NOTES for Rev 22:5
God's presence in the yahvism revealed itself very often to the people of God and its particular representatives as the light or as the halo. The shining cloud indicated the place of God's presence already in the time of Moses, who saw it at Horeb, where he met for the first time with the God of his fathers. Moses from far took this halo for fire, but, having approached closer, he understood that he made a mistake: the real fire would have burned the bush, on which the cloud came down in no time. And later this shining cloud was seen over the Tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Jerusalem, saw seen leaving the Temple, where there was already no more a place for God (as it was revealed in the vision of Ezekiel), was seen on the Ascension Day (exactly in such a shining cloud Jesus disappear from the eyes of His affected disciples).
And in the poem on the creation, in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, in the description of the first day of the creation, is mentioned the world created this day by God, quite flooded with the light, penetrated by the halo of God's presence. It is not surprising that there is not a place for the darkness in this world shining by the light of God: God separates the light from darkness, putting the difference between light and darkness.
And here is, afterward, when the chaos will penetrate into the world, and God will stand the forces, which led this chaos into the world, afterward, when the creation of God will become such or almost such, as it will appear to us, day and night, the light and the darkness begin to alternate in the world. And it will be like that until its total transformation, until the day, when its nature itself will change qualitatively. Of course, it will not change by itself, it is God Who changes it with His breath, this breath of the Kingdom, that penetrated the world the day of the Pentecost. And when it will take place, the world will be penetrated again by the light of God's presence, as in the first day.
So the world becomes the Kingdom: because the Kingdom of God is not the world, where God hides behind the veil of nature, but the world, where He is seen from anywhere, seen clearly and distinctly. And the halo is only the consequence of this proximity. Without it there is no Kingdom, quite as there is no Kingdom without the breath of God penetrating into the Kingdom till the very limits. Because it is in particular it that gives to the Kingdom and light, and life. Beyond its limits, we have only what the Savior calls the external darkness.