Revelation 21:3–4

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.

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.

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."

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.

"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 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.

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."

"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.

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.

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!

Only in the eternal state does God remove every physical and moral effect of sin. The thousand-year reign, as we have seen, is not a perfect condition. Even under the good rule of the Lord people will still weep on earth. The words, "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes," are repeated word for word in Revelation 7:17. There, however, it is a millennial scene; here it is the everlasting state. Neither here nor in the earlier scene is the wiping away of tears the work of the Lamb. God does it. If He wipes away every tear, then He removes every cause and occasion of sorrow.

Not a trace of former sorrow shall remain, and God Himself will remove it. What infinite tenderness that God Himself will do this! A mother gently wipes away her child's tears. In the same way God Himself will delight to wipe away all tears from the eyes of His people. And once wiped away they can never return, for "death shall be no more." Think how many tears death has drawn from grieving people in this world!

God had gone to the source of everything that brought in sorrow, and swept it away in the judgment of the cross. The former things had passed away. God once had to drive the man and the woman out of Eden in tears — the garden He had made for them before they fell. Now He can meet us at the door of a new heaven and a new earth as the One who wipes all tears from our eyes.

Not only has He taken away the evil, but it is never to be any more. That is, there is now full and perfect security and blessedness. All the evil is gone. So are all the trials that tested man and brought him to the point where he could truly meet God. The love of God takes the place of everything. He fills all things with Himself, so evil can never enter again. That is the opposite of the old paradise man was given.

Death, and all the trials, pains, and griefs bound up with human life in this world are gone, abolished for ever. Sin has now been taken away (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:26). That is the final result of the death of Christ on the cross. So death is gone from the scene, and with it all the other bitter fruits of sin. Life has swallowed them up in victory. It is not the positive side of eternal blessedness, but the negative.

And He reveals all this to us now, so that we may live in its light through faith. In it we find a remedy for present trials. We also find a rich encouragement to set our minds on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.