Unto the east sea, &c.— Unto the Dead Sea on the east. Ezekiel 47:22. And to the strangers] Neither under Joshua, nor under Zerubbabel, were the Jews allowed to give strangers a part of their inheritance with them; this therefore can only be understood as a prediction of that which happened under the Lord Jesus Christ, when strangers were admitted into the heritage of Israel, and put in possession of the true land of promise, without distinction of Jew or Gentile; for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. See Romans 10:12 and Calmet.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The waters of the sanctuary mentioned above are by many commentators supposed to signify the gospel of Jesus, the blessed effects and glorious extent of it being hereby represented. There was nothing like these streams flowing from the material temple at Jerusalem, and therefore they consider it necessary to take the vision in a mystical sense.
1. The fountain-head was in the sanctuary, and from the threshold of the house the waters issued. In the temple did Christ and his apostles daily teach, and thence did the word of the Lord go forth into the Gentile lands; and he himself is both the temple and the door, from which these living waters flow, and who gives them their quickening power and efficacy.
2. The course of the river was eastward; and then, either by dividing its streams, or by winding round, it turned west into the sea, the Dead Sea or the Lake of Sodom, or, as some suppose, into the Mediterranean. The gospel, which began to be preached at first in Galilee, and spread afterwards chiefly through the countries that lay east of Judea, went forth in process of time into all lands, even to the ends of the earth.
3. The waters, as they ran, grew wider and deeper: the prophet and his divinely-appointed guide, crossing them three times at the distance of a thousand cubits each from the fountain-head, found the river swoln from their ancles to their knees, then risen to their loins; and when the fourth time they would have crossed the waters, they were no longer fordable. And this may refer, [1.] To the spreading of the gospel in the world: from small beginnings the church of God has increased exceedingly, and shall go on still enlarging, till the whole earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. [2.] To the truths of God, which the farther we search the deeper we shall find them. Some things are plain and obvious, and reach but to the ancles; in others more abstruse, experience and inquiry will lead us farther up to the loins; whilst in some, the farther we go, the more we are lost, and can only stand on the river's brink, and cry with St. Paul, O the depth! Romans 11:33. [3.] To the work of grace in the faithful soul, which by continual accessions of light and love from the great fountain-head, increases with the increase of God, till we come to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
4. Wherever these streams went forth, their wondrous virtue appeared: even the waters of Sodom were healed: for such is the mighty efficacy of the Saviour's grace, that it reaches to the most desperate; the vilest may find pardon through his blood, and renovation by the power of his Spirit: to the uttermost his salvation extends, and none are beyond it, who do not wilfully reject it. And whithersoever these rivers came, they communicated life; such is the quickening influence which attends the gospel of Jesus: wherever it is preached, dead sinners live, and, like a well-watered tree, the souls of believers are green and flourishing: but the obstinate and impenitent are left to their misery as the marshes and miry places; abandoned to eternal ruin.
5. Vast shoals of fish shall live in this river, and the fishermen cast in their nets, and dry them on the banks thereof; intimating the multitude of converts that by the preaching of the gospel shall be called into the church of Christ, and the diligence and laboriousness of the ministers of Christ, as well as the success of their ministrations; for their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.
6. On the banks every useful tree for food or physic grew, their leaf never fading, their fruit ever abounding; see Revelation 22:2. These represent the souls of the faithful saints of God, the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, deriving from Jesus their life and vigour; watered every moment by his grace; green in their professions; in every good work bringing forth fruit to the glory of God; pouring the balm of friendly advice and consolation into the hearts of the tempted and afflicted; and, persevering in every labour of love, till their life of grace on earth shall be exchanged for the eternal life of glory in heaven.
2nd, The borders of the land here marked out are considerably larger than those described by Moses and Joshua, or than the country possessed by the Israelites after their return from the Babylonish captivity; which may be understood typically of the church of Christ, and the true Israel of God, which, under the gospel dispensation, should have a great increase.
Joseph has two portions, to complete the number of the twelve tribes, Levi being taken to attend the sanctuary, and having a portion adjoining thereunto. They are to divide the land into twelve equal shares; see Revelation 7:4-8 which was not the case at the first division of the country, when the greater tribes had more, and the smaller less. But now, in the militant church of Christ, believers are all entitled to the same blessings and privileges.
Here also the strangers are allowed to inherit among native Israelites, which before was forbidden; for now the middle wall of partition is taken down, and the Gentiles made fellow-heirs and of the same body, members of the glorious dispensation of the gospel of Christ.