[2] Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. [3] And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. [4] Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. [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. Ezekiel 47:2-5.

These are the literal, physical waters that will flow out of the Temple, which will be built in Jerusalem immediately following the Second Advent during the Millennial Reign of Christ.  As is typical of springs that suddenly surface from karst topography, when one walks away from the spring source, he or she notes that it becomes wider and deeper.  Like many other springs, as the water flows away from its source to cut a “V” shaped valley through limestone strata, it will eventually be fed by side springs from the limestone water table along the lower sections of the “V.”  This feeding by subterranean springs, from the water table source, will eventually cause the millennial spring to become wider and deeper as one walks eastward through the Eastern Gate of the new Temple (See Figure 45).  It is basically no different from thousands of other limestone springs that God has formed in altered topography – springs that bubble forth, and then keep getting wider and deeper as they obey gravity along a path of least resistance, eventually flowing into a larger stream, creek, bayou, marsh, or river.

As you may observe on Figure 45, the actual cubit measurement begins at the “utter gate” of the newly built millennial Temple.  The measurement of four thousand cubits, or six thousand feet, carries us directly through the valley created by God at the end of the Tribulation Period when he split the Mount of Olives.  The stream will flow between the two divided sections and, on the opposite side of the Mount of Olives, a dramatic hydrologic change suddenly occurs at the end of four thousand cubits, which is a great change in the depth of the stream.  The increase in depth is very gradual for almost four thousand cubits, going from the ankles, to the knees, and to the thighs.  But suddenly, at the end of the six thousand feet, Ezekiel encounters a river he could not pass over except by swimming.  I am convinced this great river is the diverted Jordan River.

When God rips open the Arabah Fault, shown in Figure 25, the Jericho Valley will be opened as a riverbed from north of Jericho to the point four thousand cubits east of the present Golden Gate of Jerusalem.  When this opening of the Jericho Valley occurs, the Jordan River will be dammed temporarily by massive landslides in its central portion, but will eventually flow southward into its newly created riverbed, finally to link with the end of Ezekiel’s spring stream.  All of this may seem to be unbelievable, but let me assure you this has occurred before in God’s creation, as the quote from this 1692 earthquake report attests: “But the greatest violence was among the mountains and rocks.  Most of the rivers were stopped for twenty-four hours by the falling of the mountains; till, swelling up, they made themselves new channels, tearing up trees, and all they met in their passage.  A great mountain split, and fell into the level ground, and covered several settlements, and destroyed the people there.”  The Jordan River itself has been dammed up before on several occasions by earthquake landslides.  But this time it will be the greatest earthquake upheaval Israel has ever known, and the Jordan will be diverted permanently to link with Ezekiel’s stream.