Wednesday 22 February 2017

Water from the Altar

Ezekiel 47:1-12


Ezekiel 47 is a part of the visions God enabled the prophet Ezekiel to see, which started in chapter 40 through the guidance of “a man whose appearance was like bronze” (40:2-3). The man took Ezekiel to different places and gave instructions to him about the east gate (40:5-16), the outer court (40:17-19), the north gate (40:20-23), the south gate (40:24-27), gates to the inner court (40:28-37), rooms for preparing sacrifices (40:38-43), rooms for the priests (40:44-47; 42:1-20), and the altar (43:13-27). Ezekiel says that he was brought back to the entrance of the temple (47:1), because he already came to the temple before (40:48-41:26). But this time, what Ezekiel was made to see was way more exciting. In his first visit, he only saw measurements of doorframes, jambs, and other parts of the temple. But in his return, the man showed him the contents of the heart of God.

Now he brought me back to the entrance to the Temple. I saw water pouring out from under the Temple porch to the east (the Temple faced east). The water poured from the south side of the Temple, south of the altar. He then took me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the gate complex on the east. The water was gushing from under the south front of the Temple.

He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.

He said, “Son of man, have you had a good look?” Then he took me back to the riverbank. While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river. 8-10 He told me, “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean (Ezekiel 47:1-10, MSG)

In the vision, Ezekiel saw water flowing from under the Temple, most probably right from the Holy of Holies, to outside the Temple down to the valleys. The water was gushing forth, and quite strongly, because the water from the Temple has formed a river 2 kilometers away from the temple, where its waters are over Ezekiel’s head: “water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.”

This is an amazing picture of what happens when the glory of God descends upon the church, because the church will not be able to contain the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. If the church is filled with God’s glory, an overflow is to be expected. The temple is situated in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem was on a mountain. Jerusalem is neither situated on a great river nor is it beside a river. So where did the water come from? The answer is… I don’t know. But the Bible is clear that water can come out of rocks (Exo 17:1-5; Num 20:1-11). When the glory of the Lord is in the church, nothing is impossible. The vision of Ezekiel tells us that God plans for water to gush out of the mountain where God dwells down to the valleys where life need to grow.


Outpouring for the World

It must also be noted that the water did not come to the temple, as if the temple needed to be cleansed. The water goes out from the temple. Although it is necessary that the church experiences the cleansing and transforming power of the Holy Spirit, that is not all there is for the life of the church. We can all be occupied with the need to be cleansed and sanctified, and we can spend all our lives pursuing these desires—and this is good. But we must remember that we are called not solely to focus on our own spiritual needs. There must come a point when the church is a water-giving station, and not just a bottle that wants to be filled over and over again.

Sometimes we can be too concerned about our own filth and needs that we only pray for water for ourselves. As we mature in our Christian lives, we must learn to get rid of the mentality that Christ died for me and that the Holy Spirit is sent for me. The Bible is clear: Christ died for all and the Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Acts 2:17). The vision of Ezekiel is very refreshing. He envisioned a moment when the church becomes the source of water, when the church is the one that gives, not asks. The church is not a pool that gathers all the water to fill itself; the church is an irrigation system that supplies water to fields. We must go beyond the act of asking, and proceed to the act of giving.


Transforming Effects of Water

Ezekiel’s vision tells us what happens when water overflows from the temple. First, wherever the water from the temple goes, there is healing and transformation. Ezekiel wrote: “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh” (47:8).

This is a beautiful picture. The Dead Sea is very salty. When my wife and I went to Israel in 2009, we went for a dip in the Dead Sea. Because of the density of salt in the sea, you would literally float. No matter how much you want to stay underwater, the water will push you upward. The Dead Sea is very salty. When you step on the seabed, you feel as if you are stepping on big rocks, but they are actually big chunks of salt. But because it is also very salty, no marine life is capable of surviving there. It is literally a Dead Sea. But the vision that God gave Ezekiel was that even the worst and most useless sea in the world is transformed when water from the temple flows to it. This is the transforming power of God.

In Isaiah 44:3, God said, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” If in Isaiah what is transformed by water is dry ground, the water in Ezekiel transforms an entire sea. But the core thought is simple: a barangay or town or country pervaded by death and lack of life can be healed and transformed by the blessings overflowing from the church. We are all aware that we live in a world of death, poverty, injustice, and everything that is anti-life. This does not need to lead us to despair, because no matter how dead the world can be, water from the temple is sufficient to bring healing to it.

The Lord heals.   


Life-giving Water

The man who accompanied Ezekiel went on to say that “swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large number of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live… the fish will be of many kinds” (47:9-10). The picture again is stunning. The overflow of God’s work in the church brings life to everything it touches. Out of the church comes the power to bring life into a once lifeless barangay or city. Where previously there was only sin and death, when the Spirit overflows from the church, these areas are transformed as an oasis of life. The same vision was given to John: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:1-2).

The vision of Ezekiel teaches us that the church has a lot to give to the world. The church is meant to give. We cannot just release trickles of water and be satisfied. We cannot be content with ankle-deep results. We must pray that our ministry drowns the world with abundant grace. The church is not like a sprinkler, but is like a dam, which needs to open its floodgates wide.

When the floodgates of heaven open up and transforming water erupts from our church, we will not only see knee-deep and waist-deep spiritual floods around us. The vision of Ezekiel teaches us that when God makes His move, a mighty river is formed.


Christian Plumbing

Ezekiel’s vision was extraordinary, and the church must ask herself if this is happening and is true to her experience today. If not yet, when will it ever happen? Is the church an instrument of radical transformation, healing, and life to the world? Is our local church a source of living water flowing from our sanctuary to the outside world?

If we want these things to happen, then we must do something first. If God’s transforming, healing, and life-giving water is not yet flowing through us and our church in a magnificent way, then it is probably because our lives are clogged. It is probably because we are like wells filled with dirt, stones, trash, and vines that hinder the water from gushing out. The water wants to erupt, but there is so much garbage in our lives that the water simply cannot pass through.

This is something that I do not understand with God. I am a theologian, but I could not understand why God would need to rely on me to accomplish something that He wants. Why do I need to be clean to be a vessel of grace? He is God, and He can do anything He wants to do, regardless of my obedience or disobedience, or my strength or my weakness, or my existence or non-existence. But the mystery of the gospel is that God requires willing and sanctified people to be His vessels. He requires people to be His channels of grace. He requires holy people to be the irrigation through which His transforming, healing, and life-giving work flow.

This is a lot of pressure. This is a lot of responsibility. But the truth will never change no matter how much we ask or no matter how much we disagree: God’s cleansing, transforming, healing, and life-giving water flows out of the church. The world needs the church to do the right thing, otherwise the world will remain a Dead Sea. The church needs to be unclogged because it has been waiting the world for years for its healing and renewal.

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