 |  |
tacklings are loosed; they could not strengthen the foot of the mast, they could not spread
the sail" (R.V.).
At no time in history has Jerusalem been "a place of broad rivers and streams"; and it
is meaningless to say that no galley with oars or gallant ship shall pass a city if it is miles
from the sea, and without a navigable river. The structure relates these references to the
enemy, of whom Israel need have no fear, but that only makes it more emphatic that a
great geographical change involving sea and river must have come about. Let the reader
ponder the following passages in the light of these predicted changes.
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee" (Isa. 43: 2).
There is a reference to the crossing of the Red Sea here, for in verse 3 the Lord says:
"I gave Egypt for thy ransom." However, Israel are told not to remember "the former
things":--
"Remember ye not the former things . . . . . Behold I will do a new thing: now it shall
spring forth . . . . . I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert . . . . .
I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert" (Isa. 43: 18-20).
Turning to Isa. 11: we read:--
"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11: 9).
How are we to understand this last phrase: "As the waters cover the sea"? The
expression is a strange one, for the sea itself is a gathering together of the waters. How
then can we speak of "waters" covering the "sea" as at the time of the flood, but "waters
covering the sea" seems a strange figure. The difficulty disappears if we regard these
words as representing a literal fact in relation to the Dead Sea. Water flowing down from
Jerusalem will cover the Dead Sea, and this fact is used as a figure of the fruitful results
of the knowledge of the Lord. The reader may perhaps ask how it is possible for waters
from Jerusalem to cover the Dead Sea, and to this problem we must now address
ourselves.
The last nine chapters of Ezekiel are devoted to the restoration of Israel's land and
temple in the last days. In chapter 47: we read of waters that flow from Jerusalem
becoming a river that a man might "swim in", a river that cannot be "passed over".
Ezekiel's attention is drawn to the direction in which this river flows:--
"These waters issue out toward the east country (i.e. they flow inland, not down to the
Mediterranean), and go down into the desert (Arabah, the plain, Deut. 2: 18--associated
with the Jordan and the "sea of the plain, even the salt sea", that is the "Dead Sea") and
go into the sea (i.e. the Dead Sea), which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall
be healed" (Ezek. 47: 8).
That the Dead Sea is meant is rendered certain by verse 10, for Engedi stands on its
western shore (see map).