Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
Life will flourish wherever this water flows. (Ezekiel 47:9 NLT)
Observation
Today we get to the third prominent theme of Ezekiel 40-48. Two days ago we focused on the return of the glory of the Lord to the temple, and yesterday on the priests who would teach the people of God to distinguish between the holy and the common. Today Ezekiel relays the image of a river that flows from this visionary temple.
And a great image it is. The man leading Ezekiel on this “temple tour” checks the depth of the river every 1750 feet as it flows east away from the temple. The river is first ankle deep, then knee deep, waist deep, and finally “deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through” (Ezekiel 47:5 NLT). What a remarkable picture of an expanding flow of the Holy Spirit, streaming from a temple renewed in the presence of God and a people renewed in an understanding of His holiness.
The result is astonishing. The salty waters of the Dead Sea are made fresh and pure. Swarms of living things find a life source in this holy water. Fishing flourishes. Fruit trees along the banks abound—every month a fresh crop. “The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12 NLT).
What a contrast to current conditions! The salt content in the Dead Sea is presently so concentrated that the water cannot even sustain aquatic life. But everything changes when the river from the temple traverses the land!
I don’t understand everything I wish I did about these closing chapters of Ezekiel, but I think I get the big picture loud and clear. When the presence of the living God fills the temple of God and the people of God embrace a deeper understanding of the holiness of God, and the river of God flows out of the temple and throughout the land, *everything* is renewed!
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1 comment:
I love this passage, and the river, and the connections with the end of Revelation...but I, too, wish I understood the significance of the specific detail in regard to this temple and the divisions of the land described here. Are these things symbolic only? Is there eschatalogical reality and significance here? . . . but at least I can understand the renewing power of the presence of God!
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