Ezekiel 47:1-12

CHAPTER 47:1-12.

VISION OF THE TEMPLE WATERS.

IT is necessary to take the first part of this chapter apart from the second, which relates to a different subject, the new division of the land, and which ought to have formed part of Ezekiel 48. The vision contained in the first twelve verses of this chapter is a thing by itself, although it stands in close connection with what precedes, and springs naturally oat of it. The prophet has been exhibiting, by means of a variety of detailed representations, the blessed results to the Lord's people of his re-occupying his temple. The way now stands open to them for a free and elevating communion with the Lord, and the work proceeds on their part by the regular employment of all spiritual privileges and the faithful discharge of holy ministrations; God is duly glorified in his people, and his people are blessed in the enjoyment of his gracious presence and the benefit of his fatherly administration. But what is to be the nature of the kingdom in this new form, in respect to the world without? Is it to be of a restrictive or expansive character? Is the good it discloses and provides for a regenerated people to be confined, as of old, to a select spot, or is it to spread forth and communicate itself abroad for the salvation of the world at large? In an earlier prophecy (Ezekiel 17.), when speaking of the future head of the Divine kingdom, under the image of a little twig, plucked from the top of a cedar in Lebanon and planted upon a lofty mountain in Israel, the prophet had represented this not only as growing and taking root there, but as winning the regard of all the trees of the field, and gathering under its ample foliage beasts of every kind and birds of every wing. The kingdom of God, as thus exhibited, seemed to carry a benign and diffusive aspect toward the entire world. And should it be otherwise now, when presented under the different but more detailed and variegated form of a spiritual house, with the living God himself for the glorious inhabitant, and a royal priesthood for its ministering servants? No; it is for humanity, mankind as a whole, that God was thus seen dwelling with men; and though everything presents itself, according to the relations then existing, as connected with a local habitation and circumscribed bounds, yet the good in store was to be confined within no such narrow limits; it was to flow forth with healthful and restorative energy, even upon the waste and dead places of the earth, and invest them with the freshness of life and beauty.

This fine idea is presented by the prophet under a pleasing natural image. He is brought back by the angel from the outer court, where he was standing, to the door of the temple on the east; and there he sees a stream of water gushing from beneath the threshold, and running in the direction of south-east, so as to pass the altar on the south. He is then brought outside by the north gate, and carried round to where the waters appeared beyond the temple grounds, that he might witness the measurements that were to be made of them, and the genial effects they produced. But let us take his own account of it.

Ezekiel 47:1. And he brought me back to the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued forth from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the front of the house is to the east; and the waters descended from below, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.

Ezekiel 47:2. And he brought me forth by the way of the north gate, and led me round by the way without to the outer gate, by the way that looks eastward; and, behold, waters were pouring forth on the right side.

Ezekiel 47:3. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits; and he made me pass through the waters waters to the ankles.

Ezekiel 47:4. Again he measured a thousand, and made me pass through the waters waters to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through waters to the loins.

Ezekiel 47:5. Again he measured a thousand, it was a river which I could not pass; for the waters were risen, waters for swimming, a river that could not be passed over.

Ezekiel 47:6. And he said to me, Son of man, hast thou seen it? And he led me and brought me back to the brink of the river.

Ezekiel 47:7. And when I came back, behold, on the bank of the river, very many trees on the one side and the other.

Ezekiel 47:8. And he said to me, These waters issue toward the eastern boundary, and descend upon the plain, (Perhaps the word should be untranslated, for the Arabah (plain) is the name given at this day to the valley that lies around, and to the south of the Dead Sea (Robinson's Researches, ii. p. 595). We can therefore have no doubt that by the sea is meant the Dead Sea, which also lies in the direction of the stream toward the east.) and go toward the sea; hi the sea are their out-goings, and the waters are healed.

Ezekiel 47:9. And it comes to pass, that every living creature which creeps whithersoever the streams go, (The dual here, נַחֲלַיִם, double-stream, is peculiar; but there is no reason for supposing, with some, that it is used with reference to any division in the current into two or more branches; for no mention is made of that, and the word is presently, in the latter part of the verse, and again in Ezekiel 47:12, used in the singular. It is rather to be understood of the copiousness of the stream; increasing at such a rapid rate, it becomes like rivers, though still really but one.) lives; and there is a great multitude of fish, because these waters go thither; and they shall be healed, and everything lives whithersoever the river goes.

Ezekiel 47:10. And it comes to pass, that fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto En-eglaim; (The former of these two names, Engedi, was applied to the wilderness lying to the west and south of the Dead Sea, where David sought a place of refuge from Saul. A fountain, and the remains of a town, still exist under that name, and have been identified by Robinson (Researches, ii. p. 214). The other place, En-eglaim, no doubt lay somewhere at a considerable distance on the shores of the same sea. The two places appear to be used as boundaries, comprising between them the whole extent of the Dead Sea.) a spreading-place of nets shall they be; their fish shall be after their kind (i.e. of many sorts), like the fish of the great sea (the Mediterranean), very many.

Ezekiel 47:11. Its marshes and its pits, which are not healed, are given for salt. (This verse tells us that the sea had certain parts or places about it which did not participate in the general change, and which were given or appointed for salt. But both the things themselves, and the nature of the destination, have been variously understood; and as usual in cases of difficulty, alterations in the text have also been proposed. We must keep in view the general nature and design of the representation. This stream of life, flowing from the dwelling-place of God, images the regenerating efficacy of his grace and word upon a dead world, represented by the barren region through which the stream flows, and the salt waters of the Dead Sea, into which it empties itself. The general result is such, that the barren soil becomes in the highest degree fertile, and even the salt waters of the Dead Sea are sweetened and made capable of sustaining the greatest abundance of fish. But certain parts in the neighbourhood pits and marshes, such as the region is known to possess, and which it is to be understood the stream from the temple does not reach remain still unhealed, and are therefore given to salt, the image of what is waste, bitter, and unproductive in nature (Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalms 107:34; Zephaniah 2:9). So that the meaning is, in so far as there might be any places in the desert world which should not participate in the beneficent influence, these, if any, would remain in their originally bad state unhealed.)

Ezekiel 47:12. And by the river on each bank there shall come up all trees for food, whose leaf shall not fade, nor shall their fruit fail; every month they bring forth afresh (literally, produce firstling in such undecaying vigour that they are still, as it were, yielding their first-fruit); for their waters proceed from the sanctuary itself, and their fruit is for food and their leaves for healing.

That the description given of this stream and its effects must be understood in an ideal manner, not of any actual river, but, like all the rest of the vision, of spiritual things shadowed forth under it, is so evident as scarcely to require any proof. The source of it alone (the summit of an elevated mountain), and the manner of its increase, should put this beyond a doubt with all who would not convert the Bible into a nursery of extravagance and credulity. For a natural river like this would of necessity be in contravention of the established laws of nature, and could only exist as a perpetual miracle. Supposing that by some new adjustment of the land a stream might be made to rise on the top of Mount Zion, yet a stream feeding itself as described in the vision, and growing with such rapid strides, is utterly at variance with the known laws of the material world. For, it is to be observed, the increase here comes from no extraneous and incidental sources; it is all along the temple waters that form the river, and at last empty themselves into the sea; and yet, from being at first but a small streamlet, these grow, by self-production, in the space of little more than a mile, into an unfordable river! To expect such a prodigy as this on the outward territory of nature is plainly to identify the natural with the miraculous, and confound the hopes of faith with the dreams of superstition. The Bible does teach us to look for things above nature, but never for merely natural things against the ascertained laws of nature.

Issuing as this stream does from the threshold of the temple, from the very foot of the throne of God (comp. Revelation 22:1), it must be, like all the special manifestations of God to his Church, itself of a spiritual nature, and only in its effects productive of outward material good. It is just the efflux of that infinite fulness of life and blessing which is treasured up in his spiritual temple, and continually pours itself forth as the operations of his grace proceed among men. It is emphatically a river of life. Wherever it is experienced, the barren soil of nature fructifies, the dead live again, the soul is replenished with joy and gladness. And instead of spending, like the streams of nature, as it advances through the moral deserts of the world, it still multiplies and grows: for it diffuses itself from heart to heart, from family to family. Every true recipient of grace becomes a channel and instrument of grace to those around him; so that the more who partake of the blessing, the more always does the region expand over which the kingdom developes its resources. And in proportion as these are developed, everything around wears a smiling and joyous aspect; the evils and disorders of nature are rectified; peace and order reign where before were the favourite haunts of wretchedness and crime; the very field of judgment becomes a region of life and blessing; until at last corruption itself is changed into incorruption, mortality is swallowed up in life, and the earth, which God had cursed for men's sin, is transformed into the inheritance of the saints in light.

Such, we have no doubt, is the general import of the vision before us; and to this we must confine ourselves. It must be contemplated as a whole, and not broken up into fragments; as if we should inquire what is to be understood specially by the fish, what by the fishers, what by the trees, and so on. A life-giving and ever-increasing stream of heavenly influence, proceeding from the centre of the Divine kingdom, and diffusing itself far and wide among men, is what the prophet intends to exhibit to our mind; and to give this idea form and shape to our apprehensions, he must fill up the picture with the appropriate signs and manifestations of life. But to take these up one by one, and adapt them to particular things in the present or future dispensations of God, can only be an exercise of fancy, as likely to mislead as to conduct to sound and legitimate conclusions. Let us rest in the great reality; let us rejoice in the thought that the Spirit of God should have coupled, with all the other exhibitions of the Divine kingdom given to the prophet, so encouraging a prospect of its vivifying, restorative, and expanding energies; and let it deepen the blessed conviction in our bosom, that the purpose of God in grace is fixed; and that mighty as the obstacles are which everywhere present themselves to withstand its progress, it shall certainly not fail to make good its triumph over all the disorders and corruption of the world.

We simply add, in regard to the relation of this prophecy to others in Scripture, that there is undoubtedly a reference in the whole passage to the description in Genesis 2 of the garden of Eden; although it seems rather pushing the allusion too far, when Hengstenberg, on Revelation 22:2, maintains the trees here mentioned to be simply the tree of life. The mention of every kind of tree for food in Ezekiel 47:12, and the prominence given also to the abundance of fish in the waters, show that there is no servile copying of the description in Genesis; while still it is impossible not to see that a kind of new paradise was evidently intended to be described by the prophet. Then as he has, after his own manner, enlarged and amplified the thought which is contained in such passages as Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8, so his delineation is again taken up by the Evangelist John, and in his peculiar manner accommodated to express the last grand issues of God's kingdom towards man: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month (for which Ezekiel has all manner of fruit trees, bearing monthly); and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse (corresponding in Ezekiel to the beneficent change wrought on the doomed region of the Dead Sea); but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him” (Revelation 22:1-3).