In this chapter we will share eight thoughts which are very basic to our understanding of the spiritual life and of the Scriptures.
First, the central thought of God’s intention as revealed in all of Scripture is to have a group of people who are built together by God and filled with Himself. Such a corporate body of people will express and represent God. The Old Testament clearly reveals how God called out the children of Israel and put them together as a corporate body. Then God dwelt among them to express Himself and to accomplish something through them. Old Testament history shows how, in a sense, the Israelites did eventually become the expression and representation of God on the earth. Likewise, in the New Testament era today, it is still God’s intention that every local church, wherever it is, must be built together as a corporate body and be filled with God that it may express and represent God. The end of the Scriptures clearly reveals that there will eventually be an enlarged corporate body called the New Jerusalem. This is an immense vessel composed of all those redeemed by God throughout all ages. This vessel will be filled with God, expressing and representing God throughout eternity. This is the first basic thought of the entire Bible.
Secondly, both the Old and New Testaments reveal that all the redeemed people of God will eventually become God’s dwelling-place. During the period of the Old Testament the people of Israel were the dwelling-place of God. But strictly speaking, the material tabernacle and temples were not the real dwelling-places of God. They were only symbols of the fact that the people of Israel were God’s real dwelling-place. God dwelt among the Israelites (Exo. 29:45).
In the New Testament there are several passages which clearly reveal that the redeemed people of this age are the dwelling-place of God (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5). Then, at the end of the Scriptures, we see the redeemed of both ages composed together as God’s habitation. It is evident that the New Jerusalem is such a composition, for it has twelve gates containing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and twelve foundations containing the names of the twelve Apostles (Rev. 21:12, 14). These names represent all the saints of the Old and New Testament eras, and this corresponds with the thought of all Scripture that all the redeemed people of God will eventually become God’s dwelling.
Third, in the history of both the Old and New Testaments all the redeemed people of God are also God’s Bride, God’s counterpart. Books such as Isaiah (54:5; 62:5), Jeremiah (3:14; 31:32), Ezekiel (16:8; 23:5), and Hosea (2:19-20) reveal the people of Israel likened to God’s Bride. The New Testament then clearly portrays the church as the Bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23, 32). Finally, at the end of Scripture, all the redeemed are composed together as the one Bride of Christ. This means that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle, the dwelling-place of God, and also the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9). These thoughts are not new; they are found throughout the entire Scriptures. The New Jerusalem is the conclusion of all the thoughts of Scripture. It can be proven that nearly every part of the New Jerusalem is something which has already been mentioned in the Scriptures, either in Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, John, or other books.
The fourth thought concerns the twelve gates surrounding the holy city. There are three gates on each of the four sides of the city. This picture in Revelation 21 is not new; the book of Numbers (ch. 2) reveals a shadow of this thought, for there we see three camps on each of the four sides of the tabernacle. Remember, each gate of the New Jerusalem bears the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Yet the picture in Numbers is still not as clear as the one in Ezekiel 48. This chapter tells of a city called Jerusalem, whose gates exactly fit the description of the gates mentioned in Revelation 21. This is not just a coincidence. It is important to realize that these things are already mentioned previously in Scripture.
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