Since we have touched the ultimate consummation, the New Jerusalem, in the book of consummation, Revelation, I feel that it is best to see this ultimate consummation in this book in a more thorough way. We are not merely studying the Bible, nor are we debating any doctrine. We want to see what is in the ultimate consummation of God’s entire revelation. The ultimate word of any writing is the final word, the concluding word, and the final, concluding word always gives us the real significance of that writing. Thousands of items were covered in the first sixty-five books of the Bible. These books cover a long span of time and many, many items. This always confuses the readers of the Bible. If the Bible were only three pages long, we could never be confused. But here are sixty-five books covering a long span of time and thousands and thousands of items. After reading this, it is easy to get lost. Therefore, in God’s wisdom, He put all these items together in a consummating book; this is the last book, the sixty-sixth book of the Bible.
The last book is not a new book, but a harvest. Most of the new things in the Bible were there in Genesis. Genesis is a book of new items. Before the book of Genesis there was no creation. When creation came into being, that was something really new. Before Genesis, there was no man and only God was there in eternity; nothing had come into existence. The angels were not there and man was not there. Everything in Genesis was new. Before Genesis there was no Abraham, no Isaac, and no Jacob. The things in Genesis were new and sown into the field of God’s revelation. Everything that was sown in the book of Genesis began to grow from the second book, Exodus, throughout the next sixty-four books of the Bible. Then the sixty-sixth book, Revelation, the last book of the entire Bible, is there as a harvest of the truths which were sown in Genesis. One verse in the book of Revelation tells us that “the harvest of the earth is ripe” (14:15). The time has come for the Lord to reap the harvest. The seeds of this harvest were sown in Genesis. Even the word Genesis means beginning. Genesis is a record of the beginning. Revelation is a book of harvest. The sowing of the seeds and their growth and development are over. Now is the harvest in Revelation. Actually, harvest is an interpretation of the word consummation. Consummation and harvest are synonyms. Our burden is to see all the items which are consummated in the book of Revelation.
A number of things in the Old Testament, though, are not consummated in the book of Revelation. All the consummations in Revelation are a consummation concerning Christ, concerning the Spirit, concerning life, and concerning the church. Many things in the Old Testament are consummated in Revelation which are seemingly not related to Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Actually they are all indirectly related. As we have seen, chapters four through twenty of Revelation are on God’s universal, governmental administration. Seemingly, God’s governmental administration has nothing to do with the church, but it is indirectly related to the church. This is why I have previously given you seventeen instances of the mentioning of the church in these seventeen chapters.
The opening word in the book of Revelation shows us the harvest of the prevailing Divine Trinity. Revelation 1:4-5a says, “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.” Undoubtedly, this is the Divine Trinity, but we must see that the mentioning of the Divine Trinity here is the consummation of the Divine Trinity revealed firstly in Genesis 1:1, where the subject “God” is plural in number, and developed throughout the entire Bible. This definition of the Divine Trinity in Revelation 1:4-5a implies the entire Divine Trinity revealed in the Bible.
This title of the Divine Trinity in Revelation is different from the title—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—in Matthew 28:19. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit does not imply the entire Bible. However, Him who is, who was, and who is coming brings us back to the beginning of the divine revelation concerning the Divine Trinity (Exo. 3:14-15). The Ruler of the kings of the earth implies the ending of the revelation concerning the Divine Trinity. Also, in between these titles are the seven Spirits, the faithful Witness, and the Firstborn of the dead. The entire Bible is needed to interpret this consummation of the divine title of the Divine Trinity. This is the consummation of the Divine Trinity from the beginning of the divine revelation to its end, not in a particular way, but in an all-embracing way. At the beginning of the book of Revelation the Divine Trinity is consummated in an all-embracing way, and at the end of Revelation we see the Divine Trinity consummated in an all-inclusive way, but applied to us in a very substantial, practical, and living way. We have seen that the Divine Trinity in Revelation 21 and 22 has consummated to the uttermost to be our existence, our entrance into the divine realm, our constitution, our living, and our enjoyment.