Ezekiel 47:8

The river’s purpose was to bring life to the country called *Israel. But the river in this *vision also had a second purpose. It would cure all that is bad in the country.

The Arabah is the valley of the Jordan river. The Jordan is *Israel’s main river. It is on the east border. The sea is called the Dead Sea. It is a very strange sea. Its surface is 395 metres (1285 feet) below the level of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. This means that the surface of the Dead Sea is the lowest place on the earth’s surface. The Jordan river enters it, but no rivers leave it. It is much more salty than any ordinary sea. In fact, it is too salty for anything to live there. There are no fish. Tourists visit the sea and they bathe in it. The water is so salty that they float on its surface.

The Jordan river is unable to bring life to the Dead Sea. And the Jordan is unable to cure its dead state. But Ezekiel saw a river that was able to make these changes. No ordinary river could do it. But this was not an ordinary river. This river meant the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Ezekiel had already seen the effects of that power. In a previous *vision, the Holy Spirit made dead bones to live again (37:1-14). Those bones meant the people from *Israel.