Understanding Rev. 22:1-6

Q

Revelation 22 gives a description of our heavenly home, it’s awesome! Verse two states that “the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding it’s fruit every month.” What is your understanding on the monthly time cycles mentioned here, when we’ll then be in eternity. Won’t time cycles, as we have now, be no more?

A

Let’s correct two widely held but mistaken assumptions about Rev. 22:1-6. Correction number one is this river will be in Israel on Earth, not in the New Jerusalem. And the second is, due to the mention of time and growing cycles this passage has to be talking about the Millennium, not eternity. These verses are a summarized version of Ezekiel’s view of the Kingdom Age in Israel which he described more fully in Ezekiel 47:1-12.

So as lovely as the passage is, it doesn’t describe the heavenly home of the Church. Our home is described in Rev. 21:9-27. As for eternity, beyond telling us there is one, the Bible doesn’t give any detail about it.