AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.
PART VII.(Chap, 19:5-22:) THE CONSUMMATION.
The Holy City.
The last vision of Revelation is now before us :it is that of the city of God itself. But here, where one would desire above all to see clearly, we become most conscious of how feeble and dull is our apprehension of eternal things. They are words of an apostle which remind us that "we see through a glass darkly"- en ainigmati, in a riddle. Such a riddle, then, it is no wonder if the vision presents to us:the dream that we have here a literal description, even to the measurements, of the saints' eternal home, is one too foolish to need much comment. All other visions throughout the book have been symbolic :how much more here ! how little need we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen would reveal to us the shape of buildings, or the material used ! Scripture is reticent all through upon such subjects; and the impress to be left upon our souls is plainly spiritual, not of lines and hues, as for the natural senses. " Things which eye hath not seen " are not put before the eye.
On the other hand, that the "city" revealed to us here is not simply a figure of the saints themselves, as, from the term used for it, " the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," some have taken it to be, there are other scriptures which seem definitely to assure us. "Jerusalem, which is above, which is our mother" (Gal. 4:) could hardly be used in this way, though the Church is indeed so conceived of in patristic and medieval thought. But even thus it would not be spoken of naturally as "above."
In Heb. 12:we have a still more definite testimony. For there the "Church of the first-born ones which are written in heaven," as well as "the spirits of just men made perfect"-in other words, both Christians and the saints of the Old Testament-are mentioned as distinct from " the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem;" and this will not allow them to be the same thing, although, in another way, the identification of a city with its inhabitants is easy.
We are led in the same direction by the mention of the " tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God,"-something to which the apostle thought he might have been caught even bodily (2 Cor. 12:)-and here is the tree of life in the midst of the city beside the "river of the water of life" which flows from the throne of God. Figurative language all this surely; yet these passages combine to give us the thought of a heavenly abode, already existing, and which will be in due time revealed as the metropolis of the heavenly kingdom-what Jerusalem restored will be in the lower sphere. Indeed the earthly here so parallels and illustrates the heavenly as to be a most useful help in fixing, if not enlarging, our thoughts about it,- always while we realize, of course, the essential difference that Scripture itself makes clear to be between them. But this we shall have to look at as we proceed.
" The holy city, Jerusalem," is certainly intended to be a plain comparison with the earthly city. But that is the type only; this is the antitype, the true "foundation of peace," as the word means. What more comforting title, after all the scenes of strife, the fruit of the lusts that war in our members, which we have had to look upon ! Here is "peace" at last, and on a foundation that shall not be removed, but that stands fast forever. For this is emphatically "the city that hath foundations," and "whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. 11:10.) How blessed it is; too, that it should be just one of the seven angels that had the seven last plagues that shows John the city ! for no mere executioner of judgment we see is he :judgment (as with God, for it is God's) is also his "strange work." It had to come, and it has come:there was no help, no hope without it ; thus the stroke of the "rod of iron" was that of the shepherd's rod; it was the destruction of the destroyers only. But it is past, and here is the scene wherein his own heart rests, to which it returns with loyalty and devotion :here, where the water of life flows from the throne of God,-eternal, from the Eternal; refreshment, gladness, fruitfulness, and power are found in obedience.
But the city is the "Bride, the Lamb's wife." In the Old Testament, the figure of marriage is used in a similar way. Israel was thus Jehovah's "married wife" (Is. 54:1, Jer. 31:33), now divorced indeed for her unfaithfulness, but yet to return (Hos. 2:), and be received and reinstated. Her Maker will be then once more her husband, and more than the old blessing be restored. In the forty-fifth psalm, Israel's King, Messiah, is the Bridegroom; the Song of Solomon is the mystic song of His espousals. Jerusalem thus bears His name :" This is the name whereby she shall be called:'Jehovah our Righteousness.'" (Jer. 33:16, comp. 23:6.) The land too shall be "married." (Is. 62:4.)
In the New Testament, the same figure is still used in the same way. The Baptist speaks of his joy as the " friend of the Bridegroom," in hearing the Bridegroom's voice (Jno. 3:29); and in the parable of the virgins (Matt. 25:), where Christians are those who go forth to meet the Bridegroom, they are by that very fact not regarded as the Bride, which is still Israel, (according to the general character of the prophecy,) though not actually brought into the scene. Some may be able to see also in the marriage at Cana of Galilee (Jno. 2:i) the veiling of the same thought.
All this, therefore, is in that earthly sphere in which Israel's blessings lie; our own are " in heavenly places " (Eph. 1:3), and here it is we find, not the Bride of Messiah simply, but distinctively "the Bride of the Lamb." The "Lamb,"as a title, always keeps before us His death, and that by violence, "a Lamb as it had been slain" (Rev. 5:6); and it is thus that He has title to that redemption empire in which we find Him throughout this book. But "the Bride of the Lamb" is thus one espoused to Him in His rejection, sharer (though it be but in slight measure) of His reproach and sorrow, trained and disciplined for glory in a place of humiliation. And so it is said that "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him;" and again, "If so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (2 Tim. 2:12; Rom. 8:17.)
The saints in the millennium have no heritage of suffering such as this ; even those who pass through the trial which ushers it in, have not the same character of it, although we must not forget those associated with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, who illustrate the same truth, but upon a lower platform. Even these are not His Bride.
Ephesians, the epistle of the heavenly places, shows us the Church as Eve of the last Adam, whom Christ loves, and for whom He gave Himself. Formed out of Himself and for Himself, He now sanctifies and cleanses her with water-washing by the Word, that He may present her to Himself a holy Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. In another aspect, this Church is His body, formed by the baptism of the Spirit as at Pentecost, complete when those who are Christ's are caught up to meet Him in the air. The doctrine of this is, of course, not in Revelation :the difficulty is in seeing the conformity of Revelation with it.
Outside of Revelation even, there is a difficulty in the connection (if there be, as one would anticipate, a connection) between the Church as the body of Christ now, before our presentation to Him, and the " one flesh " which is the fruit of marriage. Israel was the married wife, and will be, though now for a time " desolate," as one divorced. The Church is " espoused " (2 Cor. 11:2), not married. Thus the "one body" and the "great mystery" of "one flesh," of which the apostle speaks (Eph. 5:29) must be distinct.
Looking back to Adam, to whom as a type he there refers us, we find that Eve is taken out of his side,-is thus really his " flesh " by her very making. Thus, as one with him in nature, she is united to him,-a union in which the prior unity finds its fit expression. The two things are therefore in this way very clearly and intimately connected. The being of Christ's body is that, then, which alone prepares and qualifies for the being of His bride hereafter; and body and bride must be strictly commensurate with each other.
The mystery here is great, as the apostle himself says ; nor is it to be affirmed that the type in all its features answers to the reality. It is easily seen that this could not be ; yet there is real correspondence and suitability thus far:according to it, the Church of Christ alone, from Pentecost to the rapture, is scripturally only (in a strict sense) the " Bride of the Lamb."
Yet can we confine the new Jerusalem to these? There would of course in this case be no difficulty as to the character of a city which it is given in this vision. A city is commonly enough identified with its inhabitants, so that the same term covers both place and persons. But are none to inhabit the new Jerusalem except the saints of Christian times ? Are none of those so illustrious in the Old Testament to find their place there? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are among those with whom the Lord assures us we are to sit down in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:28, 29);-are they to be outside the heavenly city ?
This is positively answered otherwise, as it would seem, in Revelation itself. For while the general account of those who enter there is that they are those " written in the Lamb's book of life" (21:27), "without" the city are said to be only " dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie " (22:15).
In the eleventh of Hebrews, moreover, in a verse already quoted, "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," for which the patriarchs looked and waited, can surely be no other than that which we find here; and it is added that they desired "a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God :for He hath prepared for them a city." It could not be the New-Testament church for which Abraham looked; for this was as yet entirely hidden in God. (Eph. 3:9.) Another and larger meaning for the new Jerusalem must surely, therefore, be admitted.
And why should there not be in it the inclusion of both thoughts ? Why should it not be the bride-city, named from the bride-church, whose home it is, and yet containing other occupants? This alone would seem to cover the whole of the facts which Scripture gives us as to it; and the Jewish bride is in like manner sometimes a wider, sometimes a narrower conception ; sometimes the city Jerusalem, sometimes the people Israel Only that in the Old Testament the city is the narrower, the people the wider view; while in the New Testament this is reversed. And even this may be significant:the heavenly city, the dwelling-place of God, permitting none of the redeemed to be outside it, but opening its gates widely to all. A Bride City indeed, ever holding bridal festival, and having perpetual welcome for all that come:its freshness never fading, its joy never satiating ; blessed are they whose names are written there!
As before, the city is seen "descending out of heaven from God." We shall find, however, here, that the present vision goes back of the new heavens and earth to the millennial age,-that is, that while itself eternal, the city is seen in connection with the earth at this time. Not yet has it been said, " The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." The descending city is not, therefore, in that settled and near intimacy with men outside of it in which it will be. A significant and perfect note of time it is that the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of nations (22:2). Tender as this grace is, the condition it shows could not be eternal.
All the nearer does it bring this vision of glory and of love, no more to be banished or dimmed by human sin or sorrow. The city has the glory of God ; and here is the goal of hope, complete fruition of that which but as hope outshines all that is known of brightness elsewhere. It cannot be painted with words. We cannot hope even to expand what the Holy Ghost has given us. But the blessedness itself we are soon to know. F. W. G.
(To be continued.)