Although a new chapter begins, John simply continues with the description of the New Heaven and the New Earth. He only begins the book’s closing words in verse 6. We now walk into a New World, no longer over golden streets, through pearly gates and on jewelled foundations. We have been granted a vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which descended. In it are God and the Lamb and the saints. On the New Earth are nations, trees and a river. Similar provisions in nature exist in the ‘Kingdom of Peace’. Ezekiel 47 describes how he sees water gushing and flowing Eastwards from under the threshold of the Temple. It comes from under the right side of the House of the Lord, South of the altar. The water then goes via the northern gate to the gate that looks towards the East and he sees the water gushing from the right-hand side. His Heavenly companion gets him to wade through the water, and it comes up to his ankles at first, further on to his knees, further on still to his hips, and after that he can no longer wade through it, because the water was so deep that you could swim in it. When he then walks back, he sees a great number of trees growing on both riverbanks. His companion tells him that the stream finally flows into the Dead Sea, so that the water there (which is currently unsuitable for any form of life because of its high salt content) is becoming healthy, so healthy that it will teem with fish—in the stream, the brook, the river and in the Dead Sea too. Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea – from En Gedi to En En Eglaim – and they will cast their nets and catch enormous quantities of fish. Only the marshes and the pools will not become healthy; they will remain salty.1
And then the accompanying angel goes further and mentions that fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.2 So here also a river is spoken of, a river of the ‘water of life’, as ‘clear as crystal’. Here also a river is mentioned ‘flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb’. For there is no ‘Temple’ as the whole City in its totality is holy and has become the ‘Temple of God and of the Lamb’. Ezekiel’s river is also seen by Zechariah who says: “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.”3 There that river appears to split into branches, so that it ends up both in the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea—during the ‘Kingdom of Peace’. In order to make that possible the landscape around Jerusalem will have to change considerably, and the earthquake described by Zechariah4 possibly has a lot to do with this. This is at the beginning of Christ’s Kingdom Reign on earth.5
This river of living water, that is, of the water of life, derives its healing power from the finished, completed work of Christ. That is why it is coming on the New Earth ‘from the throne of God and of the Lamb’. This is about eternal, everlasting life. It is not just pure water like the water that makes the Dead Sea healthy and in which fish can swim, during the ‘Kingdom of Peace’, but ‘water’ that feeds eternal, everlasting life. ‘Water’ supplied by Jesus. ‘Water’ that is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.6
• Paradise was surrounded by ‘four streams’ that apparently had to supply the necessary water and came from one river: the four streams were the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates. This river’ from the throne of God and of the Lamb’ could also branch out to bring this water on to the New Earth.
Bible References:
1.Ezekiel 47:1–11 2.Ezekiel 47:12 3.Zechariah 14:8 NIV 4.Zechariah 14:4–7 5.Zechariah 14:9–21 6.John 7:37–39 NIV and 4:4–26
