GOD'S NEW WORLD, DAY 35 (when God comes home)

 


“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.” (Rev. 21.1-4)

     The ancient world was choked full of temples, much like the modern world is replete with churches, synagogues, mosques, and various places of worship.  The ancient gods were believed to “inhabit” their temples in some way; the image of the god(dess) in question symbolized the divinity’s having taken up residence in its “home” (naturally, the last step in the construction of a temple was the installation of the god’s statue in a conspicuous place within the shrine).  Interestingly, the Ancient Near Eastern writer who penned the book of Genesis tells the story of the creation of the cosmos in such a way that would have been immediately recognizable to an ancient architect – Genesis 1 describes the creation of the world in terms of the construction of a temple!  What is created on the sixth day?  Of course, human beings who are made in the image of the Creator (cf. Gn. 1.26-31)!  This is a fascinating vision of what humans are – intriguingly, the ancient Israelites were not supposed to fabricate any images of Yahweh in the form of animals or humans (cf. Ex. 20.1-6).  The invisible God of Abraham was to be “seen” in his image-bearing creatures, and in no other way.

     Not content to remain “in heaven” (cf. Eccl. 5.2), Yahweh – the invisible God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – desired to dwell among his people, that his presence – mediated by a pillar of cloud/fire – would be part of the daily life of the Israelites.  To that end, Yahweh instructed Moses to construct a “tabernacle” (a large tent) that the Israelites could transport during their 40-year journey through the wilderness.[1]  Whenever the Israelites made camp, the tabernacle would be erected in the center, and the 12 tribes would encamp on all four sides of Yahweh’s portable shrine.  Once the Israelites settled in Canaan, the tabernacle was set up at Shiloh, and once Shiloh had been destroyed by the Philistines (cf. 1 Sam. 1—6), the ark of the covenant was kept in a private home until David brought it to Jerusalem (cf. 2 Sam. 6).  Upon the construction of the Jerusalem temple by Solomon, the ark was installed in its rightful place – behind the veil in the Holy of Holies (cf. 1 Kings 8).  The Jerusalem Temple would be the central (and only authorized) Israelite shrine for the worship of Yahweh, until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.[2]

     The penultimate chapter of Revelation opens with the moment of new creation.  Then, a new Jerusalem descends from the new heaven to the new earth.  As the new Jerusalem lands, a loud voice proclaims that “the home (i.e. tabernacle) of God is among mortals” (Rev. 21.3; cf. Lev. 26.11-13).  There is no temple in this city (Rev. 21.22); indeed, the new Jerusalem is designed in the shape of the Holy of Holies of the old Jerusalem Temple (cf. Rev. 21.15-17).  The entire city is replete with the unmediated presence of the Creator.  Not only that, God’s people will see his face (Rev. 22.4; cf. Ex. 33.9-11, 17-23).  The God who designed the cosmos as a temple in which his human creatures would represent him, the God who “went camping” with his people for 40 years in the desert – this God now floods the temple of his new cosmos with his immediate and palpable presence (cf. Habakkuk 2.14).  Heaven and earth are united in the new cosmos which is unveiled at the close of Revelation – a cosmos suffused with the presence of the Giver of life, which means that the new world is one without death, without pain and without sad tears.


[1] Cf. Ex. chapters 25—40 (instructions for the construction of the tabernacle); Ex. 33.7-11; Lev. 26.11-13; Numbers 1.50-53; 2.17.

[2] The ark of the covenant (cf. Ex. 25; Rev. 11.19) is presumed to have been confiscated by the Babylonians.  There is no evidence of it after the final deportation of Judahites to Babylon in the early 6th century B.C.  The second Jerusalem temple was built in 515 B.C. and would eventually be destroyed by the Romans in the year AD 70.

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