There are many rivers and brooks spoken of in the Scriptures, some of which at once bring before the mind the ways of God with His people. When we hear of the brook of Eshcol we are surely reminded of the great cluster of grapes brought back by the spies to Israel in the wilderness to show them that the inheritance that God had promised them was indeed a goodly and pleasant land. At the mention of the brook Cherith, we recall the ways of God with His faithful servant Elijah, how He first of all provided for him there in the time of drought, then dried up the brook so that the prophet was entirely cast on Himself and His hidden resources. We shall, however, look at a few of the many rivers of Scripture, and seek to learn something of God and His ways.
There is perhaps no other river so often referred to in Scripture as the Euphrates, which rose in Eden, or was derived from the river that had its springs there. When Abraham answered the call of God and came into the land of Canaan, God promised that his seed would inherit the land, "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18). Again, when speaking to Moses regarding the inheritance of Israel, the Lord said, "I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river" (Exodus 23:31). The Euphrates was of such importance in the ways of God that it is called "the river". This river is God's geographical centre of the earth, for Messiah's dominion is spoken of in Psalm 72:8 as "from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth".
Although the promised inheritance had the Euphrates for its border (Deut. 1:7; 11:24), Israel never possessed that which God offered them, and they are not likely to possess all until the coming of the Lord, the King of kings and Lord of lords. When the final judgments of God are poured out on this guilty world, the Euphrates is seen as the centre of one of these judgments, for when the sixth angel sounds his trumpet there is heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, saying, "Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates" (Rev. 9:13-15), and they go forth "to slay the third part of men". Then when the sixth angel pours out his vial in Revelation 16, it is upon "the great river Euphrates" to prepare the way for the kings of the east to march to Armageddon (Rev. 16:12-16). These and many other Scriptures show the prominent place that this river has in connection with the ways of God.
The Lord used the dream of Pharaoh to bring Joseph from his prison to save Egypt and the nations around from the great famine. In his dream, Pharaoh saw, as he stood by the river, seven fat cattle come up out of the river to feed in a meadow, and these were followed by seven lean cattle which devoured the seven fat ones. Pharaoh's second dream was to emphasise that of which the first spoke. None of Egypt's wise men could interpret the dream, so Joseph was called, who said to the king, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (Gen. 41:16).
As is well known, the Nile is the source of Egypt's water supply and prosperity, and Joseph told Pharaoh that the seven kine were seven years. First there would be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine that would eat up the seven years of plenty. While the river Nile brings before us God's provision for meeting the needs of Egypt, it brings to the Christian's mind that God used Pharaoh's dream regarding it to bring Joseph before us as the man with God's mind, and as a type of the Saviour of the world.
Another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph oppressed the people of Joseph, and commanded all male children to be cast into the river, a command that had the express object of hindering the growth of God's people Israel. The parents of the babe Moses put their child into the river, but having first made for him an ark of bulrushes. In God's providential ways, He directed to the river the daughter of Pharaoh, who took the child for her own, so that Moses grew up in Egypt and "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds" (Acts 7:22). It is not now the dream of the river that brings God's man to light, but the river itself that furthers God's ways in the training of His servant for the task that lay before him. Egypt's learning might be used to form the vessel, but it was of no use in God's service, hence the need for Moses to have forty years in the backside of the desert to unlearn what was of Egypt, and to be prepared of God in the solitude of the desert for His work.
When God intervened on behalf of His people to punish Pharaoh and his people for their treatment of His people Israel, the river, the source of their prosperity, was not forgotten, as we learn from Exodus 7 and 8, for the rivers and waters of Egypt were turned into blood; they also produced the frogs with which God plagued the Egyptians. In a coming day, when God again intervenes to punish the Egyptians, before the day of blessing comes to them, "the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up" (Isa. 19:5). In the end, Egypt and Assyria will be blessed with Israel (Isa. 19:23-25).
Instead of enjoying the pleasant land to which God, in His great goodness, had brought His people Israel, on account of their idolatry and sins a captive remnant "sat down" and "wept" by the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137:1), as they remembered Zion. How good it is to see the result of God's chastening of His people, as they speak to Him in the land of their captivity. The song of the Lord is now revered and valued by them, and though it is not yet the time for their return to their own land, they think of the city of their God, and know that He is righteous in all His judgments.
While the remnant weeps, one of them, Daniel, prays and serves the Lord while serving those who had led him captive. Daniel is not only used of God to serve his own generation, but us also in this distant day, for as he was in the palace of Shushan, he "saw in a vision" that he was by the river Ulai, and there learned of events that were to take place among the nations. In vision God enabled him to foresee the rise and fall of the Medo-Persian and Greek empires, and to record this from the divine standpoint for our learning (Dan. 8).
Daniel's closing revelations of chapters 10 – 12 are by "the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel" (10:4), and this carries us back in thought to Eden, where, in Genesis 2, we first read of this important river. These are remarkable revelations, taking us down to the time of the end, even to the time when "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2). In verses 5-7 the prophet sees and hears the divine messengers on the banks of the river, and upon its waters, but is unable to understand the messages that were for our generation. By the Spirit of God we are now enabled to apprehend the revelations given to Daniel by the rivers of Babylon, so that we may take our way quietly towards the end, waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord, the One who shall give effect to all that He revealed to Daniel so long ago.
Another of Babylon's rivers is brought before us by the prophet Ezekiel, for in the first verse of his prophecy he writes, "I was among the captives by the river of Chebar", and it was then that "the heavens were opened" and he saw the visions of God. The prophet repeats that it was "by the river of Chebar", in the land of the Chaldeans, that the hand of the Lord was upon him, and he saw the glory of the Lord and the mighty cherubim as the support of the divine throne, on which there was seated One in the likeness of a man.
How wonderful were the visions seen by the river Chebar! The glory is seen departing, with great reluctance, from the house of God in which the Lord had been so gravely dishonoured; but it is also seen returning, for the house will yet be rebuilt, according to the divine instructions given through the prophet, a suited shrine for the glory of the Lord. The prophet also sees the nation resurrected from a valley of dry bones and the judgment of God fall upon the northern power of Gog and the nations associated with him.
There are many very wonderful prophecies in Isaiah, some regarding the suffering and glories of Messiah, and others relating to the restoration of Israel in the coming day. The prophecy of chapter 18 is of special significance to us inasmuch as it has been partially fulfilled before our eyes. In this chapter the prophet writes of a land far off from the nations around Israel, these nations being within the bounds of "the rivers of Ethiopia", which may refer to northern as well as southern rivers.
This great maritime nation is used to bring the nation of Israel into its former place, and would seem to refer to what took place a few years ago when, through the help of Britain, and also of America, Israel arose as a nation in the land of Palestine. What man has brought about will yet be brought under the judgment of God (verses 5, 6), if not before the coming of antichrist, certainly at his coming; but, in the end, the nation will be restored by God Himself, for His own pleasure and glory (verse 7).
The uprising of Absalom, which caused his father David to flee from his beloved city, is a most solemn and sorrowful incident, but was part of the discipline that came upon David because of his fearful sin and dishonour to the Name of the Lord. How very sad it is to see David, the man who had been so successful in his warfare, leaving Jerusalem and crossing the brook Kidron. "All his men, and all the little ones" were with him, "and all the country wept with a loud voice" as the people passed over, and as "the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness" (2 Sam. 15:22-23). Sad as the scene was, it was but a feeble presentation in type of the far more sorrowful scene of the rejection of the Son of God, the Son of David.
In John's Gospel, Jesus is viewed as rejected from the beginning and as we pass through the Gospel we see Israel reject His words, His works and Himself. Having given His closing testimony to Israel in John 12, the Lord is secluded with His own, and speaks to them in John 13 – 16 of the place into which He was bringing them before His Father, of the place of testimony into which He was setting them before the world, of the Father's House in which He would prepare a place for them, and of the coming of the Holy Spirit to teach them and be all that they needed in this world. Then in John 17 He speaks to the Father, words that bring down the hearts of His own in worship before Him and the Father.
At the beginning of John 18 it is written, "When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which He entered, and His disciples". How very solemn was this crossing of the brook Cedron. Far, far more solemn and sorrowful than David's crossing. For the time David had to relinquish his throne, and many of his people were against him, but the Son of God was rejected by the nation, by the world, by the leaders of Israel who professed to be the servants of God; and He was about to be betrayed by one of His disciples, forsaken of all, ill-treated by the leaders of Israel, by Pilate and Herod, the kings of the earth, and be crucified and slain, suffering death at the hands of His God as the judgment of sin. The crossing of the brook Cedron with all this upon His Spirit must have been of infinite sorrow to the Son of God; but the mention of the brook Cedron fills the hearts of His own with wonder and worship, and shall ever do for all eternity.
When the Lord Jesus crossed the brook Cedron, He knew every step that lay ahead, yet went steadfastly forward to the accomplishing of His Father's will on the cross. Nothing could deter the Son of God from fully finishing all the Father had given Him to do, and Paul's words at the river-side of Philippi (Acts 16:13-15), testify to the great mercy and goodness of God in spite of all that men did to Jesus upon the cross. God had before Him the blessing of men, and only the cross could lay the basis in redemption to bring the infinite blessing He had in His purpose for us.
God, through the intercession of His Son on the cross, first sent the Gospel to those who had been immediately responsible for the death of His Son, even to the guilty city of Jerusalem; but the circle of divine testimony is widening out, and reaching to the Gentiles far from the favoured land of Palestine. There, at the river-side of Philippi, inhabitants of Europe first hear the Gospel of God concerning His Son; and, since that day, the Gospel has spread far and wide, being preached to all men, to bring within the reach of all the most wonderful blessing it is possible for the creature to possess and enjoy. Surely that river-side of Macedonia brings before us the news of God's sovereign mercy that reaches out to poor sinners of the Gentiles like ourselves.
Among the many rivers mentioned in Scripture are the Euphrates and the Jordan, the former being geographically prominent in the ways of God with the nations of the world, its first mention being in Genesis 2:14 and its last in Revelation 16:12, where, as the great barrier between east and west, its waters are dried up "that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared" to enter the conflicts of the last days. The river Jordan is prominent in God's ways with His people Israel, but it also has a very clear typical significance, as we shall see when considering some of the incidents connected with it in Scripture.
After the armies of Israel had overcome the kings of the east of Jordan, the overflowing river appeared to be an impassable obstacle to them in their approach to the land of Canaan. No doubt the nations of Canaan thought themselves secure while the river overflowed its banks, but it was just in these conditions that the Lord had decreed that His people should cross over. The question would no doubt arise in the minds of God's people, How are we to cross in such adverse conditions? Only the intervention of God on behalf of His people was the answer. Jordan being a figure of death, God would make plain to His people that He had resources to meet death in the fulness of its power as indicated by the overflowing of Jordan's banks.
For three days the children of Israel had looked upon the Jordan with its mighty, overflowing waters (Joshua 3:1-2). Then the officers went through the host with God's command, "When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it" (Joshua 3:3). Everything had been divinely ordered, even the space of two thousand cubits between the people and the ark, so that they might know the way to take. Death, which had carried away generation after generation of the human race, could not be met by any skill or power possessed by man, but, at the Jordan, God made it plain that He had resources in Christ to meet and conquer its dread power.
The priests, bearing the ark upon their shoulders, advanced to the brink of Jordan, but what was this to challenge the powerful waves of the river of death? Would they not all be swallowed up by the fierce, swelling tide? At God's command, they stood on reaching the river's brink, and whenever their feet touched the chill waters, "the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho" (Joshua 3:15-16).
It was the presence of the ark of God that caused the waters of Jordan to flee, and as they fled the ark proceeded into the midst of the river and remained there until all the people were clean passed over. Do we not see in this a figure of what transpired in the entry of the Lord Jesus into death? As the true ark of God He met death in the fury of its power and rolled back its mighty waters, so that His people can now be viewed as "risen with" Him (Col. 3:1). At the Red Sea it was the power of God, signified in Moses' rod, that made a way for His own through the waters of death; but at the Jordan it was divine power made known in the holiness of Christ's Person that opened the Way for God's people to pass through death to be associated with the risen Christ.
The twelve memorial stones that were carried into the bed of the river remind us that we have died with Christ (Col. 2:20), and the stones on the bank of the river tell us that we are risen with Him. We shall indeed pass safely through death, if called upon to do so; but already God views His saints as having passed through death and having risen with Christ, and it is our privilege to view ourselves as dead and risen too with Christ. We look back with thanksgiving to what Christ accomplished for us in His death, but we have Him as an object for heart and mind where He now is in the glory of God; and as being "strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10) we are able to stand for the Lord in the spiritual conflict to which He has called us.
God's faithful servant Elijah was about to finish his course and Elisha had been chosen of God to succeed him as His prophet (1 Kings 19:16). Elijah was not to pass through death; God was about to take him to heaven by a whirlwind, and as he was in Gilgal with Elisha, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel" (2 Kings 2:1-2). But Elisha would not leave his master and, when they arrived at Bethel, the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?" Elisha's reply was, "Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace".
At Bethel, Elisha was again asked by Elijah to tarry where he was, for the Lord had sent him to Jericho; but Elisha again refused to leave his master, and when they arrived at Jericho, the sons of the prophets there spoke to Elisha the same words as their fellows at Bethel, only to receive the same reply. Elisha was tested at every point, both by Elijah and the sons of the prophets, but, in fidelity to his master, he would allow nothing to hinder him from following him until the end. Again Elijah asked Elisha to remain where he was, for the Lord had sent him to Jordan, but Elisha gave the same reply as previously, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."
Elisha had taken long journeys that day in deep attachment to his master, about thirteen miles from Gilgal to Bethel, about eleven miles from Bethel to Jericho, and about four miles from Jericho to Jordan, but he was richly rewarded for his devotion and endurance. When they reached Jordan, "Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground" (2 Kings 2:8). It is not now a figure of Christ's death and resurrection for us, as at the Red Sea; nor is it our death and resurrection with Christ, as at the crossing of the Jordan; but it is the personal triumph of Christ in His death and resurrection, His passing through death that He might enter heaven when His work on earth was done.
Just before Elijah was taken up he said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me". What a blessed request this was: a double portion of the spirit of the man gone up to heaven. He desired the firstborn's portion, and he was to receive it if he saw Elijah taken from him. And this is the portion of the saints who are associated with Christ who is gone to heaven, for they form the "church of the firstborn" ones, whose names are written in heaven.
Having seen Elijah ascend to heaven, Elisha "took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces" and he "took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan" (2 Kings 2:12-13). Elisha was finished with what had marked him previously, and now he wanted to be seen in the habits of the man who had gone to heaven. Should it not be so with us? Have we finished with the old man in a practical way: are we now determined by God's grace to bear the character of Christ in all our ways?
At the Jordan, Elisha "took the mantle that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over". As being associated with Christ, ascended on high, we are to be marked as having His Spirit, His features and His power, even as Paul wrote, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection" (Phil. 3:10). When the sons of the prophets saw Elisha, they said, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha" (verse 15). We too should be known as having the Spirit of our Master.
Man at his best is seen in Naaman, great, honourable and mighty, but a leper. With all that is attractive about man by nature there is this one thing that mars all, he is a sinner before God and in need of salvation and cleansing. Such was Naaman and such are the best of men in this world, even with all the graces of nature and with all that is admirable to men in this world. Leprosy may be seen by all, or it may be hidden from the gaze of men, but wherever it is found, it signifies that there is an incurable disease working within, and sooner or later it will bring death with all its sorrowful results. So it is with sin that man has inherited from Adam; it is a deadly disease, making man a sinner by practise as well as by nature, and at last bringing him to death and the judgment of God.
It was good for Naaman that a messenger from God bore a message to his wife of the prophet in Samaria, who would be able to recover him of his leprosy. Coming at length to the prophet, the great man is directed by him to the Jordan, there to dip seven times and so secure recovery and cleansing. It was a message of blessing, but it made nothing of Naaman, who had his own thoughts as to how he should be blessed of God. Departing in a rage because God's thoughts were not his, he is at length persuaded to bow to the will of God and he comes down to the Jordan.
No doubt the rivers of Damascus were more pleasant to him than the chill waters of Jordan, but there was no efficacy in them to cleanse a leper. Man thinks that reformation and his own good deeds are pleasant waters to bathe in, but they can never bring to him the cleansing and blessing of God. Only by submitting to the word of God can man be blessed. All that man is, his fancied greatness, his attractiveness to others and all that is of value in the eyes of the natural man, has gone from before God in the judgment of the cross, and there must be the recognition of this by those who will receive the cleansing and blessing of God.
When Naaman dipped seven times in Jordan, there was, in figure, the complete confession that the sentence of death was upon him and all that marked him as a man in this world. All man's greatness and glory lie in ashes in the death of Christ, as is seen in the burning of the red heifer (Num. 19). The realisation of this, and the confession of it before God, is the way of blessing for us. We not only confess that we have sinned, so that our guilt may be taken away, but we confess what we are as sinners by nature before God, and learn that in Christ's cross is the end of all that we are as men in the flesh. Cleansing from the corrupt and vile state in which we are by nature is taught in this picture.
For the remnant of Israel who heeded the preaching of repentance by John the Baptist, his baptism meant the confession and remission of their sins, so that when Jesus came to be baptized, it was not surprising that "John forbad Him" (Matt. 3:14). The answer of Jesus, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" met John's difficulties. In being baptized, Jesus was identifying Himself with the godly remnant of Israel before God, and His entering the waters of baptism indicated that He would enter into death so that the remnant might be associated with Him, through His death, in the place He would take beyond death.
From eternity the delights of the Son of God had been with the godly remnant (Prov. 8:31), so that it was His pleasure to be identified with them when He came; and how delightful it must have been to His God and Father to see Him in lowly grace associated with those He accounted righteous, the excellent of the earth. But while the remnant had a place of special favour before God, He would have all know who Jesus was, so "the heavens were opened unto Him" and the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and abode upon Him, and the voice of the Father from heaven declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). If Jesus condescends to take His place with the godly, all must understand that none can share the unique place that is His as the only begotten Son of the Father's bosom.
Many rivers are mentioned in Scripture, some of them, like the Arnon and the Jabbok, defining the boundaries of countries, others, like the Jordan and the brook Kidron, bringing before the hearts of God's people events of great significance. Among the many rivers, we are able to trace the flow of the river of God, commencing with its appearance in the garden of Eden and seeing it last of all as the river of life in the heavenly paradise, the paradise of God, in the closing chapter of the Book of Revelation. In this river we learn of the refreshment and blessing that God brings to men, His provision in grace for the creatures of His hand and for those He has brought into a place of special privilege and relationship with Himself.
God, in His great goodness, planted a garden in Eden with all kinds of trees, "pleasant to the sight, and good for food", among which were "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9). Out of this divinely-planted garden went a river to water the garden, to sustain and refresh the trees that God had made, and to provide for the man that God had formed and for the creatures that were under man. This river surely tells us of the goodness of God in His providential ways in caring for the creatures He had brought into the World. There was everything in that garden to gratify the nature of man, and the river ensured constant freshness and fragrance and abundant supply for the needs of the creature.
Passing from Eden, the river parted into four heads, indicating the commencement of God's ways universally. The first head became the river Pison, which encompassed the land of Havilah, a land which told of the richness, fragrance and glory of God's providence in its gold, bdellium and onyx stones. The other rivers, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates, bring before us countries that are prominent in the ways of God in one way and another. Ethiopia may indicate that God has before His eye even the distant lands; Assyria, that God is watching the land that is to be intimately associated with Israel; and the Euphrates, that God is already marking out the bounds of Israel. (See Genesis 15:18).
Eden was the garden of God and Jerusalem the city of God, and even as God's rich provision for man was manifested in the river of Eden, so the river of the city of God makes known His rich provision for His people Israel. From the beginning of time, God had the blessing of Israel in view, even as Moses wrote, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" (Deut. 32:8).
Amidst the times of trouble through which Israel have passed, they have been able to contemplate the time of blessing that is in store for them in God's sovereign goodness. We see this in Psalm 46, where God is the refuge and strength of His people when everything is out of order. The earth seems to be removing, the waters are roaring and the mountains are shaking, but the Psalmist in calmness of soul contemplates the restful scene where the streams of God's river "make glad the city of God" (verse 4). The nations around the city may rage in the conflicts of the last days, and kingdoms be moved, but those of the godly remnant, for whom the Psalmist speaks, are assured of the presence of the Lord, and that He will soon make glad His own city, bringing the refreshment to them indicated in the river.
In Psalm 65 Israel is viewed as under the discipline of God, for the Psalmist writes, "Praise waiteth (or is silent) for Thee, O God, in Sion". Yet the day is coming when all Israel's transgressions shall be purged away, and when all flesh shall come to God in Sion. The millennium will bring blessing to Israel, but the whole earth will benefit from the reign of the Lord, when He makes "the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice" (Ps. 65:8).
The goodness of God is beautifully described in verses 9-13, which commence with, "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it". God's river, for the supply and refreshment of mankind, has infinite fulness, for it is full of water, telling of His unfailing resources to sustain the wide creation. Men may have their difficulties and anxieties regarding the adequacy of the earth's supplies to maintain the human race, but there is abundance of resource with God, and this God will display in the coming day, when "the pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing" (Ps. 65:13).
The river of God first flowed from the earthly paradise, then it was seen as the source of refreshment for God's city, and, indeed, for the supply of the whole earth. In Ezekiel 47 we see it spring from the house of God, issuing from "under the threshold of the house eastward", ever deepening and broadening, until it becomes "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" (Ezek. 47:5). Such will God's river be in the coming day. The source of all refreshment for God's earthly people will be connected with His house.
The river, flowing eastward and going down into the desert and into the sea, brings fruitfulness and life, for "the waters shall be healed … and there shall be a very great multitude of fish … their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many" (Ezek. 47:8-10). There shall, however, be the remembrance of the work of God in judgment, for "the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to sat" (Ezek. 47:11), remaining to remind the people of the former days, the days when it was necessary for God to make known His judgments on evil men.
On the banks of the river were many trees, bringing us back in thought to the river of Eden, and taking us forward in thought to the paradise of God where the tree of life shall be found again. One brief reference to this river of God's house is found also in the prophecy of Zechariah, in Zech. 14:8, "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be". Human resources may fail, but God's resources for the supply and refreshment of His people, from the living waters, will remain the same in summer and in winter for the millennial day.
When the Son of God came to earth, the source of living water was here to quench the thirst of those who craved for divine satisfaction. In John 4 we read of the Lord saying to the woman of Sychar, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13-14). There is no satisfaction in the things of nature, but there is eternal satisfaction for the soul in the eternal life that Jesus gives.
There was neither lasting joy nor satisfaction from the feasts of the Jews, for the most that Judaism could give was but transitory pleasure. In the last day of the great feast of tabernacles, when the hearts of those occupied with Jewish observances should have been satisfied, if satisfaction could be procured therein, the Lord Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). Those who truly sought divine satisfaction could not be satisfied by what Jewish feasts provided; but the Lord had come to give them true and abiding satisfaction.
The One who had provided the river of Eden, and who will bring the living waters from His house in a coming day, was a Man in this world, and He was here to make God known, and to bring divine blessing within the reach of all men. How wonderful it is to see Him standing among men, and to hear Him invite men to come to Him for the refreshment and blessing that no one else could give, that which is not to be had in the religions of men, but only in Himself, the Son of God. Not even Judaism, though divinely established, could satisfy the human heart. In the Son of God, the source of life, the giver of eternal life, there was everything that could meet the desires that were divinely implanted in those who sought for true satisfaction.
Those who believed in the Son of God received the living water, which brought satisfaction and joy to the heart, and enabled them in communion with God to find their pleasure in Him, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Moreover, such as believed in Jesus would receive the Holy Spirit, who would be given to them when Christ ascended on high, after completing the work of the cross. The Spirit of God would be within them, the power that would enable them to enter into the things of God, to worship God, and to testify, in the divine life communicated, to Him who was the source of the life they had received.
On earth today there is a company whom the Holy Spirit indwells, and in them the testimony to the living and glorified Christ flows out. It is a living testimony and is the manifestation of the divine life, the eternal life, that they have received from the Son of God. This is not only preaching, though it will surely come out in word as well as in deed; it is primarily what is seen of Christ in all the details of the lives of His own, that which has brought refreshment and blessing to their own hearts, and that which will bring divine blessing to those who accept their testimony to the Son of God.
The last chapter of the Book of the Revelation opens with the words, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb". Here, in the heavenly paradise, is the river of God, which finds its source in His throne, and is flowing forth for the delight of all who have part in this heavenly scene of bliss. The earthly paradise has long since gone, man having been excluded from it on account of his sin, and this can never be regained. Yet how surpassing wonderful it is that though man cannot regain the earthly paradise, God, in His infinite love and grace, has opened for him His own paradise in heaven, where the river of life flows from His throne.
There is no admixture in this clear water, nothing but the pure stream that brings satisfaction and pleasure to the heavenly saints that God has blessed through the work of Christ. Every one who has part in God's paradise owes all to God and to the Lamb. God Himself has made us meet to be there, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son has cleansed us from all that would have hindered our having a part in this blissful rest.
The river of Eden is no more, but the river of Ezekiel 47 will gladden the hearts of Israel, and refresh the land, bringing healing from the sanctuary of God, from whence the waters come (Ezek. 47:12), and providing fruit from the trees around the river and medicine from the leaves of the trees. The saints above will eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7), and the leaves of the tree will be for the healing of the nations who have passed through the judgments that were necessary for the introduction of Christ's kingdom.
Soon we shall have left this world behind at the coming of the Lord, to enter into all the joys of the Father's house, and to find our pleasure in all that speaks of Christ in the paradise of God. Till then it is our privilege to manifest the life of Christ from day to day, and to tell others of Him and His word to them, and to urge upon them the need to listen to His last words from heaven for them, "And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). The water of which the heavenly saints shall drink in the paradise above is even now offered, in Christ's grace, to whosoever will. How rich is His grace; and how wonderful the love that enables those who have accepted His invitation to foretaste the joys of that heavenly land.