1. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. 3 No longer will there be any curse. What is this brick with a round back and a stud on the side used for? Here is the great excellency of this paradise. It is altogether unfeasible, and it shows how carelessly we read the Bible that people are not stopped by such an expression. Consequently they sat upon the thrones at once; while the two latter classes, described in the rest of the verse, were still in the separate state "and the souls." The visions of this prophetic book open, not with the rapture of saints to heaven, but the sight of saints already raptured, often before the seer in the visions, but seen always in a complete condition without addition to their number. "And fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them. To make good sense, supposing there to be but one tree, we should either, as Mede, suppose that the Greek for street is a plain washed on both sides by the river (as the first Paradise was washed on one side by the Tigris, on the other by the Euphrates), and that in the midst of the plain, which itself is in the midst of the river's branches, stood the tree: in which case we may translate, "In the midst of the street (plain) itself, and of the river (having two branches flowing) on this and on that side, was there the tree of life." Thus the divine testimony is not confined to the gospel or the church, but the prophetic Spirit which characterizes the Revelation as a whole, after the church is translated, is equally a testimony of Jesus. 2 It flowed down the middle of the city's main street. What risks are you taking when "signing in with Google"? First, "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them." It was ruled in general that the worldly powers were ordained of God. Genesis 3:22-24. Lord we want to serve You because we love You. When we come to the full application of the prophecy, we must look onward to the latter day. It must remind us of God's great invitation, "Ho, every one who thirsts come to the waters, and he who has no money; come, buy and eat! See what this is saying! 19. And let him that heareth say, Come. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.". Accounting Specialist 2 - REMOTE OPTIONS, Arizona, United States 22:1-2 And he showed me the river of the water of life, shining like crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the city street. The presence of God in heaven is the health and happiness of the saints; there they find in him a remedy for all their former maladies, and are preserved by him in the most healthful and vigorous state. But we can understand that the Lord could and did make that little go far, and do no little good. All these things have their place in Babylon the great. and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, You must with the best authorities leave out this addition, if you would have the true force of the verse. The reason is manifest there is a hinderer "one that letteth." He has, I think, exactly that class in view when He sanctions the calling him who hears to say "Come." But here is a mystery altogether different: "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth.". Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations ( Revelation 22:2 ). "Behold, I come quickly.". The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve . 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. This tree was perpetually rather than seasonally in fruit; it produced a new crop of fruit each month of the year. Amen.You didn't think I could do it, did you? "Shall we pray.Lord we thank you for Your grace and by grace we will be able to participate in the glorious inheritance of the saints in light. Who are the persons thus invested with judicial authority of so glorious a nature and to reign, as we see later, with Christ? The decem-regal division of the broken empire in the West, as all know, was long after Rome had ceased to be heathen. Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver, Never fails from age to age.". What are the New Heavens and the New Earth? That is the sin against the Holy Spirit. The rabbis, for instance, called Mordecai by that name. For remark, the beast or Roman empire is described here as that which once existed, which then ceased to exist, and which assumes a final shape when it reappears from the bottomless pit. Is "I didn't think it was serious" usually a good defence against "duty to rescue"? We find a decree going forth that all the world shall be enrolled. Justly does she gather her title from the old fountain of idols and of combined power without God: confusion being here the characteristic element, the designation is taken from the renowned city of the Chaldeans, the first spot notorious in both respects. Exactly the same thing is repeated here, and what makes it more apparent is the similarity of the introduction on each occasion. It is true, the beast's judgment is only referred to as a defeat under the hand of the Lamb. So Rev. In her own course, and in the matters of her portion, the church does not know time at all. Taking the phrase with the first sentence seems to give the better picture. Death reigns now because of sin; even in the millennial earth sin, and therefore death, though much limited, shall not altogether cease. Some think that by this tree of life the Gospel is indicated; the twelve fruits are the twelve apostles; and the leaves are Gospel doctrines by which the nations-the Gentiles, are healed of the disease of sin. It is not the gospel, nor the Holy Spirit, but the lawless revived Latin empire with its vassal kingdoms of the west, that combine and destroy Babylon. H. B. Swete says: "No one who has watched the dogs that prowl in the quarters of an eastern city will wonder at the contempt and disgust which the word suggests to the oriental mind." "Living waters," says Zechariah, "shall flow out from Jerusalem" ( Zechariah 14:8). Revelation 22:2 NIV - down the middle of the great street of - Bible The son is doubly guilty, because he saw his father's nakedness and felt it enough to hide. Revelation 22:2 Sermons: in the middle of its street. The Lord sent it for the churches. It can govern and bless but not convert man. probably means that Christ and his Church join in the invitation to accept all that he has to offer. Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22-24). This also is a no less important element for understanding the chapter. It is telling us that Gods love alone can give us the power to make a better world. Holding on to what others knew before them, or little more, they reduce themselves to a minimum of the truth. It will be remembered that it was said to them that they must wait. "After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great crowd in heaven, saying, Alleluia, the salvation, and the glory, and the power of our God: for true and righteous [are] his judgments: because he judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. It is to Jesus. The word manner has been introduced by the translators without authority. We shall find that the scripture affords much light to decide the true bearing of the prophecy, and that no application to the past can possibly satisfy the conditions satisfactorily. All who have looked back on the history know, that when the ten kings appeared, there was no beast or imperial power. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month. . In Isaiah 53:5, the Hebrew word for "healed" is rapha. beyond the physical healing itself and its benefits (as with 2323 /therape).]. If alive before the thousand years, he will live after the thousand years; in fact, literally he will never die, though I do not doubt, on general principles, that the saints of the millennial earth will be changed at the very time when the heavens and earth disappear. "I Jesus sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. It is, in fact, the kind of ending that ancient writers commonly added to their books. They then come down to the earth; and those who eat their leaves and fruit receive that living water into themselves, and are cured ( Rev.22:2 ). 2) May view two trees, one on either side of the river of life; remember John 19:18 (same author ). In short, it is not tropical language, as when it is said of the prodigal son "This my son was dead, and is alive again;" or of the restoration of Israel, which is compared to a resurrection from the dead for the rest of the world. Thank you, Lord, that you have delivered us from the power of darkness, taken the rebellion out of our hearts, and given us a heart of love, a heart of commitment, a heart of faith. But for the eternal judgment heaven and earth are fled away; and then we see the new and eternal universe. [Note: E.g., Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. That is, the tabernacle of God is regarded as a separate object, no doubt associated with men, but not confounded with them. Revelation 21:24). The devout student is the best of all students. It is the fault, however, of the bad Greek text of Erasmus, Stephens, etc. Such is the hard bondage which mere historical tradition imposes on its votaries. "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." Beyond controversy, however, it is a most unusual and abnormal reappearance, which is altogether exceptional in the history of the world. God is sovereign. The beloved city is Jerusalem; the camp of the saints, I presume, is a larger circle and embraces all of Israel and the Gentiles who, being converted, refuse Satan's deceit. 22 # Matt. So here a description is given of the bride, the Lamb's wife, and we learn how it is that God will use her for unmeasured goodness and blessing and glory in the millennium, as the devil during this age has used Babylon to accomplish his wicked plans here below. What does Revelation mean when it says, There was no longer any sea? THE ACCEPTED AND THE REJECTED ( Revelation 22:14-15 ). The judgment of the dead is strictly individual, judgments in this world are not. Scripture and facts refute all such theories. 22:16 I, Jesus, sent my angel to you to testify to these things for the sake of the Churches. [11] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), p. 221. Patience or endurance of hope is what becomes us. This notion of healing is not literally the process of healing. What significance does the word order of people, tribes, nations, and languages play in Revelation? This passage insists that the coming of Christ is close at hand; it must be the Risen Christ who is speaking. The morning star is the herald of the day which chases away the darkness of the night; before Jesus the night of sin and death flees away. Yet one allows freely a partial application already. "And no curse shall be any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him." On either side of the river is the tree of life[ a] with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. The day of the Lord on the world in no way sets aside His dealing with individual souls. Thus nothing can be simpler or more beautiful than the way in which this verse sums up the Revelation as a whole. Accordingly these are the two main objects of judgment brought before us in the chapter. It was the destruction of the imperial unity of Rome that gave occasion for the well-known ten kingdoms which the barbarians set up afterwards. Which was the first Sci-Fi story to predict obnoxious "robo calls"? With that love of freedom which they carried from their German forests, they would not allow the one iron rule of the ancient empire to subsist longer, but set up each their own kingdom in the different fragments of the dismembered empire. 2. in the middle of its street. On each side of the river stood the tree of life,(A) bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. The chief difference is that in man's case it is God who raises him, whereas in the empire's not God but the devil will raise it again. It was just a thing of grafting into the basic root system the various types of citrus fruits. They themselves were to judge. There was judicial discernment with the distinct possession of all titles to sovereignty. Only in the Spirit of God can the wounds and the breaches of the nations be healed. The tree of life, in this paradise. Day 23. Healing River from the Throne of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1-2) The devil has nothing to do there; he cannot draw the saints from serving God to be subject to himself, as he did our first parents, nor can he so much as disturb them in the service of God. I am not raising any question about the ten. There was not yet fairly out before men what God foresaw as that which must finally provoke His judgment. There is a rabbinic saying: "Whoever eats with an idolator is the same as he who would eat with a dog. It is the way to all, if it be not the actual entrance into and enjoyment of it. in the middle of its street. In the millennium described in Eze 47:1-23 and Re 20:1-15, the Church shall give the Gospel-tree to the nations outside Israel and the Church, and so shall heal their spiritual malady; but in the final and perfect new Jerusalem here described, the state of all is eternally fixed, and no saving process goes on any longer (compare Re 22:11). For two thousand years Israel was like dead, but now they have revived. therapeian). Not that there will be any sickness, but to preserve them in health, as Adam would have been preserved in health if he had eaten of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Accordingly the resuscitated Roman empire will carry men away by a storm of wonder at its revival. In Second Enoch there is the picture of a river in Paradise, which issues in the third heaven, which flows from beneath the tree of life, and which divides into four streams of honey, milk, wine, and oil (2Enoch 8:5). Our present world society has become a barren desert with spiritual and moral impotence. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. To whom else could they say it? And I John saw these things, I heard them. Who is a dog? But he ought to have withstood it I do not mean in vengeance (for that belongs to the Lord), but as holily hating the sin itself, yet withal in the deepest compassion for his parent. "Those who have washed their robes" is the reading of the best manuscripts, but it is easy to see how a scribe could make a mistake in copying and substitute the more usual phrase. And yet this warning would seem to imply the expectation of a long time of reading and copying the book, a time which John himself clearly did not expect. The tree of life is on either side of the river. This is of great importance. In perfect submission to him they will find perfect freedom and the only true royalty. Hence. ), how the poultice made for King Hezekiah was derived from figs, a clear association with the fig and fig leaves of Genesis 3:7). But it is blessed that He says, "I come quickly;" and it is only Christ who in scripture ever says so. Cubs; Bears; Bulls; . It was the common tree in this blessed Paradise - of which all might partake, and which was everywhere the emblem of immortality. Revelation 22:2 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary - StudyLight.org That age of visible glory is inefficacious to change the heart of man, though in the absence of the enemy and the controlling presence of the great King, they render feigned obedience for a long while. This sounds like tears and their causes entering the city where they will be healed. But is there any reason why we should content ourselves with the measure enjoyed of old? Who were they? It is no longer a question either of celebrating the ways and counsels of God, or of the war with the beast and king. This falls in with what we have seen of the book in general; but I do not deny that certain elements which figure in the Apocalypse then existed and still exist. And the leaves of the tree - Not only the fruit will contribute to give life, but even the leaves will be salutary. But whatever subsisted then, that which the Spirit here presents as a whole cannot be found realized at any point of time in the past. Revelation 22:2 - Commentary, explanation and study verse by verse It is because they don't attempt to or they attempted to spiritualize the meanings, and if you do that it becomes meaningless. Here the vision was of thrones with sitters, and others caused to join them; and the inspired explanation is that it is the first resurrection the rising of the just from the dead. Verse Revelation 22:2. ((f) Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. "The tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God. And, when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who was showing them to me. 24:23; 60:19, 20; Rev. 1. "The ten horns which thou sawest AND the beast" would give unquestionably the right form of the verse. Then follows a description of the wall, gates, foundations, and general position. She does not, it is true, say, "Come quickly." Let others speculate, if they will: I am persuaded that he who essays to conceive the details is merely striving to draw a bow beyond the power of man. The Jews interpret the passage in ( Ezekiel 47:12 ) to which this refers, of future time, or the world to come F6; and speak of various trees and herbs of great fragrancy and medicinal virtues, which grow quite round on the sides of a laver that stands in paradise F7. In the preface to his book On Origins, Rufinus adjures in the sight of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, anyone who reads or copies his book, not to add, subtract, insert, or alter anything. there is no sword proceeding out of our mouth; nor are the saints or heavenly hosts said to be arrayed in such a sort as the Lord. The idea is not that there are twelve kinds of fruit on the same tree, for that is not implied in the language used by John. When the Lord takes His own throne, they take theirs by grace. (i) There comes a time when it is too late to change. Psalms 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8; Ezekiel 19:10). Here accordingly is seen but one throne. The first is one of the angels who have been the interpreters of the divine things to John. How appropriate. In the hot lands water was, and is, literally life. We had Babylon with a spuriously ecclesiastical but a really murderous character, and at the same time guilty of corruption with the kings of the earth. In the midst of the city street may be taken, not as the end of the first sentence, but as the beginning of the second. The point is this. THE GREAT INVITATION ( Revelation 22:17 ). When Adam and Eve fell, they lost their access to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden (cf. ", We observe that no great cities can exist without rivers. Gods love, Gods grace, bestowed on undeserving sinners, is the river of the water of life in Revelation 22:1-2. But no; it was an absolute decree that went forth, and this indisputably, from a single head of the undivided empire. Then the book concludes after a solemn warning against either adding to or taking from its contents. The true reading here is neither hard nor doubtful save to unbelief. Bear this in mind: to leave the last part out is fatal to any accurate understanding of the Revelation. "Oh, how my heart yearns for the Lord to come and the establishing of His kingdom. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city ( Revelation 22:14 ). And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet [are], and they shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the ages.". Here is the final culmination of the description of the city of God. The church is heavenly; and in heaven there are no times nor seasons. There will be no more curse. Revelation 22:2 down the middle of the main street of the city. This would not be fitting for the church nor the Christian. H. B. Swete says: "Christ speaks as the Great Steward, who in the eventide of the world will call the labourers to receive their day's wages.". There is nothing more to hear of nations; nothing more to do with separate countries, kindreds, or tongues. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. Consequently Christianity, as being directly aggressive on the falsehood of heathenism, was of all things the most offensive to Rome. And, behold [again the Lord is talking], I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be ( Revelation 22:11-12 ).