Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
God has been remaking the universe to make it stand firm forever. It includes a new heaven and a new earth, but no sea. The sea tends to be chaotic, spewing forth hurricanes and violent waters. The sea was considered by the ancients to be the least stable arrangement of all created things; mountains were the most solid of all created substances.
This remaking of the universe includes us, for this is why God sent Jesus into our world, to make us into his image. The whole process of the Book of Revelation describes the struggle for this new creation. It is not that God had to struggle to perfect the new creation, since God was able to sit on God’s throne the whole time of the Book of Revelation. It is we who have struggled and it is in Christ, the Lamb, that we succeed.
The Word of God was active in the first book of the Bible when it describes how God spoke the Word and creation happened. In Revelation, the Lamb that was slain now lives and restores all things to God. In Jesus, the Lamb of God, God married the human race and taught us how to live like God.
This marriage is renewed, as the bride comes down from the new Jerusalem, adorned for her husband. The former things have passed away; all is now new. The Book of Revelation escorts us on our way. It is a road map of our journey. We are in the book. We are part of the struggling, clamoring and anxious believers. We are mixed in with all the confusion and uncertainty. We are also part of the victory, part of the singing, part of the dancing, and part of the celebration.
Come, Lord Jesus
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