Saturday,
September 17, 2022
HOW BEAUTIFUL HEAVEN MUST BE
Rev 21:16-21
16 And the city
lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured
the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth
and the height of it are equal.
17 And he
measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to
the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
18 And the
building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto
clear glass.
19 And the
foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious
stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a
chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
20 The fifth,
sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the
ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the
twelfth, an amethyst.
21 And the twelve
gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. KJV
These days, if you talk of
Heaven, you are suspected to be suicidal or otherwise deranged. But, as a
future inhabitant by the grace of God, I like to look at the floor plan every
now and then. It is, in all its particulars, unearthly and unimaginable.
The Jewish New
Testament commentary sums it up as well as can be expected given the task. “A cubical city 1500 miles on a side—can one imagine it projecting so far from the
earth without setting up gravitational and other forces that would destroy it?
Gold resembling glass—whatever can that mean? A wall of diamond 216 feet high?
On the one hand, the world's largest cut diamond weighs less than 5 ounces; on
the other, this wall is minuscule in relation to the city. Each gate made of a single pearl—from what size oyster? It is all a dramatic
way of saying that the new heaven and earth and the New Jerusalem are
beautiful, valuable, wondrous, and glorious beyond anything we can know or
imagine.”
(from Jewish New
Testament Commentary Copyright © 1992 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Used by permission.)
How beautiful
Heaven must be.
Sweet home of the
happy and free.
Fair haven of
rest for the weary.
How beautiful
Heaven must be.
Dear Lord, soothe the discomforts of this life with wonderous thoughts
of the next. AMEN
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