Scripture Daily

Context No. 1156 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 47:6-12: in context

6He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and caused me to return to the bank of the river. 7Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8Then he said to me, “These waters flow out toward the eastern region and will go down into the Arabah. Then they will go toward the sea and flow into the sea which will be made to flow out; and the waters will be healed. 9It will happen that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, will live. Then there will be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river comes. 10It will happen that fishermen will stand by it. From En Gedi even to En Eglaim will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. 11But its swamps and marshes will not be healed. They will be given up to salt. 12By the river banks, on both sides, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit fail. It will produce new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary. Its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing.”

The vision of the river from the temple continues. The guide brings Ezekiel back to the bank, now lined with many trees on both sides, and explains where the water goes: east, down into the Arabah, and into the sea, the salty, lifeless Dead Sea, and there the water heals the sea, so that it teems with fish. Fishermen will spread their nets along its shores. Only the swamps and marshes are left for salt. And on both banks grow trees for food whose leaves never wither, bearing fresh fruit every month, because the water flows from the sanctuary; the fruit is for food and the leaves for healing.

The astonishing thing the river does is heal the Dead Sea. That sea is the deadest water on earth, so salty nothing lives in it, the very picture of lifelessness, and where the temple river flows into it, it comes alive, swarming with fish. Wherever the river goes, everything lives. That is the heart of the vision: this water, flowing out from the presence of God in the sanctuary, brings life to the deadest places, and healing along its whole course, trees whose leaves are for healing and whose fruit never fails. It is a picture of what the presence of God, poured out, does in the world, reaching the deadest, saltiest places and making them live. Revelation picks up the exact image for the new creation, the river of the water of life flowing from the throne, the tree of life bearing fruit every month, its leaves for the healing of the nations. And there is one sober note: the marshes are left for salt, not everything is healed, some places refuse the river. But wherever the water comes, life comes. The river from God's presence is in the business of reviving what looked past all reviving.

Is there a Dead Sea in my life or someone else's that seems past all reviving, and can I trust that where the river from God's presence flows, everything lives?

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