Ezekiel 47:9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live… I. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS RIVER. 1. How precious is water as a beverage! Go to the burning East and see the desert strewn with the bones of human skeletons, and think how one draught of water would have been valued more than gold by those who perished there for lack of it. The water of life, the Gospel of Jesus, is what the dying sinner needs. 2. Water is precious as a means of cleansing. So truth purifies the soul. 3. Water vivifies. In time of drought the earth is not a living, stirring womb, but a sealed grave. Let the rain come in copious showers, and all things are renewed. So with the Gospel. 4. The affluence of Gospel grace is pictured in this abundant flowing stream, as in the rain or in the ocean's vastness. Today these gifts are at your feet. All thirst, weariness, and pain are relieved. Whosoever will may take. II. THE SOURCE OF THIS MYSTIC RIVER IS THE SANCTUARY. The grace of God has its appointed channels, the Church, with its worship and service. The Gospel is the true Brook Kedron flowing from Christ's Gethsemane, tinged with His blood. The shadow of the Cross falls on its waters. III. THE EXPANSION OF THESE LIVING WATERS. An oozing first, and then ankle deep, then to the knees and loins, and then a stream to swim in. This is true in personal experience. At conversion all things become new — the mind and heart, the sensibilities, conscience, and understanding, are all renewed. There are new hopes and aspirations. "Everything lives" whither the river runs. Forgotten vows are resumed, and decaying love becomes ardent; the proud Pharisee is humbled, and the thief made an honest man, the miser generous and the sceptic a believer; the poor, the troubled, and afflicted are comforted, and even the dying live, for the heavenly waters bear the soul away into everlasting rest. IV. THE DIRECTION OF THIS STREAM. It runs to the east; that is, up hill. The Gospel runs against the bent of human depravity, but it carries all opposition before it. It makes for the sea, the Dead Sea, which rolls its sullen waves over buried cities, the grave of a God-cursed people. This place is shunned by man and bird and beast; it is a grim wilderness and a fit picture of the desolation of the depraved soul and of the world without God and without hope. The Gospel comes to purify the bitter waters. V. ITS WONDROUS FRUIT. Beauty and fertility are spread everywhere in its course. The sea to which it flows is no more bitter. Its incrustation of salt along the banks gives way to flowers, to the olive and palm, till the once repulsive expanse of waters becomes a sparkling amethyst set in a bright emerald, till the wilderness becomes as the garden of the Lord. (J. J. Wray.) 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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