Before we look at today's scripture verses, I came across a couple cool things this past wk I wanted to share. First, yall know, if you've been tracking with this series, that the Holy Spirit has been highlighting to me the phrase Faithful Witness. Rev 1 says Jesus is the Faithful Witness as well as the firstborn of the dead, linking Him closely to the other faithful martyrs (witnesses) that followed. Then Rev 3 calls Jesus the Amen, the faithful and true witness as He is also noted to be the source of God's new creation (thats in the letter to Laodicea). Then, at the second coming of Christ in Rev 19, He is called Faithful and True, and it says in righteousness He judges, as well as wages war on rebellious nations; The witness IS the judge. and we touched briefly on the fact that the idea of a witness comes from other parts of scripture for instance Isaiah 55 prophesies about the messiah: "Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people." the witness - the guy with first-hand knowledge of whats up - IS ALSO the commander, which is probably gonna be a King. John's tying that old prophesy in to say, THIS is our messiah.
In John's gospel, chapter 18, he tells about when Jesus was literally on TRIAL. and here's what Jesus said: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth MY voice." He's calling himself THE witness! and of course a few chapters before that He had told his followers "I'm the way THE TRUTH and the life." He's a witness to the truth and He is the truth. (Now we're getting into, He sounds like He's claiming to be God. cause He is).
There's an article about this on ScripturalThinking.com that says "Jesus isn’t just passing along second-hand stories. He came from heaven. He’s seen the glory of the Father. He’s heard the counsels of heaven. So when He speaks on earth, He’s giving us the direct reality of God’s kingdom. His words pull back the curtain between heaven and earth."
So we knew all that, and then this wk I saw this: In Jeremiah 42, the people of God are continuing to be disobedient during their Babylonian captivity. They approach Jeremiah the prophet of God and ask Him to pray for them and tell them what God says. BUT they dont really have the intention of obeying. they're in a way too traumatized and scared state of mind to get right before God - they're just pretending to seek God's guidance. They said, 'please pray to the Lord your God for us. ... That the Lord will show us what to do and where to go... may the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever He tells us...' Ten days later the Lord gave His reply to Jeremiah [which was, stay in the land, if you run to Egypt you'll experience disaster]. .. They go anyway, drag Jeremiah with them, and put themselves in danger. But did you catch it?? They used the phrase faithful witness! they claim "may the Lord be a faithful witness against us if we disobey" which in this context was kinda like speaking their own judgement curse cause then they didnt obey. This story tells us that the phrase was used in oaths and legal language in ancient Hebrew culture. and that God Himself could act as a highly trustworthy witness to what's correct right and true. and its another case of the witness becoming the judge bc these particular ppl were destroyed for their disobedience, just like when Faithful and True shows up in rev. When His people arent following His ways, He sees. When His people are following His ways, He sees. When they're oppressed and martyred He sees. He witnesses and testifies about all truth, and then the Faithful Witness Himself comes back and sets the record right, and sets everything right once and for all. Faithful to His promises, and Faithful to His people.
so it's interesting that I keep seeing that and learning about that. (does God ever highlight a topic to you? and unveil it over the next months or yrs?)
second cool thing: camping friend/Isaiah 54, then ez 34:25 “i’ll make a covenant of peace with my people… they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear..”
we're studying the final section of revelation - chapters 21-22. we know the section consists of two main subsections: new heaven/new earth, and epilogue. within the new heaven new earth part, the episode before last we called the Isaiah shout out. last episode, we called God's bride part 1, where John is carried to a very high mountain (you could possibly call it a cosmic mt) and shown a perfectly radiant and beautiful city. and today we'll call God's bride part 2. chapter 21 verses 15-27 - all about the heavenly city, that IS metaphorically, the Bride of Christ.
While verses 9-14 (last episode) were about the initial view of the city which radiates with the precious, valuable, jaspery, crystaly, emanating glory of God, 15-21 is going to be about the measurements and materials of this vast city.
21:15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth (pronounced Jay-Synth), and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
breakdown:
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
Remember back in chapter 11 there was an angel and a temple and a measuring rod to measure it? it's interesting that back in ch 11 only the inner court was measured, whereas here the whole temple-city gets measured. some scholars (like Beale) say that in the church age, the outer court isnt measured bc its not totally safe yet - there's still a lot of danger for God's ppl in the world. but here in the new temple which is a city which is a garden which is the full presence of God with His ppl, its entirely safe everywhere. He also ties it in to the concept of being "sealed" by God like in ch 7. that is to say, being measured is being sealed / completed / guaranteed.
16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 furlongs (or stadia) [thats 1400 miles. 2,220 kilometers] in length, and as wide and high as it is long.
a shape that is as wide and high as it is long is a either cube, or a pyramid. Some Bible scholars think it's a pyramid, such as Ryan Pitterson if you happened to hear his recent blurry creatures episode where he mentions this very thing. he reminds us pyramids are very important in understanding the spiritual history of the world. so he says this rev city is gonna be the ultimate pyramid, which is a shape that always has to do with connection to the devine.
But since John said "laid out like a square" other scholars tend to think of a cube situation. why is it important to point out that its a cube, in their view? Bc the New Jerusalem’s cube shape reflects the Most Holy Place (1 Kings 6:20); in other words everything becomes the Holy of Holies. The temple no longer has divisions - we're gonna be fully welcomed in to the full Presence of God.
regarding the size veing 12,000 stadia.... I read that it's 1400 or 1500 miles. the square footage then would apparently be similar to our moon. big. I think 1500 miles distance is LA to KC. John’s new Jerusalem description is nearly two thousand times larger than Ezekiel's new temple description.
Enduring Word Commentary: “A city of this size is too large for the imagination to take in. John is certainly conveying the idea of splendour. And, more importantly, that of room for all.”
Enduring Word continues and explains: guessing that there will have been 100 billion people in the human race through history, and that 20% of them will be saved, it could be calculated that each person would have a “block” with about 75 acres on each face to call their own. This is highly speculative, but illustrates the point that there is plenty of room in the New Jerusalem.
That's interesting and first of all I'm hoping more than 20% of ppl are saved 😳. I'm more drawn to the fact that this large size city John's describing is roughly the size of the entire known Hellenistic world of his day. Which makes me think about how everyone's invited, and also how God's presence will reach everywhere. And that makes sense with how John is constantly opening the things of God up to everyone, how Jews and Gentiles are part of God's army together. Which we gotta remember would be a fairly new concept to many at the time.
17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. [64 meters thick. 216 feet thick thats a thick wall].
some scholars mention that these measurements seem to defy literalism; they say they may be more significant statements than literal physical descriptions. for instance, it's super high if it's cubic - like why would it need to be 1500 miles high? (and also at that point the protective wall would be inadequate. also the air would be too thin at the top). so is all this supposed to be seen as literal? or again, is it to be seen as a call back to the Most Holy Place, the dwelling of God in the olden days tabernacles, that was cubic, and also in Solomon's temple the holy of holies area was perfectly cubic. it's interesting to ponder.
Beale and McDonough say: "God and the Lamb have filled the entire new creation with their glorious presence, a glorious presence formerly sequestered in the holy of holies and in the heavenly temple. This is why the new Jerusalem is portrayed as a cube, since that was the shape of the holy of holies in Israel’s former temple; and now God’s glorious presence, formerly limited to that back room of the temple, has burst forth and filled the entire new cosmos."
also the numbers are all taken from earlier descriptions of the people of God in the book. 144 here reminds us of the 144,000. 12,000 stadia is another mention of 12 which always refers to God-followers.
btw, some commentators have pointed out that the description of this city here in vv 16-17 is similar to ancient Babylon. If John's doing that on purpose, it's likely bc he's contrasting the two kingdoms, as often occurs in this book. he's saying one was worldly and evil and temporary, the other is final and good and holy and eternal.
this verse that we've been looking at, v 17, in the amplified reads like this: "[the angel] measures its walls also - a hundred forty four cubits - according to man's measurements, which are also angelic measurements." huh?
[read Beale p 484-485]
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
did you know solomon's temple had a floor that had a pure gold overlay, perfectly smooth and reflective (1 Kings 6). and here this temple city is pure gold, pure as glass.
these ideas of jasper and pure gold and pure glass are likely John's way of saying - God's presence is very close, and everything is emanating and reflecting the glory of His presence.
19-20 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone [as we read this list, keep in mind that modern gemstone names only partially match up to ancient gemstone names, and there are some we have trouble identifying]. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth "JAY SYNTH", and the twelfth amethyst. (just note, a few of these stones are hard to identify and therefore hard to translate into English).
obviously the # 12 is important, which should make us think of every tribe aka all God's ppl. the High Priest’s breastplate (in Exodus 28:15-21) had 12 stones; i did my best to run a comparison - i wanted to see if these were the same 12 stones, my conclusion after much deep diving about translating names of stones is that some of them are the same but not all of them. or i should say, i concluded that either most if them are the same, or all of them are and i just dont understand enough to connect the last few. im thinking its prob a "most" situation bc John does that with many of his other hyperlinks. Beale says "Eight of the stones in the Exodus list are repeated here, and the others are tough equivalents." He then points out that the stones represented the Israelite tribes in Exodus, and here the stones represent the apostles and therefore Jesus' followers, and that there is this broadening of who is included in the people of God. In other words he's saying the end-times Israel is the Church.
The gems certainly seem to at least be listed in a different order, starting with the last breastplate stone and then remixing them from there, or like i said, i could be missing something, maybe John put them in a specific order for a reason and i just dont know enough about stones or the translation issues are making it hard to decipher.
So after I geeked out about that, I discovered that Michael Heiser discussed this very topic in his amazing book Unseen Realm; he says it's NOT a perfect match with the OT priest's garment's stones, and in fact it's a better - even possibly exact - match with the OT's descriptions of ... God's abode! For instance when Ezek 28 talks about Eden. Some people think the list of gemstones there was being worn by the entity called king of tyre which some ppl say is Satan or Lucifer or both (we touched on this more in a previous episode), cause it says the stones were the entity's "covering", or that they adorned him, but Heiser points out that these stones are wherever God's throne and abode are. which is in this case is eden specifically. so the king of tyre was covered with jewels because and when God's presence was near him. (plus btw way back in 1 kings 7:11 we see that Solomon's temple had gemstones cut into the cedar planks - again, tying them to God's presence).
so John could be describing gemstones here in Rev bc of the priest's breastplates, or he could be alluding to God's abode as the temple itself and Eden. or all of the above.
some readers feel that he's saying the foundation of the city IS 100% precious jewel and gemstone material, similar to how the gate is one pearl - cause everything is maxed out in its epicness in this final city/garden/temple abode.
And with all this gemstone jewel talk, keep in mind we're talking about a bride adorned for the big wedding day! so that adornment is the white clean pure outfit mentioned in chapter 19 AND apparently these foundation stones of the temple and/or the breastplate (personally im thinking 'and' cause thats just cool) that are in a way going to be our covering/adornment bc we will be within the presence of God.
and btw if you want to see another example of people being talked about as a holy building, take a lk at 1 Peter 2:4-9 : As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood... For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
...
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
So the stones symbolize us, in our redeemed valuable state. remember this whole situation is a hyperlink back to Isaiah 54 as well, where it says, "Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.
All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.
In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you." so theres a richness and a security when you have precious stones in the foundations and walls.
21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl (there isnt a pearl that big known to man so this may be another case of what Heiser called "defying literalism" or there may be some huge clam somewhere in some dimension that God takes a pearl from - anything's possible) The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
So God made gates yall. What does that tell us? God wants somebody to come in! wants to share heaven with people! not just one but 12 gates, representing the fact that whoever you are, whatever family or tribe you're from, there is a way in. for you. gates facing every cardinal direction - i take that to mean people are gonna be entering from the four corners of the earth, which was the old school way of saying: everywhere.
lots of historic jewish TEMPLE Prophesies and descriptions contain 12 gates, like in book of enoch, but here John is giving the CITY 12 gates. he's making the temple the city.
Enduring Word: "If the dimensions and descriptions seem confusing or impossible, there are two main principles to keep in mind. First, we must understand the ideas communicated in the details (glory, beauty, splendor, and so forth). Second, we must understand that this is the city whose architect and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). We should expect it to be beyond our comprehension."
There are streets of gold as well. the only other mention of city streets in the bk of rev is in ch 11 where the bodies of the slain righteous, the "two witnesses," were lying in city streets. now in the redeemed holy city, the righteous walk in forever victory instead.
Matthew Henry says : "The saints in heaven tread upon gold. The new Jerusalem has its several streets. There is the most exact order in heaven: every saint has his proper mansion. There is converse in heaven: the saints are then at rest, but it is not a mere passive rest; it is not a state of sleep and inactivity, but a state of delightful motion... They walk with Christ in white. They have communion not only with God, but with one another; and all their steps are firm and clean."
so that's a classic take, and in addition, i also think there's another reason John feels it's so important to say the streets of gold are super pure and even transparent like glass, similar to the whole city itself being gold thats clear as glass in v18, and i believe that is probably bc the city is designed to shine with God's glory which is described in verse 11 as being that of a very precious jewel, and jasper, and also simultaneously clear, as crystal. the city reflects God - radiates with God, the city is designed to house and shine God. so its pure and clear in order to reflect God.
Next chunk: verses 22-27 are now going to be about the INTERNAL features of the city
22 [now listen to this mic drop] I did not see a temple in the city (!!) because the Lord God Almighty (the omnipotent one, the ruler of all) and the Lamb are its temple.
John is simultaneously purposefully structuring this whole vision to point back to Ezekiel 40, and then seemingly removing the thing Ezek 40-48 is about - the temple! Let's examine that potentially perplexing choice.
At this point, the question sometimes comes up: wait I thought it was prophesied that the temple would be rebuilt again - that there would be a 3rd official temple in Jerusalem?
It's interesting bc it is, but at the same time even the Hebrew prophets in the OT conflate that with a new city / the new Jerusalem, in seemingly very purposeful ways. One instance of this is Jeremiah chapter 3 - he's saying the ark of the covenant is gone, which was part of the temple, and that Jerusalem will house the presence of God - in other words the city IS the temple.
On the Naked Bible podcast episode on this chapter, Michael Heiser breaks down a dissertation written by Pilchan Lee called "The New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation."
Heiser says: "...in Revelation 16-19 you have this cycle of the end of chaos, the return of Jesus, the consummation of the new earth.... Did you notice, none of it involved building a new structure in Jerusalem?
None of it involved building a temple, either before or after those events. And
now...Revelation 21-22.... still doesn’t. Recall, as well... how the New
Testament uses “temple” to talk not about a building, but about something else,
namely the body of Christ. And this begins in John 2, who incidentally, written by
John… when John thinks “temple,” yes he knows about the literal temple. He’s a Jew. He grew up in Jerusalem. He knows all that. But his concept of temple is so much bigger. And in John 2, this is the passage where
Jesus gets in trouble with the Pharisees when he says, “Destroy this temple and
in three days it’ll be restored.” And the Pharisees are like, “What’s this dude
talking about? It took over 40 years to build this thing, and he’s talking about he
can rebuild it in three days?” And John tells us he wasn’t speaking about the
literal temple; he was speaking about his body. The body of Christ is the temple
in John 2. Again, this is an Old Testament thought. .. And Peter and Paul follow John in this thinking in their own descriptions of believers (the body of Christ). Believers are the body of Christ. They are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 6, 2 Corinthians 6). You have the description in
Peter about believers being living stones and Christ the cornerstone. You know,
this language is deliberate. It’s about the returned Christ. .. So Revelation 21-22 does not come out of the blue. Its elements, the way it understands temple, is not lacking precedent. The precedent is the Old Testament, and if we want to loop the New Testament in there, too (other parts of it.)
[still quoting Heiser] ... [in previous episodes] we said, “If this is a literal
temple, how do we read this? And are there any problems?” And yeah, there are.
And then the second part is, “Well, is there any indication this might not be best
understood literally?” ...let’s go to
Isaiah 65-66... 65: 16-25 is divided into two parts - they are the New
Creation / New Jerusalem (vss. 16-18) and Life in the New Jerusalem/the
New Creation (vss. 19-25).
So what’s interesting is that when Isaiah begins to allude to getting the temple
back, he talks about that idea in connection with the new creation and the new
Jerusalem, just like Revelation 21-22 does. I hope what’s ringing around in your head is, “Well, isn’t it logical to assume that John, when he wrote Revelation 21-
22 used and repurposed Ezekiel and Isaiah 65-66 to say what he wanted to
say?” And the answer to that is, “Of course. Sure.” That’s exactly what I’m trying
to get you to see. The descriptions there are not random. They come out of the
Old Testament. ... look at Isaiah 65. ... in Isaiah’s context, this is the Babylonian exile. This is the terrible thing that’s going to happen to the people of God. They’re going to be judged, forsaken by God (not forever, because there is restoration planned). But this is their punishment for idolatry. They’re going to go into exile in Babylon, into the domain of chaos, right into the heart of the lion—the heart of chaos. Lee says the structure of the two verses shows that the New Creation in verse 17 - remember Isaiah said, “for behold I create a new heavens and a new earth” and the New Jerusalem in 18 for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy - are given as the compensation
for the past shameful history, namely the Babylonian exile... In other words, the solution to the exile is not building a third temple—a literal temple. The solution to the exile, ultimately, is a new city and a new earth. ... Do you realize that there are a number of passages in the Prophets that link the restoration of Jerusalem to the
restoration of creation itself? So what that means in practical terms is that if you
build a third temple today and let’s say you cleaned up Jerusalem—you got rid of
all the terrorists, you had no crime, you had this wonderful society where people
are dwelling in peace… I mean, none of this would happen if we built a third
temple today anyway, because it would infuriate Israel’s enemies. But let’s just
say it did. What’s supposed to happen along with it is the new earth—the new
creation. Those things go hand in hand in the Old Testament. And I have yet to
come across someone who really enjoys… the idea of Israel getting a third temple. It would be cool... But I have yet to come across anybody who really is into this idea of a third temple mention that, “Oh, and when this happens, then we get the new Eden-we get the new creation,” which of course involves the destruction of the old one.
What I’m getting at here is, there are a lot of people who look for the former, but they forget the latter because they don’t know their Old Testament well. They only see part of it. You can’t talk about a restored Jerusalem without talking about the restoration of creation."
In summary on this, the idea of a new temple sees its fulfillment in a new city (the new Jerusalem), within the idea of the restoration of the cosmos which is a new Eden.
Let me ask you this; in the beginning, did Eden have a temple? did it need one? no - bc God walked among us unhindered. pre-human-sin. God's desire has always been and always will be this kind of unhindered closeness where He can dwell right with us with no separation. But we chose differently, kicked Him out, and He had to begin to instruct those of us who were willing on the steps it would take to get back to an Eden state. There needed to be an intentional invitation made by humans for God to come back in, and that was the temple and tabernacle. And this taught us about presence and sacrifice and worship and holiness. This taught us a lot about how Heaven works. Then, God kept making a way for reconciliation and Jesus walked the earth, died for our sins and rose from the dead. Now God's presence is able to dwell and abode in us in a greater way. and we are the temple - we have closeness with God, an eden state WITHIN US as we fellowship with God and walk in step with His Spirit. and by doing that we continue to usher in the fullness of His Kingdom restoration on the earth. Then here in Revelation 21 the day comes when the new Eden is established and it all culminates and makes sense - all these things: gardens cities temples - are templates by which He explains and demonstrates togetherness: God and us. And here the garden is the city is the temple is US! these are all the same thing. these are all pictures of union with our great and loving and unique and radiantly majestic God. And then John ramps it up one more final time:
23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory (the radiance, the splendor) of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
This incredibly bright and impressive place doesnt even need heavenly bodies for light. bc God is there so fully. If you haven't noticed yet, God's glory radiates very brightly here; in case you missed it, John keeps reiterating it.
God and the lamb are the temple and the light source and we are the city and possibly the gates and the foundation and the wall. and the temple too. Got it... kinda.
(And remember one of the promises from the letters in ch 3 it says to the church in Philadelphia "to the one who's victorious i will make a pillar in the temple of my God" - well some scholars say that could also be translated "pillar in the temple that is my God" especially in light of ch 21 here).
Let's compare Isaiah 60:19 to this verse Rev 21:23. Isaiah 60:19 says:
"The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory."
Rev 21:23 says:
"And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb."
they're each comprised of 4 parts lets compare part A (then B then C...) then we get to the last part: "your God will be Your glory" compared to "the Lamb is the lamp" - Why is the lamb right here? bc the lamb is God. John is reiterating the definite deity if the Lamb and equating Him with YHWH.
The other OT hyperlink here is Ezek 42, which talks about the theme of the glory of the Lord illuminating out of the earth and filling the temple.
24 The nations (possibly meaning redeemed people) will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Of course this is another throwback verse to Isaiah. some ppl seem to get hung up on why is john including an allusion to this particular verse in Isaiah 60 about israel being a light to OTHER NATIONS? it's confusing cause when youre reading this part of revelation youre thinking everyone is either in the holy priest nation, or they are out there in the other place not invited in. so who are these other nations supposedly still existing that would be drawn to the restored eden, the heavenly city?
Many say that these individuals ARE the followers of Jesus that have entered. that the verse is describing us who have already entered. diverse nationalities, some of high ranking in their previous life... but some scholars will push back and say that's not a perfect explanation bc are kings really gonna bring their riches and splendor into the new city? no all that stuff will be garbage cause it's gonna be so much greater. ...
Well, some Bible teachers think that what this is talking about here is, we bring ourselves as acts of worship. there were always some people from different nations coming in and acknowledging the Israelite God as the true God. And sometimes those were rulers who would bring treasures. but the important part is they brought God their worship and loyalty. Remember John is a jewish Christian, or a messianic Jew, however you want to say it - He followed the Jewish God and the Jew Jesus who claimed to be the anointed one of that God, and believed that this faith had been made available to gentiles too. So this verse could be John's way of talking about everyone from everywhere who has chosen the true God, coming in to the city of God with worship and adoration.
25-26 On no day will its gates ever be shut (thats also from Isaiah 60), for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
its open, its safe, no threat, and all the honor and glory is now centralized cause it all belongs to God.
27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the [Daniel 12] Lamb’s book of life.
This chunk ends the same way as last chunk, with a reminder that nothing dark or unholy can be in this place. you can't be antithetical to God and be united with God. the beast and the rebelled elohim and the people of the beast are not here. only those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life - in other words the one who gave His life for us has noted us down as having received Him as true king.
And we true and faithful believers will be a gathering of completed, unshakeable, glory-filled ALIVE humans forever with God, bc His presence is our life bc His faithful witness testimony of Himself is true and we have believed it.
Let's end with a Heiser quote: "We should be looking at how this passage and its description continually go back to Eden, this perfect paradise, trying to use the imagery of the old temple and the old Eden and the people of God and the priesthood—trying to use all these images to get you to realize that at the end we’re all going to be living in God’s house where he has chosen to tabernacle and be with his people."