Where does healing come from? How does health emerge? Sacred medicine, rooted in the natural world emerges in this chapter as the healing for a broken world.
Ezekiel provides a perplexing story today that offers a glimpse at future remedies for the sorely needed healing of the world. Our chapter even includes the first time in the Hebrew Bible that a specific Hebrew word for ‘healing’ - Refua - shows up.
The prophetic book that began 47 chapters ago with psychedelic visions of chariots and cherubs begins its descent with yet another wild ride of water that heals the world. A few chapters ago, as he begins to imagine the future temple, Ezekiel sees, or rather hears, a surge of powerful water that represents the return of the Eternal to the temple, through the Eastern Gate that will then remain forever shut.
In today’s chapter, just one before the gate shuts on this book of visions, the prophet again meets the mysterious man who guided him through the complex compound, with one more task of measurements and wonderment.
The Eastern Gate is still shut, but a trickle of water begins to emerge from below it, heading out towards the slope of Jerusalem and into the Judean desert. Ezekiel describes this emerging epiphany in specific detail:
וַיְשִׁבֵ֘נִי֮ אֶל־פֶּ֣תַח הַבַּ֒יִת֒ וְהִנֵּה־מַ֣יִם יֹצְאִ֗ים מִתַּ֨חַת מִפְתַּ֤ן הַבַּ֙יִת֙ קָדִ֔ימָה כִּֽי־פְנֵ֥י הַבַּ֖יִת קָדִ֑ים וְהַמַּ֣יִם יֹרְדִ֗ים מִתַּ֜חַת מִכֶּ֤תֶף הַבַּ֙יִת֙ הַיְמָנִ֔ית מִנֶּ֖גֶב לַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃
“I was led back to the entrance of the temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple—eastward, since the temple faced east—but the water was running out at the south of the altar, under the south wall of the temple.”
Ezekiel 47:1
The man leads Ezekiel away from the temple, following the water, step by step, as the stream begins to deepen, first up to his ankles, then his knees, and finally too deep for him to cross, and by that time they are way down in the desert and the magic of healing begins to bloom:
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלַ֖י הֲרָאִ֣יתָ בֶן־אָדָ֑ם וַיּוֹלִכֵ֥נִי וַיְשִׁבֵ֖נִי שְׂפַ֥ת הַנָּֽחַל׃ בְּשׁוּבֵ֕נִי וְהִנֵּה֙ אֶל־שְׂפַ֣ת הַנַּ֔חַל עֵ֖ץ רַ֣ב מְאֹ֑ד מִזֶּ֖ה וּמִזֶּֽה׃וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֗י הַמַּ֤יִם הָאֵ֙לֶּה֙ יוֹצְאִ֗ים אֶל־הַגְּלִילָה֙ הַקַּדְמוֹנָ֔ה וְיָרְד֖וּ עַל־הָעֲרָבָ֑ה וּבָ֣אוּ הַיָּ֔מָּה אֶל־הַיָּ֥מָּה הַמּוּצָאִ֖ים וְנִרְפּ֥אוּ הַמָּֽיִם׃
“Do you see, O mortal?” he said to me; and he led me back to the bank of the stream.
There I saw trees in great profusion on both banks of the stream.
“This water,” he told me, “runs out to the eastern region, and flows into the plains of the Arabah; and when it comes into the sea, into the sea of foul waters, the water will become healthy.”
Ezekiel 47:9-11
Scholars have identified the path of this imagined stream as leading to the Dead Sea. Similar End of the World visions that include water emerging from the tall mountain where the temple stands can be found in a few other prophetic works of the Bible, but none have Ezekiel’s specific detail and vivaciousness. The stream that fills the Dead Sea will bring life to the lowest and saltiest body of water on earth where no living things exist and suddenly fish will thrive, plants will grow and the trees growing on the shore will become their own kind of unique - wait for it - healing medicine - what’s when the word appears for the first time:
וְעַל־הַנַּ֣חַל יַעֲלֶ֣ה עַל־שְׂפָת֣וֹ מִזֶּ֣ה ׀ וּמִזֶּ֣ה ׀ כׇּל־עֵֽץ־מַ֠אֲכָ֠ל לֹא־יִבּ֨וֹל עָלֵ֜הוּ וְלֹֽא־יִתֹּ֣ם פִּרְי֗וֹ לׇחֳדָשָׁיו֙ יְבַכֵּ֔ר כִּ֣י מֵימָ֔יו מִן־הַמִּקְדָּ֖שׁ הֵ֣מָּה יוֹצְאִ֑ים וְהָיָ֤ה פִרְיוֹ֙ לְמַאֲכָ֔ל וְעָלֵ֖הוּ לִתְרוּפָֽה׃
“All kinds of trees for food will grow up on both banks of the stream. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail; they will yield new fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the temple. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
Ezekiel 47:12
Leaves that are used for healing are known in all ancient cultures and of course our modern medicine is rooted in nature’s healing gifts including the miracle of penicillin and all other antibiotics. And while this vision is about the future hope of healing and the transformation of even the harshest terrain into paradise it also has a few more layers. The rest of the chapter describes how the stream goes on to feed the rest of the land, beginning to mark the future plots of the tribes of Israel, as they will return to their homeland and be allotted equitable shares, well watered and justly divided. By using this metaphor of a stream emerging from the temple to feed the land, Ezekiel is also suggesting the power of the sacred to come to the people - instead of the other way round.
Tova Ganzel elaborates on this novel idea in her book:
“Chapter 47 offers a surprising turning-point in the vision of the future Temple. The prophet speaks here neither of the structure nor of the order of service, but rather describes a wondrous stream that emerges from the entrance to God’s House and flows all the way to the Arava. Although Ezekiel has distanced the people from anything connected to the Temple, now he is also creating a Divine connection with the people that has never existed before.
The wondrous river that appears here seems to be a way of bringing the Sanctuary into the very midst of the people more than ever before: through connecting with the miraculous abundance and healing forces of the river, powers not found in the usual course of nature.
It turns out that in order to heal the people, the prophet foresees a fissure in the regular order of nature. Beyond purification - a necessary condition for the revival of the people in the future - there will also be possible forms of healing that pass through the Sanctuary, but that do not require the people to approach.
Now we see that the healing properties of the river in fact have the wondrous ability to repair the flaws that caused the Destruction. The distancing of the people from the Temple turns out to be a physical measure that does not reflect any spiritual distancing: God connects the people to the Temple by means of the river that flows from the very midst of the House, notwithstanding the geographical distance.”
Perhaps this is the secret of healing - to overcome distance between one’s core and the sense of the sacred, and somehow, as sickness and illness is sure to be every human’s lot at one point or another, as well as that of nations - to find ways to share the water of life, to emerge beyond a single sacred space and diversify the options of what’s possible, replacing death with life?
The Hebrew word “trufah”, here translated “healing”, occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. With this miraculous water of the future, may sacred healing quench the thirst of every soul today, in need of health and healing, hope for peace and better days, for even a trickle of visions for what’s possible to heal our broken hearts.
Join me TODAY to begin the new year with a conversation about the ways our ancient heritage informs our lives and can hopefully help us navigate and make sense of our unfolding brutal and tragic reality.
We’ll meet on January 4 2024, 5pm ET to say goodbye to the Prophet Ezekiel, celebrate the 500th chapter of Below the Bible Belt, and get a glimpse of our next section on this journey- the twelve so-called minor prophets.
Here’s the link to the next Below the Bible Belt Zoom Live Conversation:
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