Sunday School Notes: Revelation 21:15-17

¹⁵ And the one speaking with me was holding a golden measuring rod in order that he may measure the city and its gates and its walls. ¹⁶ And the city stands four-square [or square-shaped], and its length is as much as its width. And he measured the city with the rod, 12,000 stadia its length, and its width and its height are equal. ¹⁷ And he measured its wall: 144 cubits by human measure, which is angelic.

As we’ve already noted, this vision parallels the vision Ezekiel received in Ezekiel 40-48. Ezekiel’s vision opens with the appearance of a man holding a measuring reed. Similarly, John sees an angel who shows him the new Jerusalem, and now it seems the angel has a measuring rod. The man in Ezekiel’s vision takes a number of detailed measurements, whereas the angel in John’s vision measures only the city walls and its doors or gates. The measuring takes up three chapters of Ezekiel, but only a few verses of Revelation. Remember, John’s vision is a fulfillment of what Ezekiel saw. In Ezekiel 48:35, the city is called “The Lord is There,” emphasizing the presence of God with His people, and the city and temple are new. These facts clearly point forward to John’s vision of a new Jerusalem, a new city of God, where He dwells with His people forever.

The Meaning of the Measuring

What does it mean for the angel to measure the city walls and gates? Visions of measuring are not new to Revelation. Chapter 11 opened with a scene where John is given a measuring reed and told to measure the temple of God. He is given specific instruction to measure only the inner court, not the outside. John was told that the outer court was to be “given over to the nations.” We concluded that measuring must, therefore, be symbolic of protection. The Lord is measuring that which is His (the temple, His people), and since they are His nothing can take them from His hand. As for those who are outside of His measuring, they are given over to the world. These are, perhaps, the tares among the wheat–those people who claim to be Christians but whose profession is false, as is evidenced by their lifestyle, commitments, and worldview.

This picture of measuring is analogous to the way we delineate property. If your house shares land with your neighbors, you may be concerned to know where your property line begins and where it ends. You can establish this by looking up the plans for the neighborhood where the developer has clearly marked where the property lines are. These are not random lines but have been measured to make sure either everyone has an equal plot of land, or so that the land size is commensurate with the value of the property. You could, if you wanted, take a measuring stick and, using the measurements on the plan, measure and mark off your property. Everything within the boundaries you mark is your property, and you would defend and protect your house and its contents from anyone who might invade it or try to steal from you. That which you no longer consider part of your property, you can cast outside your property line to be taken away by whoever wants it (e.g., the trash).

It’s worth noting that Revelation 11:1-2 pictures the church at the beginning of the 1,000 years mentioned in chapter 20. This is the “church age,” the period that begins with Christ’s resurrection and ends with his second coming, also referred to in Revelation as 42 months, 3.5 years, and 1,260 days. Most of chapter 11 is a summary of what happens to the church during this time. She bears witnesses to Christ with power but ultimately is left for dead in the streets until Christ returns to raise her and vindicate her. We are currently in this time, though we don’t know at what point, whether close to the end, near the middle, or even perhaps not too far from the beginning.

Here, in 21:15-17, we’re at the end of this 1,000 year period, depicted in chapter 11 with the return of Christ. There is no more death and God is with His people, surrounding them with His protection, and we have been resurrected, both body and soul. The Lord is reminding the church in John’s time (and ours) that we belong to Him. Though we are afflicted, we struggle with sin, and we may suffer persecution and death, we are in His hand. Whatever happens to us physically, we are His, spiritually secure until the day when we will be with Him eternally.

The City Measurements

John describes the city as “square-shaped”–at least that’s the translation given to us in the ESV. The Greek word John uses is tetragōnos, which literally means “four-cornered.” As anyone with an elementary knowledge of geometry knows, a four-cornered shape does not necessarily have to be square. It could be a rectangle or any other four-sided shape. The “four-square” translation appears to draw from the fact that John tells us the length and width are equal, and the height is also the same as the length and width. This gives us either a square or triangular floor plan.

Granted, this could be symbolic to the point where “four-cornered” means all-encompassing (like the “four corners of the earth”), and the actual shape is a circle or globe. However, as we will see, there is reason to believe John sees a square given the significance of the measurements, which only work if the walls are straight and have corners.

John tells us that the length of each wall is 12,000 stadia, and the height is also 12,000 stadia. This means the floorplan is 12,000 x 12,000 which is 144,000,000 stadia. Do these numbers seem familiar? 12? 144? What might the angel be trying to tell John about this city, this new Jerusalem? Perhaps it’s simply that it encompasses all of God’s people. Remember, 1,000 in Revelation signifies a large quantity (as we’ve said before, God doesn’t only own the cattle on 1,000 hills, and a day in the Lord’s timing does not equate exactly to a literal 1,000 years). So the picture here is of a vast multitude of people, all belonging to God, coming from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, both from the time of the Old Covenant, and the time of the New Covenant.

Why couldn’t these wall measurements be taken literally? I think given all we’ve read so far in Revelation, these numbers can only be symbolic. However, what if we did take them literally? What would that look like?

The singular of stadia is stadion, and in those days, one stadion was equivalent to 607 feet in our measurements. If we take the wall lengths to be literal, each wall would measure 7,284,000 feet (607 x 12,000). There are 5,280 feet in a mile, so that makes each wall about 1,380 miles long. This is about the same distance from North Carolina to Texas in the US, or from London, England to Wroclaw, Poland. Solomon’s Temple, the first temple, was possibly around 485 x 145 feet. So it seems perhaps more likely that the picture of the city John is presenting here is symbolic of a vast number of people belonging to God surrounded by His protection.

The symbolism appears to continue with the measurement of the wall’s thickness. John tells us the wall is 144 cubits, and though he doesn’t explicitly refer to this as the thickness of the wall, it seems most likely given the other measurements. A cubit is around 18 inches or 46 centimeters, so 144 cubits is 216 feet. Notice that it’s 144 cubits. 12 x 12 = 144. Also, note that if this was supposed to be literal, he’d be describing a wall that’s 1,380 miles tall and 216 feet thick. You don’t need to be an architect to realize that wall would be structurally unsound. That fact, along with the numbers used to describe the wall’s measurements means this must be symbolic.

Finally, John says that these measurements are “angelic.” What does this mean? Does it mean that the wall is supernatural which is how it’s able to stand? Or, perhaps this is John’s way of telling us that the numbers are human but they are to be understood figuratively, that is, we are to look for the spiritual meaning of the measurements rather than get caught up in trying to imagine literal walls.

To sum up this section, the city represents God’s people secure in Him, protected from the world and the devil. This vision is a fulfillment of Ezekiel 40-48, giving us a bit more insight into the vision John had back in Revelation 11.

We started into the next section (21:18-21), but I’ll save the notes on that until next time.