Ezekiel's River

“Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.”Ezekiel 47:1 · KJV

Ezekiel is shown water trickling from under the threshold of the temple, and as he follows it, it deepens: ankles, knees, waist, and then “waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over” (Ezek 47:5). Everywhere it flows, the dead land lives.

The river gets deeper the farther it goes from its source, which no natural river does; rivers are fed by tributaries and Ezekiel's has none. It grows on its own. And it runs down to the Dead Sea, the saltiest water on earth where nothing lives, and heals it: “the waters shall be healed... every thing shall live whither the river cometh” (47:9). The trees on its banks bear fruit every month and their leaves never wither (47:12), the same river and the same trees John sees at the end (Rev 22:1-2). Grace starts as a trickle under a door and ends as a sea no one can cross.