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Opening Prayer
Lord, we rejoice in the realization that we will inherit all things.
Read REVELATION 21:1–8
A New Heaven and a New Earth
21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Footnotes
a Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17
b Revelation 21:4 Isaiah 25:8
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold I make all things new.”
Much that begins in Genesis is completed in these last two chapters – a fitting ending to both Revelation and the Bible. We see two metaphors intermingled: the security of a city and the intimacy of a bride. Here is the goal to which we are heading, a new heaven and a new earth. The reference to “no longer any sea” (1) relates to the sense of restlessness the sea engenders and the environment out of which the beast of the sea emerged. This is transformation on a scale beyond our comprehension.
We need to begin in negative terms by listing what is missing: tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain. Then, in positive terms, we are promised a restored relationship with God, with no barriers. Everything is new, refreshing, satisfying. The God who created now recreates. Instead of an innocent couple in a garden, there is a holy community in a city. At the heart is God himself in covenant relationship, as he had always promised. What we longed for wistfully, when we read of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day in Eden, is now restored. Here is the renewal and completion of all things: “I am making everything new!” (5). What a hope! What a comfort! What a strength!
There is continuity and discontinuity. The roots of the new world and of our new bodies are in the old, but the transformation is beyond all expectation. When sin entered, our environment was spoiled; frustration and disappointment were built in; and we were alienated from God. These former problems are addressed and resolved here. The passage ends with a list of eight groups of people who are excluded. The new heaven and the new earth are about life and not death. All that diminishes life has no place in the new order.
Apply
The focus now is on life, not death, as we recall that eternal life is knowing God through Jesus Christ.
Closing prayer
We thank You, Father, that a new day is dawning. We look forward to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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