Plants in the Bible generally represent facts, knowledge that can be gleaned from the world. Plants that can serve animals as food represent facts that have the potential to be put to use, ones that can lead to something good. A pasture, then, is an area that offers a great deal of this sort of useful, life-building knowledge. "Pasture" is often used as a verb in the Bible as well; to pasture animals means teaching people facts that can help them do what is good in life.

782. The New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (Revelation 21) means the new church. For one thing, Jerusalem was the largest city in the land of Canaan. The Temple was there. The altar was there. The sacrifices were performed there. It was a center for divine worship. Three times a year every male in the entire country was commanded to come worship there.

Another reason is that the Lord was in Jerusalem and taught in its Temple; it was there that he glorified his human manifestation. For these reasons Jerusalem means the church.

The fact that Jerusalem means the church is abundantly clear in what the prophets of the Old Testament say about the new church that the Lord is going to establish, which they refer to as Jerusalem.

[2] I will present only passages in which the fact that Jerusalem means the church is easy to see for anyone who has the ability to reason inwardly. We will limit ourselves, then, to just the following.

Behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth, and the earlier heaven and earth will not be remembered. Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a rejoicing and its people a joy, so that I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take joy in my people. Then the wolf and the lamb will feed together; they will not do evil anywhere on my holy mountain. (Isaiah 65:17-19, 25)

For Zion's sake I will not be quiet, for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until its justice goes forth as brightness, and its salvation is like a burning lamp. Then the nations will see your justice and every monarch will see your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of Jehovah will announce. You will also be a beautiful crown and a royal miter in the hand of your God. Jehovah will be pleased with you, and your land will be married. Behold, your salvation is coming, and his reward is with him. They will call them "a holy people" and "those redeemed by Jehovah. " You will be called a sought-after city, and not a deserted city. (Isaiah 62:1-4, 11-12)

[3] Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, holy city. The uncircumcised and the unclean will not come to you any more. Shake yourself from the dust; arise. Sit down, O Jerusalem. The people will recognize my name in that day; I am the one who is saying, "Behold, it is I. " Jehovah has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. (Isaiah 52:1-2, 6, 9)

Shout, O daughter of Zion. Be joyful with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The king of Israel is in your midst. Do not fear evil any more. He will be glad and joyful about you. He will rest in your love. He will rejoice over you with shouting. I will give you a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth. (Zephaniah 3:14-17, 20)

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, speaking to Jerusalem: "You shall be inhabited. " (Isaiah 44:24, 26)

Thus said Jehovah, "I will turn back to Zion and I will live in the center of Jerusalem. Therefore Jerusalem will be called the city of truth, and the mountain of Jehovah Sabaoth will be called a holy mountain. " (Zechariah 8:3, 20-23)

Then you will know that I am Jehovah your God, living on Zion, the holy mountain, and Jerusalem will be holy. And on that day it will happen that the mountains will drip with new wine and the hills will flow with milk. And Jerusalem shall remain from generation to generation. (Joel 3:17-21)

[4] On that day the branch of Jehovah will be beautiful and glorious. And it will happen that the people left behind in Zion and remaining in Jerusalem will be called holy - everyone who is written down as alive in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:2-3)

At the end of days the mountain of Jehovah's house will be established on the top of the mountains. Teaching will go forth from Zion and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2, 8)

At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations will be gathered together to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. No longer will they go toward the obstinacy of their evil heart. (Jeremiah 3:17)

Look toward Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful dwelling place, a tabernacle that will not be taken down. Its stakes will never be removed and its ropes will not be broken. (Isaiah 33:20)

Not to mention other passages, such as Isaiah 24:23; 37:32; 66:10-14; Zechariah 12:3, 6-10; 14:8, 11-12, 21; Malachi 3:4; Psalms 122:1-7; 137:5-6.

[5] Jerusalem in the passages just quoted does not mean the Jerusalem where Jews once lived, but the church of the Lord to come. This is clear from every detail of the description in the passages: for example, the point that Jehovah God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth, including a Jerusalem; that this Jerusalem is going to be a beautiful crown and a royal miter; that it is going to be called "holy," "the city of truth," "the throne of Jehovah," "a peaceful dwelling place," "a tabernacle that will not be taken down"; that the wolf and the lamb will feed together there; and we are told that the mountains there will drip with new wine, the hills will flow with milk, and it will remain from generation to generation. This is also clear from what we are told of the people there, that they are holy, they have all been written down as alive, and they are to be called "those redeemed by Jehovah. "

What is more, all these passages indicate that only at the time of the Lord's Coming, especially his Second Coming, [but not before,] will "Jerusalem" be the way these passages describe it. Before that, Jerusalem is not married; that is, it has not yet become the bride and wife of the Lamb, which is how the New Jerusalem is described in the Book of Revelation.

[6] In Daniel, Jerusalem means the church of today, the former [Christian] church. The beginning of this church is described in the following words.

Know and understand that from the going forth of the Word even to the restoration and building of Jerusalem, to the time of the Messiah's rule, is seven weeks. After sixty-two weeks the street and the moat will be rebuilt and restored, but in troublesome times. (Daniel 9:25)

The end of the church of today is described in the following words from the same chapter:

In the end desolation [will fly in] on a bird of abominations; even to the close and the cutting down, it will drip steadily upon the devastation. (Daniel 9:27)

The final stages of the church of today are also what the following words of the Lord in Matthew are referring to:

When you see that the abomination of desolation foretold by the prophet Daniel is standing in the holy place, let those who read note it well. (Matthew 24:15)

Evidence that Jerusalem in the passages above does not mean the Jerusalem where Jews once lived is found in the passages in the Word in which we are told that Jerusalem has already been completely destroyed or is going to be in the future. See Jeremiah 5:1; 6:6-7; 7:17-18, and following; Jeremiah 8:5-7, and following; , and following; Jeremiah 13:9-10, 14; 14:16; Lamentations 1:8-9, 17; Ezekiel 4:1 to the end; Ezekiel 5:9 to the end; Ezekiel 12:18-19; 15:6-8; 16:1-63; ; Matthew 23:37-38; Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-22; 23:28-30; besides many other passages. See also the passages where Jerusalem is referred to as Sodom (Isaiah 3:9; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46, 48; and elsewhere).