[6] And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. [7] Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. [8] Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. Ezekiel 47:6-8.

[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. Zechariah 14: 3-4.

The area through which the entire stream and Jordan River complex is prophesied to flow has a very fertile soil profile.  But no matter how fertile and perfectly zoned a soil horizon exists, unless there is water, no vegetation will spring up.  This has been the problem in this dry arid region for centuries, but God is going to change all that.  Trees and all types of vegetation will flourish along the length of these two living water rivers (Figure 47) as they flow toward the Mediterranean and Dead Seas.  The remnant of the nation of Israel will use this new source of water to irrigate the deserts of Judah and most of southern Israel, including the Negev.  Israel will become the breadbasket of the world.

As verse eight of Ezekiel 47 begins, we find ourselves standing at the brink of the diverted Jordan River, about four thousand cubits east of the “utter gate” of the Millennial Temple.  We are told that from this point the waters go out into what he calls “the east country.”  The “east country” is the section of land that includes the Dead Sea, which has been referred to in the past as “the Eastern Sea.”  We have the water moving, as shown in Figure 47, into the country east of the Mount of Olives like a pattern known as a bird’s foot delta.  We are then advised that from “the east country” the waters “go down into the desert.”  We are informed in the Hebrew which desert, for the word used for “desert” is “Arabah,” which is the desert that lies between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.  Strong’s Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary identifies the Arabah as “the sterile valley of the Jordan and its continuation to the Red Sea.”  Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies “the desert” as “the land between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Aqabah).   First the waters flow southward through the Arabah Desert to eventually empty into “the sea,” and that sea is the northern extension of the Red Sea, which is also known by the Arabs as the Gulf of Aqabah.  As indicated, in previous Birth Pang Updates, a channel will be opened in the land that lies between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah.  This land was once known as the land of Idumea.   Gradually the flow of fresh water from the Temple and the diverted fresh water from the Euphrates will “heal” the “east country” of its high salt content.  The “healing” will be accomplished by most of its salt being carried southward into the Red Sea.  Figure 47 shows the completed hydrological structure prophesied by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Joel.  I believe that the shape of the Dead Sea will be quite different from what I have shown in Figure 47, but so that the reader may relate to a known geographical feature, I have left its present shape unchanged.  Actually, it will become more like a fresh water delta marsh from Engedi to Eneglaim, and that section from “the brink of the river” to the fresh water marsh will be similar to the Mississippi Delta, but on a much smaller scale.

Figure 48 gives a general pictorial summation of many of the geological changes prophesied to occur in previous Updates.  All of these terrifying changes have a twofold purpose:  to show man the power of God and to prepare the land for the reign of Jesus Christ when he returns.