River of the Water of Life

"A river went out of Eden to water the garden" (Gen 2:10). The Psalms trace the stream to its true source: "with thee is the fountain of life" (Ps 36:9), "a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of Elohim" (Ps 46:4). Ezekiel sees waters issuing from under the threshold of the house, deepening as they go and healing everything they reach (Ezek 47:1-12), and Joel and Zechariah see living waters from Jerusalem. Eden's river watered the garden but did not flow from the throne; Revelation's does. It is life no longer mediated, flowing directly from its source, because life was always meant to flow from Yahuah's presence, not from the soil itself.