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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 22

1. The Water of Life


 
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“And he shewed to me a pure stream of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of the Deity and of the Lamb”.

In the things communicated to Ezekiel by the Spirit of Christ, he saw much that he could not discern, or penetrate to the bottom of, from a lack, common to all the prophets, of what Paul terms “spiritual understanding”, in Col. 1:9. They prophesied of the grace and truth to come through Jesus Christ, and inquired and searched diligently to find out, if possible, what the Spirit signified by the things they were commanded to write; but they were informed, that it was not for their special information that what they saw and heard was made known to them; but that they ministered as prophets the things they wrote concerning “the sufferings of the Christ, and the glory that should follow, “ for the use of those to whom the Gospel of the Kingdom should afterwards be preached by the apostles and the bride; into which things the angels desire to look (John 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:10,12).

Among the things pertaining to “the glory that should follow,” Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah, saw living waters flowing out from Jerusalem. Ezekiel saw the exact locality of the fountain from which they issued. It was, he says, at the south side of the Altar, and from under it they came. From thence, they made their way under the threshold of the front, or east, gate of the temple. They continued their outflow eastward: and were measured by the angel from the brink 4000 cubits, or four separate measurements, representative of a square. He was informed, that after a certain distance the streams flowed in two channels; one towards the Dead Sea, into which it is discharged with healing effect upon its waters; so that it teems with finny tribes, as the fish of the Great Sea; while the other half of the stream flows into the hinder, or Mediterranean, sea.

These things are all stated with such geographical and practical particularity as to make it evident that these healing waters are as literally rivers of waters as the Hudson or the Thames. We can see, how that Jerusalem can become the centre of navigation and commerce, as well as the metropolis and capital of the world. By the waters flowing between the rent divisions of the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4) into the Jordan and with it into the Dead Sea, and thence by an old channel into the Red Sea, a water communication will be established with Hindostan, China, Australia, California, and the islands and shores of the Pacific generally; and by the branch flowing into the Mediterranean, with Europe, and the north and south Atlantic coasts of North and South America. This gives Jerusalem a position highly favorable for a geographical centre of government and religion; and for the easy access of Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and Europeans, when they shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh Tz’vaoth, to be instructed in His ways, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Isa. 2:3; Zech. 14:16).

But the Eternal Power has a higher and grander purpose to be accomplished than that of geographical changes in the physique of Palestine, and filling the Dead Sea with fish. It is evident that more is signified in what was revealed to Ezekiel than this. The waters he saw came out of a holy place inaccessible to flesh and blood, and had healing properties. There must therefore be flowing with them a stream of healing power. Pour all the waters of the Hudson and the Amazon into the Dead Sea, and they would not heal it any more than the Jordan has been able to heal it, though emptying itself therein, ever since the days of Lot. Hence, the waters Ezekiel saw must be regarded in the light of the visible containing the invisible, whose existence is discerned by the supernatural and unwonted effects attributed to the visible stream. In other words, there is deep spiritual significance underlying all that Ezekiel saw, which was Apocalyptically exhibited to John in the present chapter.

Ezekiel saw and described the temple which Zechariah says, far off peoples shall come and build (ch. 6:15); and Isaiah testifies shall be called a house of prayer for all the people, and upon the altar of which, the rams of Nebaioth shall find acceptance (ch. 56:7; 60:7). This is a temple in Jerusalem, as literal and visible as Solomon’s, when she becomes the residence of the Great King, and the capital of his dominion. But in the New and Holy Jerusalem, “John saw no temple therein; because YAHWEH ELOHIM, all-powerful, and the Lamb are the temple of it”. The Eternal Spirit embodied in the Saints are the temple in the highest sense; and the Most Holy Priesthood, the Seed of Zadok, who minister unto the Invisible Deity in the House of Prayer for all people.

Ezekiel saw the Dead Sea in two states — without any living soul in it; and afterwards teeming with life of every kind. John saw the same thing in its spiritual significance — the sea of nations dead in trespasses and sins; and the same sea full of nations walking in the light of the New Jerusalem. Ezekiel saw that it was the stream effluent from under the altar that gave life and health to the Dead Sea; and John saw that it was the stream issuing from the throne that gave to the leaves of the tree the power of imparting health and life to the world.

The pure transparent stream of water of life issuing from the throne of the Deity is his Almighty power, or Spirit, by which He creates, regenerates, makes glorious, and subdues all things to Himself. “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eye shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation; a tabernacle that shall not be taken down: but there the glorious YAHWEH will be to us a place of rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby” (Isa. 33:20,21). In this the place, the rivers, and the streams, stand for YAHWEH and His power.

That the water of life represents the Spirit in all its relations and effects, is evident from the words of Jesus in John 7:37-39: “if any man thirst,” saith he, “let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his body shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he,” adds John, “of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive; for Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. A stream of this pure, transparent water of life was poured out upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost. That, however, though great and marvelous in its effects, was only the earnest of what is yet to follow. It anointed them with knowledge, wisdom, and power; but it left them as it found them, subject to disease, sorrow, pain, and death. Now, people have so much Holy Spirit in them as they have of the words and ideas of the Deity understood, affectionately believed, and obeyed (John 6:63). But, when the time of the great Pentecostian outflow of Holy Spirit shall arrive, the assembled multitude of the approved convened before the judgment seat of Christ, will be filled, and covered over, and thoroughly saturated in all the atoms of their substance, with the flood of downpouring Spirit from unapproachable light; whereby they will be changed, and all that is in them of earthiness and mortality “swallowed up of life”. Henceforth, the pure, transparent stream of living water is distributed through them as its channel to mankind, until the knowledge of YAHWEH the fountain of living waters, shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isa.45:8)

 

 


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