Every once in a while we read a passage that is tied so closely to other Scriptures that we have to stop and take note of all of its implications. Ezekiel 47:1-2 is one of those passages.

“The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side . . . I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river . . . Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing. ” Ezekiel 47:1-2, 7,12

Here is what the Apostle John saw in a great revelation of Heaven God gave him five hundred years later.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 22:1-2

There are many other wonderful references to life-giving water in the Scriptures. But what do they mean?

The Water of Life Flows

Some commentators say that the water coming from under the threshold of the Temple is the life-giving Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. It originates in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, thus it flows from the Holiest place in the Temple. It proceeds as a stream through the city of Jerusalem and once it is out of the gates, it becomes a river that steadily widens and deepens.

“As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross.” Ezekiel 47:3-5

The river grows as more and more tributaries are added to it.

God said that he would bless every nation on earth through his Son and as people all over the world are gathered in, the impact of the Gospel increases exponentially. It has become so widespread that no one can measure it anymore. We are living in the time when it’s impossible to know anymore how far the Gospel has spread thanks to the internet, radio, television, and the distribution of media devices with Gospel films and messages on them.

Life-Giving Power in the Gospel

In Ezekiel 47, wherever the river of God went, it changed dead, stagnant pools into fresh flowing lakes and seas where life was abundant. Swarms of living creatures lived there and fisherman cast nets and brought up every kind of fish. This prophetic view of the Gospel’s power is fulfilled everyday, all over the world. There are many places the Gospel river of God has not yet reached, but wherever it finds a channel, life springs up among people.

However, there are places that resist the Gospel, and they are symbolized in the vision Ezekiel saw by swamplands and salt marshes. The fresh water flowed by and didn’t have any effect upon these lands that had no channels for it. They remained salty, just as there are people and places today that resist the Gospel and never participate in its life-giving properties.

Fruit bearing trees with health in their leaves grow along the river. Their fruit is for food, their leaves are for healing and their production is abundant; it never ends. These trees represent the people of the Gospel who draw life from the river of God and bring life and health to others.

Jesus and the River of Life

Do you think the life-giving water in Ezekiel 47:1-12 might have been in Jesus’ mind when he called his first disciples?

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’“ Mark 1:16-18

Those first people to follow Jesus became part of the stream that started in Jerusalem and flowed outward to become the river that reaches the whole world. The river of life will appear in our reading again when we reach Revelation, but we should also be alert to every reference to water that Jesus makes as we read through his life.

The Promised Land Redistributed

In Ezekiel 47:13 – 48:29 God tells his prophet how the Promised Land will be distributed among the twelve tribes again when the new temple is established in Jerusalem. This time the tribes are stacked horizontally, from north to south, with their western and eastern borders running in a line down each side. This order supersedes both the plan Jacob gave when he blessed his sons and the plan Joshua established when he led the tribes into the Promised Land. This is the order God commands for the kingdom of his Son.

In the center of the kingdom is a large area reserved for the massive new temple and the needs of the priests who serve there. Instead of being called Jerusalem, the name of the capitol city will be “The Lord is There.” And it will be true — the Lord will always be there, ruling his kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar to Conquer Egypt

The last part of our reading today circles back around to remind Egypt that it was going to be conquered by Babylon.

But first God used Nebuchadnezzar to punish the city of Tyre. In Ezekiel 26 God rebuked the great port city of Tyre for their hostility toward Jerusalem when Jerusalem was under attack. He said:

“. . . I am against you O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock.” Ezekiel 26:3-4

Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city of Tyre for thirteen years and never overcame its defenses. Tyre was punished, but Nebuchadnezzar didn’t get the plunder he hoped he would win.

“Yet he and his army got no reward from the campaign he led against Tyre. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth. He will look and plunder the land as pay for his army.” Ezekiel 29:18-19

By God’s hand, Nebuchadnezzar captured the great plunder of Egypt instead of Tyre. It was Alexander the Great who later broke through the walls and towers of Tyre and battered the city down to its rock foundation, fulfilling Ezekiel 26:3-4.

God’s Unchangeable Prophecies

The will of God can never be thwarted and his prophecies always come to pass. There was no way that Ezekiel could have foreseen the future of Tyre and Egypt except by the revelation of God. Yet over the next two hundred years what he prophesied was fulfilled.

If all of the prophecies of the Bible are true, the things the Bible says about the Water of Life are true, too. Here’s something that Jesus told his followers – that still belongs to his disciples today:

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:14

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:38

We are living temples of the Lord, and from the throne rooms of our hearts the Lord sends out streams of living water. We need never be thirsty; he is in us to satisfy our deepest needs; and through us the Holy Spirit sends the river of life to the nations. Our individual tributaries feed into the  great Gospel stream so it swells and expands until someday it will cover the whole earth.