Ezekiel 47:9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live… I. ITS ORIGIN. The "waters issued from near the threshold of the house." The fountain, then, is in the holy place, the holy of holies. By this we are reminded that Christianity, as a system of truth, is not a human invention, but a Divine revelation. In it God has "bowed the heavens and come down." But we are also reminded that Christianity, as a life in separate human lives, as a saving power for the individual and for the race, is also divinely given. II. ITS INCREASE. Beginning in a rill, and widening and deepening to a river, beginning as a mustard-seed and growing to a great tree, beginning as a little leaven that ferments the whole lump, Christianity, at first seen in the Babe in a manger, shall govern thrones and mould empires and redeem humanity. III. Its EFFECTS. There are two closely connected and yet not identical attributes in this visional river that symbolise the influence of a living Christianity. 1. There is vivifying power. "Everything shall live whither the river cometh." There is prolific, exuberant life suggested here. 2. There is restorative power. The world lying in wickedness is a Dead Sea, a Marah. Its corruption, its bitterness, shall yield, have yielded, to the pure, loving, hopeful, prayerful influence of Christly lives. IV. ITS ABSENCE. As we read "the miry places and the marishes thereof that shall not be healed, they shall be given to salt," we are reminded of the natural fact that the height of water of a sea is different at different times, and that if the water subsides, salt morasses and marishes rise here and there that are cut off from connection with the main sea, and become first pestilential and loathsome, then dry and barren. And by this natural fact we are warned of the spiritual fact, that where the waters of a living Christianity do not come there will be no life, no healing; and that sooner or later there will be the loathsome mire, the pestilential marsh, the salt and deadly morass. "He that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life." (U. R. Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. |
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