Ezekiel’s vision of hope

This passage from Ezekiel 47 is filled with hope.

For the original recipients of this message, hope may have been quite dim. Here toward the end of Ezekiel, the destruction of Jerusalem—which was so immediate in the earlier sections of the book—is now a memory that took place years earlier. The people are truly living in exile, and God’s words through Ezekiel turn to the promise that the people will one day be restored. God will not leave the people in exile forever but will bring them back to a restored temple and renewed worship.

A vision of restoration

This entire chapter is the continuation of a vision Ezekiel experiences that allows him to see these promises worked out. As one would expect of a vision, it is filled with symbols and metaphors, but at its heart, the vision is concrete: God’s people will one day be restored; their exile is not forever.

The section of the vision containing this text has to do with the temple. Ezekiel, who throughout the vision has been led from place to place by an otherworldly being called only “a man,” is now shown a stream that flows from the entrance of the temple. As Ezekiel follows the stream, his heavenly tour guide periodically measures it. The stream measures deeper and wider as it runs its course, until it becomes a river “that could not be crossed” (v. 5).

The river flows eastward from the temple, out of the city of Jerusalem, and onward into the Arabah. In fact, in this vision Ezekiel is told that it flows into the Dead Sea and, when it does, the water will be renewed and there will be fish in abundance.

This vision of renewal and new life is symbolic for God’s restoration of Israel. It may have been inspired by Ezekiel’s experience in Babylon, where the Euphrates River was a source of water and life for people. In verse 7 and again in verse 12, Ezekiel sees fruit-laden trees growing beside the river.

His guide informs him of the extraordinary nature of these trees: not only will they never wither, but their leaves also heal. God provides a lifegiving river that feeds trees, which in turn nourish both the body and the spirit of a people still mourning the utter destruction of their homeland.

This text provides a beautiful and complex image of restoration and new life. It provides a word of hope for the people living in exile, reminding them that their current predicament is not permanent but rather temporary.

Although there would be many years of exile left for those who originally heard Ezekiel’s message, there was still a light at the end of the tunnel. God had not abandoned the people to exile but would restore them and bring healing.

For all time

This message of hope is significant to its original recipients, but it may seem distant to those living in relative comfort. Indeed, for Christians, our ultimate home is in Jesus’ kingdom and not in any specific geographic locale on earth. So, what hope does this passage have to speak into our lives today?

To begin, we should be careful to note that around the world there are Christians and others who share the experience of the ancient Israelites, having been driven out of their homes. Our fellow Christians in Gaza, for instance, have lost homes and family members to the violence and destruction in that region. Many people around the world today know what it is to lack clean water and adequate and nutritious food and to live far from the place they call home, or to be separated from family members.

While those living in developed countries may not have those experiences, there are those who do have such experiences and it is important in our own interpretation and application of scripture not to forget our fellow Christians around the world for whom this passage may speak in more immediate ways.

Nevertheless, this passage speaks hope, not only into the lives of those truly suffering exile and destitution, but into the lives of all people everywhere. How so? This particular image of hope is picked up by John of Patmos in Revelation and further developed.

In Revelation 22:1-2, John has a vision of a river which is bright as crystal. John’s river flows not from the temple—which, by the time John is writing had been destroyed by the Romans—but from God’s throne. Vernard Eller, in his commentary on Revelation, calls this a “theological improvement over Ezekiel.” In any case, this river flows through the middle of the street of the New Jerusalem. On either side of this river is the tree of life, which bears 12 different kinds of fruit, and its leaves are “for the healing of the nations.”

For all people and places

Clearly, Revelation 22:1-2 is dependent on Ezekiel’s vision. John’s experience further develops Ezekiel’s vision and universalizes it to some extent. The river flows not from the temple in Jerusalem, but from God’s very throne. The trees not only bear food but bear different sorts of fruit depending on the month. The leaves are not meant to heal the exiles alone but rather to heal the nations.

As beautiful as Ezekiel’s vision is, John’s vision goes even further. It widens the promise from the specific Israelite exiles living with Ezekiel to all the people of the world. Even the nations will be healed by this lifegiving water and these trees fed by it. John’s use of this image ties the river and tree motif to the eschatological hope of the gospel.

Eschatology is a big word that simply refers to our theology of the end. For Christians, our ultimate hope is that Jesus will one day return and set right a world broken and marred by sin. Where there is hatred, Jesus will bring love. Where there is violence, restoration. Where there is despondency, hope. Where there is bondage, freedom. Jesus will bring life and healing.

Imagining this reality is one way we experience hope in the here and now. Of course, when we imagine what this may look like practically, it can be easy to imagine what we want and not necessarily the full, wide, scandalous restoration that God talks about in scripture.

What do I mean by this? When we imagine Jesus returning, we often imagine him setting things right in the way we want. Punishing the people we dislike or with whom we disagree.

Setting up the world to be the way we’re most comfortable with. This is natural, and, as human beings, we often see only a portion of what God intends. After all, even Ezekiel appears to have been able to process only part of God’s intentions. Ezekiel sees trees “for healing,” but John sees trees “for the healing of the nations.”

Why this difference? Perhaps Ezekiel, living in exile with a community that had just been harmed, shattered, and hurt by “the nations,” was not ready or able to realize a message that meant healing for the perpetrators of violence as well as the victims. John, living in a
different context, and looking at these trees through the lens of Jesus’ death and resurrection, sees a fuller picture.

The hope that Ezekiel’s vision reveals is scandalous. It is a hope that spreads far beyond ethnic or national boundaries. It is a hope that extends to the entire world. A hope that, for Christians, finds its culmination in Jesus.