Chapter Ezekiel 47:1-12 The Rivers of Living Water.
The first twelve verses of this chapter deal with the vision of rivers of living water flowing from the temple, beginning as a small streamlet and multiplying as they flowed outwards. If anything proves that this is a heavenly temple it is this. Attempts have been made to literalise this but they can miss the point of the whole message and ignore the significance read into the incident in the New Testament (John 7:37-39; Revelation 22:1-5). This is no vision of an earthly cascade, but of heavenly action active in blessing. Such a huge earthly cascade issuing continually month by month (Ezekiel 47:12) from a real temple would soon sweep the temple away. Nor could such a cascade come from ‘the top of a very high mountain' (Ezekiel 40:2). But this is a heavenly river flowing from a heavenly sanctuary, which is an entirely different matter (see Ezekiel 47:12 where it is stressed that the unique quality of the water is because it comes from the sanctuary).
So firstly we must recognise the source of this flow. It is from the sanctuary via the closed east gate of the heavenly temple (Ezekiel 47:1). It has nothing therefore to do with Jerusalem, for this temple was specifically sited well away from Jerusalem (Ezekiel 45:1-6). Its source is in God. Zechariah 14:8 tells us that ‘in that day living waters will go out from Jerusalem -- and Yahweh will be king over all the earth'. If we see this as spiritual waters flowing from God the two can be equated but no literalist can compare the two. Literally speaking they are from different sites. However as spiritual flows they are both from God. This confirms that Zechariah is actually thinking of Jerusalem in the same way as Ezekiel is thinking of the heavenly temple.
It should be recognised that Ezekiel was fond of the metaphorical picture of things abounding through water, and did not feel it necessary to explain that he did not mean it literally. He says of Pharaoh, ‘the waters nourished him, the deep made him to grow', and he likened Egypt to rivers and canals causing growth wherever they went (Ezekiel 31:4), a similar picture to here. Pharaoh's punishment was that he would be taken out of the waters and the rivers and thrown into the wilderness (Ezekiel 29:3-5) and the result would be that those who were like trees by the waters would sink to the nether parts of the earth (Ezekiel 31:14). Both Babylon and Egypt are seen as planting men by rivers of water so that they might be like the willow tree or the goodly vine (Ezekiel 17:5; Ezekiel 17:8). Israel too is said to have been like a vine, planted by the waters, fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters, until she was replanted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty land (Ezekiel 19:10; Ezekiel 19:13). And especially in Ezekiel 36:25-26 Ezekiel pictures God as sprinkling His people with water so that they may be made clean and undergo spiritual transformation. Thus we have every reason to see these waters too as metaphorical and spiritual.
And secondly we must recognise its intention. It was to bring life wherever it went (Ezekiel 47:9). To the ancients the primary power of water was to give life. Those who lived in Canaan knew what it was to watch all nature die in a waterless and very hot summer. And then the rains came, and almost immediately, like magic, the bushes came to life, greenery sprang from the ground, and the world came alive again. That was the life-giving power of water. In Babylonia Israel had also witnessed the power of the great rivers. Along their banks life always flourished, and water was taken from them by irrigation to bring life to drier areas. The wilderness blossomed like a rose. They knew that the coveted Garden of Eden had been fruitful because of the great river flowing through it that became four rivers and watered the world. So that was their dream for their everlasting homeland, a great and everflowing river that would bring life everywhere, and especially in men's hearts.
This prophecy is the answer to their dreams and parallel to those great prophetic pronouncements which spoke of the coming of the Spirit in terms of heavenly rain producing life and fruitfulness (Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3-5; Joel 2:23-32), and is similar in thought to Psalms 46:4; Psalms 65:9; Isaiah 33:21.