Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront 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. 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.
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 ancles. 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. 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.
(Ezekiel 47:1-5) KJV
So here we have it, the description of a stream of water that issues from under the threshold of the temple in Jerusalem that widens and deepens to become a river too big to swim across.
I think at this point it’s probably a good idea to remind ourselves something: we are committed to the belief that this is a description of something real. This is not a metaphor or a picture that is designed to teach us some spiritual truth. We are talking about a vision that Ezekiel had, that’s true, but we are making the choice to believe that the vision was of something real. This is going to be a physical reality when the Millennial Kingdom is established.
So let’s consider a simple physical reality: if water is issuing from under the temple in Jerusalem in sufficient quantities to make a river too big to swim across, and this is going to continue for 1,000 years, where is the water coming from? As I have said before, in preparation for the Millennial Kingdom, God is going to make major physical changes to the earth that will reestablish something similar to the hydrological cycle that was part of the original creation.
The creation of the earth and its internal structure is part of the devotion for the month of March, but let’s briefly review it. The main text that we have for establishing this doctrine is in Genesis chapter 2.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
(Genesis 2:10-14) KJV
Does it take a genius to figure out that water flowing across the surface of the whole earth has to have started out at the highest point? If Eden was the highest point of the earth, and we have the Hebrew word Ros as the conceptual basis for this belief, then the earth at the end of the third day of creation was a mountain that filled the whole earth. Interestingly Ezekiel also contains a description of the original hydrological cycle, as expressed poetically in Psalms 42:
Deep calls to deep
(Psalms 42:7) English Standard Version
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
There was water to make it grow,
(Ezekiel 31:4) Good News Translation
And underground rivers to feed it.
They watered the place where the tree was growing
And sent streams to all the trees of the forest.
Water started at Eden and watered all of the surface of the earth.
Matty (Headwind) 