictions to the circumstances observed in the world. One way would be to predict another rebuilding of the city and temple, the abovementioned terraforming, and a literal confluence of gentiles to those same latitude and longitude coordinates, even though it would surely be unrecognizable at that point. Another way to understand it would be to realize that it was never really about the city of stone.

After Israel’s return from exile, while they were rebuilding the city Nebuchadnezzar’s army had destroyed, God told them,

“I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”

(Zechariah 8.3)

He had, he did, and it was; but notice how God picks up these same elements in a later revelation.

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…

(Revelation 21.10)

It’s the same city; yet this time it appears in heaven—and not ascending to heaven, but descending from there to earth! In the same prophecy of Zechariah, he’d also said,

Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.

(Zechariah 8.22)

And again in Revelation we’re told, “the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Re 21.25), and “They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (v26). It’s the same picture! Further, Zechariah tells us,

And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.

(Zechariah 14.7)

This reappears in Revelation: “there will be no night there” (21.25) and “night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (22.5).

Even the landscape matches! Zechariah says,

“On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem” (14.8), enough for a continual river in all seasons; in John’s vision,

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

(Revelation 22.1-2)

We could keep going like this for a while, but those are the most obvious markers that “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” in Revelation (21.10) is the same entity as the “Zion” often mentioned by Israel’s prophets. It’s a picture of heaven, in many ways; but it also came down to earth. In what form? John’s visions tell us, just before the point where we picked up!

Then came one of the seven angels …and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he … showed me the holy city Jerusalem…”

(Revelation 21.9-10)

It doesn’t seem like heaven on earth, to our eyes. But God intends for the church to be a taste of the peace and joy of heaven; of fellowship with God’s chosen people; and with God himself—in Spirit, but not yet in body. Are you seeking these things? God has told you where to find them.

Jeremy Nettles

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