The City

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE CITY

Rev 21:15-21

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 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. 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 chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, 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 pure gold, like transparent glass.

NIV

It is almost comical reading what the supposed scholars or theologians of old think about all this. It seems they cannot think in terms of God, but only with their human minds. They explain away all this as symbolic language which refers to the church in some way. They cannot see how a city could possibly be 12,000 stadia, or 1400 miles high. They also talk about the church now being perfect as in ancient times anything that was a square or in fact a cube was perfect. It is true that many walled cities of ancient times were constructed to fit along the topography, with rise and falls, out crops and indentions depending on the various changings in the land. This city is a perfect square and just as high. We have heard many thoughts as to this shape and with other words in this passage some are of the opinion this city is a clear cube. But again a cube would have no need of a wall. As far as it being 1400 miles long and 1400 miles wide and 1400 miles high, we have to know this is a new earth and a new universe created by God with a whole new order. It might be absolutely different than anything we are now familiar with, in fact, it has to be in order to be that high. We have investigated this before and have some degree of certainty believe we have found how all this fits together with all things. First we know that Satan is a lair. He has been trying to counterfeit all that God is since his beginning. When God created him, and he was Lucifer, a great angel, he believed he could be greater than God, but was thrown out of heaven, cast to earth and here he has been trying to deceive people from their very beginning. Satan knows what this new city looks like, he was with God once, and it would be right to think this city has been in existence all the time, as with God everything is present. There is no past and no future, so all things already are in Heaven. It sounds a little convoluted, but it is not, it is God. Satan has been trying to deceive people with a trick. There has been and still are many places which advertise the power  of the pyramid. There are companies which manufacture pyramids made of various materials so we can construct them over our beds, to sleep under the pyramid bringing power and insight into life so we can be successful, powerful and wealthy. Today there are websites selling pyramids. This is a deception of Satan because he knows the power of God and this new city of Jerusalem. It is a great pyramid shape, or more like a mountain, with a great wall 200 feet high around it. This translation say 144 cubits thick with a footnote, or tall. The Greek text does not include either the words for thick or tall. It would only make sense the measure of a wall would be its height, the reason for a wall is its height. If a wall was 200 feet thick and a foot high it would have no use whatsoever. Now it could also be that wall is both 200 feet high and thick. That would be one impressive wall, in fact one that would need twelve foundations. The wall itself was of Jasper. Here is another incredible idea. Once again Satan has tried to deceive people. Investigations of the gem stone Jasper reveals some very interesting insights. The following is just a portion of what we see:

Wear or carry Jasper to alleviate stress and induce tranquility. Its cleansing effect eliminates negative energy and stabilizes the aura. It makes an ideal worry or rubbing stone for soothing the nerves and increasing one’s focus, and is a wonderful stone for banishing nightmares or harmful thoughts. [Melody, 345][Hall 154-155][Hall III, 112][Mella, 88-89]

Jasper is superb for healing and sustaining the physical and emotional bodies during injury, prolonged illness or hospitalization. Its Earth energies bring gradual strength and renewed vitality, while helping one to understand and endure these frustrating or painful experiences.[Melody, 345][Hall, 155][Simmons, 215-220][Gienger, 50-53]

Jasper makes an excellent diet stone, lending emotional support and strength in self-discipline, as well as boosting physical energy levels. Its slow, steady vibration helps avoid extremes and encourages perseverance. It is also useful for long periods of fasting. [Mella, 42-43][Melody, 345][Margherita, 506][Gienger, 50-53]

Once again Satan attempts to counterfeit that which God has used as the great wall around his new city. This city is of pure gold. We don’t need much thought to see the worlds preoccupation with gold. Multiple companies spend millions of dollars on advertising to get us to buy gold, the only source of security in troubled economic times. Another deception of Satan, trying to counterfeit this power of God. Of course we might think a mountain that great of gold would be difficult to live in. But the idea here is the city is as pure as gold is pure, there is nothing impure within the city. The reason we can believe this is because the great street of the city is pure gold. We also will see streams flowing from the throne of God and trees lining the streets. This looks more and more like a pure city of God, in the shape of a great mountain, a pyramid. Here again we see how God brought all those plagues on Egypt, plagues that showed his power was greater than all their gods. They even built, under the influence of Satan, pyramids to take their pharaohs to the next life. All deceptions by Satan because he knew what this great place would look like where we would spend all of eternity with God, while he was cast into the lake of burning sulfur.  We will see more of this city, but for now we should know it has been prepared for us. A pure place, free of all the ills of life we face in the now. A divine place. We need to remain focused on the prize, the finish line. We cannot afford to get distracted by all the tricks of the devil. We cannot afford to be influenced by his schemes. There is no other truth than that which God has revealed to us. All else is nothing but lies, invented by Satan to deceive us, especially we who are of the household of faith. He could care less about those he has already won to his camp. His attacks are aimed directly at us. We must stand firm and we will be living in that great city.