New Jerusalem’s Golden Measurement
Revelation 21:16 presents the measurements of New Jerusalem. “The city lies square, and its length is as great as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed to a length of twelve thousand stadia; the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.”
New Jerusalem is “pure gold, like clear glass.” Hence it can be measured with the golden reed (v. 15) because it corresponds with God’s standard. (Today gold is not like clear glass but New Jerusalem’s gold is a spiritual symbol of God’s nature, not a physical material.) The clarity shows there is nothing opaque, noting hidden in this wonderful city.
In the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem becomes the Holy of Holies to God. When David gave Solomon the pattern for the temple, he said, “All this…the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern” (1 Chron. 28:19). Everything in the temple was built according to divine revelation.*
New Jerusalem is a cube; “the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.” This shape matches the Old Testament holy of holies in the tabernacle and in the temple (1 Kings 6:20) but the size is greatly! enlarged.
New Jerusalem is twelve thousand stadia in each dimension. Twelve in the Bible signifies eternal perfection and one thousand proclaims abundance, suggesting unlimitedness, corresponding with “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8).
Six posts on New Jerusalem: Eternal Holy of Holies begin here.
And one more: New Jerusalem is the Eternal Holy of Holies.
* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.
Posted by Don on June 8, 2022
