Revelation Now :
Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation
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The City Shines with Believers Light : Day 78 
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21.6-14)
God Makes All Things New
For the first time God himself speaks; he is the God who is able to make all things new. We are back among the dreams of the ancient prophets. Isaiah heard God say: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing" (Isaiah 43:18, 19). This is also the witness of Paul: "If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). God can take a person and re-create him or her, and will some day create a new universe for the saints whose lives he has renewed.
The Beginning and the End
"I am Alpha and Omega," says God to John, "the beginning and the end." Again John is hearing the voice that the great prophets had heard, "I am the first, and I am the last; besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and omega the last. John goes on to amplify this statement. The word for beginning is "arche", and does not simply mean first in point of time but first in the sense of the source of all things.
The word for end is "telos", and does not simply mean end in point of time but the goal. John is saying that all life begins in God and ends in God. Paul expressed the same thing when he said "For from him, and through him, and to him are all things" (Romans 11:36), and when he spoke of "one God and Father of us all, who is above all, and through all, and in all" (Ephesians 4:6).
The Splendor of God
It would be impossible to say anything more magnificent about God. At first sight it might seem to remove God to a great distance. But what comes next? "To the thirsty I will give water without price from the spring of the water of life." All God's greatness is at the disposal of human beings. "God so loved that he gave . . ." (John 3:16). The splendour of God is used to satisfy the thirst of the longing heart.
He shall be my Son
The bliss is not to everyone but only to those who remain faithful when everything seeks to seduce them from his loyalty. To such a person God makes the greatest promise of all, "I will be his God and he shall be my son." This promise, or something very near to it, was made in the Old Testament to three different people. The promise of God to those who overcome is the same that was made to Abraham the founder of the nation, to David on behalf of Solomon his son, and to the Messiah himself. There is no greater honour in all the universe than that which God gives to the person who is true to him.
Carried Away in the Spirit
The angel carried John away in the Spirit to a high mountain. It is in this way that Ezekiel also describes his experience. "He brought me in the visions of God into the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high mountain" (Ezekiel 40:2).
The Glory of God
The word used for light is "phoster." The normal Greek word for light is "phos", and "phoster" is normally the word used for the lights of heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars, for instance, in the Creation story (Genesis 1:14). The word describes the radiance over the city; it is later quite distinctly said that the city needs no heavenly body like the sun or the moon to give it light, because God is its light.
Paul says of the Christians at Philippi: "You shine as lights in the world." The holy city is inhabited by thousands and thousands of the saints of God, and it may well be that it is the light of these saintly lives which gives it this glittering glow.
The Gates in the Walls
In the wall are twelve gates, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. The word for gate is interesting. It is not the normal word which is "pule", it is "pulon." The "pulon" could be a large house built round an open courtyard opening on to the street by a great gate in the outer wall, leading into a spacious vestibule. That could be the picture here. "Pulon" can also mean the gate-tower in a great city, like the gate leading into a battlements of a castle.
Words to meditate on
Will you shine with the light of the glory of God in the eternal city?
Words to pray
Your word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.
Thank you for the Bible, to show me the way,
Notes
(1) Rev 2:14 (2) Rev 2:20 (3) see http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2008/04/who-were-nicolaitans-and-balaamists-of.html (4) Proverbs 3.18 (5) Proverbs 13.12. (6) Altered to modern convention
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
