Revelation 21:17
17 And [kai] he measured [metreo] the wall [teichos] thereof, [autos] an hundred [hekaton] and forty [tessarakonta] and four [tessares] cubits, [pechus] according to the measure [metron] of a man, [anthropos] that is, [ho esti] of the angel. [aggelos] KJV-Interlinear
17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. NASB
The wall was measured at 144 cubits. A cubit is 1 ½ feet, which makes the wall 72 yards or 68 meters. The direction of the measurement is not given. But when you stand before a wall, you generally wonder how tall it is, not how thick it is. It may very well be that the wall is the same in depth as it is high. The city is uniform in its measurement so the wall could very well be too. That is 72 yards high and 72 yards thick.
Some commentators make a big deal about the numbers. The 144 cubits are a multiple of twelve times twelve. This is the same number as there were apostles and tribes. Or the 12,000 number, being the same number as were evangelists, from each tribe, in the Tribulation, just to name a few similar uses of the numbers.
But remember too that this is in the new universe. All of the old things are gone. The only things that remain, are God, elect angels, and believers. The name of Jerusalem remains, as well as the names of the apostles and the names of the twelve tribes, all of which symbolically speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If anything can be drawn from the numbers, it is simply that God knows what He is doing, and He knows how to accomplish His plan, and no one else can say that. God can make everything in history work out to perfection, even the measurements of a future city, which even exists now in heaven, and neither you nor I can make our lifetime plans work out the way we want them to. We can’t even plan a picnic around the weather.
Also, there is but one set of rules and standards in this universe. Both angels and men live by them. The angels do not live by one set of rules, and humanity another set. There is but one God, one Christ, one eternal life. There is but one set of measurements, one set of scientific laws, one set of rules that function in this universe, and it will be the same in the next universe (regardless of what those sets of rules will be). They will be the same for all. God is consistent.
A measurement is something used to evaluate, appraise, or determine something. Just as a mile is a mile or a meter is a meter, so too, good is good and evil is evil. There is but one standard, Gods standard, and that standard of life comes to us through the Word of God.
The only way we can know it, is to study it.
The world had its city, Babylon. It was a real city in ancient times, and represented the fabulous things of the world throughout history. But that city is gone. The world and its cosmos philosophies will be gone.
And the new Jerusalem is vastly superior in every way that Babylon ever was. The new universe will be vastly superior in every way, than our current universe.
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