At the end of Chapter 6, we had a scene with a mass of people encountering the Father and the Lamb.
The kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” - 6:15-17
In Chapter 7 we find another mass of people have the same encounter but with a different response.
Behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” - 7:9-10
Two groups, same encounter, completely different responses.
The notion that all religions lead to the same place does have an element of truth to it. Indeed, all paths do lead to the spot in which one stands before the throne of God and the Lamb. But the notion that all religions lead to the same ending has no truth in it. These two scenes could not be any more different. The contrast could be no more complete. Despair on one hand. Joy on the other. Fear on one hand. Praise on the other.
The difference between the two groups has not to do with who the people are- rich, poor, slave, free, king, commoner. Who they are does not matter but only to Whom they belong. Those who answered “no” to the call to believe upon the Christ and, thus, become a child of God, now cry out “Who can stand?” Those who said “yes” to the LORD provide an answer to that cry by....standing. They stand before throne and before the Lamb, we see in 7:9 that they are clothed in white robes, having been washed with the blood of the Lamb, and with palm branches in their hands praising the names of the Father and the Son.
Those palm branches are a way of declaring victory in Christ as they hearken back to the O.T. Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:40) in which the people of Israel celebrated the fact that they had been rescued from their enslavement in Egypt, had survived the wilderness journey that was full of trials and difficulties but had now come to the promised land. They feasted and waved the palm branches as that remembrance of their past now culminated in a celebration of who they now were and what they now had. Once slaves, now free. Once burdened, now liberated. Once wandering, now home. As it was then, so it will be for God’s people.
These days that we are now in are our days between the land of Egypt and the land of promise. Covered by the blood of the Passover Lamb, we have been liberated from our slavery to sin. In baptism we cross through the Red Sea and begin our journey. The journey is full of difficulties, but along the way we feed upon the Bread which is Christ. We drink the water from the spiritual rock which was struck for our sakes. And one day the journey will end and we will cross over that River into our eternal promised land. Where we “shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun will strike you no more, nor any scorching heat. The Lamb whom others will fear, will be for us a shepherd. And as He leads us to springs of living water, and as God wipes every tear from our eyes, we will discover, firsthand, the beauty of Psalm 23.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul....Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
They “shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” What does this house look like? Well, it is as vast as the entire earth for the New Heavens and New Earth will be the LORD’s temple. The place where He dwells among His people- where HE- not some roof made of stone or wood- but HE will shelter His people.
When we begin to speak of a future house of the Lord where God will dwell among His people, many turn to Ezekiel chapters 37-48. Here we find the promise of and a vision of a completed new temple. Since no temple fitting the description we find on these pages has been built, many wait in anticipation for construction in Jerusalem to begin afresh, regarding such a building project to be one of the signs that the events leading to Christ's return have been set into motion. Something that I fear they are missing is the fact that Jesus stated clearly and unequivocally that He, Himself, is the temple. The building that was constructed in the days of old was a shadow and type that pointed to the reality that is Christ. If that is the case, to what ends would the construction of a new temple serve? Couldn’t the construction of such an edifice be considered an attempt at setting up a shadow to replace the reality? Indeed, I believe that would be the case.
To help us to make sense of the Ezekiel promises in light of the advent of Christ, we turn to Revelation 21. In Ezekiel 40:2 we are told that Ezekiel is taken to a high mountain to get a view of the completed temple. In Revelation 21:10, we have the apostle John taken to a “great high mountain” to get a view of “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” We, then, find the promise of the temple in Ezekiel 37:27 directly quoted in the declaration of 21:3: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Clearly, this is an expression of the fulfillment of the promise of Ezekiel. Here in Revelation 21, John is given a picture of the New Jerusalem and the descriptions of the city in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 echo the descriptions of the temple in Ezekiel. For example: Revelation 22:1 shows us the water of life flowing from the throne of God- which is a direct reference to Ezekiel 47 where we are told that water is flowing from the threshold of the temple. John is being given a vision of the temple’s arrival and what he sees the new Jerusalem. John then says something interesting. In Rev. 21:22 John tells us, “I saw no temple in the city.” We might think that this rules out the idea that John is describing the temple of Ezekiel, but John explains: “For its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”
How is this all relevant to Revelation 7:15-17? Revelation 21:4 has John hearing the declaration of the promise: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” which is what we are told John hears being declared in chapter 7:15-17. In other words, chapter 7:15-17 is a picture of the same scene of Chapter 21. And in both places, the promised temple of Ezekiel 37 is being portrayed as having been fulfilled. And when John says in 7:15 that the people of God are serving Him “in His temple,” we note that it is God, Himself, who “will shelter them with his presence.” It is God upon the throne along with the Lamb which is the temple, just as Rev. 21 tells us. And who is God sheltering? Verse 9 tells us: “A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation....” Just as Ezekiel 37:21-28 has promised.
What we learn is that the temple prophecy of Ezekiel is a picture of our eternal habitation with God in the new heavens and new earth. God was speaking to Israel, on their side of the cross, in pictures that they could understand but which were only “shadows” of the reality of what was to come. John is connecting the dots, bringing out clearly that the temple promises were only shadows pointing to the reality of our eternal presence with our God and Savior. And as we experience the shekinah glory of God’s presence, what will we be doing? Floating on clouds with harps? No, we will (vs. 15) serve Him as a continuing priesthood of believers.
Looking back at verse 14 we are told that “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This hearkens back to scenes like that which we see in Leviticus 8:30:
Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and also on his sons and his sons’ garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
Aaron and his sons were priests to the temple and so, once again, we have a shadow. The OT priesthood was a shadow of the priesthood of the saints. Now, specifically here we are still being given a response to the cry of the martyrs, and they are those coming out of the great tribulation. But the multitudes certainly include all believers because we are all priests because of the shed blood of the Lamb and that has been emphasized in both 1:5–6 and 5:9–10.
So we will all be a part of a heavenly priesthood in service to the Lord. What does that look like? Certainly worship will be involved, but that will not be all. When we look at Revelation 21, we note that, when referring to the New Jerusalem, it is said that the gates will never be closed, and that kings of the earth and the peoples of the nations will come through. This is certainly a reference to our free access to God. But it is also a clear allusion to Isaiah 60 and even Haggai 2- and we’ll talk more of this when we get there- but they both picture the nations as bringing their treasures of gold and silver before the LORD.
Implied in this are several things. Since it is coming from “the nations” it seems that there will still be cultural distinctives, and because they are bringing treasures from these nations, it implies that there is work and cultivation going on. Again, we will dig into this when we get there, but there are clues in the text that show that the new heavens and the new earth can be likened to the restoration of Eden and we might then anticipate that the charge given to Adam and Eve before they fell into sin would be the charge given to the renewed people of God: that we will have dominion over the earth and be able to work it, planting, gardening, but without the pain and toil that came as a result of the curse- no more sun striking them or scorching heat. In fact, Isaiah 65:20, speaking of the New Heavens and New Earth says, “They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” It seems that the type of works that we have done in the here and now that has brought glory to God will continue on to the next. So, perhaps, the best of culture and art, workmanship all continuing but in service to the LORD and done in great joy.
In a world in which evil is rampant and it sometimes feels that all is lost, this should give us all hope, courage and optimism. That was the intent, after all, behind the sharing of these words to the 7 churches in Asia who were, as you recall, facing trials, temptations, persecutions to the point that some of them seemed to be ready to give up. As we have noted several times before, the book of Revelation is a “call for the endurance of the saints," and here in chapter 7, that call comes in the form of a promise of the prize that lies ahead: the presence and shelter of God and a joyful productive eternal life of service unto Him.
So take comfort people of God. You have been freed from Egypt, you are traversing the wilderness, but the Jordan is just ahead. One day you will cross it and that day will be a day of rejoicing as you meet the Good Shepherd and the LORD wipes away every tear.
This week, since the passage gave us a glimpse of heaven, we want to spend some time thinking about it and, perhaps, challenge some of our preconceived notions of what it will be like.
What have you understood David to mean in Psalm 23:6 when he says that “I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever”? What is the heavenly hope that is expressed in that statement?
David writes, again, of this hope in Psalm 27:4. What kind of heavenly existence has this led you to anticipate?
How does thinking of God the Father and the Lamb as the “house of the LORD” influence your expectations?
Think a bit more on your expectations (or at least the expectations of that you know are commonly held), do they tend to be individualistic and solitary? In other words, we know that a multitude will be there but you will only be one in a crowd with your basic experience being a solitary one between you and your Creator.
Is our attention going to be solely directed towards God?
What picture does Revelation 21:22-27 paint of our heavenly existence?
How about Isaiah 65:21-22? (Assuming it is speaking of what says it is: the new heavens and new earth. Some argue that it is speaking of the millennium – the 1,000 yrs. of Rev. 20- or another earthly state before the consummation of the Kingdom in its fullness because of the difficult verses of 20 and 23. Based upon the other clues in this passage, however, I’m taking it to refer to our heavenly existence but using temporal language to communicate the joys that it will contain. Don’t let this be a stumbling block to bog down the conversation…move on if this passage is not helpful at this point).
Is it possible that we can serve God “day and night in His temple” (Rev. 7:15) while not solely focused upon His being? If so, how?
When Paul speaks of our resurrection bodies in 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, is he painting a picture of a complete break between the type of existence we have now and what will enjoy in heaven? Would it be more accurate to say that we are replaced or renewed?
There is definitely a discontinuity between this world and the next, but it is no less true that there will be a continuity as well. Even the creation will be set free and obtain freedom (Romans 8:21). Matthew 5:5 says that we will “inherit the earth” and Genesis 17:8/Romans 4:13 says the same. Revelation 5:9-10 says that we will “reign on the earth.”
When we think of life in the new heavens and new earth, what can we conclude from Mark 10:29-30?
How about from the fact that, after his resurrection, Jesus ate and drank with his disciples? (Luke 24:43 and John 21:9-14).
How does that inform our understanding of Isaiah 25:6/Matthew 26:29 and what life in the new heavens and new earth will involve?
