And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The old heaven and earth have just passed away. Now John sees something arriving in the new creation: a city that is also a bride. Who is this city, why does she come down from heaven, and how can a city be a bride at all?
This chapter shows the same city twice, and the two scenes are a thousand years apart. The verse that comes later on the page describes the earlier moment.
The scene in verse 10 of this chapter comes a thousand years before this one in verse 2. In verse 10 John sees the "holy city, Jerusalem" in her glory during the thousand years, in relation to the earth of that day. In verse 2 that thousand-year kingdom has passed away for ever. John now sees the "holy city" coming down from the place she held during the kingdom, to take up her appointed place on the new earth. It is the "holy city," holy according to the nature of God. And it is "new Jerusalem," not the old one described in the Old Testament.
Many take the description as a picture of the believer's future home. One writer warns against reading a symbolic book literally here.
To grasp its meaning we must first clear our minds of one idea that sentiment has encouraged. It is the idea that the holy City is a literal description of the eternal home of believers. In a book where all the other visions are symbolic, it is unlikely that in this vision symbols should give way to literal description. Scripture names the City in so many words: "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." So it is clear that the City is a symbol of the Church in glory. Yet many details show that it is not only a symbol of the saints themselves. It is a symbolic description both of the Church in glory and of her eternal home.
Earlier in the book John saw a false woman and a false city. This one is their opposite.
In the future the Church is pictured as a Woman and a City… The Bride is spoken of as the Lamb's Wife, and is likewise described as "that Great City, the Holy Jerusalem." It is interesting that Revelation 17 presents the doom of the false bride, and chapter 18 of the false city — the Christian world that has abandoned the faith in the last days.
The verse gives two facts about where the city comes from.
It descends "from God," since it is all His own workmanship. And it comes "out of heaven," for its calling was from heaven. To heaven it had gone when the Lord Jesus came for all His saints.
Time wears out earthly brides. It has not touched this one, and now she comes the whole way down to the new earth.
Earlier she was only coming down from heaven towards earth. Now she comes right down to earth, because God has suited the new earth to this heavenly city… I have seen a good many brides in my day. I have met them a few years later, and what lines are on the brow, what cares are plain on the face, and how soon grey hairs have appeared… But what does John see? He sees, coming down from heaven, the one who has been the Lamb's wife for a thousand years, and she looks as bright, as beautiful and as fresh as the day she went up. Not a grey hair, not a wrinkle can be seen.
Scripture uses two words for her, bride and wife, and each carries a different sense.
The bride is more an object for the affections. The wife speaks of a vessel fully fitted to be a helper to the man… In her eternal place she is seen as "a bride adorned for her husband", and the term wife is not used. It suggests the closest possible relationship. It shows the place of favour and nearness we shall have with the Son throughout that eternal day.
The last four words of the verse turn a vision of the future into a question about the present.
"Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!" Let us think about these last four words. In the light of them, could we bear the thought of being indifferent to His wishes now? Thank God, SHE will be for HIM then.
- Timing. Verse 2 stands after the thousand years. Verse 10 shows the same city a thousand years earlier, in her kingdom glory.
- Identity. The city is a symbol, not a street plan — she is named the bride, the wife of the Lamb. The picture covers both the church in glory and her eternal home.
- Origin. She descends "from God" because she is entirely His work, and "out of heaven" because heaven was her calling.
- Contrast. Babylon was the false bride and the false city, judged in chapters 17 and 18; this is the true one.
- Result. After a thousand years not a wrinkle shows. The word chosen for eternity is bride — the nearest place of affection, held for ever.
And I heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God.
A loud voice announces that God has come to live with people, in the language of Israel's ancient tent of worship. Older translations read "the tabernacle of God is with men" — so what is this tabernacle, and who are the "men"?
The word points back to Moses. After Israel crossed the Red Sea, Moses sang about preparing a dwelling for God. Older translations of Exodus 15:2 read "I will prepare him a habitation."
Moses says, "The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; I will prepare Him a habitation," a tabernacle. But God says, I will prepare Myself a tabernacle. At the end of the times, after the millennium, this desire of God will come true, just as Revelation 21:3 says. The word tabernacle always has the sense of a habitation of God with men.
God once offered this to Israel on terms, and the terms were never met.
The tabernacle was God's first dwelling place on earth among His people Israel, after He redeemed them out of Egypt. While still in the wilderness... the LORD gave this promise, a promise conditional on their obedience: "I will make my dwelling among you... And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Lev. 26:11-12). This promise, because of Israel's transgressions, was never entirely fulfilled... Coming to our scripture, we find almost the same words again. Only now they are not a promise, but a statement of fact and accomplishment.
The verse names a dwelling and it names men. Commentators read these as two different groups.
I understand that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God. It is where He lives in a very special sense. And this tabernacle of God comes down out of heaven to be with men. The heavenly saints make up the tabernacle of God. Those on the new earth are simply called "men."
Being God's house and being God's people are not the same blessing, yet neither is a lesser one.
They are not, as the church is, the dwelling place of God, but their place and blessing are as perfect in their relationship as the church's are in hers. There are differences which God in His sovereignty has been pleased to make, but these only illustrate His own perfections and grace.
The verse says two things, not one: the dwelling is here, and then God Himself is here.
"He shall tabernacle with them." This emphatic statement is an advance on the previous one. There we read, "The tabernacle of God is with men"; now, "He shall tabernacle with them." In the one case it is the tabernacle. In the other it is Himself. What an amazing truth, that God, the very God, the Maker and Sustainer of heaven and earth, will actually and really dwell with men on earth.
God has been with people before, but not like this.
God dwelling with men — not merely as a visitor, as He was with our first parents in the garden of Eden, but as one who lives there.
The old labels that divided humanity do not survive into this scene.
In the eternal state, when everything will be according to God's mind, nationality will be gone. The distinction between Jew and Gentile, between one nation and another, will have perished. All the redeemed, with one heart, one object, and one occupation, will be "HIS people."
The title itself is not new, but its scope is. Then the verse comes closer still.
"They shall be His people" — that is, God will take the eternal dwellers on the new earth for Himself. Israel of old was the LORD's people. Now the name "His people" takes on a breadth and depth of blessing completely unknown in Old Testament times... "And God Himself will be with them as their God." In this marvellous statement God, so to speak, comes out of His tabernacle and is personally with His people. Nothing is mentioned here that stands between God and His people — no tabernacle, nothing at all. He is "with them," apart from any covering or outward means of communication.
The change of word marks a change of era.
It is remarkable that Revelation 21:22 uses the word "temple" for the church in millennial display. But when we come to the fixed eternal state, we get the word "tabernacle."... The last glimpse we have is of God dwelling among His people for eternity. May we anticipate that day by taking up the divine thoughts even now.
Nothing screens God off, because nothing needs it.
There will be no question of a distinction between light and darkness. There will be no possibility of anything contrary intruding... No shrine is seen, for the glory of God shines from every atom of its constitution. There is no holy place nor holy of holies, for every part of it is new creation, in which righteousness dwells!
- Desire. Moses offered to prepare God a dwelling; God said He would prepare Himself a tabernacle, and this verse is that desire accomplished.
- Promise. What God offered Israel on condition arrives here not as a promise but as an announcement of fact.
- Dwelling. The tabernacle comes first, then God Himself — He no longer visits as He did in Eden, He stays.
- People. Nation, race and every time-bound distinction are gone; all the redeemed are simply "His people" — and God Himself is with them, as their God.
- Openness. The word is tabernacle, not temple: no shrine, no holy place, no holy of holies — the glory shines from everything.