How Deep Do We Want to Go?
“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.”
Ezekiel 47:5
A dear friend of mine from Pennsylvania, a wise pastor and faithful father, once mentioned Ezekiel’s vision of the river.
The prophet is brought into the water. At first, he can walk. Then the river rises. The same water that touched his ankles reaches his knees, then his waist, until the river becomes too deep to cross. The same river now carries him.
I wonder if revelation is like that.
God gives truth that is real from the beginning.
As we keep walking with Him, we discover that the truth He has given is deeper than we first knew.
I wonder if Hebrew carries us this way.
A Hebrew word often holds more than one English word can carry. It is not because the meaning changes, but because the reality being revealed is larger than a single English translation.
The first meaning is not discarded. It becomes the doorway into the next.
Yirah is fear. That is true.
As we continue walking with God, fear opens into awe, reverence, wonder, amazement, and the weight of standing before the living God.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is not panic before God.
It is the soul waking up in His presence.
Tov is good. That is true. But when God looks upon creation and calls it tov, the goodness begins to shine with beauty, delight, wholeness, harmony, and the joy of creation as God intended it.
“And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31
The world was not merely working.
The Father was delighting.
Yada is to know. That is true. But knowing begins to deepen into relationship, faithfulness, shared life, communion, and abiding.
To know God is not only to hold an idea about Him.
It is to live before Him, to be known by Him, and to receive life from Him.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”
John 17:3
Even Hosanna opens this way.
It begins as a cry: save us now. But when the Savior comes, the cry becomes praise. The ache becomes worship. The prayer becomes welcome.
“Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
Matthew 21:9
I notice that these words never stop unfolding.
The farther I walk with them, the farther they carry me…..further up and further in.
Then John’s Gospel comes to mind.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
And then,
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14
I wonder if this is where the river has always been flowing.
The words were never meant to remain only words. What language could only carry in part becomes visible in Jesus.
Fear of the Lord becomes a life fully awake to the Father.
Goodness becomes the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
Knowing becomes abiding.
Mercy has hands, truth has a voice, faithfulness walks dusty roads, wisdom sits at tables, holiness touches lepers, and love weeps at tombs.
The Father’s heart becomes visible.
Everything God had been revealing through creation, through the Law, through the prophets, through the Psalms, through wisdom, and through promise gathers into Christ.
The river widens into the ocean.
“No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.” John 1:18
And Jesus says,
“Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.”John 14:9
This is why the Incarnation is so astonishing.
The Word becomes flesh.
The meanings become a life.
When I think about yirah now, I watch Jesus. He marvels at faith. He grieves over unbelief. He hears children singing and receives their praise. He rises before dawn to be with His Father.
His whole life is awake to God.
“When Jesus heard it, He marvelled.” Matthew 8:10
“And He marvelled because of their unbelief.” Mark 6:6
“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Mark 1:35
When I think about tov, I hear the Father’s voice over the Son.
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:17
The Father delights in Him before the miracles, before the sermons, before the healings, before the cross.
When I think about yada, I hear Jesus say,
“Abide in Me, and I in you.”
John 15:4
Knowing becomes communion. Communion becomes remaining. Remaining becomes fruitfulness. The branch lives because it shares the life of the Vine.
Then the Scriptures begin to recognize one another.
Ezekiel is not far from John. Genesis begins to echo Revelation. The Psalms begin speaking in the Gospels. The passages are not competing. They are turning toward the same center.
Christ is already there.
“For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Colossians 2:9
I wonder if revelation unfolds by return.
We come back to words we thought we already understood, to passages we had already read, and to memories we thought belonged to another season of life. But Christ stands at the center, and what once felt scattered begins to harmonize.
A conversation returns years later with new meaning. A poem speaks differently after suffering. A melody carries a memory we did not know we still held.
In my own heart, I see my daughter there: a little girl laughing through puddles, and years later, a young woman meeting the ocean. Somehow the puddle and the wave begin to speak to one another, the child and the woman, the laughter and the sea.
Maybe discipleship is like that.
Christ gathers the life we thought was scattered and carries it into Himself. Then, when we return to the river, the water is the same, the Word is the same, and Christ is the same. But we are not the same. Somehow, the river is deeper than the last time we entered it.
“And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live.” Ezekiel 47:9