Revelation 22:1-2 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (2) In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
The next aspect I want to discuss, as mentioned by the apostle John in the above passage, is the river of Life. As this scripture reveals, the river will flow from both the thrones of God the Father and God the Son. You will recall that during our Lord’s millennial reign, that the river of Life will obviously only flow from the throne of God the Son (Ezekiel 47:1). All saints, at all times, will have free access to drink from the water of this river, for the river will flow throughout the city, from the throne all the way to the city gates. From the above passage, we can also see that this river will water the trees of life, which will be growing along its banks. We can only speculate as to the effect that drinking from that river will have on the saints, but whatever the effect, it must be glorious. The highest point in the New Jerusalem will be the throne of God and the Lamb, which will be at its centre. From the centre of the city to its outer wall, the distance is one thousand two hundred kilometres. The river of Life, which will flow from the throne, will flow at a consistently gentle rate of flow. In order to do that, it will need to drop approximately 1 meter for every 13 kilometres. That means that the city will slope upwards from its perimeter to its centre, in order to accommodate the gentle rate of flow for the river of Life. We can only speculate as to the total length of the river within the city, because as we will see when look at the street of the city, it will follow an ever widening circular path from the centre to the outer limits of the city.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments