The Sixth Habitation

There is one other form which this same mystery is to take, but it takes it in the same manner as from the beginning.
In Rev. 21, the millennial (or eternal) city, descends in full form and solemnity. It is a finished thing, perfect in all its beauty before it appears in sight. It has been built in heaven. The marriage of the Lamb was celebrated there, and there the bride had made herself ready. She is now seen in all her costliness and perfection, the habitation of the glory as once the tabernacle of the wilderness, and then the temple of the kingdom had been. It is the habitation of God through the glory, as once the Church on earth had been the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:22).
This city is now seen as "a bride adorned for her husband" a figure which needs no comment to tell its deep meaning. A great voice accompanies it in its descent and the voice cries, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
As the cloud of old filled the courts when the glory entered the tabernacle and the temple, as the angels rehearsed the joy of heaven when the Son entered the flesh and blood of humanity making it His temple, as the Holy Spirit entered His living temple with like witness of His presence in its fullness, so now the millennial, eternal dwelling place of God in the midst of men is shown as with kindred witness of the divine delight and of the rapture of heaven.
At the beginning, the Lord God had rested in His creation and walked with man. Now, at the end, He rests in His own accomplished redemption, and pitches His tabernacle in the midst of men again.
Surely all this tells us of the delight which He takes in the works of His hands, in His presence with His creatures and in His nearness to them.
J.G. Bellett