KEY TEXT
Genesis 2:10-14 (RSV)
V10- A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers.
V11- The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
V12- and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there,
V13- The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.
V14- And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Rivers are one of the most common waterways frequently mentioned in the Bible.
Most of the time, the rivers in the Bible are associated with something good.
This morning I would like to share on Rivers but more specifically on THE RIVERS OF BLESSINGS.
There are 2 types of Rivers of Blessing which I would like to share:
(1) The Rivers From the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14)
(2) The Rivers From the Temple of God (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
(I) THE RIVERS FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Genesis 2:10-14 tells us that a river went out of Eden to water the garden and that it parted and became four rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris (Hiddekel) and Euphrates.
Many times when we read the names in the Bible, we have a tendency to skim over those lists of names. But we would be missing a lot of wonderful promises of God hidden in them if we do not dig deeper into the meaning of those names.
Of course, we must also try to avoid over-spiritualizing things as I know that people sometimes miss the simple, plain meaning of a text while trying to find some deep, hidden, mystical meaning. I am reminded of the little boy in Sunday School whose teacher asked, “Johnny, what’s small, brown, and furry, with a big bushy tail that likes to climb trees and eat nuts?” Johnny seemed to agonize over the question before finally answering, “Teacher, I just know that the answer has to be ‘Jesus,’ but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me.”
I don’t want to emulate Johnny’s line of reasoning but on January 1, 2015, as I was doing my devotion on Genesis 1-2, I became curious if there was any significance to those rivers, especially the names of them.
I was reminded that 1 Corinthians 3:9 in the Amplified Bible says, “…..you are God’s garden.” Further, Jesus said that if we believed in Him, that “out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). I wondered if the rivers flowing out of God’s original Garden of Eden had any kind of message relative to the rivers that are supposed to be flowing out of the garden of our lives today.
On January 1 2015 I began to do an in-depth study into the messages hidden in the names of these 4 rivers and I was so blessed by the revelation of those names.
Before we study on the meaning of these 4 rivers, let’s look into the meaning behind the Garden of Eden.
The Garden of Eden is a paradise and it symbolizes:
• Our final destination – heaven
• Original purpose of God for our lives.
The 4 rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden symbolize the four different blessings God wants to water the garden of our lives with. Despite the fall of Adam and Eve, the original purpose of God’s blessing still stands for all believers today because it was redeemed when Christ died at the cross for us.
What are these 4 Rivers of Blessings that will flow into our lives from God for year 2015?
(1) PISHON
V11- The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
V12- and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there…
The word “PISHON” means ‘INCREASE OR FULL-FLOWING.
I like this name.
God is not a God of scarcity and lack but a GOD OF ABUNDANCE.
Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:19 that believers would be filled with all the fullness of God and John spoke of Jesus in John 1:16 (Amp), saying, “….out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.”
Application: The first river flowing out of the garden was FULL-FLOWING and it makes sense that God wants us to experience a full-flow of His Presence and power in our lives
So basically Pishon means FULLNESS.
The River of Blessing by the name of Fullness is about to flow into your life. Are you desirous for that fullness? Do you anticipate INCREASE in your life for year 2015? Or are you still steeped in the fatalistic mindset of poverty and scarcity? The river of INCREASE, FULL FLOWING, FULLNESS is flowing down from God to all of us. Have faith to receive that blessing!
(2) GIHON
V13- The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.
GIHON means BURSTING FORTH OR GUSHING.
If there had only been one river coming out of the Garden called Pishon which means Full-Flowing, we might have concluded that all God was concerned about was us experiencing fullness on a personal level.
However, if we move beyond “fullness” and are “bursting forth” or experiencing an OVERFLOW, then the nature and the character of God coming out of us is bound to influence and impact others also.
Simply put, Gihon means OVERFLOW.
John 4:14 in the Message version says, “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst – not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.
It would be seen that the message of Gihon (“bursting forth” or “gushing”) is that God doesn’t want us merely living lives of SURVIVAL or SUCCESS, but to move beyond that and truly live lives of SIGNIFICANCE. – not merely focusing on what we need or want for ourselves but on what we can contribute to others.
Illustration # 1: Charles Swindoll in his book, Improving Your Serve, gives a memorable illustration:
“Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until the new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family in the move to Europe for 6-8 months, and I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you direction and instructions.
I leave you and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office. I am stunned! Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the streets are broken. I walk into the receptionist’s room and she is doing her nails, chewing gums and listening to her MP3. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing, the carpet has not been vacuumed in weeks and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned.
I ask for you and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, “I think he’s down there.” Disturbed, I moved in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office (which has been turned into a TV room for watching afternoon soap operas).
“What in the world is going on, man?”
“What do ya’ mean?”
“Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?”
“Letters? Oh, yeah – sure, got every one of them. As a matter of fact …we have a letter study every Friday night since you left. We even divide all the personnel into small groups and discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of those things were really interesting.
You’ll be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two! Great stuff in those letters!”
“Okay – you got my letters, you studied them and meditated on them, discussed them and even memorized them. BUT WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT THEM?”
“Do? Uh- we didn’t do anything about them.
Illustration #2: What kind of life are you living? Someone has said, there are 3 kinds of givers …the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. To get anything out of flint, you must hammer it. And then you get chips and sparks. To get water out of the sponge, you must squeeze it and the more you use pressure, the more you will get. But the honeycomb just overflows with its own sweetness. Which are you today?
Application: Is your life bursting forth or gushing out to bless others and is it just an inflow into your wants and needs?
Gihon simply means OVERFLOW. God has blessed us in fullness with River Pishon but we must OVERFLOW this fullness of blessing to others and not just live merely lives of survival or success for ourselves. Have we been bursting forth or gushing out the blessings which God has given us to others?
The River of OVERFLOW will be coming out of your life. Be ready to burst forth or gush out that fullness of God’s blessing to OTHERS.
(3) TIGRIS
V14a- And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.
TIGRIS means SWIFT OR DARTING and is actually a “word picture” of a SWIFT ARROW IN FLIGHT.
It is not a picture of an arrow in a quiver or lying passively on the ground.
When we think about this image of a SWIFT ARROW IN FLIGHT, you will realize that before an arrow is released from a bow, it is first of all AIMED AT A TARGET.
A GOAL IS IN SIGHT.
Simply put, Tigris means PURPOSE.
Application: The life of a believer – and remember, we are God’s garden today – is not some ethereal experience whereby we merely sit around, mystically bubbling over with His Presence. No, we are designed to have GOALS, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES and like a swift arrow in flight, we are to move toward the fulfilling of those goals with God’s help.
The New Testament is clear that we are to be specific when we pray (Mark 11:24 and James 4:2).
E.g. A man who was praying very fervently at a prayer meeting was asked what he was praying about. He looked up, paused a second and then said, “Nothing in particular.” If you are praying for “nothing in particular,” and God answers your prayer, what exactly is it that you end up with?
More man fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.
A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder – a waif [stray], a nothing, a no man.
Illustration: And Christians without goals are a little like Alice in Wonderland fairy tale. In a conversation between her and the Cheshire Cat, Alice asked, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.
Have a purpose in life and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.
Do you have an aim or goal for your career; your family; your business; your ministry?
Poem by Amy Carmichael: Give Me To Hold Me Firmly To My Trust
My God, who has committed to my care
Thy ransomed one
Lest I be scattered here and there
And she be gone
Give me to hold me firmly to my trust
Let all that would distract me be as dust
‘Thy life for hers’- O solemn, urgent word…
Lest I forget,
My sense of values waver, or be blurred,
Or overset
By other things, take me and purge and bend
Each power and purpose to one single end.
Teach me to do the things that pleased Thee
O Lord, my God.
Give clearness, lest some byway tangle me.
Where Christ hath trod
There would I tred, nor ever turn aside,
Lest she be missing for whom Christ hath died.
We are not to be aimless and ambiguous in our lives. We are to be like swift arrows in flight. Paul said that he ran with purpose in every step (1 Corinthians 9:26 NLT). The Holy Spirit wants to help us to be people who are DELIBERATE AND INTENTIONAL in our lives, in our ministries and in our praying.
Tigris simply means PURPOSE. God will send a River of Purpose to flow into your lives. For year 2015, you will not be doing and serving God aimlessly. God will bless you with AN AIM, A PURPOSE AND A GOAL.
(4) EUPHRATES
V14b- And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
EUPHRATES means SWEET OR FRUITFUL.
If we have the first three rivers flowing into our lives (fullness, overflow and purpose) then it will result in us experiencing SWEETNESS AND FRUITFULNESS.
This sweetness isn’t just for our own enjoyment either. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT), “…he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume”.
Application: If a believer is full of bitterness, he will export that to others. If a believer is sour in his attitude, he will no doubt pass that on to those around him. God wants our lives to be fruitful unto Him and sweetness unto others. He wants other people to be enriched through their association with us.
Euphrates simply means SWEET FRUITFULNESS and this is the year where the River of Sweet Fruitfulness will flow out of our lives to others. Not only we will see fruitfulness coming into all areas of our lives but our fruitfulness will be sweetness and not sourness to others to taste.
(2) THE RIVERS FROM THE TEMPLE OF GOD
Ezekiel 47:1-12 (NLT)
V1- In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from BENEATH THE DOOR of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side.
V2- The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.
V3-Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles.
V4- He measured off another 1750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist.
V5- Then he measured another 1,750 feet and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.
V6- He asked me, “Have you been watching, son of man?” Then he led me back along the river bank.
V7- When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river.
V8- Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure.
V9- There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows.
V10- Fisherman will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from Engedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean.
V11- But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty.
V12- Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”
Ezekiel 47 is writing about the Millennial River which will literally take place during the Millennium. This amazing river will originate from the house of the Lord, which is the Millennial Temple, as a very shallow stream. Gradually the stream will get deeper and fuller until it is over a man’s head. It eventually travels east until it empties into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea all along has no living micro-organism in it as it is the saltiest body of water on earth. However once this river from the Temple of God flows into it, the Dead Sea will be turned into fresh water teeming with fishes. It will become a Living Sea. Fisherman will stand beside it and there will be the spreading of nets and much harvest of fishes of all kinds.
This Millennial River is River of Life.
It flows from “beneath the threshold” (NLT-beneath the door) of the Temple of God.
Application: That means if we desire to have the blessings that are possible for us, we must comply with the condition and let God dwell in our heart. Remember, our bodies are considered as the temple of God too. The fact that the river flows from BENEATH the threshold [door] of the temple implies the importance of nurturing our secret love relationship with the Lord. Something that happens from beneath is something that takes place secretly. Thus the importance again of this strong hidden spiritual nurturing with God (It is like a root system again).
This River of Life originates from the Temple of God.
Application: The river of God is meant for the people belonging to the temple of God first before it will flow out from the door of this church to refresh and gladden others. We must drink from this river of salvation first before we can bless others.
Half of this river from the Millennial Temple will empty into the Dead Sea and half of the river will empty into the Mediterranean Sea.
Application: God wants this River of Life to flow out from our church to bless those outside the temple on the left and on the right.
As the stream from the Temple flow farther and farther from it, it gets deeper and deeper till it becomes a river.
Application: The rapid increase of the stream symbolizes the need for our rapid increase in our experience of the depth and the force of the stream of blessings. Are we experiencing deeper and deeper the flow of God’s river of blessing or has the flow of this river of blessing been reduced to a trickle?
The rapid increase of the stream also means that the further we allow the living water of Christ to bless those outside, the deeper the believers will be blessed.
Effects of the River of life/blessing are threefold:
• FERTILITY
• HEALING
• LIFE
But there is one group of people who will not be enjoying the effects of this River of Blessing:
V11 (NLT)- But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty.
RSV- But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt.
The gospel of Grace is for all. But sadly, not all will be affected the grace of God.
Though the River of Blessings flow in two directions, not all places will become fresh.
They are the swamps and marshes and they symbolize….
• Schismatic (schism- division or disunion) and heretic who do not live by the Spirit of Jesus Christ but separate from the Church.
• Obstinate and perverse sinners that abandon themselves to their filthy lusts and sensual pleasures.
• Reprobate (degenerate or troublemaker) who wallow like swine in the mire and dirt of sin
• People (Christians and non-Christians) who mind nothing but earth and earthly things, whose god is their belly and who glory in their shame. [Case in point: Esau]
• Hypocrites
• Apostates who despise the Gospel and the doctrines
• Evil Christians who dishonor the church
• Corrupt members of the Church.
These groups of people will not be affected by the River of Blessing.
They will be “left for the salt”, meaning they will be……
• Left to the hardness of their hearts
• Given up to their own lusts
• Devoted to ruin and destruction
• Left barren and unfruitful just like places demolished and sown with salt are or made an example of as Lot’s wife was.
Prophecy: Allow me to deliver these prophetic words to you for this church. There will be two sources from which the Rivers of Blessings will flow. One will directly come from God above, represented by Garden of Eden – the paradise, the original intention of God. God will send the Rivers of Fullness, Overflow, Purpose and Sweet Fruitfulness to flow into your lives.
The second source of the River of Blessing will come from this Church. This River will start from underneath the door [threshold] of the church, telling us – The River of Blessing will originate from those who have been having a secret love relationship with the Lord- those who have a very strong inner life with God. But we as a Church must not keep this River of Blessing to ourselves. We must let it flow OUT from the door of this church to the right and to the left and as far as possible. And as we let it flow out from this temple, The River of Blessings will get deeper and deeper for the believers as well as many more people from the outside. We will enjoy fertility, healing and life brought about by this River of Blessing that is flowing out from Evangel Tabernacle.
However, there is only one group of people who will not be affected by this River of Blessing. They are those in swamps and marshes – those who refuse to move with the Spirit; those who still want to wallow in sin and wickedness; those who are divisive; those who care only for earthly things; those who harm the church and those who corrupt the church with sin and wrong doctrines. They will be left to the salt – a life of hardness and barrenness; a life of ruin and destruction.
CONCLUSION
The River of Blessing is flowing now into our church.
It is The River of …….
• Fullness
• Overflow
• Purpose
• Sweet Fruitfulness
Do you want these Rivers of Blessing to flow into your lives?
Be where God wants you to be – the hidden place of love relationship with God. Have faith to receive the flow of these 4 Rivers of Blessings. That is the original purpose and intention of God for you.
Be not the swamp and marshes.
End of sermon
PREACHED AT ETAB 1ST ENG SV ON 11 JAN 2015
