This vision of Ezekiel is one of my favourite passages in the book, right behind the Star Wars scene in chapter one and the valley of dry bones in chapter 37. It’s a favourite because I love and appreciate the image of a rushing river of life-giving water tumbling down the mountainside and bringing life wherever it flows. It’s an image of what Jesus offers the world.
Ezekiel is called
to speak God’s word to
the people during the Babylonian exile. This particular vision comes at an
especially dark time for the exiles; it’s after the destruction of the temple in
Jerusalem; God’s special home in Israel. The people have lost their sense of
security and hope. Even though they hadn’t been following God for a while now,
even though, as Ezekiel shares in previous chapters, the people had done some
really disturbing and vile things in the temple, the destruction of God’s
temple in Jerusalem is a clear sign that God’s not present there anymore in his
land. God has left his building.
In the darkest
moments of the exile, Ezekiel offers a vision of hope and renewal; a vision
of restoration and God’s return. Ezekiel sees a rebuilt temple on the mountain
of God. Ezekiel has just spent the past 6 chapters describing this new temple,
a temple even grander than Solomon’s magnificent temple. This is a temple truly
worthy of God. From the temple, Ezekiel sees a trickle of water flowing. It
begins as a small trickle, but as Ezekiel follows a man we first meet in
chapter 40 whose appearance is like bronze. He’s shown Ezekiel the rebuilt
temple and in chapter 43, the return of the glory of God to the temple, echoing
back to when the Spirit of God filled the temple after Solomon dedicated it to
God. Now the man leads Ezekiel around the temple, following the flow of water.
It may start as a
trickle, but it’s amazing how quickly it grows! The man measures it every 450
meters. After the first 450 meters, the water is ankle deep, then it’s
knee-deep, then waist deep and finally it’s so deep you have to swim because
it’s too deep to cross. In 1800 meters, the flow of water has changed from a
trickle to a rushing river, all on its own, there’s no water feeding into it at
all. The only source of this river is the temple, the temple filled with God’s
glory again. This is a magnificent river, a mighty river, even compared to the
rivers of Babylon where the exiles now lived, the rivers where the exiles are
finding it hard to sing the songs of God.
Water is life,
needed for so many things, just think of how much water you use every day for
drinking, cooking, cleaning with, for gardens and crops and livestock. Without
water there is no life. This is why scientists are looking so hard for possible
sources of water on the moon and Mars as they consider the possibility of living
on the moon or other planets. Without water, humans will never be able to live
there. Israel learned the importance of water during their 40 years of
wandering through the wilderness before they claimed the Promised Land and it
shaped their way of looking at life.
In John 5, Jesus
is in Jerusalem at a pool called Bethesda. John
writes, “Here a great number of disabled people used to
lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had
been an invalid for thirty-eight years.” Other manuscripts added that
the disabled people were waiting for an angel of the Lord who would come
occasionally to stir the waters and the first one in the pool would be healed.
For these people, the water in the pool offered new life; a restored and
renewed life if they could get into the water first. Jesus approaches the man
who’s been an invalid for 38 years and asks him, “Do
you want to get well?” That’s a fascinating question considering the man
has been by the pool waiting for an opportunity to be healed. The man explains
that he has no one to help him get into the water when it’s stirred, but he
doesn’t sound as if he’s thinking that Jesus might heal him, or that Jesus can
heal him.
Jesus knows the
hopes, the dreams,
the fears, the hopelessness that are in the man’s heart, but also in our own
hearts. How many of you are living with plans that have never turned out, with failed
hopes and relationships, brokenness? Jesus knows each one. How many of you have
lived out the western dream of a wonderful family, a great life with no real
worries, successful in everything you do, and yet you find yourself wondering
if that’s all there is, wondering why there empty places inside you and you’re
wondering what might truly make your life and soul whole? Jesus knows those
places in your heart too.
Jesus tells the
man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man
is cured; he picks up his mat and walks away! He’s cured without getting in the
water or even being sprinkled with water. The man’s cured by the living water
that flows from Jesus, as he shared with the Samaritan woman he met at a well
earlier. Jesus’ living water brings new life, healing and hope: physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Jesus’ living water can restore
relationships and heal souls. You don’t have to be first to get healed; even if
you’re late at getting to Jesus, you can still find hope and healing in Jesus. This
is what Ezekiel’s vision is pointing to.
The water flowing
from the temple brings life. Trees line the river drinking deep from the river’s
life-giving water, providing shade for people, a place to rest and build homes
for birds and other wildlife, food for people and animals. The river flows into
the Arabah, a dry wilderness area, where it enters the Dead Sea. As it flows
through the wilderness, it transforms the wilderness into a lush fertile
vibrant landscape, echoing back to the Garden of Eden. The fresh water from the
temple, as it flows into the Dead Sea, transforms the dead salty water into
fresh water and swarms of living creatures live wherever the river flows and
large numbers of fish make their home now in the Dead Sea and fisherman are
able to cast their nets and they’re full, making it possible to feed
themselves, their families and communities.
Swamps and
saltwater marshes are left as they support a variety of life as provides much of
the salt that Israel needed to preserve their food. Growing up by rivers, my
brothers and I loved to search for crayfish, minnows, frogs, tadpoles, small
fish, snakes and all the amazing creatures that live by rivers and streams.
When you know where to look, it’s amazing how much life is supported by rivers.
Have you ever explored with your parents and grandparents a river’s edge? What
kind of living things did you find?
God’s giving
Israel hope here.
In chapter 43, God’s glory returned to the temple after he had left in order to
go with his people into exile. While Israel felt that God had left them, God has
not abandoned them. He allows his temple to be destroyed because the temple had
become a place where vile things happened and it had become an idol to the
people, a place to place their pride in, while ignoring God whose home it was. Instead
God went with his people into exile; there is no place they can go where God is
not with them; this is the reassurance, the hope God offers his people through
Ezekiel. It points to the cross and Jesus’ death when the curtain to the Holy
of Holy was torn open so that the Holy Spirit could pour into the world as
living water, bringing new life and hope and healing.
What river are you
drinking out of, resting beside, swimming in? You have a choice. There are
different streams to drink out as you move through life. For a long time, I
drank from the streams of philosophy and art. I thirsted for knowledge and ways
of understanding the world around me and I found great joy in abstract thought.
The arts have always filled my soul as you learn so much about people’s souls
and beliefs through the art they create, they often helped me connect to ideas
and experiences bigger than me, which is what I looked for. But in the end,
they just left me thirstier; they satisfied me for a time, but there has to be
more than abstract knowledge, the experience of other’s the creative gifts
pointed to something greater and more meaningful.
That’s when Jesus’
offer of living water
that will always satisfy began to make sense. Reading through the gospels gave
me a deeper understanding of people and myself as I studied who Jesus expected
me to be. As I studied who Jesus was, I gained a glimpse of heaven, of a world
and universe way bigger than I am, of something I can be part of that is worth
dedicating my life to, a way of living that can make a difference in small and
big ways, no matter where I’m living or who I’m with, a way of life that
nourishes and fills me with life, a life you can have as well by accepting
Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and drinking from his living water.
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