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32

The Ultimate Vision:

New and New Earth

Bible Study on :1-4

KWAME BEDIAKO l.Introduction

In this,the final in.our series of meditations on the Scriptures, we come to a passage which, in the symbolic language of and apocalyptic, depicts the climax not only of the last book of the , but of the whole drama of salvation unfolded in the Bible. Here, all the prophetic anticipations of the goal of redemption, the yearnings, longings and struggles of all who, in hope, hunger and thirst for the rigtheousness of the reign of , are gathered up and focussed on the vision of a transcendent order of existence at last free from the ravages of , death and decay. Here, in every respect, is a vision of permanence, the realization of the covenantal promises of rest for the redeemed and of the promises of community announced at creation, the full, unalloyed experience and enjoyment of the divine presence, God's very self, in the company of all who love God. 2. and Exposition

Verse 1

In language which is reminiscent of the prophetic background and sources of this vision, the writer describes a new heaven and a new earth.."For the .first heaven and the first earth disappeared.." 65:17 is clearly in view here:

" says: 'I am making a new earth and new . The events of the past will be completely forgotten." (TEV) .

Considerations of whether our writer intends us to understand a transformation and a renovation of existing creation, or the emergence of a newly created universe, need not detain us. The words in verse 5: "And now I make all things new" might suggest the remaking of what already exists. However, whatever else might be meant here, clearly the writer is more directly and more intently concerned to depict the vision of a new order of reality; a situation in which, in the words of George Eldon Ladd, "the old order is completely swept away and replaced by something altogether new and different" (p. 276).'

It is this thought which we must understand to lie behind the observation that in this new order of existence - the sea vanished (TEV), the sea was no more (RSV), la mer n'etait plus (.Segond) - under the figure of the sea, the source of the -beast that blasphemed God and waged war on the of God (:1,ff), reminiscent of the beasts of Daniel 7, which also rose from the sea - we have the personification of the evil and every demonic reality that opposed and resisted God and sought to subvert God's purposes. The exclusion of the sea, marks the defeat and exclusion of all evil from the therefore, ' new order of existence. 33

And yet, the new order of existence is an earthly existence. As George Eldon Ladd rightly states in his commentary: "The ultimate destiny of God's people is an earthly destiny. Biblical thought. always places man on a redeemed earth, not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence." (p. 275)

This observation carries an important significance of the understanding of the character and goal of mission which we . intend to'indicate later. w ' Verse 2

The vision acquires still sharper focus as its most prominent feature is now described: the Holy City, the new .. Once again, the prophetic background is unmistakeable: (Isaiah 65:18)

"Be glad and rejoice for ever in what I create. The new Jerusalem I make will be full of joy, and her people will be happy." (TEV) .

Indeed the whole point of the vision of the new heaven and the new earth is that they provide the context for the coming of the Holy City, , for no other reality is in view in the new universe apart from the city. But this new Jerusalem is not the earthly metropolis of a chosen nation among the nations of the world. Rather it is the dwelling place of all the redeemed in the new universe. It is depicted as coming down out of heaven from God. In other words, it does not emerge from the earth, the product of ingenuity, industry and achievement; it is the creation of God, the ultimate realisation of God's redemptive purpose of calling a people to belong to him - a purpose which was announced prominently in' the Exodus (Exodus 19:5-6), restated again and again throughout the Old Testament, fulfilled in (cf.Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9) and now consummated in the intimate fellowship of the community of the Holy City of God.

The fuller, more colourful."architectural" description of the City comes in Revelation 21:9ff and falls outside the boundaries or our passage. But the further qualification already here, in verse 2, of the City as a Bride dressed to meet her Husband (TEV), reveals that the City is in reality the , spoken of elsewhere in the as the Bride of Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 4:23f). The figure of the Bride prepared for her Husband, the Lamb (Christ), has already been evoked in :7 as the wedding supper of the Lamb with His Bride was announced. But in the "ultimate vision" of Revelation 21, what was announced in chapter 19 as "coming to pass", is now consummated after the final vestiges of opposition . are removed (in ), and the new creation is finally in place. In this image of the Holy City, new Jerusalem as the Bride of Christ, Old Testament ideas on -Jerusalem as Yahweh's wife who will experience Yahweh's comforting presence for ever (eg. Isaiah 54:lf-f), together with New Testament ideas of a "heavenly Jerusalem as the abode of the saints of God in the company of their God" (Galatians 4:26f where Paul quote Isaiah 54:1; Hebrews 12:22), merge into one total picture of unalloyed communion between the and the redeemed. Whether "certain features of the description of the new Jerusalem are traceable to