NOTES for Eze 47:1-48:35

Once again we see how concrete details of the reality mentioned in the prophecy become details of a parable. The stream of living water flowing from beneath the temple threshold is the very living water of which Christ will speak several centuries later and which will restore the earthly waters now unfit to drink. The waters of the Dead Sea remind us of the grievous sin that disfigured the face of the earth, for they stretch over Sodom and Gomorrah, once a focus of sinfulness and made to taste its consequences. But just as the stream of living water will change the composition of the Dead Sea, so the consequences of the evil committed and still being committed by people will be healed and overcome by the Lord.

Then we see the command to apportion land to foreigners on equal terms with the Israelites, which may cause bewilderment. We have just read other instructions concerning them and recalled the separation from foreigners that Ezra would organize after a period brief by historical standards. Yet we will understand that there is no contradiction if we see this separation as a temporary measure conditioned by particular circumstances, rather than as a final and absolute law intended for all time.