Let the River Flow
Holy Ground - Part 2
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Revelation 21:10-22:5; Ezekiel 47:1-12
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. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
Humanity’s struggle with God’s presence on earth begins in Eden, or rather, just beyond Eden. We stand on the outside of paradise looking in. A flaming sword reminds us that we have been cut off from God’s Holy Presence because we wanted to be in control.[1] From that day forward God has poured everything into bringing humanity back to Eden. The garden is not literally under construction behind a privacy fence somewhere, but everything Eden represents is not only God’s original intent for creation, it is God’s final intent. Old Testament scholar Dr. Sandra Richter boils it down to three words: people, place, and presence.[2] Eden represents the place where the people of God can dwell securely with full access to the loving presence of God who desires to dwell with us.
In John’s vision of the New Jerusalem, we see the city described as a cube. The only place in Israel’s history shaped in this way is the Holy of Holies at the innermost part of the temple.[3] This is the place where God’s presence resided in the Ark of the Covenant. Like Eden, God’s presence now resides in the whole of the city. Even more impressive is the scope of the city’s boundaries, stretching 12,000 stadia or 1,500 miles.[4] Robert Mulholland observes that if one were to overlay a 1,500-mile square on a map of the 1st century world, centered at John’s location on Patmos, its borders would reach to Jerusalem in the east, Rome in the West, and to the approximate geographical boundaries of the Roman Empire to the North and South.[5] The image here is that the New Jerusalem, consumed by the glory of God’s presence, will encompass all of Rome or what John calls, Fallen Babylon. For John’s readers and hearers, this is like saying that the Kingdom of God will entirely overtake the kingdoms of this world, that the whole citizenship of Fallen Babylon will become citizens of New Jerusalem, and that everything on earth shall be as it is in heaven.
The Shekinah glory of God is no longer confined by the Holy of Holies. God’s presence now permeates the entire city so that there is no more division between sacred and secular.[6] In this way, all people have full access to God’s presence, just as it was in the garden. Eden is not only fully restored, but it has grown to incorporate all the world.
God’s Presence as Living Water
Another important image in scripture is the stream of living water which flows not only in Eden and in the New Jerusalem, but which connects people of all times and places to the spring of life which is God’s Holy Presence. As N.T. Wright observes, it is not just about people coming into the New Jerusalem from the outside, but about “liquid life, the water of life… flowing from the city to the world around.” The city where God and the Lamb are “personally present” is the “great wellspring of life, flowing out to those who need it!”[7]
In Ezekiel 47, the prophet records his vision of a river flowing forth from the Temple growing deeper and wider until it reaches the Dead Sea where it transforms the once stagnant waters into an oasis teeming with new life.[8] Expanding on Ezekiel’s vision, John sees this river flowing beyond the Dead Sea and bringing life and healing to all the nations.[9] Through the river and the trees of life along its banks, the nations can be restored and made citizens of New Jerusalem.[10] This Edenic river flowing through the new Jerusalem is a fulfillment of Joel’s proclamation that a fountain or spring will flow forth from the house of the Lord.[11] It is also notable that this river of living water flows right through the main street of the city.[12] In other words, the river which imparts “eternal fellowship with God is an essential characteristic of the city.”[13]
Isaiah describes similar springs of living water bursting forth in the wilderness, quenching the thirst of the poor and needy who seek water.[14] John Oswalt points out that it is likely not water that the exiles would have needed either in “well-watered Babylon” or on the return route to Jerusalem which followed the path of the Euphrates river. Water and thirst is used instead as a “powerful image of every human need – physical, spiritual and emotional,” which God alone can fulfill.[15] The salvation which comes through this river is not an escape route from the poverty and injustices of this world to some other-worldly paradise. It is the “salvation of the world”, which completely transforms and restores all of creation to the place where all people might dwell in the shalom of God’s presence.[16] God’s desire to redeem the world and retore life to the Dead Sea, to the wilderness, and to every corner of creation, is most clearly evidenced in the incarnation of Christ. In the person of Jesus, we see that “God desires fellowship so badly with his creatures that he becomes one of them to redeem them.”[17] The living water of God’s presence, as we will see, is accessible to humanity primarily through the incarnation of the Son of God.
Where are the places in your life where you drink most freely from the springs of living water?
When and where are you most aware of God’s presence with you?
At the end of each day this coming week, ask yourself, when did God feel the closest today and when did God seem the most distant? You may want to journal your answers each day and notice if there are any patterns or ways you might be more intentional about drawing near to God in your daily life..
[1] Genesis 3:23-24.
[2] Sandra L. Richter, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2008), 129.
[3] M. Robert Mulholland, Journey Through The Bible: Revelation, vol. 16 (The United Methodist Publishing House, 1999), 122.
[4] Revelation 21:16
[5] Mulholland, Journey Through The Bible: Revelation, 16:122.
[6] Ben Witherington, Revelation, New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 268.
[7] N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, New Testament for Everyone Series (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 199.
[8] Ezekiel 47:1-12.
[9] Revelation 22:1-5.
[10] Mulholland, Journey Through The Bible: Revelation, 16:125.
[11] Joel 3:18. See also Zechariah 14:8 where living waters flow forth from Jerusalem and the Lord becomes king over all the earth.
[12] G. K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 2013, 1104; Witherington, Revelation, 272.
[13] Beale, The Book of Revelation, 1104.
[14] Isaiah 41:17-20, 43:19-21.
[15] John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah. Chapters 40-66, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 94–95.
[16] Witherington, Revelation, 266.
[17] Witherington, 277.