From the River to the ends of the earth

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zec 9:10)


Sometimes you come across a single verse of scripture that seems to embody in a single sentence the essence of the whole purpose of God. That's one of the things I love about the word of God, you can get revelation from the broad brushstrokes, but also from the tiniest detail. These two views, the macroscopic and the microscopic, do not contradict (if exegeted correctly) but wonderfully confirm. How could this be possible in a text written by scores of authors over thousands of years, unless the whole thing were carefully crafted by the divine hand. All scripture is God breathed — all of it — no exceptions!

This I believe is one such verse. "From the River to the ends of the Earth" sums up the whole Kingdom plan of God. (Sorry School of the Word students, I know you have already handed your essays in!! ;-)) It encompasses the purpose of Eden, with the river that flowed out from the paradise of God and split into four headwaters to symbolically touch the four corners of the world with the life of God. It encompasses the vision in Ezekiel 47, where the River flows from the temple of God, brings healing to the nations, and life to the "dead" sea. And it encompasses our great commission as those who have been filled with the Spirit, out of whom rivers of living water flow, to touch men from every nation under heaven.

"From the River to the ends of the earth" represents Jesus' unstoppable Kingdom advance through men and women who have been touched by the Spirit, to go into all the world, transforming it with his life and filling it with his glory.