21:10-21:22-22:5-
One should definitely contemplate adding material from the given passage. The image of the pearly gates is here, for instance.
In so many ways, the OT is a response to the destruction of the temple, and most of the NT was written in the face of the destruction of the Herodian expansions almost as soon as they were completed. So it is somewhat of a shock to see the temple obviated in this vision. On the other hand, the presence of God pervades the entire large space (compare I Kings 6-7, Ezek. 40-8), so perhaps it is better called a temple-city, or heavenly capitol. without a temple, the throne seems to be city center..Some many of the jewels are related to the tabernacle construction of Exodus and pick up points about Solomon’s temple as well.
For some reason we have been taken with the number of the mark of the beast. The baptized are sealed with a different number, and that is what they parade on their foreheads. Notice that the ancient impossibility of seeing God’s face is gone.
Notice that the vision of Ezek. 40-48 is expanded, but some elements of exclusion remain, but do note the gates.A small but telling item from that source is that leaves for healing now become leaves for the healing of nations. What healing would the different ethnic groups need? So will heaven be therapeutic? The word is used for healing as opposed to the pharmacy of medicine/sorcery of Babylon. (Recall that Communion was called the medicine of immortality).
One could go a long way with the image of light that move together here.Isaiah’s (ch. 60) vision of riches pouring into Jerusalem comes into play once again.One could go a long way with the re-appearance of Ezekiel’s sacred river issuing forth from this heavenly city, as we have the Missouri and Mississippi dominating our region.
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