Editor’s Note: In the next few weeks, we’ll be posting the audio from a 6-part course on biblical imagery. If you’d like to join the upcoming course on deconstruction, sign up here. The new course starts on September 4.
Earlier this year, we launched a 6-part course on the images of water, gardens, and mountains in the Bible. We looked at the Sea of Chaos, the River of life, the Tree of Life, the Mountain of God, and the Anti-God Mountain.
Catch Up On the First Session
We’re going to be posting the audio of those sessions for members only, but everyone can get started with the first session: The Sea of Chaos.
Key Ideas in Session Two
The Bible describes Eden as a mountain garden from which God’s peace and flourishing were supposed to flow to all the earth.
The meaning of the river in Eden is connected to the life of God.
The tree and the river in Psalm 1 are connected to the tree of life and the river of life in Genesis 1 and 2.
Ezekiel 47 expands the idea of the river of life and shows that it (1) comes from the temple, (2) flows East into the wasteland, and (3) brings life wherever it goes.
In John 4 and 7, Jesus steps into the trajectory of the river of life and claims it for himself.
Revelation 22 picks up the image of the river of life and places it in the context of the New Jerusalem as an image of the life of God freely offered to all of his creation.
List of Key Passages and Notes
Genesis 1:1-2
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Genesis 2:5-6
“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground…"
Genesis 2:10-14
“A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
Isaiah 2:2
“Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it.”
Psalm 1:3, 4
“He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.”
Ezekiel 47 (whole chapter)
“Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar…”
Zechariah 14: 6-9
“On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 rAnd there shall be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.”
John 4:13, 14
“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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 7:37, 38
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
John 19:34
“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”
Revelation 22: 1-3
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
What Is the River of Life? — Symbols in the Bible Course (Part 2)