Readings
- Revelation 21
- Isaiah 65:17-25
- 2 Peter 3
Prayer
Pray… that your heart and mind would long for the new heaven and the new earth we’re reading about today.
Day 364 – Revelation & the Renovated Universe
There will be a new Heaven, earth, & Jerusalem
1 day to go!
- Today’s utterly beautiful verses, especially from those in Revelation 21 (but to be honest, the other passages are great too!), speak of the new Heaven and the new earth where Christ and His bride, the Church, will have their eternal home.
- Romans 8:21-22 describes this earth as “groaning” and in “bondage to decay”. We live in a fallen and broken world at the moment, as you know. The current evil, sin-filled earth we know will give way to a new creation where suffering is forever banished. Just think of it! How is the new earth described?
- What do you think is the best thing about the description of the new Heaven and earth? What are you looking forward to most?
- The promise of Revelation 21:4 is captivatingly exquisite. Do you long for this day?
- How is the new city – Revelation 21:15 onwards – described? Can you picture in your mind how it might look, studded with precious jewels and paved in gold?
- The number twelve is used many times in Revelation 21. How, and why do you think this is? What twelve comes from the Old Testament, and what twelve from the New?
- Describe how this city will be lit up. Will there be any night any more? Why not?
- How do the words in Revelation build on the magnificent poetry found in our Old Testament reading today?
- Isaiah paints a picture of gladness and rejoicing, doesn’t he? Only the serpent seems to get the short straw, pictured as eating dust (Isaiah 66:25). Why do you think this might be?
- The reading in 2 Peter 3 is a quiet reminder that this isn’t all fairy stories for adult, like Santa is to children. Verses 4-6 tell us that scoffers will mock the hope in which we believe, saying that life will continue forever, as it has been “since the beginning of creation”. People around certainly do scoff now, don’t they. What does Peter say they are forgetting?
- How does 2 Peter 3:8-10 tell us that God’s delay in ushering in the new Heaven and new earth part of His patience towards mankind? Why is God patient with us?
One of my favourite films is Titanic (stop sniggering!). There’s a scene in it – if you pardon the plot spoiler – where the ship is sinking and people are clinging on to some railings for dear life as mayhem happens around them. The boat is almost upright, and people are falling to their deaths. At the moment, a priest called Father Thomas Byles borrows the words from Revelation 21 to bring comfort in the face of mortality. The camera zooms in as he proclaims the fourth verse and you can see – in the horror of that moment – that those words which he might have said a thousand times before now have eternal hope and comfort.
This evening, on the eve of our final day of reading, spend some time pondering the words of Revelation 21 in your mind. You know now how they are the culmination of God’s magnificent salvation plan for all men and women. What do you want to say to God tonight in prayer in response?
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