Revelation 22:1-2

And he showed me the river of the water of life, shining like crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the city street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, which produced twelve kinds of fruit, rendering its fruit according to each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So far the description has been of the exterior of the holy city; now the scene moves inside.

First, there is the river of the water of life. This picture has many sources in the Old Testament. At its back is the river which watered the Garden of Eden and made it fruitful (Genesis 2:8-16). Still closer is Ezekiel's picture of the river which issued from the Temple (Ezekiel 47:1-7). The Psalmist sings of the river whose streams make glad the city of God (Psalms 46:4). "A fountain," says Joel, "shall come forth from the house of the Lord" (Joel 3:18). "Living waters, says Zechariah, "shall flow out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8). In Second Enoch there is the picture of a river in Paradise, which issues in the third heaven, which flows from beneath the tree of life, and which divides into four streams of honey, milk, wine, and oil (2Enoch 8:5).

Closely allied with this is the picture so common in Scripture of the fountain of life; we have it in Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:6 in the Revelation. It is Jeremiah's complaint that the people have forsaken God who is the fountain of living waters to hew themselves out broken cisterns which can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13). The warning in Enoch is:

Woe to you who drink water from every fountain,

For suddenly shall ye be consumed and wither away,

Because ye have forsaken the fountain of life (Enoch 96:6).

The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life (Proverbs 10:11). The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life (Proverbs 13:14). The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life (Proverbs 14:27). Wisdom is a fountain of life to him who has it (Proverbs 16:22). With God, says the Psalmist, is the fountain of life (Psalms 36:9). "God, said the rabbis in their dreams of the golden age, "will produce a river from the Holy of Holies, beside which every kind of delicate fruits will grow."

H. B. Swete identifies the river of life with the Spirit. In the Fourth Gospel Jesus says: "He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." John goes on to explain: "This he said about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive" (John 7:38-39).

But it may well be that there is something simpler here. Those who live in a civilization in which the turn of a tap will bring cold, clear water in any quantity can scarcely understand how precious water was in the East. In the hot lands water was, and is, literally life. And the river of life may well stand for the abundant life God provides for his people which is there for the taking.

THE TREE OF LIFE (Revelation 22:1-2 continued)

In this passage there is an ambiguity of punctuation. In the midst of the city street may be taken, not as the end of the first sentence, but as the beginning of the second. It will then be not the river which is in the midst of the street but the tree of life. Taking the phrase with the first sentence seems to give the better picture.

John takes his picture of the tree of life from two sources--from the tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6); and even more from Ezekiel. "And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12). Here again the rabbinic dreams of the future are very close. One runs: "In the age to come God will create trees which will produce fruit in any month; and the man who eats from them will be healed."

The tree gives many and varied fruits. Surely in that we may see the symbolism of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). In the different fruit for each month of the year may we not see symbolized that in the life which God gives there is a special grace for each age from the cradle to the grave? The tree of life is no longer forbidden; it is there in the midst of the city for all to take. Nor are its fruits confined to the Jews; its leaves are for the healing of the nations. Only in the Spirit of God can the wounds and the breaches of the nations be healed.

THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS (Revelation 22:3-5)