Ezekiel 47

Ezekiel 47:1-12

In this chapter we have, 1. The vision of the holy waters, their rise, extent, depth, and boiling virtue; the plenty of fish in them, and an account of the trees growing on the banks of them, ver. 1—12. 2. An appointment of the borders of the land of Canaan, which was to be decided by its to the tribes of Israel, and the strangers that spurned among them, ver. 13—23.

1. AFTERWARD he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold, waters lifted out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the fore-front of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 2. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward, and behold, there ran out waters on the right side. 3. And when the man that had the line in his hand, went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters: the waters were to the ancies. 4. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters: the waters were to the knees: again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters were to the loins. 5. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters; to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. 6. ¶ And he said unto me, Son of man, hath thou seen this? then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. 7. Now when I had returned, behold, at the

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bank of the river were very many trees on the one side, and on the other. 8. Then said he unto me, These waters lifted out towards the east-country, and go down into the 9 dears, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. 9. And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whisterseer 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. 10. And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it, from En-gedi even unto En-eglams, they shall be a place to spread forth nets, their fish shall be according to their kinds as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. 11. But the mire places thereof, and the marshes thereof, it shall not be healed, they shall be given to sale. 12. And by the river upon the bank thereof on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they lifted out of the sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

These waters of the sanctuary are usually supposed to signify the gospel of Jesus, the blessed effects and glorious extent of it being hereby represented. There was nothing like these streams flowing from the material temple at Jerusalem, and therefore it is evident the vision must be taken in a mystical sense.

1. The fountain-head was in the sanctuary, and from the threshold of the house the waters lifted. In the temple did Christ and his apostles daily teach, and from thence did the word of the Lord go forth into the Gentile lands, and he himself is both the temple and the door, from which these living waters flow, and who gives them their quickening power and efficacy.

2. The course of the river was eastward, and then, either by dividing its streams, or by winding round, it turned west into the sea, either the Dead Sea, the Lake of Sodom, or the Mediterranean. The gospel, which began to be preached at first in Galilee, and spread afterwards chiefly through the countries that lay east of Judza, went forth in process of time into all lands, even to the ends of the earth.

3. The waters as they run grew wider and deeper: the prophet and his divinely-appointed guide crossing it thrice, at the distance of a thousand cubits each from the fountain-head, found the river sworn from their ankles to their knees, their risen to their loins; and when the fourth time they would have crossed the waters, they were no longer forlades, v. 5. And this may refer, [1.] To the spreading of the gospel in the world: from small beginnings the church of God hath increased exceedingly, and shall go on still enlarging, till the whole earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, as the water court the sea. [2.] To the truth of God, which the farther we search, the deeper we shall find them. Some things are plain and obvious, and teach but to the ankles; in others, more aptitude, experience and enquiry will lead us farther up to the loins; whilst in some, the farther we go, the more we are lost, and can only stand on the river’s brink, and cry with Paul, O the depth! Rom. xi. 33. [3.] To the work of grace in a believer’s book, which by continual ascertainment of light and love from the great fountain-head, increases with the increase of God, till we come to the gerriell man, to the measure of the future of the fulness of Christ.

4. Wherever these streams went forth, their wondrous virtue appeared: even the waters of Sodom were foaled, v. 8. for such is the mighty efficacy of the Saviour’s grace, that it reaches to the most desperate: the vilest may find pardon through his blood, and renovation by the power of his Spirit: to the utter-most his salvation extends, and none are beyond it, who do not wilfully reject it. And whisterseer their rivers come, they communicated life, v. 9. Such is the quickening influence which attends the gospel of Jesus: where-ever it is preached, dead sinners live, and, like a well-watered tree, the foals of believers are green and flourishing: but the obstinate and impatient are left to their misery, as the sacrifice and mire places, v. 11. abandoned to eternal ruin.

5. Vast Boats of fish shall live in this river, and the fishermen call in their nets, and dry them on the banks thereof, intimating the multitude of converts that by the preaching of the gospel shall be called into the church of Christ, and the diligence and laboriousness of the ministers of Christ, as well as the success of their ministrations, for their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

6. On the banks every useful tree for food or physio grew, their leaf never fading, their fruit ever abounding, See Rev.

7. Theis represent the souls of the faithful, the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, deriving from Jesus their life and vigour; watered every moment by his grace; green in their protections; in every good work bringing forth fruit to the glory of God; pouring the balm of friendly advice and confidation into the hearts of the temporal and afflicted; and persevering in every labour of love, till their life of grace on earth shall be exchanged for the eternal life of glory in heaven.

8. ¶ Thus faith the Lord GOD, This shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel: “Joseph shall have two portions. 14. And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers, and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. 15. And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side from the great sea, the way of Hehlon, as men go to Zedad; 16. Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus, and the border of Hamath; Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. 17. And the border from the sea, shall be “Hazar-eman, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath: and this is the north-side. 18. And the east side ye shall measure § from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilesh, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea: and this is the east side. 19. And the south-side southward from Tamas, even to the waters of § thrife in Kadesh, the river, to the great sea: and this is the south-side § southward. 20. The west-side also shall be the great sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath: this is the west-side. 21. So shall ye divide this land unto you, according to the tribes of Israel. 22. ¶ And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall be great children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel, they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. 23. And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, faith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 47:13-23

The borders of the land here marked out are considerably larger than those described by Moles and Joshua, or than the country possessed by the Israelites after their return from the Babylonish captivity, and shews this must be understood typically of the church of Christ, and the true Israel of God, which, under the gospel dispensation, should have a great increase.

Joseph hath two portions, to complete the number of the twelve tribes, Levi being taken to attend the sanctuary, and having a portion adjoining thereunto. They are to divide the land into twelve equal shares, See Rev. vii. 4—8, which was not the case at the first division of the country, when the greater tribes had more, and the smaller less. But now in the church of Christ believers are all one, entitled to the same privileges, and sharing alike the same grace and glory; and this in virtue of the everlasting covenant, confirmed by an oath, and sure to all the spiritual seed.

Here also the strangers are allowed to inherit among native Israelites, which before was forbidden; for now the middle wall of partition is taken down, and the Gentiles made follow heirs and of the same body, members of Christ, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.