The ancient city of Jerusalem was regarded as sacred because in it God had recorded his name, and it contained his holy temple, his place of residence on earth.  Thither the tribes of Israel went up to worship; “Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”  So, also, this New Jerusalem was “the holy city,” an antitype of the former.  It is described as “having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”  “The glory of God” was that visible manifestation, called the Shekinah, which Jehovah made of himself in the tabernacle of his ancient people.  The following facts concerning it will give us an understanding of its signification as connected with the New Jerusalem: 

“Jehovah was the accepted King and Lawgiver of his people Israel, and he had his tabernacle among them, where he abode by his presence, where he might be approached and consulted, and make communications of his will.  That visible presence was ‘the glory of God’ or the Shekinah; and the Jews regarded it with the highest possible veneration, as the embodiment of the Deity.  The sacred writers often speak of it in the same terms as of Jehovah himself.  They refer to this when they speak of seeing God.  ’Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.’  Ex. 24:9, 10.  ’I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.’  Isa. 6:1.  And again in verse 5:  ’For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’  The spiritual essence of God can not, of course, be revealed to mortal vision, yet there was a manifestation of the Deity which was made visible to the eyes of men, and which Moses and Isaiah speak of as seeing God.  It is spoken of as the presence and face of Jehovah.  ’And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.’  Ex. 33:14.  ’And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.’  Ex. 33:11.”

The New Jerusalem that John saw descending from God—­which denotes its heavenly origin—­had “the glory of God:  and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”  It dazzled as the purest diamond.  In verse 23 we are informed that it illuminated the whole city so that there was “no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it:  for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”  In ancient times “the glory of God” filled the tabernacle, the place of his abode; but here it filled the whole city.  In that tabernacle the Shekinah was the manifestation of the divine glory of Jehovah.  In the New Jerusalem Jesus Christ, who is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” illuminates the entire city of God.  Oh, halleluiah!