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Ezekiel's River of Life
Ezekiel's River of Life
Water is one of the foundations to life. 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water. The human body is about 60% water. However, only about 3% of the water on the earth is 'fresh' water as about 97% is contained in the oceans. The waters not only teem with life, they provide for life.
In chapter 47 when Ezekiel sees the restored temple there issues out of it a stream of water. It begins ankle deep and gets deeper as it goes - knee deep, waist deep, and then so deep you have to swim. Along the banks of this stream are fruit trees that provide food for the people.
Such living water is mentioned in connection with the coming of the Messiah.
Psalms 46:4 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
Psalms 65:9 9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
Isaiah 33:20-22 20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. 21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor majestic ship can pass. 22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.
Joel 3:17-18 17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
Zechariah 14:5-9 "… Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
When we turn to the New Testament we see that Jesus is the giver of the water of life. He told the woman at the well: "I will give you living water …" and "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." The phrase "whoever drinks" is present tense showing that this is a continued drinking - a daily drinking from the water He gives. Such drinking from His water will be so fulfilling that one would never thirst for any other. (John 4:10-14). He alone has the words of life. He alone is the way of salvation. There is no other name given whereby we must be saved. This water will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Jesus later stated that out of those who believe in Him will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). Those who have been redeemed and filled with the Spirit of God and the Word of God will themselves become wells of water to the world. Through the changed lives of the redeemed God will invite the unsaved to come, drink, and live. Brethren, we dare not muddy the stream!
John is shown the final vision of the city in Rev. 21-22. Again the picture of the life giving stream appears and on its banks are the trees that provide food at all times forever.
Hugh DeLong
