Notice that the last two chapters of Revelation, which are the climax of the Scriptures, present a walled city, not a beautiful garden. This is because God is interested in holiness and obedience. The wall represents the rejection of uncleanness and rebellion, the division between the more holy and the less holy, preventing the less holy from entering the more holy until the Divine laws are being obeyed. Until God is being obeyed it is not possible for mankind to enjoy Paradise.

There can be no harmony, no peace, no joy, no fruitfulness, no blessing until God is being obeyed completely. The walled city, the center of Divine government, comes first. After that will appear the Paradise for which all men long. It is so in us as individuals. It is so throughout the universe and for all time.

It is a fact that whatever is true on the grand scale in the past, the present, and the future is true on a small scale in our individual life today. We can test the accuracy of our understanding of the future by examining what God is teaching us today in the seemingly insignificant circumstances and things of our daily life. Whatever is of truth now is of truth always. This is because God is unchanging.

We do not change because we die or because we are in the Kingdom Age or in the new Jerusalem. Change comes only as we receive Jesus and grow in Him. God does not solve the problem of sin and rebellion by bringing unchanged man to a better place. God solves the problem of sin and rebellion by changing man. Man's environment improves (eventually) as man improves. This is an eternal reality.

We cannot find what we are looking for by moving from one place to another. What we desire can be found only in Christ. Our heart's desire can be realized where we are now if we will look to Jesus.

But there may be delay. Sometimes God points out to us an eternal treasure of incalculable worth and lets us know He will give it to us. Then He does not bring His promise to pass for a season. God waits until we come to appreciate fully the quality of what He is giving us. An inheritance gained too quickly and easily cannot be appreciated. When the Lord is ready to give us an eternal treasure we must be prepared to exercise heartbreaking delay until God is able to explain to us thoroughly the fullness of the value of what He is giving to us.

It is impossible to have a new earth until there is a new heaven. Heaven is the place of God's throne. The earth cannot be the place of God's throne until Heaven and earth have become one. First there must be righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God. Then peace and joy will follow. It is not possible to set aside successfully this principle of the Kingdom of God, as world history teaches us.

To be continued.