Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 47

Verse 9

Ezekiel 47:9

Notice:

I. The spring of this life-giving river. It had its spring out of sight; the fountain head was invisible, but it proceeded out of the sanctuary of God. Its waters flowed by the altar of sacrifice; they touched it; they crossed its shadow; they got permission, as it were, to go on their way from the altar. How pointedly this tells of the Holy Spirit, the river of the water of eternal life, proceeding out of the throne of God! It is God's own essence, communicated to us men over the cross of Jesus, for His name's sake.

II. The size of the river. In its growing tide we have symbolised the gift of the Holy Spirit (1) to the patriarchs; (2) to the pious Israelites, such as Joshua and Caleb and the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, and especially to the prophets: (3) during the ministry of Christ; (4) on the Day of Pentecost.

III. The service of the river. "Everything shall live whither the river cometh." It shall come into hearts hard as the nether millstone, and soften them; unto families poor as beggars, and enrich them; unto neighbourhoods that have been desert, and cause them to rejoice and blossom as the rose; unto natures which have been unprofitable, and make them plenteously to bring forth the fruit of good works.

J. Bolton, Family Treasury, Dec. 1863, p. 307.

Consider:

I. The bearing of the Gospel on men's social condition. (1) It is capable of the clearest proof that Christianity is the only thing that has given purity and loveliness to the household. The Lord Jesus has revolutionised, if not created, family life. (2) The religion of Jesus has promoted kindness between man and man.

II. Consider the influence of the Gospel upon civil liberty. The Bible contains no treatise on civil government, but its principles lay the axe to the root of every form of despotism. Jesus has taught us not only to assert freedom of conscience for ourselves, but to respect and defend its exercise by others.

III. Look at the department of literature, and you will see how, when the river of the Gospel has flowed into a nation, it has quickened that also into richer growth. Avowedly religious writers, of course, have been indebted to it for their all; but even those who have had no directly spiritual aim have been largely beholden to its quickening power.

IV. Look at the influence of Christianity upon science. Physical sciences have made the greatest progress in countries where Protestant Christianity has taken the strongest hold. In standing up for liberty of conscience and of opinion for themselves, the witnesses for religious truth have won also for science the right to hold and teach its own deductions and beliefs. The Gospel teaches men to follow truth at every hazard, and every new triumph of science will in the end give a new impulse to spiritual religion.

V. From the day when Paul was carried in a corn-ship from Malta to Puteoli, commerce and Christianity have been mutual helpers. Sometimes the trader has gone before the missionary, but wherever the missionary has settled and succeeded, he has by his very success given an impulse to commerce.

W. M. Taylor, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 273.

References: Ezekiel 47:9 . W. Guest. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 184.Ezekiel 47:11 . Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 294.Ezekiel 47:12 . J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 120, and vol. xxix., p. 168; J. P. Gledstone, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 327. Ezekiel 48:35 . J. Keble, Sermons for Various Occasions, p. 256.