Revelation
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Revelation 5: 11-13
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!’
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Take-Aways
“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor glory and might forever and ever.’” Here John envisions the whole cosmos praising God. Why does every creature bow to God? Because, as the New Interpreters Bible says, Jesus Christ is a king who rules without arms, without exploiting the worlds inhabitants and resources. Instead, Jesus’s rule is one of witness. He transforms the cosmos through grace not violence. As ministers of God’s grace, as witnesses to this kind of kingdom, do we strive to care for the world in this same kind of way?
The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary
In Revelation 5, the transformation of heaven rather than that of humanity is the issue, though the consequences of that transformation are for the cosmos as a whole. That is done not by the conquering of heaven through violence. The secret of the heart of God (cf. 13:8; 1 Pet 1:20) and the qualification for proximity to God are rooted in the death of the Lamb. The character of God is revealed in that God did not spare God’s own Son but gave him up for us all (see Rom 8:32). This is the identity of the true ruler of the kings of the earth, whose sovereignty does not come by force of arms or by the exploitation of the inhabitants of the world and its resources, but by the costly witness (cf. Phil 2:5ff).
Revelation 21: 1-5
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, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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; 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.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’
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Take-Aways
“Behold, I am making all things new.” Here again, as in Isaiah, we see that God’s recreation of the earth is a renewal not an erasure. This vision describes not creation from nothing, but creation from something–specifically this existing earth. Jesus came not to destroy, but to restore. God will create the new heaven and new earth in the same way. God’s presence itself yields this transformation, for in its light, evil must flee. God calls us to walk in the light as God is in the light. This means that we do not just wait for God to come to restore the earth. We testify to God’s coming by walking in the light now–this means taking steps to care for the earth that God will ultimately new.
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture
Through the transgression of humankind, creation suffers corruption and mortality (Oecumenius). However, God will establish heaven and earth (Cassiodorus, Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea). This renewal will not involve the annihilation of the world’s substance and the replacing of it by another, different substance (Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea). Rather, through fire that which is corruptible will burn away, leaving only transformed substance suitable to bodies now made immortal (Augustine). In this new heaven and earth, transformed and made fit for people now remade, the soul is restored to its integrity and the body is restored to its original strength (Augustine). Then there will be no evil, and the restless and stormy turbulence of human life will also be no more (Augustine, Andrew of Caesarea) (p352).
The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary
Picking up on a theme twice repeated in the final chapters of Isaiah (Isa 65:17; 66:22), John sees a new heaven and earth replacing the ones that have vanished. The theme of newness of Second Isaiah (eg Isa 42:9), hinted at in promises to the angels of the seven churches (Rev 2:17; 3:12) and in the song that greets the Lamb (Rev 5:9; 14:3), is now fulfilled. What is past, the “first,: the provisional rather than the fundamental (cf. Rev. 1:17; 22:13), is no more. There is a brief, unexplained mention that there will be no more sea. The sea in heaven (4:6) became a threatening place, to be endured or “conquered” (15:2), and the earthly sea had been the object of judgment (5:13; 7:1-2; 8:8-9; 12:12; 16:3; 18:21). It was a place to be exploited by the mariners (18:17), and above all the sea was the place out of which the beast had arisen to threaten the eternal destiny of humanity (13:1; cf. 12:12; Mark 5:13). That threat is now removed (p720).
The Oxford Bible Commentary
V. 1, the expectation of a new cosmos here echoes Isa 65:17. ‘New’ carries its eschatological sense of radically different, but implies a radical renewal of the old creation rather than creation from nothing (cf. Paul’s use of ‘new creation’ in 2 Cor 5:17). Absence of sea, if this means the primordial chaos from which the beast arises (13:1), implies that the creation is established eternally, beyond any threat of reverting to chaos. V. 2, the new Jerusalem will be described at length later in the chapter. It comes from heaven as the dwelling place of redeemed humanity with God–the union of heaven and earth, or of the bride with her husband Christ (cf. 19:7-8). V.3, the words echo God’s OT promises to dwell with his own people Israel as their God (Ezek 37:27-8; Zech 8:8) and also that many nations will be his people with whom he will dwell (Zech 2:10-11; df. Isa 19:25; 56:7; Am 9:12). The best text has ‘his peoples’ (rather than ‘people’), using in the plural the word commonly used of God’s own people (laoi) rather than the more usual word for the other nations or Gentiles (ethne). Now that the covenant people (Israel and the church) have fulfilled their mission of witness to the nations, all nations will share in the privileges and promises of the covenant people. From this point two strands run through the account of the new Jerusalem that follows, one referring to the covenant people, the other to the nations. V. 4 cr. isa 25:7-8. In God’s immediate presence on earth all sorrow, suffering, and death are banished forever: this above all is what makes the new cosmos new (1303).
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