Revelation 21:1-27
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 12:1-18
The Woman With the Crown of Twelve Starts
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.
Luke 2:42
Jesus Turns Twelve
42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.
Luke 6:12-16
Jesus Calls His Twelve Disciples
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Acts 1:26
Matthias Replaces Judas to Have Twelve Disciples
26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Matthew 26:53
Twelve Legions of Angels
53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
The early authors of the Bible and in their time some numbers had a significance...The authors thought some numbers were symbolic...The ancient writers thought the the number twelve was and is a number of completeness and perfection (they also thought the same of the number seven)...These numbers could be used as words or symbols to protect God's followers in certain cases...An author could use a number like one, and know it meant monotheism, One God, Uniqueness, and unity -without writing these words out...
For instance in the four gospels, Jesus made His first public appearance at the age of twelve...Twelve meant an Act of God...And He called Twelve Disciples...The Twelve Legion of Angels that Jesus thought about calling are a special group and perfectly complete and powerful...Twelve is also a symbol of religious completeness, it also means an Act of God...So when Judas betrayed Jesus, and the Twelve became the Eleven, they made their religious party complete by adding Matthias...
The number Twelve is used throughout the Old Testament as well and is used frequently in the New Testament Book of Revelation...The New Jerusalem in Revelations has twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the Jesus Twelve Apostles...On the foundation there were twelve different precious stones...There were twelve gates in New Jerusalem, and each of the twelve gates will be made out of a single pearl...So the pearly gates of heaven will be made out of twelve pearls...On these gates will be written the twelve original tribes of Israel, which represent the twelve sons of Jacob...The walls will be twelve times twelve cubits or one hundred forty four cubits...And the city will be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long...And at each of the gates will be twelve beautiful angels overlooking the great city...
Also in Revelation, we have a woman with twelve crowns that is take to God and placed on His Throne...God has prepared a place for her...The woman probably represents the nation of Israel, or all the believers of God...
Some think when you see the number twelve in the Bible, it represents an act of God...For instance, Jesus made His first public appearance at the age of twelve, we might have guessed God was involved...The numbers represented and symbolized things like this religious completeness, and something special that only God's followers would know during a time of persecution for the early Christian followers of Revelation...
Numbers and in mathematics, numbers are organized...God is an organized God...He uses numbers when He needs to...Some, if not much, of His organization of the universe is being found through the sciences and in His numbers and symmetries of the world and the universes...God also gave us numbers to give us different Divine Designs in the universes and skies...