Note the following interesting and instructive comparisons between the probationary (and then cursed) world described in Genesis and the eternal (because redeemed) world described in Revelation.
PROBATIONARY WORLD
(Genesis)
ETERNAL WORLD (Revelation)
Division of light and darkness
(1:4)………………………...………No night there (21:25)
Division of land and sea
(1:10)……………………......................…….No more sea (21:1)
Rule of sun and moon
(1:16)………………………..……No need of sun or moon (21:23)
First heavens and earth finished
(2:1-3)……………..New heaven and earth forever (21:1)
Man in a prepared garden (2:8,
9)………………………...…Man in a prepared city (21:2)
River flowing out of Eden
(2:10)……………..….River flowing from God’s throne (22:1)
Tree of life in the midst of the
garden (2:9)………...Tree of life throughout the city (22:2)
Gold in the land
(2:12)…………………………………………….Gold in the city (21:21)
Bdellium and the onyx stone
(2:12)……………..…All manner of precious stones (21:19)
God walking in the garden
(3:8)…………………….God dwelling with His people (21:3)
The Spirit energizing
(1:2)………………………………..……The Spirit inviting (22:17)
Bride formed from her husband
(2:21-23)………….Bride adorned for her husband (21:2)
Command to multiply
(1:28)…………………………...…….Nations of the saved (21:24)
Garden accessible to the Liar
(3:1-5)……………………….City closed to all liars (21:27)
Man in God’s image
(1:27)…………………………………Man in God’s presence (21:3)
Man the probationer
(2:17)………………………………………...…..Man the heir (21:7)
CURSED WORLD (Genesis)
REDEEMED
WORLD (Revelation)
Cursed ground
(3:17)…………………………………………..…….No more curse (22:3)
Daily sorrow
(3:17)………………………………………...………No more sorrow (21:4)
Sweat on the face
(3:19)…………………………………….………..No more tears (21:4)
Thorns and thistles (3:18)…………………………………….……….No
more pain (21:4)
Eating herbs of the field
(3:18)……………………….……Twelve manner of fruits (22:2)
Returning to the dust
(3:19)……………………………………..…...No more death (21:4)
Coats of skins (3:21)…………………………………..Fine linen, white and
clean (19:14)
Satan opposing
(3:15)……………………………………..……….Satan banished (20:10)
Kept from the tree of life
(3:24)……………………….…Access to the tree of life (22:14)
Banished from the garden
(3:23)………………………….....Free entry to the city (22:14)
Redeemer promised (3:15)…………………...........…Redemption
accomplished (5:9, 10)
Evil continually
(6:5)…………………………………….…..Nothing that defileth (21:27)
Seed of the woman
(3:15)………………..…………..Root and offspring of David (22:16)
Cherubim guarding (3:24)…………………………………….…….Angels inviting (21:9)
Other similar
comparisons could be drawn between the two worlds revealed in Genesis and
Revelation. In addition to such
comparisons and contrasts, a number of specific themes begun in Genesis are
either elaborated in Revelation or else simply mentioned in reference to a
particular exhortation.
For example, the
original creation of the world is specifically mentioned at least four times in
Revelation (4:11; 10:6, 13:8, 14:7). There is an implicit reference to the
Noahic flood (“fountains of waters”) in Revelation14:7, and to the rainbow
covenant with Noah in Revelation 10:1.
Although the two witnesses (Revelation 11:3-12) are not identified by
name, there is a good possibility that one is the antediluvian patriarch Enoch.
The age-long
conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, first
announced in Genesis 3:15, is elaborated at considerable length in Revelation
12:1-17. The old serpent of Eden
is clearly identified here as Satan (Revelation 12:9), the deceiver of the
whole world.
The post-Flood
rebellion which began at Babel under Nimrod is developed and analyzed
throughout history until its climax under the coming Antichrist at Babylon the
Great in Revelation 17 and 18.
There is a reference to the wickedness of Sodom in Revelation 11:8, and
to fire and brimstone in Revelation 14:10.
In the letters
to the seven churches, mention is made of the tree of life and paradise in
Revelation 2:7, as well as a reference to “the beginning of the creation of
God” in Revelation 3:14. The
cherubim of Genesis 3:24 are probably the creatures mentioned in Revelation
4:6-8 and throughout the book.
In Revelation
5:5, Christ is called the “Lion of the tribe of Juda(h),” a reference to
Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49:9.
In the same prophecy the mention of washing of garments in blood seems
to be picked up in Revelation 1:5 and 7:14. All the children of Israel as named in this prophecy, with
the exception of Dan, are named again in Revelation 7:4-8.
Not only the
Book of Genesis, but many other books of the Old Testament are referred to in
Revelation. The concepts and
terminology of the Old Testament, especially the prophets Isaiah and Daniel,
permeate the book. Some writers
have estimated that more than two-thirds of the verses in Revelation contain
quotations or allusions to the Old Testament (no specific citations,
however). The writer of
Revelation, John the Apostle, clearly presupposed that his readers would
already be familiar with the rest of the Bible and thus prepared to accept and
understand God’s last climactic written revelation as He completed the Bible.
God’s Word has
been “forever settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). Gradually, however, “by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began” (Acts 3:21), God has been transmitting His Word from His
own heart in heaven to men on earth.
Apparently beginning with Adam, with his “book of the generations of
Adam” (Genesis 5:1), and on through Moses and David and many others, God “at
sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). Then
Christ came, and the Word of His New Covenant was transmitted to parchment and
papyrus through Peter and Paul and others.
Finally, a
hundred years after Christ entered the world, the last surviving Apostle, John
the Beloved, was chosen to seal the written Word once and forever. All the remaining Scriptures, long
settled in heaven, also entered the world. The Book of Revelation was transcribed, and God’s Word was
complete.