Each of the "petals", in turn, could rise, revealing the letter under it, or descend, covering it. After a special prayer and the proclamation of the question 312   turned to the Lord, individual "petals" miraculously rose, multi-colored rays emanated from the open edges of the precious stones, and the letters became clearly visible.

It was from these letters that the words containing the answer from above were composed. Since the stones in the breastplate were arranged in four rows, the answers were divided into four categories. The stones of the first, upper row gave answers to questions relating to the Divine service, the fulfillment of the commandments, the needs of the priests and Levites; the stones of the second row are for questions related to the life of the entire nation as a whole (

issues of war and peace, politics and economics, etc.); the stones of the third row are for questions relating to the life of individual tribes; finally, the stones of the fourth row revealed the will of the Almighty in relation to individual people. Thus, for example, about the successor of Moses, Joshua, who in a certain sense had the status of king, the Lord gave the following instruction: "And he shall speak to Eleazar the priest and ask him about the decision by means of the Urim before the Lord; and according to his word they shall go out, and according to his word they shall enter in, and all the children of Israel with him, and all the congregation" (Num. 27:21).

In the days of the first Temple, the king appealed to the high priest on behalf of all the people for an answer from the Lord through the Urim and Thummim. For example, it is said of King Saul, after God had rejected him for his grievous sins: "And Saul inquired of the Lord; but the Lord answered him neither in sleep, nor through the Urim nor through the prophets" (1 Samuel 28:6). In the Second Temple era, after the Babylonian captivity, the Urim and Thummim were lost, as were many other sacred objects of the First Temple.

Therefore, the high priest could no longer directly question the Lord through the Urim and Thummim. The book of Ezra tells of priests whose genealogy was questionable because genealogical records had been lost 313   after the destruction of the first Temple. They searched for their genealogy record and did not find it, and therefore they were expelled from the priesthood.

"And Tirshatha said to them that they should not eat of the great holy thing, until the priest arises with the Urim and Thummim" (Ezra. 2, 62-63). Such important questions as the question of the priesthood could only be decided by revelation from above, through the Urim and Thummim." Thus, according to the interpretation of St. Andrew of Caesarea, the twelve foundations of the city are "twelve costly stones, eight of which were worn on the shoulder plate of the ancient high priest, and four were new, in order to show the agreement of the New Testament with the Old and the pre-eminence of those who shone forth in it."

The meaning of these twelve stones is as follows: "The first foundation, jasper, is a greenish stone, signifying the supreme Apostle Peter, who bore in his body the deadness of Christ and showed a blossoming and unfading love for Him; the second, sapphire, from which azure also comes, denotes the blessed Paul, caught up even to the third heaven; the third, Chalcedon, is apparently the same as the aneraks, which was in the high priestly shoulder plate, signifying Blessed Andrew the Apostle, like a coal kindled by the Spirit; the fourth, smaragdus, having a green color, feeding on oil and receiving from it brilliance and beauty, signifies the holy Evangelist John, who softens the regret and despondency that occurs in us from sins with the Divine oil, and by the precious gift of Theology grants us a faith that never weakens; the fifth, sardonyx, a stone bearing the color of a shining human nail, signifies Jacob, who was the first to suffer bodily mortification for Christ; the sixth, sardisium, is orange in colour and brilliant stone, which is curative of swellings and ulcers from iron, signifies the beauty of the virtues of the blessed Philip 314   enlightened by the fire of the Divine Spirit and healing the spiritual wounds of the corrupt; the seventh, the chrysoliph, shining like gold, signifies, perhaps, Bartholomew, resplendent with precious virtues and Divine preaching; the octopus — virillus — having the color of the sea and air, denotes Thomas, who made a long journey to save the Indians; ninth, topazium, a black stone, exuding, as they say, a milk-like juice, healing for those suffering from eye diseases, denotes Blessed Matthew, who heals the blind in heart with the Gospel and gives milk to newborns in faith; the tenth, chrysopras, surpassing in brilliance the gold itself, signifies the blessed Thaddeus, who preached to Augarus, king of Edessa, the Kingdom of Christ, signified by gold, and the deadness in it, signified by pras.162 the first ten – Hyacinth – azure or sky-shaped hyacinth, plausibly designates Simon as a zealot of Christ's gifts, having heavenly wisdom; the second ten – the amephist – a scarlet stone in color, denotes Matthias, who was vouchsafed the Divine fire at the division of tongues and for his fiery inclination to please Him Who chose the place of the fallen one."

The twelve gates of the city were made of twelve solid pearls. "The twelve gates," explains St. Andrew, "are evidently the twelve disciples of Christ, through whom we have come to know the door and the way of life. They are also twelve beads, as having received enlightenment and brilliance from the only precious beads – Christ. The street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.

All these details express one and the same idea that in the heavenly Church of God everything is holy, pure, beautiful and stable, everything is majestic, spiritual and precious." The Twelve Apostles—Twelve 315   pearls — received their beauty from the great heavenly pearl, for the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who gathers good pearls.

"But I have not seen the temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is his temple, and the Lamb" (Rev. 21:22). A city without a temple, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple and the Lamb. The Lamb, slain for the sins of peace on earth, becomes the Temple Himself. There will be no more visible churches, because our earthly temples are needed in order to be able to get "into God Himself," who is the Temple in all of us.

And here the grace of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit becomes the Temple. People already live in God: God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the Temple in which they will all live. The Lord said: "I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise up another, not made with hands" (Mark 14:58). He spoke of the temple of His body. The temple of the body of Christ reaches its fullness, and it is covered by God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

"And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine for its light, for the glory of God has shone upon it, and the Lamb is its lamp. The saved nations will walk in his light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor to him. Its gates shall not be shut in the daytime; And there will be no night there. And they will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations. And no unclean thing shall enter into it, nor shall any one be given over to abomination and falsehood, but only those which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:23-27).

There will be neither sun nor moon in the new Jerusalem. In the Scriptures there are these words: "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm 120:6); "The Lord will guard your going out and your going in from now on and forever" (Psalm 120:8). These psalms speak of this very city, where there is no sun or moon, because the glory of the Lord has shone upon it.

His lamp is the Lamb, that is, Jesus Christ Himself, Who will shine and cover all the saved with His radiance. 316   People will look into the face of Christ, and Christ will look at everyone. There will be no night because it will remain in hell — in utter darkness. The night will pass for the inhabitants of the lake of fire, the righteous will live in a new city of eternal peace, a peace that will never be replaced by war.