Living Waters
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 46]

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life , clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb . In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river , was there the tree of life , which bare twelve manner of fruits , and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1-2)

Thus the apostle John described the water that flowed from the divine throne that would be installed in the Jerusalem temple in the last days.¹ His angelic guide showed him this structure and more. John wrote, “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein” (Revelation 11:1).

John's vision of the temple, the stream, and the tree of life is essentially the same as that described by the prophet Ezekiel, who also was guided by an angel:

Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house [temple]; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward : for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.²

Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward ; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.

Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this?

Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other . Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country , and go down into the desert, and go into the [Dead] sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.

And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat , whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months , because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary : and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.³ (Ezekiel 47:1-12)

Ezekiel tells us that the water reached its greatest depth some 4,000 cubits east of the temple. Today, this is impossible, because the Mount of Olives is just across the narrow Kidron valley and would block any water from the temple mount and force it southward, which is the direction of flow of the Kidron stream. The only way the waters could flow east would be if the mount were split in two, forming a valley. This is, in fact, what the prophet Zechariah predicted:

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah:⁴ and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.⁵

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.⁶

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea [the Dead Sea], and half of them toward the hinder sea [the Mediterranean]: in summer and in winter shall it be.

And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel⁷ unto the king's winepresses.⁸

And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. (Zechariah 14:1-11)

Zechariah's prophecy clarifies how the waters could flow eastward to the temple and how they could “heal” the Dead Sea, which currently has no living things in it. He tells of great upheavals that will cause the Mount of Olives to split in two, allowing the water to flow east through the two halves. He also notes that everything from Geba to Rimmon would become “as a plain,” whereas the whole region today consists of mountainous terrain.

The Dead Sea receives water from the Jordan River and a few springs that surround it. Being the lowest spot on the earth's surface, no water flows out of the lake, so when the water evaporates, it leaves chemicals (mostly salts) behind. The only way for the lake to drain is if it and the rest of the rift valley in which it is located, were above sea level and allowed the water to flow to the Red Sea.⁹

The term “living water(s)” refers to running water (as opposed to stagnant), i.e., potable water.¹⁰ Jesus used the term to contrast earthly water, used for baptism, with the Spirit that completed the baptismal process.¹¹ He told the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well that he was able to provide “living water” to those who asked him.

Speaking of the well water the woman had come to draw, he said,

Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10-14; cf. D&C 63:23).¹²

Speaking in the temple during the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), when the annual prayers for rain were offered, ¹³ we read that:

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:37-38).

Christ's invitation to come and drink was patterned after Isaiah 55:1 (quoted in 2 Nephi 9:50), “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” John also wrote, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).¹⁴

The risen Christ told him, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (Revelation 21:6). The apostle's angelic guide told him, “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).¹⁵

Lehi and his son Nephi saw in vision a “the rod of iron ... which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God” (1 Nephi 11:25). Speaking to the prophet Jeremiah (Lehi's contemporary), the Lord said, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

The prophet returned to this imagery in Jeremiah 17:13: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.”

---

Notes

¹ The prophet Joseph Smith, describing the signs of Christ's second coming, explained, “Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, &c.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance, There will be wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, the sun turned into darkness and the moon to blood, earthquakes in divers places, the seas heaving beyond their bounds; then will appear one grand sign of the Son of Man in heaven. But what will the world do? They will say it is a planet, a comet, &c. But the Son of Man will come as the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, which will be as the light of the morning cometh out of the east” ( History of the Church 5:337).

² A seeming discrepancy in the accounts of John and Ezekiel is that while the former wrote that the water came out from under the divine throne (Revelation 22:1), the latter has it coming out from under the altar (Ezekiel 47:1). In fact, there is agreement when we note that the Lord himself identified the latter-day temple as his throne in Ezekiel 43:7. In the Ugaritic texts of the 13 th -14 th centuries BC, unearthed in 1929, the primordial waters flow from beneath the throne of El (“God”), which was made of precious stones. In Jewish tradition (based on Genesis 2:10), they flow from beneath the tree of life in the garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28:13 mentions precious stones in connection with “Eden the garden of God.” In the Christian Ethiopic text known as The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan , Adam, after being expelled from the garden, prayed that God would allow him access to “the Water of Life that I may drink of it and live” ( Conflict of Adam and Eve I, 41.12), identifying it with “the water that flowed from under the Tree of Life” ( Conflict of Adam and Eve I, 41.10).

³ A number of ancient texts describe the use of leaves in medicines.

⁴ For another biblical reference to this earthquake, see Amos 1:1.

⁵ Some Bible scholars prefer reading “if all be holy with thee.”

⁶ “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23).

⁷ Nehemiah 3:1; 12:39; Jeremiah 31:38.

⁸ The king's garden and winepresses were located in the Kidron Valley that runs along the eastern wall of the temple compound (2 Kings 25:4; Nehemiah 3:15; Jeremiah 39:4; 52:7).

⁹ This rift valley begins in the north and runs south through the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea to the eastern tongue of the Red Sea. The Sea of Galilee is over 600 feet below sea level, while the Dead Sea lies nearly 1,300 feet below sea level. The two are connected by the Jordan River which is, consequently, the lowest river on earth and is aptly named, for its name means “descender.” For an in-depth discussion, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Science and Genesis,” in Wilford M. Hess and Raymond T. Matheny (eds.), Science and Religion: Towards a New Dialogue , Vol. 2 (Geneva, IL:  Paladin House, 1979).

¹⁰ See D&C 133:29.

¹¹ See John 3:5 and Moses 6:59.

¹² Alma, comparing the word of God to a seed, declared, “And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life” (Alma 32:40-41; see also Alma 33:23).

¹³ See the discussion in “King Benjamin and the Feast of Tabernacles,” in John M. Lundquist & Stephen D. Ricks (eds.), By Study and Also by Faith, Essays in Honor of Hugh Nibley , Vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: Deseret and FARMS, 1990).

¹⁴ Alma told his son Corianton that “whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come” (Alma 42:27; also quoted in D&C 10:66).

¹⁵ The passage seems to have been influenced by Psalm 23:1-2: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”

Click here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.