An Everlasting Government

Across the southwestern United States are hundreds of ruins of ancient communities. While some were attacked and destroyed by other tribes, many of them seem to have been deserted as a result of drought resulting in famine.   Water is essential for life, for both plants and animals.  When there isn’t enough water, people are forced to leave.  The ancient pueblos had depended on runoff from the surrounding mountains to supply water for themselves and their crops.  When the climate changed, they had to leave.  The New Jerusalem will never have that problem, as Revelation 22:1 tells us.  “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Growing up in New Mexico, I thought springs were small seeps yielding only  few gallons of water per day.  While in college, I had the opportunity to see the big spring near Chicopee, Missouri.  It literally feeds an entire river by itself.   Apparently, a similar spring will be located under the throne in New Jerusalem, feeding an entire river which flows down alongside the main thoroughfare, as described in Revelation 22:2.  “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

The banks of the river and the median of the main street are lined with Tree of life trees, bearing fruit year around.  The leaves of the tree are of great medicinal value, preventing and curing mankind’s health problems.  These trees are very possibly descendants of the tree mentioned in Genesis 2:9.  As a result of sin man has not had access to that tree since man’s sin.  Genesis 3:22-24 describes how access was cut off.  “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”  Since the Flood in Noah’s day there is no record of the Tree of Life.   

As a result of man’s sin the ground was cursed in Genesis 3:17-19.  “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”    

With the creation of the new earth, the curse is removed so that the earth again only produces plants that are good for food, according to Revelation 22:3-4.  “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.”  With God once again in full control.  The earth will once again be the way God created it, as described in Isaiah 11:6-9.   

Animals and people will once again be able to be healthy solely on a vegetarian diet, as described in Isaiah 11:6-9.  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

With God in control and nothing or no one to cause trouble, the new heaven and new earth will last forever, as Revelation 22:5 states.  “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”  Isaiah 9:7 tells us, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”