Introduction: Stadium (plural stadia) is a Greek measurement of roughly a furlong or 190 metres. 12,000 stadia is therefore about 2280 Km. Sydney to Perth is about 3,300 Km. So the picture is of a city, a cube, with each side, and the height reaching from Sydney across NSW and South Australia to the West Australia border at Eucla and Northward to Darwin and reaching nearly 20 times higher than a modern airplane flies from Sydney to Perth. Israel from top to bottom is less than 500 Km! The foundation is 12 layers of precious stones; The streets are gold; there are only 3 gates which are made of huge pearls in each of the four sides! Only 12 entrances in about 9 Km of wall! Each gate is named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel and each of the very precious foundations are named after one of the Apostles! At each of the gates is an angel. Remember that the word in NT Greek for angel and messenger is the same word! In the whole city there is no temple, but we told at the same time that Jesus, the Lamb of God is there!
A huge spacious gloriously resplendent building, built upon the foundation of the 12 tribes of Israel, entered through gates named after the Apostles and with the Old Temple which contained the Ark of the Covenant replaced by Jesus. Does it read like a replacement city or the reality replacing the shadow symbolic True Life to which God has been leading His Story (History!). Read on!
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
Isaiah 6: 1-3 – In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Prayer: Please open the eyes of my understanding that I might see Your Majesty and Holiness Father God.