Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a great voice from heaven. "Behold, it said, "the dwelling-place of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them; and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, nor will there be any grief or crying, nor will there be any more pain, for the first things have gone."

Here is the promise of fellowship with God and all its precious consequences. The voice is that of one of the Angels of the Presence.

God is to make his dwelling-place with men. The word used for dwelling-place is skene (G4633), literally a tent; but in religious use it had long since lost any idea of an impermanent residence. There are two main ideas here.

(i) Skene (G4633) is the word used for the Tabernacle. Originally in the wilderness the Tabernacle was a tent, the skene (G4633) par excellence. This, then, means that God is to make his tabernacle with men for ever, to give his presence to men for ever. Here in this world and amidst the things of time our realisation of the presence of God is spasmodic; but in heaven we will be permanently aware of that presence.

(ii) There are two words totally different in meaning but similar in sound which in early Christian thought became closely connected. Skene (G4633) is one; and the Hebrew shechinah, the glory of God, is the other. SKENE (G4633) --SHECHINAH (compare the Hebrew verb, shakan, to dwell, H7931) --the connection in sound brought it about that men could not hear the one without thinking of the other. As a result, to say that the skene (G4633) of God is to be with men immediately brought the thought that the shechinah (compare H7931) of God is to be with men. In the ancient times the shechinah (compare H7931) took the form of a luminous cloud which came and went. We read, for instance, of the cloud which filled the house at the dedication of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). In the new age the glory of God is not to be a transitory thing, but something which abides permanently with the people of God.

(2) FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD (Revelation 21:3-4 continued)

God's promise to make Israel his people and to be their God echoes throughout the Old Testament. "I will make my abode among you... and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Leviticus 26:11-12). In Jeremiah's account of the new covenant the promise of God is: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). The promise to Ezekiel is: "My dwelling-place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Ezekiel 37:27). The highest promise of all is intimate fellowship with God, in which we can say: "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (SS 6:3).

This fellowship with God in the golden age brings certain things. Tears and grief and crying and pain are gone. That, too, had been the dream of the prophets of the ancient days. "They shall obtain joy and gladness, said Isaiah of the pilgrims of the heavenly way, "and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10). "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress" (Isaiah 65:19). Death, too, shall be gone. That, too, had been the dream of the ancient prophets. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces" (Isaiah 25:8).

This is a promise for the future. But even in this present world those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted, and death is swallowed up in victory for those who know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection (Matthew 5:4; Php_3:10).

ALL THINGS NEW (Revelation 21:5-6)