[S]o everything will live where the river goes.
//One day, Ezekiel saw a vision of the City of God. In the center of the city was a glorious temple, and flowing from that temple was a stream of water; first small, then larger and larger, until it became a river impossible to cross.
Ezekiel was seeing “living water.” While the phrase in Jewish antiquity generally only referred to flowing water (in contrast to stagnant water in a pond), you can see how the image of “living water” became glorious in its own right. Everything the water touched lived. Here is how today’s verse begins:
And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the [Dead Sea] may become fresh;
In Ezekiel’s vision, the water flowed from the temple into the Dead Sea, even converting the saltwater there into a living environment! Did this really happen as Ezekiel promised? Or is it yet in our future?
The rest of the story tomorrow.
