Revelation 21:1-3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I saw So it runs, Revelation 19:11; Revelation 20:1; Revelation 20:4; Revelation 20:11, in a succession. All these several visions follow one another in order, and this vision reaches into eternity; a new heaven and a new earth That is, after the foregoing visions, in which I beheld a representation of the state of the church and world to the consummation of all things, I had the final happiness of the true worshippers of God, to be enjoyed after the resurrection and the general judgment, represented to me in a new vision, in which I beheld a perfectly new state of things; the heaven and earth, in which we now live, being quite passed away, melted with fervent heat and dissolved in fire, there was a new heaven and a new earth, in which I perceived one thing very remarkable, that there was no more sea A circumstance which, whether it be effected by the means which the theorists of the earth (see Burnet's and Whiston's theory) have prescribed, or by any other, time, or rather eternity, must show; for it is evident from hence that this new heaven and earth are not designed to take place till after the general judgment; for at that judgment, (Revelation 20:13,) the sea gives up the dead which were in it. Many, however, understand the expression figuratively, that there shall be no troubles or commotions in the world; but it seems much more probable that it is to be understood literally. And I saw the holy city The new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem, are closely connected. This city is wholly new, belonging, not to this world, not to the millennium, but to eternity. This appears from the series of the vision, the magnificence of the description, and the opposition of this city to the second death, Revelation 20:11-12; Revelation 21:1-2; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 21:8-9; Revelation 22:5. Coming down In the very act of descending; from God Its maker and builder; out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband Prepared to meet him, with all her charms set out to the greatest advantage, and full of glory and splendour. At the commencement of the millennium it was said, (Revelation 19:7,) the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. At the conclusion of the millennium, Gog and Magog went up against the beloved city; and here it is represented as the metropolis of the new heaven and the new earth. The new Jerusalem shall be the habitation of the saints of the first resurrection, and it shall also be the habitation of the saints of the general resurrection; the church of Christ shall endure through all times and changes of this world, and shall exist eternally in the world to come. It shall be glorious upon earth during the millennium, and it shall be more glorious still in the new earth after the millennium, to all eternity. Earth shall then become as heaven, or rather it shall be heaven on earth; God dwelling visibly among men, and sin and suffering being for ever done away. For the apostle adds, I heard a great voice out of heaven A voice proceeding from the eternal Word and Son of the Father; saying, Behold the tabernacle of God with men! So it is in the original, there being nothing for the verb is; and he will dwell with them In token of his favour and great love to them; and they shall be his people Protected and governed by him; and God himself shall be with them Continually, as their Friend and Father; and he shall be their God Their supreme good and final portion, their all in all.