This past Tuesday, Day 17, we read Solomon’s prayer as he dedicated the temple, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” (1 Kings 8:27). He knew the LORD could not be confined to a human-made structure. But today, we learn that Solomon’s rhetorical question will, surprisingly, be answered with a glorious, “Yes!” 

 

The vision of the last two chapters of Revelation is not only of creation but of creation made gloriously more. The earth was intended to be a garden temple in which God and humanity could meet in intimate communion. And the triune God will fulfill this intention! John sees a strange sight: a new earth descends into the old one. The return of Jesus means the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). Therefore, this is not the end of our having an embodied life in a good creation but its fulfillment. A booming voice from the heart of reality, the throne of sovereign God, commands attention as if to say, “Look! See! This is what I planned all along. My dwelling place is with humanity. We will be together forever. The whole creation will be a splendid meeting place between my image bearers and me.” 

 

If we read closely, we notice that the imagery has shifted from a garden to a city. Revelation does not speak of a new Eden but of a new Jerusalem for there are no longer just two people, but vast multitudes. Exchanges of love are everywhere. All our commerce, though we seldom realize it, anticipates this vision. In this new city, we give and receive from one another. We trade gifts, words, services, ideas, skills and artistry. But all greed, swindling, jockeying, undermining and hoarding have disappeared because all sin has been done away with. Yet human industry remains in the worshipful, enlivening service of God and one another. We’re not floating ghosts or automated worshippers. We are rippling with life, never bored because this renewed world is endlessly interesting. This is what God has always wanted. As Irenaeus writes, “The glory of God is man fully alive” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.21.7).

 

Down the middle of the city flows a river. Its source is the throne of God and the Lamb. This is the time Isaiah foresaw, “With joy your will draw water from the wells of salvation. . . . Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isaiah 12:3, 55:1). This is the fulfillment of what Jesus promised, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, Whoever believes in me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Here the mighty vision of Ezekiel 47 comes into focus as he sees water flowing from within the temple out into the streets of Jerusalem. So much water comes forth that it is “deep enough to swim in” (Ezekiel 47:5). Wherever the water flows, it brings teeming life, and the flourishing of fish and trees is specifically described. Moreover, because the trees are sourced from this temple water, Ezekiel is told that their fruit will be a source of food, and even their leaves will be a source of healing.

 

Revelation 22 takes Ezekiel’s vision further by specifically revealing that it is the tree of life itself that grows along the riverbanks. After our fall, the tree of life in Eden had been sealed away. God would not let us eat and thus live forever in our sin-broken condition. Before granting eternal life, he had to recreate us from the heart out, which he did through Jesus. So in the new earth, the tree of life appears again. Now it continuously yields its varied kinds of fruit. These heal the fractured nations of mankind according to their needs for varied applications of truth and grace. Everything is coming into harmony. 

 

The presence of God will be the light of this new earth. Human beings will once again see our Creator directly. We will each be known and claimed by name. We will be known and loved uniquely yet placed in communion with everyone else. This returns us to what it means that the Word came to dwell with us in Jesus: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9) and “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). 

 

The Good Shepherd. Photo by Shea Firnberg, Dunham Chapel, First Presbyterian Church, Baton Rouge.