The River Of Life (ch. 22:1-7)
In verse 1 John sees the River of Life flowing from the "throne of
God and of the Lamb". A few things to note here are that this is a
river and not a sea. Earlier we saw that there was no sea. Seas in
Biblical terms have more of a negative connotation that a positive one.
Also, seas represent multitudes of people in the book of Revelation.
We also note that the river flows from the "throne of God and the
Lamb". To me this suggests that there is one throne that is shared by
both God the Father and Jesus. We might want to think about the throne not
being a throne as we might know it, that is a big chair. If may well be an
area in Heaven where God’s presence is and where Jesus resides.
This river is like the sea of glass that we’ve seen earlier in that
it described as being like crystal. Because of this portrayal of the
river, and because some think the sea of glass spoken of earlier is a
great multitude of the redeemed, so they think this river is not a real
river but is symbolic of the saints. But if one understands the rest of
this city is real and not symbolic, then to be consistent, you must
understand the river to be a real river.
We also might want to note according to Paul’s discourse in 1 Cor. 15
that at this time Jesus would have conquered all of God’s enemies,
including death, and would have handed all thing back over to God the
Father, making all things subject to God, including Himself.
In verse 2 we see that on each side of the river stood the tree of
life. This obviously doesn’t mean there is one trees. The picture is of
many trees, but the type of trees that John saw are called the Tree of
Life. This tree we saw in the Garden of Eden. After man fell they were not
permitted to eat from the Tree of Life so that they would not live forever
in the sinful state in which they found themselves in. But now in the New
Jerusalem we are permitted to eat from this tree.
We notice that this tree bares fruit every month. We also notice the
mentioning of twelve months. Many have thought that there is no such thing
as time in the next life, but it appears that there might be a measurement
of time, or at least a measurement of time is given in human terms for
John’s sake. The point to be taken here is that the Tree of Life is
constantly bearing fruit. Most fruit trees grow blossoms that have a nice
fragrance, so it might just be possible that we’ll be smelling this
beautiful fragrance all the time.
If there is fruit for us to eat, then it is clear that we will be
eating in the next life. My guess is that eating will be more pleasurable
than a necessity, although this is the Tree of Life which might suggest
that by eating we live forever.
Verse 2 also says that the "leaves are for the healing of the
nations". Who these nations are is quite a mystery. although as I
said in the last chapter, some do believe the nations consist of Gentile
Christians while the New Jerusalem will house Jewish Christians. It
appears that there are nations outside of the New Jerusalem, but who lives
in these nations is not certain. But it is apparent that they need
healing.
In verse 3 we see that there are no more curses. All of God’s judgments
have been completed and those who live in this new city have
been completely free from any curse.
Once again in verse 3 we note that the throne of God and of the Lamb is
in the New Jerusalem. The word throne is singular so to me this suggests
one throne. The throne might not look like a big chair in the sense that
we understand thrones. It could simply be the place where God and Jesus
reside.
Also in verse 3 we are told that God’s servants will serve God in
this city. What this service is we don’t know for sure. It appears we
won’t just be sitting around on a lawn chair in the next life. We will
be serving God in some way.
Verse 4 says that His servants will see His face. Now there’s some
discussion whether we will ever be able to see God. It is clear that we
will see Jesus. In the first few verses of chapter 22 we see God and the
Lamb mentioned a number of time. Yet when referring to both, John uses the
singular pronoun "He" or "Him" – "serve
Him", "see His face", "His name". To me this
clearly shows that Father and Son are unified in such a way that you don’t
see them as a "Them", but as a "Him", even though I
believe they will still be two separate individuals. All this suggests
that two of the three persons of the Trinity are clearly seen here,
although separate, they are one. And when it says that we will see Him,
that might mean we will see the Lamb, and when we see the Lamb, we in fact
see God the Father’s reflection in His Son.
We will all have new names in the next life. In verse 4 the name of God
will be on our foreheads. Whether each of us will have a different name of
God, or the same name is not clearly stated.
One question is often asked about how can there be no
crying on the new earth? What
if our loved-ones aren't there with us?
Won't that make us sad? Wouldn't
that make us cry, knowing that they will live forever in the
Lake
of
Fire
? The thought of that right
now makes me sad. So why won't
I be sad then? Verse 4 gives
us the reason. It states that
we will not cry because the "old order of things will have passed
away." I guess we have to
understand what that means. I
think it means that all that was part of the old order, including our
memories, will be gone, will have passed away.
We might not even remember our unsaved loved-ones.
In my thinking, this would be the only thing that would cause my
tears to dry up. All the old
order will be gone. The new
earth will be nothing like the old earth.
All that we know of now, as beautiful as some things are, are
corrupted by sin, including our memories.
Whether right or wrong, this is how I see this at present.
Verse 5 tells us that we won’t need light bulbs or the sun any more.
God Himself will be the light. There won’t be any such thing as night.
In Scripture night is seen as evil. Night is dark and darkness is related
to sin. Jesus said that people couldn’t work in the night. He also said
that people sin in the night.
The Bible tells us that God is light and in Him there is no darkness.
This is both spiritually true as well as physically true. God in His
physical being is portrayed in the Bible as being a very bright light, so
bright that no one can look upon Him, thus the reason why I believe we may
not see God in the next life.
Also in verse 5 we see the saints reigning with God for ever and ever.
So part of our job, or our service will be to reign with God. Who we reign
over or what is not totally understood.
In verse 6 an angel told John that what he had seen in the great vision
was true, And that "the Lord God of the spirit of the prophets"
has proclaimed these things that "must soon take place". The
question thus arises, "what does soon mean"? It’s been about
nineteen hundred years since John received this prophecy and it hasn’t
taken place yet, that is, if you’re a Futurist. Those who hold to the
Historic view point sees these things taking place for the last two
thousand years so they don’t have any problem with the word
"soon".
Many Futurists point to the verb tense of "soon take place"
in the Greek and say that "soon" doesn’t mean "soon as in
time", but "soon as in when these things come, they will come
soon, or quick, with little delay".
Jesus Is Coming (ch.
22:8-21)
In verse 7 it appears that it is Jesus who is talking and He says that
He is coming. Some say because of the Greek tense here that soon means,
when He comes, it will be soon, quick, without delay.
In verses 8 through 10 we see that John is once again overwhelmed to
the point he falls down to worship the angel who has been speaking to him.
John has done this before, and every time the angel tells him to get up
and stop worshipping him for he is a fellow servant. The point seems to be
with John that all that he is seeing is just way too overwhelming and he
simply loses his strength and sensibilities and worships the messenger. We’d
probably do the same.
In verse 10 the angel tells John not to seal up the prophecies of this
book because the time is short. Even if one disagrees with the idea of the
verb tenses concerning the word "soon", we should realize that
God and the spiritual world’s concept of time is probably quite
different than ours. Short to them may not be short to us, and probably
isn’t.
John clearly is told to broadcast what he has seen and proclaim to
everyone, thus we see the importance of not avoiding this book of the
Bible, even though it may be hard to understand. Many lay Revelation aside
because they feel they won’t understand it. Others lay it aside because
they feel it is too futuristic and we need to think about today and not
the realities of the next life. But both of these ways of thinking are
wrong. The angel tells John to proclaim what he’s just seen.
The angel in verse 11 says something that may appear to be strange. He
tells John to let the vile and unrighteous continue to be vile and
unrighteous. Is this condoning sin? Shouldn’t we be confronting the vile
and the unrighteous to give their lives to Jesus. There may be different
ways of thinking about this verse, but I think what the angel is saying
here is that the time is short. Don’t waist your time on those who
refuse over and over again to repent. If they want to be vile, just let
them be vile and move on to someone else to share Jesus with.
The angel further says that those who are holy and righteous should
continue to be holy and righteous. Don’t give up. Keep the faith until
the end because you’re almost there.
In verse 12 Jesus appears to be speaking again, or else an angel is
speaking prophetically on the behalf of Jesus. Jesus says that He is
bringing his reward with Him and He will reward everyone for the things
they have done in their lifetime. This verse might apply to the Great
White Throne judgment where we see the books opened and people being
punished according to what they did in their lives. Yet on the other hand
this might also be in references to the saints. These words might suggest
that Christians will also be rewarded in a positive way for the good
things they have done as well. I believe there are sufficient Scriptures
that show that we will be judged for our good works and we will be
rewarded for what we do. Some of our good works will be burned as fire
burns wood and hey because they were done for the wrong motives. Other
works will survive the fire and we will be rewarded for them.
Since these rewards appear to be after the White Throne Judgment, it
seems to me that these rewards are given to the saints.
In verse 15 we see that those "who have washed their robes"
are blessed. Washing of robes is figuratively speaking about people giving
their lives to Jesus and Jesus giving them His righteousness. God views us
as righteous because He has granted us this righteousness. The washing of
these robes represents us maintaining and growing in the righteousness God
has given us. For those who have this righteousness, they will enter the
gates of the New Jerusalem.
Verse 15 is also hard to understand. It says "outside are dogs…".
Outside is in reference to outside the gates of the New Jerusalem. Those
outside the gates are sinners and there is a long list of sins that they
commit. Does this mean that outside the New Jerusalem in the new earth
there are a bunch of sinners wanting into the city? This can’t be so
because we’ve already seen these sinners thrown into the Lake of Fire.
It might be possible that when the word "outside" is used it
means "way outside’ as in the Lake of Fire.
Another plausible explanation of this situation is that Jesus is
speaking to John in His day. He tells John that if anyone washes their
clothes then they "will be able" to eat from the tree of life
– that’s future tense. The emphases is on the present day washing of
clothes in hope of a good future. Yet those who aren’t washing their
clothes are "outside". That’s not outside the New Jerusalem.
It’s out side the circle of Christians washing their clothes in John’s
day. (our day as well) Thus you have two types of people Jesus is
addressing in this passage. One group is washing their clothes while the
other group is not washing their clothes and are described as being dogs
outside the Kingdom of God.
People who believe in the Historic view of Revelation will point to
this verse and say that this is proof that this is not a literal city in
the future but represents the church or the Kingdom of God in the present
day.
Once again in verse 16 Jesus speaks, or an angel is speaking
prophetically on His behalf. I tend to believe it is Jesus Himself
speaking. Jesus tells John that He has sent His angel to tell John this
message so he can pass it along to the churches. The book of Revelation is
canonized into the Holy Bible and so this message has been passed down to
the church throughout the age, and we should not close the book by
avoiding it. It is God’s will that we seriously study the pages of the
book of Revelation.
Also in verse 16 we see Jesus call Himself the "Root and Offspring
of David". This is Messianic and Jewish language. Here we are at the
very end of the Bible and we still see references to Israel. It is my
position that Israel means something right up to the very end. Of course
salvation is for all people. There’s no distinction between Jew and
Gentile when it comes to salvation, yet when it comes to prophetic
history, I believe there is a distinction. The Jews have a place in
prophetic history right up into the New Jerusalem.
Verse 17 says, "the Spirit and the Bride say come". The Bride
is us Christians. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit in the Christians on
earth. Both say "come Lord Jesus". The question should be asked
at this point. Do we as Christians really ask Jesus to come or are we too
involved with the things of this world that we’d rather have His coming
delayed so we can enjoy what we have in this life? If this is the case, we
love the world more than we love Jesus, and that is one great problem of
the modern church.
Also in verse 17 we read that anyone who is thirsty can come and take
the water of life freely. The invitation that came from the lips of the
Bride and the Spirit was directed towards Jesus –"come Lord
Jesus". Jesus responds with His own invitation - "anyone who is
thirsty, let him come". Salvation is free, but it’s not cheap as we’ve
often heard. Jesus paid a great price for our salvation. It is so
expensive that we’d never be able to afford it so it is given to us
freely when we give our lives to the One who offers this living water.
Verse 19 is interesting. Jesus says that if anyone takes away from this
book of prophecy, and this book refers only to the book of Revelation, not
the whole Bible as some think, God will take away his share of the tree of
life. Does this mean that the person who lays aside the book of Revelation
or takes from it will be in the New Jerusalem but unable to eat from the
tree. It appears to me that this means that such a person won’t make it
to the New Jerusalem in order to eat from the Tree of Life. So this
admonition is a strong one. Be careful what you do with the book of
Revelation.
In verse 20 Jesus confirms the fact that He is coming soon. John
responds by saying, :amen, come soon Lord Jesus".
The Book of Revelation ends, as does the book of the whole Bible with
these words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with God’s
people. Amen." We are God’s people, that is, those of us who have
received the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If not for His grace we’d
all end up in the Lake of Fire described in this prophecy.
We note in this last sentence that Jesus is "our" Lord Jesus
Christ. He has given Himself to us and so He is ours. We also note the
Jesus’ title of Lord is first, then comes His name Jesus, and then come
His other title of Christ. Jesus is first Lord, and because He is Lord, He
can become our Christ or Saviour. We should also note that because Jesus
is both Lord and Christ as Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, that He is
both Lord and Christ to us. We can’t have Jesus as our Christ without
Him being our Lord. The gospel message that some preach that says,
"make Jesus your Saviour or Christ, then at some future point make
Him your Lord" is not New Testament thinking. When you come to Jesus
for the first time, you let Him into your life as both your Lord and your
Saviour.
Presvious Section - Chapter 21
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