The biblical descriptions of heaven are heavily metaphorical. This does not, however, argue for heaven’s unreality but for its surpassing grandeur. That the biblical writers could illustrate heaven with earthly analogies suggests that the Promised Land is not as unfamiliar as we think. When the Israelites yearned for that “land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:17), they anticipated something more real than that metaphor suggests. 

Most of our thoughts about the future—even the near future—are punctuated by question marks. When we think about eternity our questions multiply. For those who treasure Christ’s promise to prepare a place for believers to dwell with him (John 14:2–3), one of the biggest questions is “what is heaven like”? Even the form of the question implies that we can only think about heaven by analogy. It is like a wedding feast (Rev. 19:9), a many-roomed house (John 14:2), a city (Heb. 11:10, 16) with gates of pearls and streets of gold (Rev. 21:21), a country whose hills flow with sweet wine (Amos 9:13). To convey his vision of heaven, similes were John’s go-to figure of speech: page-for-page, the word like occurs four times more often in Revelation than in the rest of Scripture. Still, God tells us enough about heaven to make us eager for it.

Heaven Is a Real, Physical Place

The biblical descriptions of heaven are heavily metaphorical. This does not, however, argue for heaven’s unreality but for its surpassing grandeur. That the biblical writers could illustrate heaven with earthly analogies suggests that the Promised Land is not as unfamiliar as we think. When the Israelites yearned for that “land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:17), they anticipated something more real than that metaphor suggests. They certainly did not imagine a land with milky, sticky rivers, a bizarre ancient-Near-Eastern version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. They anticipated a land of bounty, “the most glorious of all lands” (Ezek. 20:6 ESV), and they were not disappointed with what they found (Num. 13:27).

Eternal life will perfectly answer the best longings of God’s embodied children. In the new heavens and new earth, “they shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (Isa. 65:21), they will eat and drink at Christ’s table (Luke 22:17, 29–30; Matt. 8:11). Animals will populate the age to come, though one will no longer prey on another (v. 25). When God made the first heaven and earth, they were undeniably physical and very good (Gen. 1:31). Any vision of an intangible eternity ill-suited to fully-embodied humans radically underestimates the vision of Scripture.

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