The book of Ezekiel revolves around the fall of Jerusalem and the ultimate consolation of God’s people. Ezekiel starts by describing God’s coming judgement on Jerusalem. The story shifts to a message of hope. Ezekiel has visions from the Lord and he proclaims that God will give the people of Jerusalem a new heart to be faithful and avoid further judgement. The temple in Jerusalem that was once destroyed would be rebuilt and the people would worship in a new way once they were restored.
Ezekiel 47 describes a part of the vision that details water emerging as a trickle from the temple and turning into a raging, life-giving, river. There is a man, an angelic guide, that leads Ezekiel into the river every third of a mile. At each point that the man tells Ezekiel to step in the water, the water becomes a little deeper, until suddenly Ezekiel is swimming and the river cannot be crossed on foot.
MEASURING WATER DEPTH WITH A SURVEY ROD AT WALNUT CREEK POND
Ezekiel stepped out of the water once he couldn’t touch and sat on the bank. When he looked up, he saw trees blooming with life all around him. Ezekiel’s guide looks back to Psalm 1 and anticipates the fishers of men in Matthew 4:18 when he describes the life that will spring from the pure water of this Living River. The man said, “every kind of living creature that swarms will live wherever the river flows. The water from the river will turn the salty water fresh, fishermen will throw their nets where the water from this river meets the foul sea water. The leaves of the trees will not whither. The trees will bear fresh fruit and the leaves will be medicine for the people.”
The illustration of the growing river depicts the spread of the gospel, flowing from the throne of God over the earth to the salty lands that have no life. In the final book of the new testament, the Holy Spirit spoke to John and revealed to him a series of visions that predicted the end of times. Revelation 22 illustrates the temple in the New Jerusalem with a river of water emerging from the throne of God, with trees that have leaves for medicine to nations and fruit every month along both river banks. The river of life is the source of eternal life, flowing from the throne of the King himself. As the fresh, life-giving water from the temple of the Lord freshens the salty seas, so the gospel from our mouths nourishes the souls of those who do not know the Lord. Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman (see below) make clear that the river is not a thing, but a He. The Holy Spirit of God living in believers, enlivening them, empowering their evangelism to be fruitful.
I also like to think that the river represents the wisdom Christ instills in His children over time. The more wisdom that the believer has, the deeper into the metaphorical waters of evangelism they can go. For example, some people like David Pendergrass know a plethora of biblical information, whereas I have trouble remembering the bible stories of the movements of the Lord from my childhood Sunday School classes. It can be hard to speak to people about someone that you don’t fully know, especially if that person is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But the Holy Spirit is the personification of all wisdom and lives inside of believers to guide them ever deeper into knowledge of God and to impart that knowledge to others (I Corinthians 2:6-13).
In John 4, Jesus was sitting at Jacob’s Well at mid-day in Samaria when a Samaritan woman went to the well where He was sitting with a water jar. He asked her for water. She, confused as to why this Jewish man was speaking to 1) a woman, 2) a Samaritan, and 3) an adulteress, asked Him “why me”? Initially, she had no idea who she was talking to as she stood beside the Messiah in the flesh. She did not understand what He meant when He told her that she would never thirst again if she would drink from the Living Water. She just said, “give me water”. She wanted what Jesus offered. After tasting His water, although she knew very little about Jesus, she knew enough: that He was the Messiah she had heard about from the Old Testament prophets. She then went out with what she had, leaving her jar by the well, and told her neighbors her testimony.
The Samaritan woman at the well reminds me that this playing field of evangelism is level, no matter how little you know about the Lord. This story reminds me that the gift of Christ is for anyone who is saved through Him. No matter how little you know, how little you have been taught, or how unusual your history may be, there is a place in the river where you can touch, and there is always a opportunity to deepen your faith and to purify some of the salt from the seas. As Philippians 1 says, the Lord will continue His work in those He has called until the work of salvation is done. The Word of God continually reassures us that He will draw us deeper into the waters, deeper into Him, bringing it to a flourishing finish on the very day that we meet Jesus Christ face to face.