144,000; the Dimensions of the New Jerusalem

This is one of the 'gems' harvested from yesterday's sermon;

'And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred [ and ] forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel [ were ] sealed' 

Revelation 7:4

'The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its wall: one hundred [ and ] forty-four cubits, [ according ] to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.'

Revelation 21:16 & 17

Too often, I believe, we ( Christians ) get 'caught up' ( enraptured ) in the details, like the dimensions of the tabernacle, Temple, and New Jerusalem, and almost lose sight of the fact that this is a description of the infinite glory of the dwelling of God with His people; as Paul wrote, in I Corinthians 3:16,  'you are the temple of God ', and again, in I Corinthians 6:19, 'your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit'.

I doubt if I'm the first one to make this connection, but listening to my brother's sermon yesterday brought to mind the glorious fact, the covenantally contextual fact that when John saw the 144,000, 12,000 from every tribe in Israel, he wasn't taking note that there was just a certain number from every tribe of Old Covenant Israel that would be saved; he was seeing us, the Israel of God throughout the ages: what a glorious vision!

Later, as he related the dimensions of the New Jerusalem, which, as my brother pointed out, are cubic, just like the Holiest in the tabernacle, and the innermost sanctuary in the Temple, he gave them as the square root of them which were saved from the tribes of Israel, 144,000.

Lost in the details

Details are important, don't get me wrong, else the Author of Scripture would not have been so careful to conceal, then to reveal them, but many times, we get so bogged down in these details, whether it's in trying to physically rebuild, or construct a mock-up of the Temple structure, that we forget to be the glorious Temple that He made us!

These are just a few thoughts that I had, and wanted to share: may God use them for His glory and for our good, as we seek to 'restore the glorious vision' to Hs Church!

Charles Haddon Shank