7. What further pronouncement then comes from the throne of God? Revelation 21:5.
NOTE: “’And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5. Eden is then fully restored. Here the river of the water of life flows out from the Mount Zion. Here Adam regains the Tree of Life, planted beside the river which parts into separate heads as in the beginning. Here again is Paradise, the garden which the Lord Himself planted seven thousand years before. Here Abraham inherits the earth according to the promise; here is the city for which he looked, every inhabitant of which regards him as a father. Here Moses will enter into that goodly land which he saw with the eye of a prophet. Here David will behold his throne established, nevermore to be overturned, but to endure as the sun, even as the days of Heaven. Here the prophets meet with the apostles, and together walk the streets of the city upon whose gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, the foundations of whose walls are named after the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Here are the martyrs, rejoicing that it was their privilege to suffer unto death that they might inherit such a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Here is the chosen company of those who were redeemed from the earth at the coming of their Lord, who overcame the beast and his image and the mark of his name by strict adherence to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, in the perilous days when all the world was overcome with the prevailing iniquity. Coming up to the city to worship is the innumerable host who inherit the land from the river unto the end of the earth. [Psalm 72:8.] And here is He who once trod the hills round about Jerusalem, with weary feet and pitying heart, seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Here He was slain to redeem this worshiping host with His precious blood. Unto Him every eye is turned; to Him every knee bows; to Him every tongue shouts praise, for to Him they owe their life, and all this joy, this heavenly beauty, this glory.’ J. H. Waggoner: From Eden to Eden, page 253
8. What great change will take place? Revelation 21:3.
NOTE: ‘The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin abounded, God’s grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honoured above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died, here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, “and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3). And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable gift, Immanuel, “God with us.”’ God’s Amazing Grace, page 370.