Ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers. It is altogether unprecedented under the old covenant that "strangers" should have "inheritance" among the tribes. There would not be locally room within Canaan for more than the tribes. The literal sense must therefore be modified, as expressing that Gentiles are not to be excluded from settling among the covenant-people, and that spiritually their privileges are not to be less than those of Israel ( Romans 10:12 ; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 3:6 ; Colossians 3:11; Revelation 7:9-10, "Lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb," etc. This follows in immediate connection with the sealing of the 144,000 of Israel). Still, "sojourneth," in Ezekiel 47:23 , implies that in Canaan the covenant-people are regarded as at home, the strangers as settlers.
Remarks:
(1) The "waters" that, in Ezekiel's vision, "issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward," represent the waters of life which the Lord Jesus gives His people, and which are in them as a "well of water springing up into everlasting life" ( John 4:14). They flow from Jesus, who is at once the true "temple" (John 2:19; John 2:21 ), and "the door" (John 10:9). "The place of His throne" (Ezekiel 43:7) is to be to be hereafter in the temple at Jerusalem; and from Him as the fountain, and from the temple as the earthly locality of the fountain, the living waters shall not only spring up, but flow out, and flow forth, no longer restricted to Palestine, but diffusing life, health, and beauty throughout the whole earth. An earnest of that period of universally diffused vital Christianity is already given us in the almost universal "preaching of the Gospel in all the world, for a witness unto all nations" (Matthew 24:14), and in the gathering out of the elect from all lands which is going on now, and will go on until the full number of the elect is accomplished.
(2) The Gospel of "the glory of God came from the way of the east" (Ezekiel 43:2), from Jerusalem, and so hereafter "out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:4). Since it was not by the influx of side streams, but by its own secret supply from the fountain-head in the temple, that the waters progressively increased, so it is the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, resembling living waters ( John 7:37-39), which, accompanying the preached Gospel, has made it in all past times, and shall make it in all times to come, the mighty power of God to the salvation, peace, and joy of countless millions.
(3) From being a small stream, the waters rapidly gained increase of volume as they advanced onward, until they swelled into a deep, unfathomable, and mighty river ( Ezekiel 47:3-5 ). Such is the progress of the Gospel We are not able to define what are the successive periods of time symbolized by the first thousand cu bits measured, when the water reached the ancles, the second thousand cubits, when the water reached to the knees, and the third thousand, when the water reached to the loins, and the fourth thousand, when the water became a "river that could not be passed over." But we know that the coming thousand years of the Millenium, foretold Revelation 20:1-15 , are the times when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas" ( Isaiah 11:9). "A thousand" represents the world pervaded with the divine influence, as ten is the world number raised to the third power, and three is the number of God. There shall have been a series of such periods marked by successive stages of increase in the diffusion of the Gospel before the full consummation is attained, and the kingdoms of the earth become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11:15).
(4) Holy Scripture and its revelations also resemble these sacred waters, in that whosoever searches into them will find some parts-namely, those setting forth the way of salvation-intelligible to all who sincerely desire to know it. Other parts require a deeper investigation; others, a deeper still; and others are beyond our depth; and in respect to these we can only adore the infinitude of God's unsearchable wisdom, and humbly wait for His own time of revealing their now hidden meaning.
(5) The growth of grace in the individual soul similarly is a progressive work, beginning with but a small stream from the fountain-head, but sure to go on increasing until it is expanded into the boundless and unfathomable river of heavenly pleasures (Psalms 36:8 ) which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man," but "which God hath prepared for them that love him" ( 1 Corinthians 2:9).
(6) The "very many trees" of life "at the bank of the river, on the one side and on the other" (Ezekiel 47:7), symbolize the immortal sustenance, invigoration, and enjoyment which those who drink of the waters of life shall be supplied with from the Lord in the coming state of blessedness. Believers themselves shall then be "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord" ( Isaiah 61:3), and as being "planted by the waters," they shall "bring forth" the due fruit "in its season" ( Psalms 1:3). Moreover, alike the fruit and the leaf shall never cease. Fruit ever new and varied shall be produced each month as it comes. And as the fruit shall be for meat, so the very leaf shall be for medicine (Ezekiel 47:12 ). So the believer's inward graces, derived from the divine fountain-head, which are the "leaves," and his words and works, which are the "fruits," shall everlastingly bloom, and shall be the means to him of ever-renewed immortality and heavenly vigour.
(7) The living waters flowing eastward to the Dead Sea, and then southward along the plain south of the Dead Sea, shall dispel death and diffuse life wheresoever they go (Ezekiel 47:8-9). As Elisha healed the waters for the men of the city (2 Kings 2:21 ), saying, "Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not he from thence anymore death or barren land;" so death is everywhere to give place to life in the regenerated world. It is probable that, as the physical and moral worlds correspond, great physical changes in respect to the Dead Sea and the waters of the Holy Land shall accompany the great spiritual and national restoration of the ancient people of God, so that exuberant fertility, loveliness, and salubrity shall prevail throughout the land. Here again, from the tendency of all prophecy to hasten to the consummation, the prophet seems to use language which, in its fullest sense, applies to the perfect state beyond the Millennium-namely, the state when not only the world of nations, but the world of nature also, the earth and its atmosphere, shall be finally regenerated. For the language as to the waters of life and the tree of life is that which is employed in Revelation (Ezekiel 22:1-2), of the final and perfect state.
(8) The apostles, whose business as literal fishermen was laid aside for that of spiritual fishers, were the instruments of drawing into the Gospel net "a very great multitude of fish according to their kinds" ( Ezekiel 47:9-10 ), the learned and unlearned, the rich and poor, the vile and the respectable members of society. As the bad are cast away when the net is drawn to shore (Matthew 13:47-48 ), so it is said here that the miry place and the marshes shall not be healed ( Ezekiel 47:11). Those whom the Gospel waters of life do not reach, through their own indolence and carnality, shall be given over to everlasting barrenness; nor can anymore awful punishment be imagined than that the sinner should be given up to the unrestricted and everlasting workings of his own sin, bitterness, and filthiness.
(9) But the godly shall have their allotted portions severally in the heavenly land of promise ( Ezekiel 47:13-21). Israel, though having her own proper and special portion, shall not have it to the exclusion of the Gentile sojourner (Ezekiel 47:22-23 ). We Christians of the nations shall be "fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel" (Ephesians 3:6 ).