Isn’t it interesting that both in the Old Testament (Ezekiel) and in the New Testament (John) a prophet is shown the city of God—he walks in it, admires it, and considers it. He is not brought into the presence of God (as Isaiah was, for example), nor met by angels (Daniel), but brought literally to the city of God. Both Ezekiel and John toured the city of God with an angel—
–who by way of introduction measured the city.
God seems to find measurements important.
Here’s a thought for today: perhaps one reason that God measures the city is to show its scale. Looking at the city described by the measurements in Revelation 21, one thing is striking—it’s huge. It is laid out as a square: as “high as it is wide as it is long.” One side is 1,400 miles in length—which means it is also 1,400 miles high.
The biggest building today is not yet a mile high. In fact, the Earth itself is 8,000 miles high and 24,000 miles in circumference. So while we don’t understand everything we know about the city of God, one thing is clear: its scale is vast.
Consider your own vision. Surely you can describe it with words. Perhaps you might even be able to show a picture of it, or paint one. It seems clear from Scripture, however, that it is equally important to be able to measure it, if for no other reason than to understand the scale of what is required.
Understanding scale enables us to ask—is what we’re doing now capable of “scaling” to the size of the vision?
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