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.
The happy fruit to the earth at large of God's dwelling with Israel in holy fellowship is, that the blessing is no longer restricted to the one people and locality, but is to be diffused with comprehensive catholicity through the whole world. So the plant from the cedar of Lebanon is represented as gathering under its "shelter all fowl of every wing" (Ezekiel 17:23). Even the desert places of the earth shall be made fruitful by the healing waters of the Gospel (cf. Isaiah 35:1 ).
Behold, waters issues out from under the threshold of the house eastward - so Revelation 22:1 represents "the water of life as proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." His throne shall have been set up in the temple at Jerusalem (Ezekiel 43:7 ). From His earthly throne-that is, the temple at Jerusalem-the waters are to flow over the earth ( Joel 3:18; Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:8). Messiah is the temple and the door.
He brought me again unto the door of the house. From His pierced side flow the living waters, ever increasing, both in the individual believer and in the heart. The fountains in the vicinity of Moriah suggested the image here. Also there may be allusion in the words "waters issued out from under the threshold" to the subterranean receptacles of the waters which were poured out for the purpose of washing away the blood of the victims. Aristoeas (in 'Poli Synopsis') attests that he saw these receptacles of large size, penetrating throughout the circuit of the temple to the extent of five furlongs; leaden pipes descended into them from every quarter of the temple, in order to cleanse away every impurity. The waters flow eastward - i:e., toward the Kedron, and thence toward the Jordan, and so along the Ghor into the Dead Sea. The main point in the picture is the rapid augmentation from a petty stream into a mighty river, not by the influx of side streams, but by its own self-supply from the sacred miraculous source in the temple (Henderson). (Compare Psalms 36:8-9 ; Psalms 46:4 ; Isaiah 11:9 ; Habakkuk 2:14.)