Jerusalem, the capital city
of Israel, is a physical to spiritual parallel of the Capital
City of the Kingdom of Yahuah which is called
Yahuah
Shammah. Yahuah Shammah means
Yahuah is there. It is also
known as the New Jerusalem and it is documented prophetically by Ezekiel
Chapter 48 and described again in Revelation.
According to John in the book of Revelation,
the New Jerusalem is "pure gold, like clear glass" and its
"brilliance [is] like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear
jasper." The street of the city is also made of "pure gold, like
transparent glass". The base of the city is laid out in a square and
surrounded by a wall made of jasper.
It says in Revelation 21:16 that the height,
length, and width are of equal dimensions - as were the Holy of Holies in the
Tabernacle and First Temple - and they measure 12,000 furlongs (which is
approximately 1500.3 miles). John writes that the wall is 144 cubits, which is
assumed to be the width since the length is mentioned previously. 144 cubits
are about equal to 65 meters, or 72 yards. It is important to note that 12 is the
square root of 144. The number 12 was very important to early Israelites,
representing the 12 tribes of Israel and 12 Apostles of Yahusha the Messiah.
The four sides of the city represented the four cardinal directions (North,
South, East, and West.) In this way, New Jerusalem was thought of as an
inclusive place, with gates accepting all of the remnant 12 tribes of Israel
from all corners of the earth.
There is no temple building in the New
Jerusalem. Yahuah and the Lamb are the city's temple as the Temple has been
transposed, and Yahuah is worshiped everywhere. Revelation 22 goes on to
describe a river of the water of life that flows down the middle of the great
street of the city from the Throne of Yahuah that Yahusha sits on as proxy
King. The tree of life grows in the middle of this street and on either side,
or in the middle of the street and on either side of the river. The tree bears
twelve fruits, or kinds of fruits, and yields its fruit every month. According
to John, "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nations." This inclusion of the tree of life in the New Jerusalem harkens
back to the Garden of Eden. The fruit the tree bears may be the fruit of life.
John states that the New Jerusalem will be free
of sin. The servants of Yahuah will have Theosis (will be elohims), and they
will bear the Mark or Seal of Yahuah which is "His name will be on their
foreheads." Night will no longer fall, and the inhabitants of the city
will "have no need for lamp nor light of the sun, for Yahuah gives them
light." John ends his account of the New Jerusalem by stressing its
eternal nature: "And they shall reign forever and ever."
There are twelve gates in the wall oriented
to the compass with three each on the east, north, south, and west sides. There
is an angel at each gate, or gatehouse. These gates are each made of a single
pearl, giving them the name of the "pearly gates". The names of the
twelve tribes of Israel are written on these gates. The new Jerusalem gates may
bear some relation to the gates mentioned in Enoch, Chapters 33 - 35, where the
prophet reports (at the extremities of the whole earth) "heavenly gates
opening into heaven; three of them distinctly separated." [33, 3.] And so
on for each of the four major compass directions.
The wall has twelve foundation stones, and on
these are written the names of the Twelve Apostles. Revelation lacks a list of
the names of the Twelve Apostles, and does not describe which name is inscribed
on which foundation stone, or if all of the names are inscribed on all of the
foundation stones, so that aspect of the arrangement is open to speculation.
The layout of the precious stones is contested. All of the precious stones
could adorn each foundation stone, either in layers or mixed together some
other way, or just one unique type of stone could adorn each separate foundation
stone. This latter possibility is favored by tradition, as each gate presumably
stands on one foundation stone, and each of the twelve tribes has long been
associated with a certain type of precious stone. These historical connections
go back to the time of Temple worship, when the same kinds of stones were set
in the golden Breastplate of the Ephod worn by the Kohen Gadol, and on the
Ephod the names of each of the twelve tribes of Israel were inscribed on a
particular type of stone.
In Revelation 21:16, the
angel measures the city with a golden rod or reed, and records it as 12,000
stadia by 12,000 stadia at the base, and 12,000 stadia high. A stadion is
usually stated as 185 meters, or 607 feet, so the base has dimensions of about
2220 km by 2220 km, or 1380 miles by 1380 miles. In the ancient
Greek system of measurement, the base of the New Jerusalem would have been equal
to 144 million square stadia, 4.9 million square kilometers or
1.9
million square miles.
If rested on the Earth, its
ceiling would be inside the exosphere (the exosphere is the uppermost layer,
where the atmosphere thins out and merges with interplanetary/outer space).
