The seer John has a vision of the new heaven and the new earth. In the midst of the street of the city, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now here we have a beautiful picture. The street which was made of pure gold had the river of pure water flowing either down the middle of it or side by side with the street. Then we are told that the tree of life was on both sides of the river. In Genesis, Eve was warned not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Well, both Adam and Eve did eat and to prevent them from living in an eternal state of sin, God expelled them from the Garden so they would not eat of the tree of life. Here we have the tree of life in Heaven which bears twelve manners of fruit and yields them every month. Now a normal fruit tree does not yield fruit every month. It yields its fruits once a year. What we have in view here is the tree of life which stands for eternal life given to all the true believers and the healing leaves are given to show that there will never be anything in heaven which will ever cause any believer to have any physical or spiritual needs and the leaves are showing us that everything the believers needs throughout eternity will already have been supplied. Once again the number twelve plays a prominent part in this verse. Twelve types of fruit and twelve months. Here again we are in touch with number 144. The twelve fruits are yielded each month and there are twelve months in a year. The blessed are promised the fullness of everything and the abundant supply of the same.
“There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” This is a beautiful imagery here. the light we needed on earth came from secondary sources such as the sun or candles or other electrical lights. But now in the new city there is the primary source of light. God shines forth as the light that enlightens all. It is to this heavenly experience that God invites us. Heaven is the restoration of all the lost goodness. It is a life in the presence of God.
CB