Revelation 21:11; And Her Light Was Like Unto a Stone Most Precious

Revelation 21:11 (KJV)  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 

Earthly cities are often very magnificent and charming; but if we take our stand on some high ground from which to look down upon them, we can see nothing but irregular heaps of human habitations and buildings, mostly dusty, dingy and by no means the most beautiful objects on which the eye can rest.

It is very different with this heavenly city. It is as clean, and pure, and bright as a transparent icicle in the sunshine. John describes it as “Having the glory of God.” Glory is brightness, lustre, splendour. The glory of God or that in which God is arrayed, that which most bespeaks and characterises Deity, is Light, for “God is light,” and in Him is no darkness at all. And this city has, and is invested with the glory of light, brightness, and radiating splendour of God. That brightness as it flashed before Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, surpassed the radiance of the noonday sun of Syria. The very intensity of its brilliancy struck him blind.

And this brightness the New Jerusalem has, only with its sharpness when manifested against sin and sinners softened, for there are no more sinners, and no wrath. Hence the brightness is like a most precious jasper stone. A jasper stone is wavy with the various colours of the rainbow, but it is opaque. This city has this jasper stone appearance, but without the opacity.

It is “like unto a most precious jasper stone, clear as crystal,” perfectly transparent, like a diamond or rock-crystal. So pure , so bright, so soft, is the luminous and divine splendour I which this whole city is arrayed.

[Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse – An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Kregel, 1987, 497]