FOUR MAIN STREAMS

Genesis 2: 8-14

John 21: 24-25

Ephesians 3: 14-21

AML I suggest we might enquire about the creation of God and especially the emphasis in this first verse read on the “four main streams”. Eden refers to pleasure, and the favourable conditions in which God set man. He “planted a garden in Eden eastward”, (that is, towards the sunrising, which would suggest the resurrection of Christ) “and there put man whom he had formed”, v 8. God set man in the most favourable and positive circumstances ever; and we know how the history relates the failure and the breakdown of man, sin coming in, through disobedience, through eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve being tempted by the serpent. But it says that out of that Eden a river went out to water the garden, and the river parted and from thence became four main streams. I have been thinking how the idea of four streams would be enlarged as we go on in faith. We know the characteristics mentioned here; and the gold is referred to first. It is striking that silver, speaking of redemption, is not mentioned at all; that comes in later in connection with Abram. But God's original thought is that the gold comes in first, “And the gold of that land is good”. If you think of what God has set out in Christ, I wonder if the four rivers would have a reference really to the four gospels, leading on to the four dimensions mentioned in Ephesians 3: 20. These literal numbers in the Old Testament have a moral application seen in the New Testament. We need the Spirit to contemplate the vastness of it.

I just read one scripture in John 21, that would really cover all that John refers to. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did” - that could easily encompass the vastness of the four gospels. We think of how two apostles wrote a gospel, and then Luke, one that never saw Jesus, is able to relate accurately the things that he had known and heard. And he writes another book, that is the Acts of the Apostles - we may say the continuation of Christ, after His resurrection, what was formed on the earth through the apostles. When you think of the vastness, or the greatness of the gospel, the number of the twelve had to be maintained, they had to choose another one that had been accustomed to the pathway of the Lord Jesus, while He had been going in and out amongst them. And so one is added to the twelve; showing how things are formed. But I just thought of the greatness of things here. There were also many other things which Jesus did - that would embrace the thought of the four rivers. They all four have a prophetic bearing, and I think the Euphrates especially. But when it starts it comes to the gold, and I wonder if the gold would be shining in Ephesians, “being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height”. All these glorious attributes that Paul refers to are really indicated in the beginning of creation. God planted Eden, and a river going out that divided into four main streams. It is really what is maintaining the testimony and the universe in all its glory. It is all what God has provided. Man has ruined it, but initially God has it all in hand. I thought if we could inquire about these simple, deep thoughts.

DMW Yes, they are simple and deep, and we appreciate them too. God never really gives up His original thoughts. His original thoughts go back before creation, but they are worked out in creation. We see something in that, do we not? Would the assembly come to mind when Eden is spoken of?

AML I think so, because it refers to pleasure. God's great delight is really seen in Christ and the assembly, that vessel. And I wonder if the gold would embrace the thought of the assembly. It is all worked out, the planting, the four main streams, and all these rivers, each having a certain characteristic and bearing. I came across a simple touch in ministry, ‘Just remember, we have got four gospels’. The Spirit would help us to take in the character of each gospel. Matthew's gospel ends in a wonderful way; Jesus never leaves them, “behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, chap 28: 20. He never left those on the earth. And we can go on in the faith and the strength that the Lord Jesus is with us. John refers to things in such a wonderful way, as if to say that he is not able to cover them all. It is like what we have in Hebrews; Paul says time would fail to speak of the men of faith, Heb 11: 32. He mentions six names, but I am sure he could have gone on and on and on for a long time, and you get the same impression with John here. “And there are also many other things … if they were written one by one”; it has been said that nothing of them has been lost. The heavenly city, and the wall there, would be covered by what Jesus has done. And I wonder if that really would be an outcome of the four rivers.

SWS That is a very encouraging impression. I was wondering if the four rivers would link on, and further support your thought as to the boundless, infinite nature of what God has provided, the infinite nature of His divine grace in view of fulfilling His purpose. These rivers show He is a source of divine grace, all in view of supporting what God has purposed in His own heart for Himself. I think that is important, and you can help us on this. We often think this garden in Eden was planted for man, but it was really for God. Another portion in the Scriptures emphasises that the garden of Eden was God's garden; it was His garden, Ezek 28: 13. It was what was for Himself. It was what was for His own heart. Man got the benefit, man got the gain of it, but it was ultimately for Himself.

AML Yes, I am glad you refer to that. He “made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; and the tree of life, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, v 9. What God planted there was really for His own purpose. I think that is why Mr Darby has a note, ‘Pleasure’ (see footnote ‘a’ Gen 2: 8). It was something that was delightful for heaven; Jehovah planted a garden in Eden eastward, suggesting that it is all furnished and accomplished by the death and resurrection of Christ, eastward. The sunrising speaks of His resurrection. What has been accomplished by the death of Christ is to God's glory.

KRO You can help me about your thought of the four rivers and the four gospels. There is the scripture in Acts 10 about the sheet that was filled with the different creatures. It speaks there of the four corners. I was wondering if that would speak of what was secured out of the four gospels; it is the nations brought in there, is it?

AML Yes, I am sure. You think of Peter being given that mission. He almost got into trouble for it, but he dealt with it by asking, “who indeed was I to be able to forbid God?” (Acts 11: 17); it was a wonderful thing, the sheet came down from heaven, and did it not come down thrice, v10? And he was not immediately able to apprehend the thought of it, but it was the divine mind. It is really the feature of Eden, what is pleasurable. “What God has cleansed, do not thou make common”, v 9. It was something that had gone through cleansing. It was in the divine mind that we, through divine grace, sovereign grace, should be brought into blessing.

KRO It came to mind as you were outlining your thought. Acts 10 refers to all kinds of creatures. They are subjects of creation, and what you spoke of in the garden is the subject of creation too, but the four corners refers to the aspect of the encompassing nature of the glad tidings, does it not?

AML Yes, that is what we have there in Acts 10: 15-16, “What God has cleansed, do not thou make common. And this took place thrice, and the vessel was straightway taken up into heaven”. “And lo, immediately three men were at the house”, chap 11: 11. You think of it coming down three times out of heaven.

DMW “And last of all”, Paul says, “he appeared to me also”, 1 Cor 15: 8.

AML Would that be divine grace? That would really be the gold that comes out. It is remarkable that the gold is mentioned first as to these rivers.

DMW Would that gold therefore indicate the sovereign rights of God, and that what He has created on the earth is going to carry through? That it all goes back to His sovereign rights, the gold, the rights of God?

AML Yes, and do you think the gold would be a metal that would go through the fire? Everything that God can use for His glory and benefit must have a touch of the death of Christ.

LMH I wanted to link on with what has been brought out as to Eden being the source of these rivers. It was interesting to me that the river also waters the garden, does it not? Before it branches out into the four, it sustains and provides sustenance for the garden. I thought we had a touch in the morning meeting about the Father's delight in Christ, and I thought maybe there was a link to that in how the river provides this sustenance to the garden before it even branches out into the four streams.

AML I am glad you referred to that because I thought that JND's notes as to both ‘pleasure’ but also as to the rivers - the ‘heads’ (note ‘b’, Gen. 2: 10) - would bring us to the source, the Father. Maybe the water watering the garden of Eden would be a reference to the Spirit, how God is maintaining everything, because the touch we had of the realm of the Father this morning was in the power of the Spirit. And without the Spirit, we would not have that enjoyment.

SWS It is remarkable what has been said, and it is something that is quite affecting to consider, the way that we have been brought into our blessing. The source of our blessing is what God has secured for His own heart. There can be no greater source of blessing than that, that we actually have part in it, that we are brought into it; and we come into the gain and the reality and the enjoyment of it. What God has secured for His heart is quite remarkable.

AML So, Peter was referred to, and then there is what we have in John, and then what Paul refers to in Ephesians: it was their own personal experience and enjoyment, and they do not want anything less for the saints, that we should take it on. When we just contemplate the gospel in all its variety and in all its depth and details, how that brings us back to what these four rivers represent, what God provides.

CIO Would the garden in Genesis relate to what is mentioned in Revelation 22: 1-2, “And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit; and the leaves of the tree for healing of the nations”. How would that relate? I was thinking as to what our brother said as to the river watering the garden as the water of life. Would that have any relation?

AML I think it has a strong relation. It reminds us very much that what God has set on in the very beginning, He will never divert from; He will reach His end in view through the death of Christ, and in the saints who have received the Holy Spirit. “And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”. When you come to the throne, you think of the One that sits on it, our Lord Jesus, the One that we remembered this morning. He is the One that is going to sit on that throne, and now through faith we can apprehend it, and rest in it, and enjoy it, in its greatness. Then you think of the tree of life yielding its fruit, and it refers to it yielding its fruit every month.

DMW There is the tree of life as well in the verses you read, and in what our brother has read from the end of Revelation. God begins with a Man, as you say, the rivers, the four gospels. That is the depth of the scriptures, but the whole of scripture is found in the four gospels because they bring us to the Man - the Tree of life; life is found in that Man alone. Would that be the thought? And the river of the water of life would relate to the Spirit who glorifies that Man in our affections for the pleasure of God.

AML Yes, and do you think that is why John really starts with that? “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”, John 1: 9. We reach the Man through the gospels, and what we have in the Acts and the epistles brings us back to the foundation, the vastness, the greatness of what comes out in the gospels; the Man of the gospels, what He has accomplished.

DMW What you are bringing out is quite remarkable, because the Song of Songs speaks of the beloved coming into his garden, chap 5: 1. So it is the personal position of the Lord Jesus in the assembly, that His lovers take character from Him; and the Spirit of life gives us to enjoy all that God has found in Christ, and we respond accordingly.

AML Do you think that is why we have the reference, “Come”, in Song of Songs? There is movement all in view of coming into the garden of Jehovah, where you have the fragrances and the sweet odour, and we are able to rest under the apple-tree in reverence. All these physical references have a moral bearing.

DMW In the Song of Songs we have, “Let my beloved come into his garden”, Song of Songs 4: 16. Would that be an exercise? Before we leave the house for the Supper, we have in mind what the Lord possesses. The four rivers means that it is on the earth where He possesses it. But letting Him come into His garden, would that put us in the Spirit on the Lord's day to anticipate that, and what the emblems are in taking them? It opens up what is for God, as found in the assembly.

AML I am sure. And do you think it would be a similar touch in the Songs of degrees? “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”, Ps 122: 1. There might need to be preparation before He comes into His garden to see what is there?

DMW Say something about that, because with the garden might have in view eternal life. So eternal life provides the conditions in the scene of death for what is to proceed in the way of response. You might say something about the Songs of degrees.

AML I do not think I am able to, but it is remarkable that the touch of eternal life comes into one of the last of these psalms.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon
Aaron's beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments;

As the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion; for there hath
Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore, Ps 133: 1-3.

That is really what the Songs of degrees lead to, but it is to be enjoyed now.

DMW Yes, so that the song that ends the Songs of degrees, Psalm 134, has the sanctuary in mind, does it not? “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary”, v 2. We need that sanctuary while we are in mixed conditions, so that we can bless God? And what underlies that blessing or that ascending thought, is abstracting ourselves from where we are, literally, to where we desire to respond, in a heavenly way, in another sphere, to bless God, do you think?

AML Yes, the sanctuary means we are to be set apart, in holiness, all in view of worshipping and addressing Him.

LEO The scriptures that you have brought before us are encouraging. I am thinking that these scriptures bring before us all blessing coming from the Person of the Lord Jesus. I was thinking particularly of the verses in Ephesians that you highlighted, and the four dimensions that you pointed to, the breadth, length, depth and height; they come in as a result of Christ dwelling and being rooted and founded in love in our hearts. I have been trying to relate that to the scripture you read in Genesis: there is the one river that comes out of the garden and it results in the four. I wondered if that would be an image of Christ in that way. It is encouraging to think of all blessing being a result of Him, the Person of the Lord Jesus. The dimensions would be for us to enjoy now, through faith; they may connect with what we can get in the four gospels, but all is a result of the Person of the Lord Jesus, is it not? It is a wonderful thought that all is covered, and so there is not an area that has not been opened up in that way. God has fully opened up the truth for us to enjoy, has He not? And it is available, but Christ has to dwell in our hearts, does He not?

AML Yes, I am sure that is right. And it is so affecting that it is in order that we may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints. That brings in the scope of what God has accomplished, what He has recovered through time, and it will bring in the whole thought of the assembly. We will have an impression too of the Old Testament saints, everything that God has secured for His own glory in every dispensation. The Spirit would help us, and faith would help us to apprehend what the loaf refers to, at the Supper. It is such a great thought and it brings in these four dimensions, breadth, length, depth, and height. He has been received up in glory, and He was the One that has ascended and “also descended into the lower parts of the earth”, Eph 4: 9. And we think of all these glories that shine in the gospels.

I just had the impression that John refers to “many other things which Jesus did”, John 21: 25. He says, “one by one”, his heart was full of what Christ had done. That never left Him. And yet you think of John being left on the isle of Patmos, where he may have finished his life in the salt mines as a prisoner for the testimony. And yet he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, Rev 1: 10. He was in the gain of what he had enjoyed. You think of “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21: 20) - he referred to himself as that. He does not say his own name; he does not need to do that. But there are so many glories, and I just wondered if they linked with the variety of the four rivers. The river also would refer to the freshness of the current flow of the water. It was enough to water that garden, which God had planted.

KRO I was wondering if you might help us, if there something distinctive about the Euphrates? I am thinking there is a directionality, for want of a better word. We have Pison, and Gihon and Hiddekel, but there is an unbounded character in the Euphrates; it just declares the name of the fourth river. It is the mighty river, is it not?

AML It is interesting you say that; it has a significance, I am sure. The Euphrates has come to be the boundary of the present western world, which will be significant in a day to come.

DMW The scripture for that is in Revelation 9. “And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, who are prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they might slay the third part of men; and the number of the hosts of horse was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number”, Rev 9: 13-16. And the thought is that it will make way for China and the Eastern nations.

AML Well, it is remarkable that we have the four angels here. It is a universal thought that runs through from creation in Genesis right through to Revelation, and how confirmative that is.

DMW I am not sure how to speak of it. There is a representative number perhaps, but it goes to show the scope of it, whatever the result is.

AML Was there more thought as to Ephesians?

LEO I was just going to make a further comment. If we put the rivers alongside the four dimensions in Ephesians, each of those rivers would have been unique in some sense and would be life-giving to the area that they flowed through. I wondered if the dimensions here each have their own uniqueness. I am thinking of the variety of ways that we can, for example, speak of a divine Person. We can think of the glory associated with each Person and we can think of grace and divine love and mercy. I just wondered if maybe there is a uniqueness to the dimensions that maybe links with the rivers that each have their own place. But they all come from the same river that flows east out of Eden. I just would liken that to the Lord Jesus, that all these glories, which may be different and unique, are all associated with the same Person. Would that be right?

AML I am glad you refer to that. They are all combined and linked to the same Person, to the one river that comes out. The origin is God. I think it has been suggested that the thought of height could well be John's gospel, and depth could be Matthew's gospel, and length could be Luke's. They all have their own characteristics. These four dimensions all have their own glory, but they all stem back to the one river, to the Lord Jesus, to the Person of Christ.

DMW That is most helpful. The Father is going to see to it in the assembly that the Lord Jesus is pre-eminent. It is the Father's Spirit here. So what has been said is very helpful because what that scripture speaks of in my mind is the one river. We cannot say too much without being in error, and the birth of Christ is an inscrutable matter, but Luke's gospel presents Him as was born of the Spirit , which is really in view of all the gospels, would you say? So that being able to apprehend refers, I believe, to the Person of Christ, the breadth and length and depth and height. And that will take in, of course, His work in down-stooping, in redemption. But this is a collective thought here, is it not? Ephesians 3 pertains to the assembly in view of the service of God, where our hearts are filled with Christ, and the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge. It holds us in that sphere, where there is praise in the assembly which He leads.

AML So it is “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus”. Eph 3: 21. The source and the object is the Person of Christ in every aspect. I wondered if that is why you have the emphasis on the gold first. The gold has often been referred to as the deity of Christ, but also the love of Christ. They are seen in the gold - and how much gold is referred to when you go on in the Old Testament, as to the offerings and to the building of the house and the wealth of Solomon. The gold has a pre-eminence. I remember an old brother telling me as to the gold and the silver, that the silver might be mentioned first just as many times as gold. I had never thought about that. But sometimes silver is mentioned first, and sometimes gold is mentioned first. In creation, gold comes in first. I think it is in Genesis 13: 2 that we have silver coming in. But these are materials that go through the fire and they all speak of Christ. Even Malachi refers to them, the refiner and the fuller, how the true silver is coming out through fire, chap 3: 3. That would be redemption.

DMW So the thought you are getting at is that it all starts with Christ. Now while we and all persons redeemed maintain their identity, we come out like Christ. There is no other thought before God, but Christ. So it is really about Christ; not so much about us, but about Christ. About what we apprehend and can respond accordingly for God's pleasure.

AML It says, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. That is really both the silver and the gold coming out in the saints. It is a heavenly order.

WJO I do not want to repeat what has already been mentioned about the four dimensions. But I was wondering as to all being built on the inner man, in view of what might be enjoyed in the eternal ages, for what can be enjoyed in the assembly in Christ Jesus and to all the generations of ages of ages. That is what would be in view of something of eternal enjoyment in these matters, that in Christ there might be something enjoyed for us, but more importantly enjoyed by divine Persons as well. Would you link on to that?

AML Yes, I am sure that is right. So really our eternal portion is that we would be able to join in a spiritual song. Worship to God eternally would be mostly in singing under the One that is leading the praises to the Father. He is the Chief Musician of Israel and He is able to lead the singing. And it is “to him be glory”; we have that “to him” twice. “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen.”, Eph 3: 20-21. You think of how it said in Genesis that the gold in that land was good; the gold is shining here in this chapter.

DMW Would “to him” be the headship of God? What our brother said is very important because this is not something we wait to do; this is something we engage in now. So we often say we touch eternity. Well, here is a scripture that we can refer to in our own exercises and consciousness, because it is now the assembly's praise occurs, and it goes to God. Would that be the headship of God?

AML I am sure that is right. To adore is really a touch of eternity, and by the Spirit and faith we touch upon it already. And we can enjoy it and rest in it already because it has been accomplished. And yet it will be an actual thing in a day to come. But through faith, in the midst of adversity as we are, we are able to touch upon it.

WJO It all begins with the inner man being strengthened by the power of the Spirit, do you think, in leading up to what we have, to what our brother was saying about what we have in our current portion?

AML Yes, I am sure that is right. You have it also in Romans 8: 26, “the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness”. He is able to strengthen our inward man, all in view of apprehending the greatness of the One that is leading everything, the One that is leading the praises, and the One that is the source of it all. We have a reference in one of the hymns-

Man of the Father’s choice (Hymn 33)

It is a reference to Christ’s Father. I think the Spirit of God will help us to get a touch of it, and that is why I just referred to John. He says, “there are also many other things”. That was his spiritual sensitiveness, referring to all the greatness of what he had seen in the Lord Jesus.

DMW John refers to all these other things: if they were written, the world could not contain the books. Is that coming through the praises of the saints now in their responses Godward?

AML I think so, because it has been said about all these things, that nothing of it will be lost. When the Lord says to Paul, “why dost thou persecute me?” (Acts 9: 4), it was really the work of God in the saints that he was persecuting. And heaven knew and treasured everything that had been formed in the saints at that time. And all that will lead to response, I am sure. We can hardly apprehend or take in the vastness of what John referred to in that verse. It requires eternity.

DMW It does. So we need faith as suggested by our brother earlier. This is the pattern of what will occur eternally, and now we need faith; and we need the Spirit for the enjoyment of it, and the spontaneity and a living response based upon the revelation. So that the scope, the waters going out, comes through in the saints in their response.

AML I am sure there will be a response from each one that has apprehended the greatness and the glory of Christ.

Denton TX

List of Initials:

L M Hibbert, Denton; A M Lidbeck, Aberdeen ID; C I Oliver, Denton; K R Oliver, Denton; L E Oliver, Denton; W J Oliver, Denton, S W Selman, Denton; D M Welch, Denton