Part 2: The Direction Of Water
Every life is aimed at something.
Some lives are aimed at money, pleasure, or reputation. Some aim at nothing at all, just drifting wherever the current pulls them.
But the direction of a life matters more than almost anything else about it. Two men can start in the same place and end up worlds apart, because of where they were aimed.
Water is the same way. A river without direction is a swamp. But a river with direction becomes a lifeline for everything downstream.
In Part 1 we saw what the water is. It is salvation. It is Christ Himself. It is living, free, quenching, and running through the whole Bible.
Now we need to see where the water is aimed. Because when you drink from this river, you find purpose. The direction of the water becomes the direction of your life.
What Ezekiel Saw
Ezekiel 47:1 “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.”
Four directional details in one verse:
1. Eastward
2. From the right side of the house
3. At the south side of the altar
4. And in verse 8, into the desert and into the sea
Every one of those details is a Gospel picture.
1. The Water Takes You Eastward
The water flows east and East is the direction of the sunrise. Every morning starts in the east.
When God aimed His river east, He aimed it toward light, toward morning, toward a new day.
Malachi 4:2 “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
Luke 1:78 “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.”
Christ is the Sun of righteousness and dayspring from on high. The river God deposited in Ezekiel’s vision flowed toward the sunrise because it flowed toward Christ.
The Gospel was first preached in the eastern parts of the world. Christ began His ministry in Galilee. He called His disciples in the east. He preached, healed, and rose again in the east. The direction of the river was pointing to the direction of the Gospel.
If you have drunk this water, your life is now aimed east. Your life is aimed at the sunrise. Your life is aimed at Christ, the Sun of righteousness, who has risen with healing in His wings.
A Christian who has been reached by this river is not aimed at the sunset. He is aimed at the morning!
His best day is coming. Every step he takes is one step closer to the dayspring from on high.
2. The Water Takes You To The Side Of Blessing
The water comes down from the right side of the house.
If a man stood facing east, the south would be on his right hand. So the “right side of the house” was the south side.
In Scripture, the right hand is always the side of blessing, favor, and strength.
When Jacob blessed his grandsons, he crossed his hands to put his right hand on the son he was blessing more (Genesis 48:14). When Christ sits in glory, He sits at the right hand of God the Father. When the sheep and the goats are separated, the sheep stand on the right hand.
* Matthew 25:33 “And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”
* Matthew 25:34 “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
* Ephesians 1:20 “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.”
* Psalm 16:11 “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
The water did not come out of God’s left hand of judgment. It came out of His right hand of blessing!
If you have drunk this water, you are being pulled toward God’s right hand. You are being pulled toward the side of the sheep, not the side of the goats. You are being pulled toward the side of blessing, favor, pleasure, and inheritance.
The direction of the water is not judgment for the one who drinks; it is blessing! It flows from the right hand of God to bring you to the right hand of God.
3. The Water Passed The Blood Before It Reached You
The water flowed at the south side of the altar.
That altar was the altar of burnt offering. It stood in front of the temple. Every morning and every evening, blood was poured out on that altar.
Blood for sin, atonement and that pointed to a greater blood that would one day be shed on a hill outside Jerusalem.
The river had to pass by that altar. It could not reach anyone until it flowed past the blood.
Hebrews 9:22 “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
There is no Gospel without the blood and there is no living water without the cross. Every drop of this river passed by the altar before it flowed out to the world.
The water that reached you had already passed by the blood.
When it got to you, it was not just water. It was water that had picked up the cleansing of Christ. When you drank it, you were not just quenched, you were cleaned. The blood of the Lamb had been mixed into every drop before it ever touched your lips.
You did not have to run to the altar yourself. The river ran past the altar for you. And it brought the cleansing of the blood right to where you were.
This is God’s grace!
4. The Water Takes You Where Death Is
The water flowed east, past the altar, and then kept going.
Ezekiel 47:8 “Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.”
Two places: the desert and the sea.
The desert is the wilderness of the people, the Gentiles. The Gospel was carried to us when rejected by the Jews. The desert stands for the dry, the barren, the ones who had never had the water before.
The Dead sea, or sea of Sodom, the lake Asphaltites, where nothing is said to live. It’s a picture of dead sinners. The Dead Sea stands for the deadest and lowest place on earth. Nothing lives or grows there. It is the lowest, saltiest, most lifeless body of water on earth.
And that is exactly where God aimed His river!
He did not aim it at the Jordan, which already had water. He did not aim it at the Mediterranean, which was already full. He aimed it at the desert, which had no fresh water, and at the Dead Sea, which had no life.
God aims His Gospel at the places that need it most. At the driest, deadest areas. To those who have nothing.
If you have parts of your life that feel like a desert right now, God’s river can fix that. If you feel like the Dead Sea right now, the river is coming for you. Simply ask Him to revive you and He will send the river directly to your heart.
And if you have already been reached by the water, then you are now part of the direction. You are not a pond, you are a channel.
John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
The water that reached you does not stop at you. It flows through you, which means every Christian who has been reached by this river is now aimed at the next desert, the next Dead Sea, the next dry place, the next person who thought they were too far gone.
The Direction Of The Water Is A Direction Of Grace
Put the four details back together:
1. The water flowed east, toward the sunrise, toward Christ Himself.
2. It came from the right side of the house, the side of blessing.
3. It passed by the altar, picking up the cleansing of the blood.
4. And it aimed at the desert and the sea, the driest and deadest places on earth.
The water that reached you was aimed at you and now that it has reached you, you are aimed at somebody else.
Two questions to finish this blog:
1. Are you in the river? Have you ever drunk this water? Have you come to Christ and drunk? If not, the river is aimed at you right now. The direction of the water is toward you. Come and drink.
2. Are you flowing with the river? If you have drunk, are you letting the water flow through you? Or have you become a pond, stagnant, keeping the water to yourself? The direction of the water does not stop when it reaches you. It keeps flowing and it is now aimed at the next desert through your life.
