Ezekiel 47: Living Fish in the Dead Sea

Introduction

When we celebrate the harvest festival, we think of fruit, nuts, pumpkins, flowers and a good meal. We give thanks for everything that grew during the year. But Markus Wüthrich reminds us of something simple: "Without water, nothing grows. Without healthy water, there is no life."

This message was preached at FEG Luzern Süd during a joint service with the Tamil church House of Peace, with translation into Tamil. The preacher follows the vision of Ezekiel 47:1-12, a river that flows out of the temple, grows deeper and deeper, and finally heals the waters of the Dead Sea.

He stops at three stations: the temple, where the spring rises; the river, ever deeper; the Dead Sea, where life returns. His conviction fits in one sentence: God, too, has a brilliant irrigation system for this world.

Message Outline

1. Human Genius for Bringing Water

The preacher finds it remarkable how people have always found ways to use water: so that farming can thrive, to produce electricity, to be able to live.
We have learned to carry water from rainy regions to dry ones. The Romans built their aqueducts. The Moroccans fetch water from the Atlas Mountains and bring it all the way to Marrakech.
In Switzerland, snow falls on the mountains and water is stored there, then gathered in the lakes, rivers and streams that cross the country. Switzerland has a great deal of groundwater, about 6% of Europe's freshwater reserves.
In Sri Lanka, rain does not fall evenly across the island. Two thousand years ago, people there invented a system called Ellanga: small reservoirs collect the water, which overflows into the next reservoir, then the next, and so on. This water is used to grow rice, to produce electricity and, of course, to drink.
"God also has a brilliant irrigation system for this world. We need healthy water, and we need living water."

2. Ezekiel's Context: God's Glory Returns to the Temple

Ezekiel is one of the four major prophets. He said that we human beings need living water. We must be renewed in our hearts, and the whole land must be renewed, because so much sin destroys the land. Ezekiel often speaks of this God who wants to step into this world.
The prophet lives at a time when the temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed. In an earlier vision, he had seen God, in all his glory, leave Jerusalem and move away from that temple (Ezekiel 10).
Why? An idol stood in the temple (Ezekiel 8). The people of Israel no longer worshiped the living God and no longer kept his commandments. God called out: "Return to me." They refused to listen, and God decided to withdraw.
Later, Ezekiel receives a new vision: a temple is rebuilt, and a man leads him through it, measuring as he goes. The temple is beautiful and pure, and Ezekiel sees God return in his glory and fill it (Ezekiel 43).
Then he sees water coming out from under the threshold of the temple, flowing south of the altar, and then bursting out through the wall on the outside, like a new spring.

3. First Station: The Source Is in the Temple, and It Is Jesus

This wall separates the holy place, inside, from the world, outside. But it is permeable: the water of life passes through it and pours out. It becomes a source for our strength, our vision, the meaning of our lives, and wisdom.
We may have many different sources that drive our lives. We act in a certain way because we were taught at school, or because our family handed it down to us. Tamil culture and Swiss culture are not quite the same.
But there is one central source, the one we need, the one that makes our lives healthy. It flows from the temple, the place where God makes his covenant with human beings, where he is present in his holiness and reconciles us to himself, the place where he calls: "Come to me, I want to forgive you."
What is this temple? The Bible itself explains it. In Jesus' day, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated in Jerusalem, a week spent under shelters of leafy branches and tents. On the last day, the priest took water and poured it out, recalling Ezekiel 47: God will give a time when living water will flow from the temple.
That is the moment Jesus stood up: "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!'" (John 7:37). He was claiming to be the fulfillment of this temple from which living water flows.
Jesus also said that his body is a temple that would be raised in three days (John 2:19-21). Here is where God's meeting with human beings begins, here is where the living water has its source.
"Whoever thirsts for life must come to Jesus. Whoever thirsts for forgiveness must come to Jesus. Whoever thirsts for healthy relationships must come to Jesus. Whoever thirsts for hope must come to Jesus. Come to Jesus."

4. Second Station: A River That Grows Ever Deeper

The water comes out of the temple wall and becomes a stream, then a brook, then a river. On the right and on the left, trees stay green all year round. This is God's irrigation system.
The Gospel of John, at the moment Jesus stands up and says "Come to me," explains what this living water means: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water." But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn't yet glorified" (John 7:38-39).
Jesus was crucified and rose again three days later. Since then, we can be healthy believers who do a great deal of good and bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
It also means that we can be healthy churches, proclaiming the Gospel of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
The trees planted on the right and on the left of the river "are you and me." Psalm 1 says so: the one who delights in the law of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water.
Faith in Jesus Christ transforms. We can experience a new birth, see the old self, which consumes itself, stripped away, and put on the new self, filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:22-24). Then rivers of living water can flow out of us.
The preacher asks the question: in our lives, is this river a little stream that reaches our ankles when we wade through it? A little deeper, up to our knees? Deeper still, up to our hips, so that we have to be careful to get across, because it is God's power? "Let us be God's irrigation system for this world."

5. Third Station: Life Returns to the Dead Sea

The river flows out of the temple, pours into the plain of the Arabah, the Jordan Valley, and then into the Dead Sea. This sea, whose salt water prevents any life, becomes healthy.
For Markus Wüthrich, the vision means that God's kingdom flows into our world, and the church is part of it. "Everything will live wherever the river comes" (Ezekiel 47:9): where the House of Peace church is, where FEG Luzern Süd is, and also at your home, life can appear.
"Let us be churches that open their hearts to the hungry," that care for people, that stand with those who have no clothes, that welcome the homeless and give them a home, where the oppressed receive justice and where the grace of the Lord is proclaimed.
These are the things Jesus spoke about, the things by which his people are recognized (Matthew 25:35-36). This is the living water flowing into this Dead Sea world: people are blessed and healed.

6. Fruit for Food, Leaves for the Healing of the Nations

Ezekiel's gaze returns to the river. On both its banks grow trees whose fruit is used for food and whose leaves are used for medicine (Ezekiel 47:12).
This is a prophetic vision, and the last book of the Bible describes a very similar one: "He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1).
This river flows down the middle of the great street. On either side stands the tree of life, bearing twelve different kinds of fruit, producing a new fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).
The apostle John sees leaves for the healing of the peoples, of the nations. God wants healing not only for his own people but for the nations. Jesus told his disciples: "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).
Jesus' church is not made up of a single people. With Jesus there are many different ways of living, "but we have only one great task": fruit for food and leaves for the healing of the nations, bringing life into what is dead in this world.
"Yes, there are living fish in the Dead Sea." Spiritually speaking, there is new life in our world through faith in Jesus Christ.

7. What You Take Away

The preacher ends by asking what each person takes away from this message.
Always quench our thirst at Jesus' side, and nowhere else.
Be healthy trees that bear fruit, and carry God's living water into this world for its healing.
In his closing prayer, he thanks Jesus for standing up to say that he is the source of life, and for explaining that this living water is his Holy Spirit. He asks that this day be a contribution to the healing of the nations and that the church bear fruit that feeds.

Key Takeaways

God has an irrigation system for this world: living water that flows out of the temple and passes through the wall separating the holy place from the world.
The source is Jesus. Whatever you thirst for, life, forgiveness, healthy relationships or hope, come to him.
The living water is the Holy Spirit. It makes you a tree planted by the stream, bearing fruit in every season.
Where the church lets this water flow, life returns: the hungry are fed, the homeless welcomed, the oppressed defended.
The fruit feeds and the leaves heal the nations: one great task, bringing life where everything seems dead.

Personal Application

Where do you draw your strength, your vision and the meaning of your life today: school, your family, your culture, or Jesus?
What are you thirsty for right now: forgiveness, healthy relationships, hope? What keeps you from going to Jesus to drink?
In your life, does the river reach your ankles, your knees or your hips? What would make it grow?
Around you, at home, at work or in your church, where do you see a "Dead Sea" that needs living water?
What concrete step can you take this week to feed someone, welcome them or contribute to their healing?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the temple from which the water flows represent in Ezekiel 47?

For Markus Wüthrich, the temple is the place where God makes his covenant with human beings and reconciles them to himself. The Bible itself gives the key: at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!" (John 7:37). Jesus is the fulfillment of this temple from which the living water flows.

What does the living water mean in Ezekiel 47 and John 7?

John 7:39 explains it: Jesus was speaking about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. The preacher draws a consequence from this: believers who are spiritually healthy and bear the fruit of the Spirit, and healthy churches that proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation with God.

Why speak of living fish in the Dead Sea?

In the vision, the river flows into the Dead Sea, where no life is possible, and its waters become healthy: there will be a great multitude of fish. For Markus Wüthrich, this is the picture of God's kingdom flowing into our world. Spiritually, there is new life through faith in Jesus Christ, where everything seemed dead.