Revelation 21:23

Revelation 21:23

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

1. “And the city…”

a. The city is of course New Jerusalem coming down to a new earth in the midst of a new heaven.

1). Revelation 21:1, 2 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

2. “…the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

a. Almost the exact same wording for this verse is found in Isaiah.

1). Isaiah 60:19, 20 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

b. In the third part of his prophecies Isaiah is foretelling “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow”. Some of the glories of course occur in the carrying out of the New Covenant as Peter reports in his first epistle.

1). 1 Peter 1:10-12 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

b. Some of it though clearly occurs after the Millennial reign of Christ, when New Jerusalem comes down to a new earth which is the case here. Comparing Scripture with Scripture we can confidently place the context for the passage in Isaiah in the same time as the New Heaven and the New Earth.