RIVERS

RIVERS

Exodus 7:16-25; Exodus 8: 1-7; Jeremiah 12: 5, 6; Psalm 65: 9; Revelation 9: 13-16; Ezekiel 47: 1

In these scriptures we have four rivers presented. A river suggests resource, influence, and the means of fertility — often coming as it does from distant sources. God is pleased to use the physical features of His creation to convey spiritual ideas. The sun speaks of Christ in His supremacy. A rock speaks of stability and permanency. Rain sometimes suggests blessing as coming from heaven. Wind suggests unseen spiritual forces either for good or evil.

In our first scripture we have Egypt and its river brought before us. Egypt owes everything to its river. It is one of the few countries that does not depend upon rain for its fertility, and generally it represents the world as a system with Satan as its god and prince. Its attitude is one of entire independence of God, and disregard of heavenly blessing. Babylon is a type of the religious world in all its confusion. Sodom represents the world in its corruption. Tyre is the commercial world, and Satan himself is referred to typically, as the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28.

The river of Egypt represents that great source from which the world derives its sustenance and which feeds its pleasures; pleasures, indeed, which the scripture speaks of as “the pleasures of sin for a season.”

In Exodus 7 and 8, we see how God brought judgment upon Egypt so that its moral character might be disclosed to His people the children of Israel, before they left it: judgment always has this in view. This is not mere history, but is written for us upon whom the ends of the ages have come; that we might judge every worldly principle in our own hearts. The Lord, in John 17, did not ask the Father that His own should be taken out of the world, but that they might be kept from the evil that is in it. Very soon we shall actually leave this scene, for we are I believe on the eve of our translation to heaven, but before this takes place, God in His goodness is disclosing to us the true character of the world.

Pharaoh had sought to engulf the male children in Egypt’s river, and had he succeeded, then all public testimony for God — which is the idea of the male — would be brought to an end! In one way or another, parents who have faith in God, are made to realize Satan’s determination at all costs to have the children ensnared in this world’s pleasures, amusements and pursuits. Salvation for the children lies now as then, in hiding them, as did Moses’ parents. He was hidden with them for three months, and then later put into the ark of bulrushes in the sedge of the river bank. Godly parents today would seek to hide their children as far as possible from the world. The river of Egypt may appear to contain pure water and to provide refreshment, but God would let us know that morally it is nothing but death, for blood means death. The river turned into blood is to teach us this!

Alas, that many of God’s people turn to novels, and the wireless, etc., and each time they thus drink of Egypt’s river, they drink of death. This explains why so many believers lose their spiritual vigour, they are morally at the point of death. The self-willed course of many who disregard the wishes of parents or of their fellow believers, proves that they have been drinking into the death-dealing river of Egypt. How different did Israel find the pure water which flowed from the smitten rock, speaking to us of the living refreshment of the Holy Spirit come down from heaven as a direct result of the death of Christ!

The next feature connected with Egypt’s river is the frogs. Unclean spirits are likened to frogs in Revelation 16: 13. What unclean influences issue from this world’s sources, permeating all that men rest in and feed upon. Wireless in men’s houses is not merely for information as to the weather and the markets, but is one of the means by which Satan succeeds in flooding their houses with worldly influences. The frogs of Egypt’s river speak of the uncleanness of man after the flesh in God’s sight, and in every sphere of man’s life this is seen, as the self-will and unbridled lust of man is allowed liberty. The frogs covered the whole land of Egypt.

Now to turn to the river of Jordan in Jeremiah 12. This, as you know, was another great river, dividing the wilderness from the land of Canaan, and clearly typifies death. The question is raised with Jeremiah, “What wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan?” What would he do? What would we do? Our minds travel back to the moment when Jordan overflowed all its banks — when Christ as typified in the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth, went into death. He is thus presented in John’s gospel. Death swelled its floods against Him — the accumulated force of the enemy’s power was arrayed against Christ, and death, that mighty weapon wielded by Satan, spent all its power against Him. Until Christ broke the power of death, it was in Satan’s power, and as such it was met by Christ. Death in all its mighty force had overflowed like the tide of Jordan, as Christ, the true Ark, went into death; but Jordan was driven back, “The sea saw it and fled, Jordan was driven back,” Psalm 114: 3.

The power that was inherent in Christ drove back the flood-tide of death as far as the city of Adam; that is, to its very source.

Thus a way through death has been made by Christ, for the people of God. And as Stephen faced death and passed through in triumph, so all God’s people are privileged to regard death as a defeated foe; and should we be called upon to face it actually, we can pass over in the strength of the One who has made a way through for us.

The next river, is the river of God, which is full of water. It is here, for it is said to enrich the earth. Its blessed tide is to be known by the people of God who have learned to turn away from the rivers of Egypt. What holy streams of refreshment God provides for His beloved people while still on earth. No need for any to thirst, still less for any to turn back in heart to Egypt. The river of God is full of water; here is no possibility of exhausting its boundless resources. A beloved brother remarked, “My thimble-full of need, will never drain the ocean.” If any Christian is thirsty or unsatisfied, in soul, it is because he is not drinking of the river of God.

How then can I find this river? The scripture reads, “Thou visitest the earth, thou waterest it; thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water,” Psalm 65: 9. The river of God is the result of divine visitations. The greatest of these visitations when God visited the earth in a permanent way, was at the incarnation, when “the Word became flesh.” In spite of the refusal of man, God visited it again, in the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is said “Thou greatly enrichest it” — think of the divine enrichment consequent on the coming of the Spirit. Thus in the blessed river of God, we have abundance of wealth and blessing for the whole earth, all available as we pray. Communion with Christ at once gives you liberty of access to the river of God. You have but to pray. Dear young believer, when you feel thirsty and dissatisfied in soul, do you turn to a novel or the wireless? — or do you speak to God? If you turn to Him, the living refreshment of the river of God will flood your soul, and your tiny vessel — for of course you could not yourself contain the river of God, will not only be filled, but will have abundance for others around, as the Lord indicates in John 7: 38.

In Revelation 22, the river is spoken of as “the river of water of life.” It flows “out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,” suggesting that where the rule and authority of God are owned and bowed to, the river of God becomes available to men. We receive the Spirit on this principle — He gives the Holy Spirit “to them that obey him,” Acts 5: 32. This river is said to be “clear as crystal,” no defiling element and no corrupting influence are in that river.

Another presentation of the river of God is given to us in Ezekiel 47; it is seen there in relation to the house of God. It is said there to flow out “from under the threshold of the house.” This points typically to the position of the people of God here in this world, for consequent upon the descent of the Holy Spirit they constitute the house of God, and issuing from among them is the living influence of the river of God, John 7: 38. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee,” Psalm 84; they are enriched by the river of God in all its blessed refreshment, it is known by the people of God, those who, as pleasurable to God afford in this world, the conditions suitable to God’s house. It cannot be known in relation to any other house. “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High,” Psalm 46: 4. That is the way scripture refers to the place whence the river proceeds, from under the threshold of the house.

Lastly, there is the great river Euphrates. This is connected with the age-old barrier which God has providentially maintained between the East and the West. But at the end of this present dispensation, and we stand at its very end today — God will as a part of His judgment on Christendom for its apostasy from Christ, loose the angels that for so long have been bound at the river Euphrates.

We have already seen the introduction from the East of such fearful influences of evil as Spiritism, Theosophy, etc., which have obtained so strong a hold upon Christendom consequent upon the displacement of Christ, and the Spirit of God. As the house of Christendom becomes empty, owing to the Spirit of God being denied His place, the demons return with seven-fold power, and they are rapidly occupying the house. See Matthew 12: 43-45. In very many ways it is plain that the way of the kings of the East is being prepared, though at present there is restraint consequent upon the presence here of the Spirit of God and the people of God. As the apostle says, “Ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work only he that letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” Thus we are plainly on the threshold of the close of the present dispensation.

May we be delivered from the corruption of the river of this world, and drink deeply into the river of God!