Fruitful Trees from the Living Water

Fruitful Trees from the Living Water.

“… The blessed ones are they who thrill to God’s Word, delighting in the instructions of the Lord; who think deeply about Scripture day and night, meditating, murmuring, and musing on God’s inspired teaching. The blessed person will be like a tree planted by God’s design and purpose, planted by streams of living water, the tree yielding its fruit in due season, its leaf always in blossom, never withering. Whatever this blessed person does will prosper, everything will succeed.” (Psalm 1:1,3).

(1.). Ezekiel’s Vision of the Living Water that Produces the Fruitful Trees. “My heavenly guide brought me back to the entrance to the Temple, and I saw fresh water bubbling up from beneath the Temple threshold… My guide then led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of flourishing fruit trees on both sides of the river. The man then said to me, ‘This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Jordan Valley, where it enters the Dead Sea Valley. When it empties into the Dead Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be a large number of fish, because this water makes the salt water fresh. Where the river flows, everything will live… Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. They will bear a fresh crop of fruit every month. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail, because their water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” (the full vision is found in Ezekiel 47:1-12).

• A Brief Background of Ezekiel. While Isaiah is the prophet of God the Son, and Jeremiah is the prophet of God the Father, Ezekiel is known as the prophet of the Holy Spirit. He repeatedly reports that “the Spirit entered me,” or “the Spirit lifted me up,” or “the Spirit of the Lord fell on me.” Ezekiel makes it very clear that the Holy Spirit is the driving force throughout his book. The Spirit is in charge. The book of Ezekiel could just as easily be called “the gospel according to the Holy Spirit.” Ezekiel was called to be a Hebrew prophet, a priest and a street preacher in Babylon during the captivity of the Israelites. God appointed him at the tender age of 30 years old, and he continued in this role for 22 years. Time and again, God asked Ezekiel to demonstrate the Word of the Lord. God seemed to have a larger list of expectations for Ezekiel than most other prophets, and so Ezekiel had the widest spectrum of methods as he spoke and demonstrated what God had on His mind. You name a method and he did it: visual aid, demonstration, show and tell, poems, proverbs, parables, direct prophecies, and visions that were other-worldly and difficult to comprehend. Ezekiel tended to preach about Israel’s judgment as well as its salvation. He experienced many otherworldly visions, both apocalyptic and heavenly. He had a rich and lively imagination that was put to good use by the Lord. He was in the middle of one of these visions when his heavenly tour guide brought him to the entrance of the Temple…
• The River from the Temple. One of Ezekiel’s most fascinating visions occurred when his heavenly guide led him to the restored Temple, when the Holy Spirit will flood His people with blessings of flourishing life and spiritual vitality. The flowing spring from the sanctuary will cause the Dead Sea to go from death to life, from poisonous to healthy, from stagnant to glorious. The presence of Yahweh turns the putrid water to fresh water, bitter water to sweet, the very picture of redemption. The River of Life expands as it flows in this vision, the power of God at work in the world.
• The Holy Spirit of Blessing Flowing from the Temple of Jesus. Jesus called Himself the Temple (John 2:19), and He is the Ultimate Temple through whom flows the River of Life, the Holy Spirit. The River of Life very well did flow from Him to ankle-deep and then waist-high levels during His ministry on earth. But after His Ascension, the River of the Spirit flowed to unimagined heights, and the followers of Jesus learned how to swim, just like Ezekiel. Those who drank of the eternal springs of Christ took His life in, and then they gave it out. The life of God in them found an outlet, the Church became the Jordan River bringing life and health, and the world hasn’t been the same since.
• The Dead Sea. One would have to look far and wide to discover anything more desolate on earth than the Dead Sea Valley. It lies in the lowest place on the continent, and has been a repository for salt and other minerals since ancient times. The water of the Dead Sea is putrid, stagnant, and is not able to support any plant or animal life. The Dead Sea is literally lifeless. The reason is simple… Water flows in from the Jordan River, but water never flows out. It takes in fresh water, but there is no outflow. Fittingly, at the bottom of the Dead Sea lie the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, a morally dead culture long ago judged and destroyed by the Lord Himself.
• Learn to Swim! In his vision, it appears that Ezekiel had no choice but to happily dive into the flowing river and go swimming! Renowned Bible teacher, Bev Iber, winsomely expands on this… “Swimming is not like wading; it is the most strenuous form of motion. It involves every part of us. And it is only in fresh water that one can swim. One can only float in salt water. We “anawim” (those who are poor in spirit) must learn to be led like Ezekiel until we can swim in the flowing river of God’s love, knowing His current will carry us through the valleys and the deserts, until His river runs right through us. This is the domain of the Holy Spirit. All persons are invited to drink from the living water of our Lord Jesus Christ until the Day when we can swim in the eternal river of the water of life.”
• Let it Flow! As Rev. Richard Bieber mentions in one of his sermons (2008), we can become one or the other… the Dead Sea or the Jordan River, a source of death or a source of life. When we keep drinking in the living water of God but don’t provide any outflow, we become lifeless, stagnant, a sea of death. If we keep feeding on the Bread of Life but don’t bother to share that bread with others; when we keep receiving God’s mercy but don’t bother to forgive others; when we take in the Word of God but don’t flesh it out; when we receive God’s blessing and ignore the need to praise Him and bless His Name; when we walk out the church doors and leave behind any sign of God’s life in us… We inevitably become the Dead Sea. If the life of God flows into us but does not find an outlet, we will become lifeless. But when we give out what the Lord puts into us, we will be a gushing stream of life and vitality and healing, and His life will be constantly flowing out of us into the world. So let it flow!

(2.). The Water of the Spirit from the Lord Jesus. “On the last day, the great day of the Festival, Jesus stood and cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39).

• The Fountain of Water. Could Jesus have made this any clearer? At the most dramatic moment of the Feast of the Tabernacles, at the climax of the Water Ceremony in the Temple, Jesus boldly stands up in the crowd and pronounces Himself to be the only One who can satisfy our yearning for God, the only One who can quench our spiritual thirst. Jesus states here that He is the One who is the source of living water that will flow through eternity. He is claiming here that streams of living water gush from Him, just like in Ezekiel’s well-known vision, providing the Holy Spirit to enliven us and keep us fruitful. Jesus clearly fulfilled Jeremiah’s word that God was a “fountain of living water” (Jer. 2:13 and 17:13).
• Living Water with the Woman at the Well. Jesus starts things off by asking the woman for some water. Then He hints at the Hebrew Bible idea that she is probably not familiar with, since it’s not in the Pentateuch… the idea of God being a fountain of living water. Jesus starts slowly by hinting at living water. He could have quoted from Psalm 36:8-9, where David talks about drinking from God’s delicious streams since God is “the fountain of life.” Or Jesus could have told her about Isaiah 55:1: “O, come to the water all you who are thirsty.” Jesus didn’t start too heavy-handed by quoting unfamiliar passages like Isaiah 12:3: “And you shall draw water with rejoicing from the spring of salvation.” But then soon enough, after she got off track by taking Him literally, Jesus began to teach her about the spiritual water of His Holy Spirit. Jesus said that indeed He Himself is the living fountain that will satisfy her spiritual yearning for God. Only He can provide a never-ending stream of living water so that she will never be thirsty again. Only He can quench her spiritual thirst. “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). Jesus flatly offered that woman at the well “the drink that conquers time” (Kenneth Bailey). If you are looking to satisfy your thirst for God, you need look no further than the Spirit of Jesus, the living fountain.

(3.) The Fruitful Tree Planted by the Stream of Living Water. “… The blessed ones are they who thrill to God’s Word, delighting in the instructions of the Lord; who think deeply about Scripture day and night, meditating, murmuring, and musing on God’s inspired teaching. The blessed person will be like a tree planted by God’s design and purpose, planted by streams of living water, the tree yielding its fruit in due season, its leaf always in blossom, never withering. Whatever this blessed person does will prosper, everything will succeed.” (Psalm 1 excerpt).

• Psalm 1 is written in the wisdom tradition of Scripture, and is intended to introduce the Psalter by teaching us the difference between the wise and the foolish, the blessed and the wicked. The psalm starts with a beatitude and uses the picture of a healthy tree to describe the blessed person. What could be a better image drawn than the blessed person as one with deep roots in Scripture, intentionally planted by the Lord in an ideal place, consistently productive and fruitful? Nothing communicates blessedness better than a flourishing tree nestled onto the banks of a flowing river.
• To Be Blessed: to enjoy God’s favor; to experience delight in God’s blessing; to be fully satisfied and content in the Lord; to know with confidence that God is active in your life. Those who are blessed are most fortunate, to be envied. When one is blessed, it is time to celebrate one’s lot in life, time to humbly receive a hearty congratulations because of the blessings received from the hand of God.
• A Final Word about Psalm 1: Early church theologians declared this psalm to be messianic. The original Hebrew begins the psalm with, “Blessed is the man...” The underlying Hebrew word for “man” is gender specific, it is referring to a particular man, not just any man. This focus on the masculine here is not to be offensive to women. Early scholars believed that the “man” referred to in Psalm 1 is Jesus Christ. Jesus is “the man.” He is the blessed person of God who indeed delighted in Scripture, meditating day and night on it; who is like that productive tree planted by the Lord in the well-irrigated waters of the Torah; whose plan of salvation was ultimately successful. Jesus is “the man,” Wisdom itself. And all who follow in His footsteps will enjoy the same blessedness as Jesus.

(4.) The Tree of Life. “And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. An out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and to be desired for food; the Tree of Life also in the center of the Garden, and the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, of blessing and calamity. Now a river went out of Eden to water the Garden.” (Genesis 2:8-10).

• The Tree of Life in Eden. In the center of the Garden of Eden, God planted two trees: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of their fruit. The Tree of the Knowledge was an opportunity… It was a test of obedience. God gave them the freedom to choose to disobey God or obey Him. The other Tree was put there to fulfill man’s destiny of eternal life, the fruit of immortality. The problem after the Fall is that mankind fell into a state of sin, they were no longer innocent. To eat of the Tree of Life would now lead to a hopeless life, a sinful life with no hope of ever achieving innocence, a sinful life that would never end. God would not want sinners to eat of the Tree of life, He would not want anyone under the power of sin to have eternal life. So God needed to protect the Tree of Life at all costs. God knew that if Adam and Eve were willful enough to disobey God with the one Tree, they could sooner or later disobey Him with the other Tree. This would be a catastrophe.
• The Tree of Life in Paradise.  The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision is found in Revelation 22:1-2… “Then the angel showed me the River of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the River stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Because of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, the power of sin has been broken, and the Tree of Life is now ready to fulfill the destiny of mankind… eternal life. This Tree is available in paradise. God wants to restore the Garden of Eden in the new heaven and the new earth, and so, sure enough, God has placed the restored Tree of Life in the middle of heaven. The Tree’s roots are watered by the living water flowing from God’s throne. This Tree is now open for business, it bears a nourishing fruit that is ripe for each of the 12 months. And it has leaves that are intended for the healing of the nations, the constant nurture and care of all people. The restored Tree of Life reverses the curse of the Garden. So one can see that this Tree is in many ways the Cross of Christ. Jesus’ death has destroyed the power of sin, and paved the way for believers to have eternal life. The Cross is our source of life, and has taken away the curse of sin. Jesus promises that all the overcomers, the victorious ones, will eat the fruit of this Tree, destined for those who participate in Christ’s victory and salvation. “I’m about to call each of My conquerors to dinner in Paradise. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree of Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.” (Rev. 2:7).

(5.). Fruitfulness. “When John the Baptist saw many Pharisees and Sadducee coming to be baptized, he denounced them. ‘You brood of snakes!’ he exclaimed. ‘Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God… Even now the axe of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire!”  (Matthew 3:7-10).

• Change Your Lives! John the Baptist was the end of an era. He was the last and greatest prophet in the Old Testament tradition. John, whose name means “Lord is gracious,” was the miracle baby of the aged couple Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was born into a priestly family, since Zechariah was an active priest in the Temple and Elizabeth was in the family line of Aaron.  John’s baptisms were distinctive, because he was full of the Holy Spirit, he was not associated with the Temple system and all its regulations, and he preached the idea that his baptism is merely a pledge, a promise that the baptized person will perform a radical change to his life. Repent, repent, turn around, John repeated. John’s baptism was more like an initiation rite into a brotherhood, a fellowship of penitents awaiting the coming of God in a new, special way. So John insisted that those baptized would “bear fruit that befit repentance,” a changed moral and spiritual life. John continued to preach that the mere washing with water was not enough. The baptized had to prepare the way for the Messiah by making an about-face in their lives.
• The Divine Lumberjack. In his customary, dramatic way, John the Baptist gave us rather a extreme picture of God here… Evidently, John envisioned God as this mighty lumberjack who wanders through a vast forest of people who contend that they are believers in the Lord God. And this heavenly lumberjack inspects all the trees in the forest, judges which are fruitful and which are a waste of space, and He begins to wield His axe and cut down all the unfruitful trees, down to the roots! All of this picturesque language begs a question: How can we make sure we are fruitful trees?
• Roots Lead to Fruits. Let’s follow the science, God’s natural science. In order for a tree to grow and thrive and bear fruit, it needs to grow roots. Bearing fruit depends on growing roots. A tree doesn’t go high unless it goes deep. Growing a root system in our spiritual life requires that we go deeply into God. We pray until it becomes second nature. We study and internalize His Word until it’s all we want to do. We meditate on the truths of Scripture, ruminating like sacred cows chewing their cuds, until those truths become a part of our spiritual digestive system. We worship with joy and devotion, by ourselves and with our fellow believers, to express our love of the Lord. We listen thoughtfully and consider the wisdom of those who open Scripture and expound its truths. Whatever helps us deepen our root system into God is welcome into our life. Without roots the tree will not get the nutrition needed to thrive. And without deep roots, a tree will topple with the first windstorm.
• Our Fruit for His Glory. Growing roots enables the tree to bear fruits. Scripture is clear that God wants us to be fruitful in two ways: fruitfulness in deeds, and fruitfulness in character. Jesus repeated John’s words in Matthew 7:19, that “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And in John 15:5-8, He declared that “If anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit… This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” There are too many passages in Scripture to mention here about the fruit of good deeds. But here are a couple… “Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16); “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Tim. 6:18); “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” (Heb. 10:24).
• Fruit of the Spirit. Believers are called to grow deep roots into God, and to bear fruit in good deeds. Finally, we are to be fruitful in our character growth. We are to grow in the character traits of God, demonstrating His personality, His behavior. Believers are intended to reveal to the world what God is like. Growing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit is another way of saying this. The Spirit is implanted in our lives so that we can grow in God’s virtue and character, so that we correctly represent the Lord in our daily lives. Through the Holy Spirit, we are able to grow in love, in joy, in peace, in patience, in kindness, in goodness, in faithfulness, in gentleness, and in self-control. As our roots are growing deeper into God, it is only natural that His life is growing within us to become more like Him in character and personality. We grow into looking like Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit. We might want to think of that list of qualities as one big fruit of love, and all the seeds that follow are the seeds of love. Or, if this is more helpful, perhaps we can think of this passage as a branch of love from the tree of Jesus, the Tree of Life, and the branch of love is heavy laden with all the other qualities that comprise love, that are motivated by love. However we think of it, since Paul uses a singular word for “fruit” and not the plural “fruits,” it is helpful for us to think about this Galatians 5:22-23 passage as referring to the primary fruit of love and its components, what love looks like when it is lived out, the quality that sums up all the virtues of God.
• A Flourishing Tree of Fruitfulness. Our tree will thrive when we grow deep roots, bear the fruit of good deeds, and live into the fruit of God’s character. We won’t need to worry about John’s great lumberjack at the Judgment as we depend on the Lord for all it takes to grow in a heavenward direction. We need not fear the axe. With the sufficiency of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our little tree will grow into a thriving tree of fruitfulness, an oak of righteousness.

“I have come that believers may continuously have life, even that they may continuously have it to the full, beyond what is expected, super-abundantly, beyond measure, superior in quality and quantity.” (John 10:10).

Scripture Meditations on the Living Waters of God that Produce Fruitfulness: 

“How precious, God, is your faithful love. The children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your house, you let them drink from your delicious streams; in you is the source (the fountain) of life.” (Ps. 36:7-9).

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Ps. 42:1-2).

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps. 63:1).

“Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands, the parched ground will become a marsh and the thirsty land springs of water.” (Isaiah 35:5-7).

“The oppressed and needy search for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, shall answer them, I the God of Israel, shall not abandon them. I shall open up rivers on barren heights and water-holes down in the ravines; I shall turn the dry ground into a lake and dry ground into springs of water.” (Isaiah 41:17-18).

“For I shall pour out water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring, and they will spring up among the grass, like willows on the banks of a stream.” (Isaiah 44:3-4).

“They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague them; for he who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of water.” (Isaiah 49: 10).

“O, come to the water all you who are thirsty.” (Isaiah 55:1).

“For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13).

“Those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yahweh, the fountain of living water.” (Jeremiah 17:13).

“In prayer I shall lead them, I shall guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel.” (Jeremiah 31:9).

“Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live… Wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.” (Ezekiel 47:9).

“When the Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh’s Temple.” (Joel 4:18).

“When that Day comes, a fountain will be opened for the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to wash sin and impurity away.” (Zechariah 13:1).

“When that Day comes, living waters will issue from Jerusalem… Yahweh will become king of the whole world. When that Day comes, Yahweh will be the one and only, and his name the one name.” (Zechariah 14:18).

“No one who drinks the water that I shall give him will ever be thirsty again; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up for eternal life.” (John 4:14).

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.” (Revelation 7:17).

“Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and flowing crystal-clear.” (Revelation 22:1).

“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! Let everyone who listens answer, Come! Then let all who are thirsty come: All who want it may have the water of life and have it free.” (Revelation 22:17).

“There is a river whose waters make glad the City of God.” (Psalm 46:4).