Waters to Swim In

 

Elder Bill Walden (dec)

Ezekiel 47:5 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.

It has pleased Almighty God to show us the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision, and it is not long until the waters to wade in become waters to swim in and there is a great difference. When we enter the waters of His promises we wade for awhile and the farther we go the deeper the waters become.

Usually when we open a book we note the introduction and follow it to its conclusion. When we open God’s word, the Bible, we first meet with a declaration, “In The Beginning God!” The eternal, uncreated, self-existent Elohiym. We can swim in the waters but we can’t cross over in our understanding. Men who vainly attempt to enter the deep waters of the first verse of the Bible without the grace of faith, drown in their own heretical doctrine of evolution. God nowhere in the declarations of the old creation begs any to accept the account.

The term “God”, with which the Bible opens, is “Elohiym.” which is plural or singular in meaning; in this reference it is no more than three. As we follow the scriptures we learn from the many utterances of inspired scripture with reference to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost -- God manifested in three persons. The Son is coeternal as is the Father and likewise the Spirit.

How deep are these waters! The Trinity cannot be fully explained by mortal tongue. I concluded years ago that I am happy not to be required of God to fully fathom the deeps of this great mystery but that it would be heretical to deny the fact; it is waters to swim in that cannot be crossed over.

Ezekiel said the waters were rising, they grew deeper and deeper, the waters of God’s absolute sovereignty! He is sovereign in all His ways. He is sovereign in the salvation of sinners, and every sinner that He saves by his very nature is totally depraved. He came to where we are, we could not go to Him. The flaming sword of divine justice stood between us and it turned every way, but grace intervened, God became flesh, born of a virgin. These are deep, deep waters. Just to contemplate this is to experience deep rising waters: God became flesh, a virgin who had never known man conceived, and her Son redeemed His lost family by dying on a Roman cross. These are waters to swim in, but to the Jew it is but a stumbling block and to the sophisticated Greek it is foolishness. Those enlightened by the Spirit know the waters are deep and refreshing to poor sinners. I wrote in my Bible some years ago as I studied God’s account of the old creation, and I don’t recall where I found this, or I would give credit to it’s author:

“It is impossible to define the creation of the world in terms of it’s dignity. Nothing is easier to determine than God “is,“ and nothing more difficult to describe than “what He is.”

The waters are deep!