Human and Angelic

“He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement.”

John makes this observation in the second-last chapter of our Bibles, amidst visions of a new heaven and new earth, complete with the holy city coming down out of heaven from God. This is where we find the famous line about how God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of his people, and there will be no mourning, crying or pain. Believers all long to realize these visions of the future; they really, really matter, and the chapter contains many more statements equally significant to the remedy of the human condition and our final destination.

In such a context, why would we care if human beings and angels use the same measurement system? Can such an observation be anything more than comparative trivia?

Perhaps. Indulge me, if you will.

Two Errors

Two errors are common when we mortals try to contemplate the heavenly things described in the Bible. On the one hand, we can over-literalize to the point of absurdity. For example, later in the chapter John reveals that the city has twelve gates, and that each gate is made of a single pearl. Are we to imagine giant oysters floating out there in some spiritual dimension, waiting to have their precious calcium carbonate deposits harvested by angels tasked with completing a heavenly construction project? Surely not. The idea is absurd, and a high view of God does not require it. The limitations of our own personal experiences with pearls do not dictate what the Lord can and cannot do as he prepares the environment in which his children will dwell with him for eternity.

The other error is simply to say, “It’s spiritual”, and not think about it any further. For many Christians, figurative significance is effectively the equivalent of no meaning at all. It’s cause to shut off the brain.

Views in Balance

A more balanced view recognizes John is seeing a vision, and takes it to imply that the gates are both structurally integrated and fully secure. They are also gorgeously lustrous in appearance. They serve the purpose for which they were designed, but they also reflect the glory of God. Such a view also acknowledges that John’s observations have spiritual significance that we should not ignore. Contemplation may be required. We do not assume that we are capable of taking in all that John’s vision implies and exhausting it. We also do not assume what he saw is effectively meaningless and that we are supposed to ignore it. Ellicott tries to avoid this error when he writes, “It is figurative, but not mere figure.” Very much so.

The Lord’s closest disciples made both these errors regularly. They over-literalized the spiritual and over-spiritualized the literal. They knew the Lord sometimes spoke in figures of speech and sometimes spoke plainly, but they had difficulty figuring out which was which. Later disciples do much the same thing with Revelation.

144 Cubits

This particular angelic measurement is of a 144-cubit wall. Commentators are quick to point out what any child who’s learned times tables knows: that’s twelve times twelve. Our math-obsessive readers will know it’s also the twelfth number in one version of the Fibonacci sequence. Fibonacci numbers appear in biological settings like tree branching, the arrangement of leaves on a stem and the flowering of artichokes and pine cones. They also correlate strongly to the golden ratio, the most aesthetically-pleasing proportions to the human eye. The golden ratio has near-endless application to classical architecture, art, music, book design, playing cards and even light switch plates and widescreen TVs.

Why do we keep coming back to those proportions in design of all types? Because they work. Why do they work so well? We don’t know. There’s a logic to them we are not yet fully capable of getting our heads around. So we just endlessly duplicate and admire. That came from somewhere.

Twelves in New Jerusalem

There are numerous twelves in the New Jerusalem, including twelve gates, twelve foundations, twelve angels, twelve pearls and the 12,000 stadia of the city foursquare. Moreover, the significance of those numbers, John tells us, relates to the number of Israelite tribes and the number of apostles of the Lamb. Likewise, the number 144 may call us back to the 144,000 sealed from every tribe of Israel in chapter 7. The design of the New Jerusalem is a tribute to those whose faithful service made it reality.

A cubit is about 18 inches, so the wall is something like 216 feet thick; unassailable, not that there will be anyone left who might have reason to assail it. Alternatively, some commentators believe the wall is 216 feet high, and the city within it much grander (1,200 stadia, or about 1,380 miles), though they cannot make much of the difference. Like the gates, the wall is also glorious, constructed of jasper, its foundations adorned with precious stones.

Calibrated in Cubits

That’s what the angel John saw was measuring, and John notes that the angel’s measuring device was calibrated in cubits, a measurement he recognized. A cubit is the length of a man’s forearm, a measurement that could not have existed prior to the creation of man. We could debate whether angels copied the system of ancient Hebrews or whether they may have actually introduced it, as is certainly possible given the events of Genesis 6, but I don’t think we’d find the answer in the pages of scripture.

Either way, it seems it was important to the Lord that John be able to recognize and write down what he was seeing, and that his readers be able to form some kind of mental picture of all he was describing to them. Perhaps the Lord wants us to understand that in purging the earth of all traces of the Fall, he does not intend to rip us away from all that is familiar and comforting into a new situation completely foreign to us; rather, his plan for his children in eternity is in every respect tailored to our needs, design and experience. It’s all familiar, just grander and more glorious.

It’s the Father’s house, to be sure, but he didn’t just design it for himself. It has been prepared for us, just as we are being prepared for it.