The New Jerusalem - God's Covenant Blessing

What do you think the significance is of Heaven being referred to as the New Jerusalem? I have not studied about Heaven. I am not talking about the essence of Heaven, I am talking about God's act of giving Heaven to us. Here are my thoughts around this question. If you think I've overlooked something or missed an idea or a thought, comment and add it right in! I'm just writing what I think.

The OLD Jerusalem, the promised land, was a land 'flowing with milk and honey.' A very blessed land that will be the epitome of 'good land.' This promised land was near water, it was flourishing with crops and plants and animals. The Israelite's troubles were taken care of in that land!

I want to suggest that Jesus was, perhaps, a second form of 'promised land' given to mankind. As Jerusalem was a physical gift that met their physical need, So is Christ an eternal gift to meet our eternal need! It was in Christ that God overcame sin. God met with His people on a level they could not have foreseen! His provision of forgiveness in Christ was far beyond what their imagination would consider. The Israelites had the mentality that the Christ would come much like Moses and Abraham did. They actually thought that the Christ would be a human prophet and/or king figure who would overrule the Romans - setting the Israelites free from oppression. If only they had known God better than they knew His statutes; they would not have missed the Christ.

Heaven will be the NEW Jerusalem! A third promise! Jerusalem was a physical blessing, Jesus is the eternal blessing, and Heaven...I will call the beautiful blessing (In this case, the word beautiful can describe no other thought, feeling or thing! There is not a word appropriate for titling Heaven!). Jerusalem brought tangible provision, Jesus brought Spiritual provision, and Heaven will bring us into the Glory of God. The religious leaders were oblivious to Jesus' teachings. Jesus did not match up to their tradition, so they ruled Him out before seeing Him in light of Scripture "In light of Scripture" is not an easy term. They would have had to read into many of the prophet's writings in a way that hadn't been done before. We're talking about a reformation, here! Rewriting theological structure that the leading religious people held - about everything: especially about Christ, but in turn, they would have to revise their thinking to conform to Jesus. Understanding the culture in context really helps us to see why the pharisees and teachers of the law never believed Jesus. To accept Jesus was to deny the legacy of their ancestry, as it had become a vile institution of false worship and teaching.

We are the ones looking for the New Jerusalem! The third promise! In a sense, we are the 'Israelites' and the 'religious leaders.' Just as He did for the Israelites and for the teachers of the law, God is bringing about us a wonderful promise that we cannot imagine (not even if we were told! Habakkuk 1:5). The reality is, our response is within the same principles as the Israelites and the teachers of the law as well - meaning that our receiving the promised blessing hinges on the condition that we are obedient and faithful to God first. So our inability to imagine the promise is bittersweet. The Israelites knew what their promise looked like - a land flowing with milk and honey was very difficult to oversee. The teachers of the law knew every thing there was to know about the Christ who was to come, yet they did not walk in obedient faith with God, and so their knowledge was irrelevant. This leads me to wonder - what marvelous things God can do! What marvelous things He WILL do. How dreadful it is to have missed the Christ. I will not be among those who will miss His glory.