The Promised Abundance of God

​Ezekiel 47:12 ~ “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
 
As we enter into the season of Autumn, and the warm air of summer gives way to the crisp breezes that signal the end of the growing season, we light upon a reminder today of the great abundance of the LORD, promised to His people. The day is coming that we shall no longer fear the dreaded disappointments of this world. Though this world is rich in resources and the labor of the hands of man bring forth its bounty, yet in that everlasting home the LORD will sustain His people with plenty.  It does not mean we shall no longer have tasks to do, for work is a glory to the LORD. But the curse upon man was thus: “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:17-19). It is through intense labor that we bring forth the needed bounty, but in that holy place we shall work with joy, filled with the delights of a perpetual harvest. Consider what the LORD says in Amos 9:13, “’Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.’”
 
As we look upon our text for today, we read: “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.” What a tremendous promise; there will be access for all who are in that heavenly kingdom. Neither on the one side or the other will there be a lack, for both sides shall produce in abundance from all kinds of trees. How dreadful it is today that there is such scarcity of the necessary produce for life. The famines of food and water are dreadful, and we must uphold the call of God to do what we can with what we have to help those in need. Someday, however, all that will be over for the children of Christ. Even now we see in nature the illustration that illuminates what will come. Numbers 14:8 says, “If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.” Consider this: the mother cow produces more milk than is needed for the calf and the honey bee produces more honey than is needed for the hive. In both, God uses them to provide for His people. This is a rich illustration of the abundance of God promised to those who enter into His heavenly promised land.
 
We glance again at our text and we see the sustaining source of this abundant life flows from the very temple of God: “Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.” In our world today, we watch the turning of the leaves as autumn gently pushes summer from her place. The fresh fruit will be harvested and the trees will grow dormant as winter draws near. But in His Kingdom it will be ever green. No leaf will wither, for death cannot enter the place of everlasting life. And there the fruit will not fail, for it cannot help but grow ripe as it drinks deep the water of life. All that flows from Christ gives life—for He is the way, truth and life (see John 14:6). Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in Samaria and said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Drink deep, beloved, this water of life and let it sustain you unto eternal life.
 
Finally, we gaze upon our text today and read, “Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” This world is riddled with famine and disease. Life cannot be sustained without the one and it becomes deficient because of the other. Our LORD Jesus walked through this world and His power healed many of their diseases, even reversing the effects and decays of death. And, someday, the very river flowing from the temple will enrich the trees of the LORD so that they will always sustain His children and restore them from all illness. Revelation 21:4 declares, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
 
While we dwell in the autumn of this world, let us look for the glorious sunrise of that everlasting day. Even as I write this, I long for the day when I will be with my LORD. His love will wash away my sorrows and from His temple will come the full and fruitful life, the abundance promised to all who believe. I hope this has stirred in you a longing for Jesus as well.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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