![]() At the heart of the Israelites’ Promised Land, Jerusalem represented the ultimate Promised Land: all of restored creation. It was the first and only city where God resided in a permanent holy house, the first city where kings worshiped the true Creator. Jerusalem itself was a powerful symbol for John. John called the city-bride a “new Jerusalem.” It was so marvelous that he could only describe it regarding brilliant stones. Heaven is represented as both a city and a bride, coming down out of God’s heavenly domain and landing on earth, much like the staircase Jacob saw in his dream. John first described the new creation as a marriage of heaven and earth. This then begs the question, what symbols is he using to convey this future hope?īut it's not just a return back to the garden it's a step forward into a new Jerusalem, a great city where human cultures and all their diversity work together in peace and harmony before God. Instead, he was attempting to express an unexplainable conviction, of which sometimes only metaphors and symbols will suffice. He wasn’t transcribing a video-perfect version of what was to come. John is using apocalyptic symbols and metaphors to describe this event, just like the Old Testament prophets used poetry. So let’s talk a little more about this rebirth, because it's where this whole story is going! We have to remember that we can easily get lost in some of the details here. One day it will be pushed forth into life, like a new baby emerging from the womb. We do sense hints of it now and then, though, just like we might make out an elbow or foot poking from within a pregnant woman’s belly. But the new creation is here, taking form even when we can’t see it. To use a biblical metaphor, creation groans like a woman in childbirth. I don’t think we have to look too far before we can confirm this by mere observation: crime, inequality, rampant greed, and selfishness. The Revelation is no exception, so there is a lot of symbolism to wade through to get to the meaning.Īt this moment, the earth is cut off from the full life of heaven. They would employ this symbology to convey massive theological truths in ways that invested their words with the cosmic meaning the prophet believed them to possess. Wait, wait, wait before we "jump" too far and start concluding what exactly we are reading here, we should take a moment to appreciate the level of symbology and metaphor that Jewish apocalyptic writers used. God announces that He's come to live with humanity forever and that He's making all things new. The Revelation concludes with a final vision of the marriage of heaven and earth where an angel shows John a stunning bride that symbolizes the new creation that has come forever to join God and his covenant people. All in all, it is an epic book telling an even more epic story, which begs the question, how does it end? That, my friends, is the book of Revelation, a story about Babylon, Jesus, and judgment, which is too much to cover in one blog, so we are going to focus on the very end-of-the-end of the most epic story ever told. For those of us reading this today, we have the advantage of knowing the entire story was leading to Jesus. ![]() It tells the epic story of God and his creation, of blessing, temptation, sin, exile, and salvation. But what is more impressive is the story the Bible is telling. In reality, we know many languages were used to pass down oral stories from the earliest times in the biblical narrative until they were later codified in the book and language we find them in today. The Bible is a stunning piece of literature, even If you don’t believe anything written in it! It was penned by at least 40 traditional authors (inestimably more contributed in some capacity) and written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |