Ezekiel’s Vision of Hope
Study Scripture: Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12
Background: Ezekiel 47: Acts 2:17-36
Devotional: Revelation 7:9- 17
Lesson 13 November 29, 2025
Key Verse
And by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail.
They will bear fruit every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing Ezekiel 47:12
INTRODUCTION
What it our future?
Ezekiel tells us what our future is in our Lesson Study which deals with and revolves around God’s presence on the earth.
This brings the fulfillment of the hope from the time our father and mother sinned in the Garden of Eden and were expelled from this Paradise.
The hope was that God’s Plan prophesied in Genesis 3:15 would bring with it a rescue mission from sin and the curse on the earth. So note the element revealed by the prophet Ezekiel. He gives:
- The image of the Temple, the place of worship where He dwells,
- The restoration of the nation of Israel after the picture of the Chapter 37 Valley of Dry Bones assessment of Israel and the brokenness caused by sin and the exile of the people of God,
- A river of life flowing from the re-established Temple with the river of Life flowing from this Temple with the Throne of God
- The process of restoration where the river of life starts with a trickle and then grows to an immeasurable deep flood of increasingly depth
- The process of restoration occurring in a drastically refigures topology of the land of Israel
- The incredible fruitfulness which pictures the Garden of Eden-like restoration which brings hope and joy to the people of God.
We are now taken to look at the picture of how the prophet Ezekiel describes how the presence of God will return to be with His people and His temple and how this hope will be fulfilled and things will be better than ever before.
Note that we are now looking at prophecy received directly from God to the prophet who had previously warned about the impending fall of Jerusalem and its destruction, the desecration of the Temple, and the abuse of the people. These were devastating events and the exiled people of God had lamented that all was lost and they could not see any possible fulfillment of the promises made to the patriarchs and the fathers of the nation.
So here we have Ezekiel’s message of hope. He works hard to give us a mental picture of how hope plays out and what it will be like. He uses imagery which evokes Jesus’ depiction to the woman at the well in Samaria where living water springs up from a restored knowledge- filled people without stopping and bringing eternal life because the promised Messiah is there and the Temple where men will worship God in spirit and in truth now exists.
The Samaritan woman had been told that the time is coming when the earth will be restored. People will no longer live lives of shame and will have to hide and struggle, and go daily to get water to meet their physical needs. There will accompanying this new era where Messiah will tell all things, no disease, sickness, aging or death will be there, but bounty in nature everywhere.
So here the prophet presents the picture of what life will be like before the final consummation of things pictured in Revelation 21. The prophet now has a tour guide and so he will have to use all the language tools he has to explain what his vision of hope means for us. It is believed that he has the same difficulty he had in Chapter 1 in explaining and interpreting what he actually saw.
Note though that this vision of hope presents us with spiritual reality. This is a vision of God’s glory. And it is a picture of what the restoration of things will be like under the New Covenant.
We are permitted to ask when this vision of Ezekiel’s hope will take place.
This hope will be for the nation of Israel as well as for Gentiles that have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and hence have been redeemed and inherited the promises of salvation and a great future spoken to Abraham.
In Romans 11 the Apostle Paul recalled the prophecy when he spoke about the state of Israel:
‘God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day”.
And also that prophecy of King David where he spoke of the stumbling of Israel:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them
Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always”
‘I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not!
But through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness.
For I speak to you Gentiles inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
If by any means I may provoke to jealously those who are my flesh and save some of them.
For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them become a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches.
But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you”.
In Verses 19 through 24 the Apostle warns Gentiles against being puffed-up and show their gross misunderstanding of and ignorance of the Plan of God. So he states again:
“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, ;lest should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written;
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
When I take away their sins”.
So what do you expect?
Do you know you like the remnant people of Israel have an inheritance which marks a new beginning?
This message is a counter-foil to the disaster described in Ezekiel 8 through 11 when God’s glory departed from the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
But now God has returned as we will be in verses 1-5, and the promised restoration will be fulfilled.
Now begins the stage when the preparatory event of Joel 3:18 and John 7:37-39 and Revelation 22:1-3 will be in process.
Joel’s prophecy of the River of God will now be fulfilled.
But note as we study that this will be a strange river. When water flows normally the stream gets smaller as it moves through the land if there are no new sources of water such as tributaries and springs to feed the river.
But this trickle of water that comes from the new Temple becomes a raging river without any new sources of water and brings incredible blessings of healing.
So we encourage every believer to take note of this hope brought by Ezekiel to believers in God.
You have to consider if the life-giving water refers to the water brought by the Spirit as promised to the woman of Samaria at that well.
If that is so this life-giving water should be flowing from you to the world around you so that the wonderful results of fruitfulness Jesus has promised.
At your salvation the river of life you have to give out might start as a trickle, but as one writer states
“For the river to flow in increasing measure, the life of a believer needs to be more and more transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Only the continual transformation assures the continual supply of life from heaven. Simply to state, transformed lives are the answer to today’s dying world”.
So we now have to ask you?
Are you ready to not grieve the Holy Spirit and resist His work of transforming you into the likeness ofJesus Christ so that this life-giving river will flow through you to heal the world around you?
Note the new world in not a world of scarcity, where unlimited wants and needs face limited resources. The basic economic problem of our world is that there is never enough resources or materials to satisfy the needs and wants of every person. Hence inequality develops and increasingly creates divisions, abuse of the helpless, and violence.
Man’s problem is that two kingdom exists on earth at the same time. In one kingdom there is never enough for all. But in the kingdom of God the scarcity problem does not exist for as one writer reminds us;
“In the kingdom of God, the widow’s olive oil never runs out. In God’s economy a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread can feed thousands. In God’s economy, water that starts out as a trickle grows as it flows from the temple…..
But we can’t make the mistake of applying the scarcity economy to our spiritual lives. In the kingdom of God, the blessing of God grows. In the kingdom of God, there is enough.
Whatever else is true in your life, God is enough. You may not have enough in this kingdom, but in God’s kingdom, there is abundance. God will make it grow. It is enough”.
We are well aware that believers have great difficulty in changing their way of thinking that the principles of this world run by demonic forces resemble in any way the world of the kingdom of God. We therefore urge you to study the Scriptures, immerse yourself in them, and remain in deep contact with the Holy Spirit.
Memorize Psalm 73 which warn you that you need right thinking to avoid the danger the psalmist was in for he admitted
“But as for me,, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked”.
Memorize also Psalm 37.
THE TEXT
Our Study Scripture follows Ezekiel’s prophecy against the final enemies of Israel called Gog and Magog, the description of Israel as a nation of dry and lifeless bones that will be supernaturally revived, the attack of Gog and Magog on this helpless nation, the destruction of this enemy and the disposal, the subsequent cleansing of Israel after that futile attack and then the vision of a glorious Temple with a detailed vision of a future Temple where genuine worship of God will occur in His presence.
The physical structure is described in detail and there is therefore much controversy about how this should be interpreted.
There are great questions in the discussion of this Temple in view of the popular dispensational expectations of a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, during the Tribulation and the millennial age.
We must therefore understand that our Study will examine what this Chapter 47 means. The interpretation of the elements are all controversial and the only agreement is on the fact that this vision can only make sense only if one focuses on the hope of the presence of God and the blessing this brings.
One writer G.K. Beale outlines the four main interpretations of Ezekiel’s prophecy and how it is fulfilled (or not) in the New Testament.
- Dispensationalists believe that this vision is a prophecy on an earthly temple to be built within Israel during the millennial age. Dispensationalists base this interpretation upon their literal hermeneutics which they say demands that a prophecy such as this can be interpreted literally, unless there is good reason to believe the prophecy should be interpreted figuratively.
- Unlike dispensationalists, advocates of the other interpretations all agree that the context demands a figurative interpretation…
- Some see this as an ideal temple never intended to be built upon the earth, (in my estimation the weakest interpretation, while still others see this as a vision of a picture of the ideal temple,
- While others see this as a picture of a real Heavenly Temple, which will be established on the earth in a non-structured way in the latter days.
In other words, I believe EzekieL is giving us a picture of the new earth in the prophetic terms with which his readers were familiar…This is a picture of the new earth as the dwelling place of God. Ezekiel’s prophecies s in earthly terms (complete with all the temple utensils), while John describes its final version (in eschatological terms)…..Given the nature of Ezekiel’s prophecy this language should alert us.”
Some therefore believe that the prophet’s language that he is taken into a high mountain and sees a city that seems to be like Jerusalem is significant to what he is seeing for there no high mountain then around him. John in Revelation also is being taken by the Spirit into a high mountain to see the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven.
In addition, several features in the prophecy might refer to something much greater than a localized temple in Jerusalem during the millennium.
The most important and indisputable thing for Ezekiel however which stands out is that God is there.
But some scholars not of the dispensationalist persuasion believe
“that Revelation 21 presents Ezekiel’s vision in its consummated fulfillment. In other words, John is given a vision of the same temple, but now from the vantage point of Christ’s death and resurrection and the dawn of the new creation—something which would have made no sense whatsoever to Ezekiel or to hishearers…
On the last day, all creation become the temple of God. The temple has been expanded (extended) from a building, to a city, to all of creation”.
With this in mind let us examine what seems to be obvious as far as the prophet is concerned.
THE TEXT
Verses 1-2. After being brought to see the future Temple Ezekiel is brought by his angelic guide to the building proper main entrance and he sees water coming from the door of the temple on the south side as the East Gate is always closed. The water is coming from the place where the Bronze Sea normally stood. This bronze Sea stored water used for ceremonial washings when sacrifices were being offered.
Verse 3. The angelic guide took a measuring line to measure the water coming from the south side of the temple. When he did his first measure at about 1000 cubits which is about one-third of a mile the depth was ankle deep water.
The strange thing was that as Ezekiel went on the water was growing when it was not supposed to. The flowing waters of a stream is supposed to get smaller as it runs for streams and rivers do not get bigger except they are joined by new water sources of tributaries and other streams.
But this water from the Temple grows to become a mighty stream without any new sources of water. Remember as we read this Chapter that in the arid lands of the east water is a great blessing and it is always scarce. Water always run out and the water of streams evaporate or sink into the ground, There is never enough water.
This situation continues today and Israel has continuing water disputes with its neighbours.
But here there is a lot of water.
The Temple of God has obviously brought a great blessing for the water from the Temple does not evaporate and dissipate, dissolve or sink, but grows from a trickle. The blessing of God brings life and overflows.
Verse 4. When the guide measured and led Ezekiel along the watercourse he led the prophet another 1000 cubits and now the water was now up to his knees. Then at the next 1000 cubit measurement the water was up to the prophet’s loins.
Verse 5. When the guide measured after another 1000 cubits the water was now a river that Ezekiel could not cross because it was so deep they would have to swim to cross it.
Clearly the topography was not the same as that of the then or present day Israel. The route the water was taking from the eastern region going down to the Arabah, the dry and desolate area around the Jordan is where they get only 2-4 inches of rain each year.
To enter the sea the route would not fit except the topography of the land of Israel was radically altered. One writer describes this route:
“The route that the river takes is impossible. It ‘flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea”. The sea is the Dead Sea, and to get there from Jerusalem via the route Ezekiel describes, it would have to flow down to the Kidron Valley, up over the Mount of Olives, and then cross through a series of other valleys and mountain ranges.
Gravity and other forces and pressures make this impossible for an ordinary river, but this is no ordinary river, and that is further confirmed by what happens when the river reaches the Dead Sea”.
And also we are advised,
“We are looking at a drop of elevation of over 3,700 feet from the Temple Mount of 2,400 feet above sea level to the Dead Sea of 1,290 feet below sea level.
The Dead Sea presently contains 24-26 percent minerals compared with normal sea water that contains 4-5 percent. This is the reason no fish or other aquatic life lives in it”.
Verses 6-7. The guide made very sure that Ezekiel saw what was happening. He brought the prophet to the edge of the river.
When the prophet looked he saw very many trees on both sides of the river.
Verse 8. Even the guide was impressed for the angel was talking about not any ordinary Sea but about what was happening in the area of the Dead Sea. This Sea is described thus:
“He’s referring to the Dead Sea which is almost 1,000 feet deep and is 9.6 times saltier than the ocean. It’s a great place to float, but you wouldn’t want to live there. Nothing does. Hence the name”.
“The salinity of the Dead Sea is so great that nothing lives in it. But when the river from the temple reaches it, the water is instantly transformed and can support fish of every kind”.
But the angel pointed to the power of God to heal and restore. He points out the water from the Temple goes down into the desert country and goes down to the Dead Sea bringing healing to the waters. The waters become fresh and when it becomes fresh it is no longer dead.
All along the banks trees flourish and fish and living creatures flourish.
Note carefully that this is not the way it should be as far as nature is concerned. When fresh water hits salt water you have salt water.. Just as when dirty meets something that is clean, the dirt spreads and the clean becomes dirty. So we know it is hard to keep things clean.
But here it is different. The water here is different. Wherever it goes it does not shrink and it does not become dirty or salty but it makes everything clean and fresh.
That is what the glory of God does. It overflows with blessing and it brings cleanness and abundance. It brings life.
Verses 9-12 states that the waters of God brings multitude of fish and life for the waters bring healing and thus life.
Fishermen can now spread their nets and produce food and make a good living where they could not before. All kinds of fish are to be found now. The wishes for restoration are exceeded by the result.
So how do you view the world and your ability to work in it to bringing a fresh and healed life?
Maybe you are so affected by the suffering, the injustice, and the pain people are feeling that you are overwhelmed. So you freeze and do a lot less than you can do.
But you forget that you are here to bring healing to the suffering and that the Holy Spirit will guide you to heal the suffering around you.
Remember and never forget that the world you belong to makes the clean overcome the unclean and healing overcomes sickness and pain. Knowing Jesus makes you clean. One writer therefore comments and advises:
“We see enough, and we are clean. Whatever failures you’ve had, whatever sin you are struggling with, in whatever way you are convinced that you fall short of some standard, know this. You are made clean. If you put your faith in Jesus, then the blessing of God has healed you. You are clean. You are healed. You are made whole.
We worry about sin and darkness and filth will infect us if we get too close. We worry about the little bit of leaven that might infect the bread.
But in the kingdom of God, light chases away the darkness. We don’t have to protect ourselves. We don’t have to isolate and withdraw and establish Christian enclaves where we think that sin cannot find us.
We take our cleanness into the world. We go out from here with light and watch the darkness flee. We are sent into our culture to transform and renew and heal. You are not of risk of bein infected. You are sent out to heal”.
God is wise and He leaves some of the places, the miry places where salt can be found. The marshes which are necessary for the life of nature will be left in place.
CONCLUSION
The river Ezekiel sees is a real river and it heals and gives life.
Some like to spiritualize this passage and see no literal significance in it.
But we know that healing and restoration comes from the throne of God and so we therefore fully agree with this writer who states:
“The river is like the blood of the Messiah from the cross of Calvary that began as a trickle (John 19:34). Finally, the blood, like the river, became a flood or of redemption for all people (Revelation 1:5).
So the flow from Calvary became a fountain of redemption for all people including Israel (See Zechariah 13:1-6); Revelation 1:5-6)Just so, the water of life that the prophet saw coming from the threshold came forth gently, then began to flow, and finally became a mighty river of life, healing all in its wake.