BIRTH PANG NUMBER 29
Chapter 31 – God Heals the Eastern Sea
December 28, 2001
Ezekiel 47:6-8
[6] And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen
this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.
[7] Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many
trees on the one side and on the other. [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.
Zechariah 14:3,4
[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against
those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall
stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the
east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east
and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the
mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
As we begin with verse 6, we have just walked
eastward a little over a mile (4000 cubits) from the “utter gate” of the
Jerusalem Millennial Temple, and have arrived at the brink of the diverted
Jordan River shown in Figure 47. Please
look at Figure 47 and read Birth Pang Numbers 25 through 28. During our walk, we passed directly through
the graben valley created during the Tribulation
Period when the Mount of Olives divided into two sections, one moving to the
north, and one moving to the south. The
stream along which we walked developed after the splitting of the Mount of
Olives, and is the stream of Zechariah 14:8 – “And it shall be in that day,
that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former
sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it
be.” It is also the same spring
described in Joel 3:18B – “And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters,
and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the
valley of Shittim.”
The area through which the entire stream and Jordan
River complex is prophesied to flow has a very fertile soil profile. But no matter how fertile and perfectly zoned
a soil horizon exists, unless there is water, no vegetation will spring up. This has been the problem in this dry arid
region for centuries, but God is going to change all that. Trees and all types of vegetation will
flourish along the length of these two living water rivers (Figure 47) as they
flow toward the Mediterranean and Dead Seas.
The remnant of the nation of Israel will use this new source of water to
irrigate the deserts of Judah and most of southern Israel, including the
Negev. Israel will become the
breadbasket of the world.
As verse eight of Ezekiel 47 begins, we find
ourselves standing at the brink of the diverted Jordan River, about four
thousand cubits east of the “utter gate” of the Millennial Temple. We are told that from this point the waters
go out into what he calls “the east country.”
The “east country” is the section of land that includes the Dead Sea,
which has been referred to in the past as “the Eastern Sea.” We have the water moving, as shown in Figure
47, into the country east of the Mount of Olives like a pattern known as a
bird’s foot delta. We are then advised
that from “the east country” the waters “go down into the desert.” We are informed in the Hebrew which desert,
for the word used for “desert” is “Arabah,” which is
the desert that lies between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. Strong’s Hebrew and
Chaldee Dictionary identifies the Arabah
as “the sterile valley of the Jordan and its continuation to the Red Sea.” Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies “the
desert” as “the land between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic
Gulf (Gulf of Aqabah). First the waters flow southward through the Arabah Desert to eventually empty into “the sea,” and that
sea is the northern extension of the Red Sea, which is also known by the Arabs
as the Gulf of Aqabah. As indicated, in previous Birth Pang Updates,
a channel will be opened in the land that lies between the Dead Sea and the
Gulf of Aqabah.
This land was once known as the land of Idumea. Gradually the flow of fresh water from the
Temple and the diverted fresh water from the Euphrates will “heal” the “east
country” of its high salt content. The
“healing” will be accomplished by most of its salt being carried southward into
the Red Sea. Figure 47 shows the
completed hydrological structure prophesied by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and
Joel. I believe that the shape of the
Dead Sea will be quite different from what I have shown in Figure 47, but so
that the reader may relate to a known geographical feature, I have left its
present shape unchanged. Actually, it
will become more like a fresh water delta marsh from Engedi
to Eneglaim, and that section from “the brink of the
river” to the fresh water marsh will be similar to the Mississippi Delta, but
on a much smaller scale.
Figure 48 gives a general pictorial summation of
many of the geological changes prophesied to occur in previous Updates. All of these terrifying changes have a
twofold purpose: to show man the power
of God and to prepare the land for the reign of Jesus Christ when he returns.