The meaning of the four rivers of paradise
for the church of Christ.
Genesis 2:10-14
When St. John gives us a description of the "Holy Jerusalem" which came down from God in heaven, he says in Revelation 22:1: "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as a 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'.
In this description there are elements which remind us of the description of Paradise, in which there is also a river and a tree of life. It cannot be a coincidence that the last chapter of the Bible brings us back to the first book of Moses, to the original habitat of the first people.
With even more surety we may think of a similarity when we read Revelation 2:7, where the final promise to the victors of the first time-period in the history of the church also speaks of the tree of life from which they shall eat in the paradise of God.
The apostle Paul moreover teaches us that the issues of the kingdom of God are depicted by elements of the Law, which do not only contain the laws of Israel, but also the numerous books of the Bible. Col.2:16,17;Hebr.8:5 and 10:1.
It could therefore be of importance to have a closer look at the description of Paradise in Genesis 2.
We then see that it was a garden, a pleasure-garden that was to be found in a country called Eden. It is, however, interesting that we know near to nothing of the whereabouts of that country.
Although the four rivers are continually mentioned, it is nowadays impossible to point out which where meant. The only one that gives us some surety is the river Euphrates, and it is of this particular river that the description teaches us nothing.
Various attempts have been made to find out which rivers where meant, and where they flowed to, but all assumptions are visionary. Modern theologians see a lack of geographical knowledge in what they find is a confused description. This is in concurrence with the low level of developpement of science in the ancient times. They however discard this explanation, for the books of the Bible are not of pure human origin, but their content has been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
There are scientists who have come to the conclusion that because of the change of the surface of the earth, because of the Flood for instance, the courses of the rivers have been changed.
We conclude then, that there can be no instance of surety.
But if this were true, why did the Lord God in His Word show with such precision how many rivers there were and which countries they soiled?
It seems as if the Lord God wanted to keep the location of Eden and the garden a secret, which gives the impression that we are dealing with something earthly, only that there is a deeper meaning at its foundation.
The meaning of the names of the garden, the landscape and the four rivers make this even clearer. We must not forget that the Bible is not a geographic or physics manual. The Bible means something completely different, the revelation of God's decrees. A few powerful lines tell us of the Creation of Heaven and Earth in a poetic and profound way. And the validity of the description is praised by scientists as being in concordance with what science teaches us of the Creation.
Furthermore, we read how the Lord God made the earth inhabitable for the people and how the people came to fall.
But the promise concerning the seed of women makes hope still glow in all hearts, and this is where we gain courage, for the battle of humanity shall be victoriously ended with the creation of the new Heaven and the new Earth.
In the description of paradise we find the close community of the Lord God with the people.
Everything came from God, and will one day return unto God when the Lord God may be all in all Corinthians, 15-28.
The Holy Scriptures are thus full of a holy thought of unity, which we can conclude from the laws of nature and the unity of the human race. That the spiritual life of the people must be ruled by this unity one can also conclude from the high priests prayer. And from the announcement that the four rivers derived from one main river in paradise.
The word Eden is probably of Babylonian origin and means steppe, which is a great plain where the climate only allows grass to grow. There are no trees at all and therefore we can imagine that the pleasure garden in that steppe must have been a wonderful world.
We must then distinguish Eden from Paradise, Eden was the plain in which paradise was situated. In Hebrew the word Eden exists where it means 'sweetness'. The Israelites therefore thought of something sweet on hearing that name. The word Paradise is derived from Greek and that language had borrowed the word from Persian and subsequently Babylonian. It's meaning is garden or pleasure-garden.
In the Dutch State Translation the word is only used once in the Old Testament, in The Song of Solomon 4:13 to be precise, where it is used figuratively, so that Luther translates it with pleasure-garden.
In the New Testament the word Paradise is mentioned three times, in Lucas 23:43, in Paul's revelations 2Cor. 12:4 and in Revelation 2:7.
In neither of these instances is the earthly paradise meant although there is a link.
The Holy Scripture calls the wonderful plain wherein Sodom and Gomorra lay before she was destroyed the Lord's Garden. The garden was planted towards the east, towards the direction of the light. Although the story of the Creation doesn't mention it we me might surmise the presumption that the main river which came from Eden had it's source in a mountain, 'God's Holy Mountain'.
For it is of this mountain that the prophet Ezechiel speaks when he says that the King of Tyrus was seated
on 'God's Holy Mountain', whilst the next verse reads; ' Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God' Ez. 28:13
It is strange that we see little mentioned in the Holy Scriptures of Eden's landscape, Paradise and the first people. It seems like the rather vague descriptions are pointing us to a much deeper meaning. The descriptions however give us an impression of rest and peace and of a close communion with the Lord God who lived lovingly with the people.
There are a few instances which play upon the above mentioned, for instance when the prophet Jeremiah calls the Lord; ' the fountain of living waters ' Jeremiah 2:13 and we may conclude the source of the stream is meant.
And Psalm 65:10 speaks of 'God's river who art full of water '.
What is meant is the irrigation of the fields, like the stream that irrigated Eden.
In the speech on the Kingdom of the Dead and the Resurrection we saw that paradise was the blessed part of the Kingdom of the awakened, not yet in the Heaven of bliss but still a place of rest and peace for those who through the belief of Christ's expiatory death have had a taste of the complete bliss which they will experience through the body of resurrection.
We don't have to restrict the idea of Paradise to that state and the waiting place of the faithfully departed.
Paradise, or the physical heaven on earth, was the reflection, after the Fall of the newly founded spiritual heaven , the Kingdom of Heavens as Christ calls it, the Christian Church which fights on earth and triumphs in Heaven.
Adam was according to Romans 5:14 the image of Christ, but then Eve is the image of the congregation, the bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife.
In The Song of Solomon 4:12 we read: 'A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse: a spring shut up, a fountain sealed'
With inclosed garden is meant a garden that is closed with a key. This is in concordance with Revelation 2:7 where He, who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks between the seven golden candlesticks ,promises to give the victors food from the tree of life which is in the middle of Paradise.
Christ opened Paradise by his reconciliation death.
The Church of Christ is His garden of which only he has the key, for in Revelation 3:7 it is written that 'he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth'.
That garden must be moistened, i.e. the Church must be fed and made fertile.
This is achieved by:
the descent of the Holy Ghost
divine admonition and consolation
the preaching of the Gospel
being a shepherd to the souls that have been won for Christ Here we a pointed to the fact that there must be a fourfold serving in the Church of the various needs of human well-being.
The Main Stream came forth from Eden and divided into four streams as we see in nature with some rivers which make up a delta.
Each of these four streams receives it's water from the main stream and never from one of its other branches.
The words 'and from thereon divided into four streams' can be interpreted in various ways.
Either the streams were divided in Eden before they had reached the garden or the main stream flowed through the garden and split up after it had left the garden.
But the latter solution isn't all that logical for irrigation of the garden worked out best if the streams were divided before they entered the garden.
We therefore suppose that all of the four rivers flowed through the garden which is both logical and linguistically correct. We had already concluded that geographically we are at a loss what to do with these rivers, and the same counts for the countries through which they flow.
Wherefore then this enumeration and describing?
Because there is a spiritual sense hidden in the names of the rivers which opens up to us when we take note of the meaning of these names.
For the main stream, it has been said, answers to the river in Revelation 22:1, it being clear as crystal and sprung forth from the throne of God and the Lamb.
The river in Eden originated from the Lord's mountain. Pure knowledge of God comes to us then from the place of complete holiness.
Christ has revealed to us the Father in truth. He is therefore the main-river. He divides up into four rivers to let His spiritual nourishment have more effect.
As the four streams all go their own way and irrigate different countries, so must the four offices of the Church all look after their own terrain of spiritual life.
One office cannot practice what the others also preach. Their goal is therefore not to strife for power but to let the truth of Christ be brought to it's fullest right.
That the four streams leave the garden indicates the Church's call. Through the Church God's blessing must be brought to all the people of the earth, being as it where the seed of Abraham.
The name of the first river was Pison; the 'out-flowing stream' and according to others the 'great spread of waters', but in essence both are the same. The Apostles of the Lord were appointed the spread of the Gospel. And we do see that soon after the Pentecost the Gospel was widely spread and continuing to do so.
About this stream we read that it crossed the country of Havila. Havila means 'sand-dessert' or according to others 'bearing sorrow'. And here the difference is not that big either for the irrigation of infertile land is an arduous process.
And doesn't this name entice it's weary hearts to receive the Gospel?
John the Baptist called himself, as Isaiah had told us, the voice of the calling in the dessert. And how much sorrow and disappointment did the Gospel take with it, Havila was the land of Gold, where the gold-dust which was praised as gold, was taken by the river. After the washing out the gold was taken further. Gold is the image of truth which was spread by the Apostles ( the water ).
There was furthermore in that country a kind of resin that was used because of it's nice smell at sacrifices and this is then the image of real worship.
The stone sardonyx was also found in the country of Havila. This stone was used as the yoke of the High Priests equipment. There were only two of these and on each of them the names of the six tribes of Israel were engraved. The sardonyx was also one of the twelve stones in the piece of cloth worn over the chest of the High Priest.
The fifth fundament of the wall of heavenly Jerusalem was a sardonyx. The stone sardonyx is peculiarly shaped and consists of different layers of light and dark and therefore very good for engraving upon, like the writing of the hearts- 2 Corinthians 3:2,3 and Jeremiah 31:33 .
The Lord's community was so made a letter, not of ink, but written by the Spirit in service of the Apostles. This is how the first stream decided our Gospel, the care for the divine truth, the true worship and attendance of the office of Apostle. '
And the name of the second river is Gihon, Gihon it is that crosses the land of Kush'. Gihon means 'the pioneering stream' or also ' the uplifting'. Here were are noted by the office of prophet.
Even though the word 'prophets' has been used by the Apostle Paul for the professing members of the community, who did exist according to Ephesians 4:11-( see also 1 Cor. 12:28,29 ).
In the community at Antioch we find that their leaders are called prophets. According to Acts 15:22 Silas was a predecessor and according to verse 32 a prophet.
This Silas, later called Silvanus, we find as servant of Paul in 1Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Cor. 1:19.
The name Gihon therefore points us at the character of this office. It is the spontaneity that is woken by the Holy Ghost. Although the human spirit is not ignored, what is revealed is of pure Godly origin.
2 Peter 2:20,21 tells us this. When then a word, brought by prophets, is fulfilled it is no proof of their clarity that they could see the future so clear as the result of causes present, but it is the fulfilment of the promises of Christ that they would reveal their given through the Holy Spirit.
'Kush' means black and one is reminded of the land of the Moors. One thought of them as living on the outermost limits of the earth-Esther 1:1. The Moors would also convert, although they were separated themselves far from God according to Amos 9:7.
In Psalm 68:32 and Psalm 87:4 however we hear promising speech, just as in Zephaniah 3:10.
It is impossible that the Gihon, which is believed by some to be the Nile and therefore crossing the land of the Moors, could be this river, for the Nile originates in Middle-Africa and could therefore impossibly have originated from the one main stream.
We therefore only need to pay attention to the meaning of the name Kush, which points to the sins of the peoples living in idolatry. These also are to be made fertile by the water of the main-stream, through the Holy Spirit.
But also the Lord's community shall be consoled and how can this be done better than through that office, that in direct sense is to be influenced by the Paraclete, the other Comforter.
Paraclete actually means intercessor or advocate and we read that the Holy Spirit prays with unspeakable lamentation for God's people- Romans 8:26 .
The Sulammith, the Bride, knows of herself that she is black because of her sins, but she is consoled for she is charming. She is also told to be loyal and the judgements to come are given as a warning.
Everything the Groom wants to profess in His love comes to her via the Holy Spirit, and so we understand the word from Revelations 19:10: ' the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'.
In Acts 13:1-4 we read that the prophets in the community called the Apostles Barnabas and Paul to their office.
' The name of the third river is Hiddekel , going to the East of Assur. Hiddekel means 'quick or happily skipping river'.
We hereby think of Isaiah 52:7: ' How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings...etc.'
The Apostles were in the first place appointed to preach the Gospel, but they couldn't be everywhere at once, and so we see that for instance the Apostle Paul chose big centres for his work and therefrom sends his fellow workers Col. 1:7; 4:13, Phil. 2:25-30 .
Timothy was likewise a travelling preacher of the Gospel- 2 Timothy 4:5 - just like Titus.
The country of Assur whose name means ' luck ' was ripe for judgement because of sin but the town converted because of the preaching of Jona Luke 11:32 .
Jona is the image of our Lord Jesus, the Saviour, who came to bring true happiness as a superior of Jona Luke 11:32.
And so the Evangelists brought us true happiness of which an example is given us in Ephesians 2:11-22.
'And the fourth river is Frath'. A short and powerful description , this name means 'freshwater-stream'.
Its direction is not given and if the Frath were to be the Euphrates, it would run to Babel. The true meaning of the word Babel is not 'confusion' but Gate of God. Inside the gates of the old cities daily life took place and thus the fourth stream takes care of the inner life. Fertile substances are to be found in the earth that without irrigation cannot bring fourth anything.
Thus the inner life of the community for which the elements have already been put into place must be brought to life via house-calls, comforting the ill, correcting the people that go astray, etc. We here see the words of Ephesians 4:11-16 have their basis in the first and the last book of the Bible.