Many of the people in the church love fishing. Some go to freshwater lakes and rivers, and some go deep sea fishing on the coast. I like to fish. I don’t go but a couple of times a year, but I like it.  The Dead Sea has no fishing guides right now. They don’t have any “honey-holes” that never fail them. Since the time of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction, according to Merrill Unger around 2065 B.C., the Dead Sea has been just that, DEAD. The salt content was ten times that of other oceans or seas. No fish lived in those waters and if a human were to drink the water it would be lethal. But in recent years, marine biologists are now reporting that fresh water from the Jordan Rift Valley is flowing into the Dead Sea and marine life is beginning to be found in those waters. It isn’t a torrent right now, but it is something never seen in our lifetimes. I wonder why this would be so?

The book of Ezekiel is a prophetic book. There are hard things to wrap your head around such as Ezekiel’s flying scroll found in chapter 33. But just because a book is hard to fathom in certain passages doesn’t mean we seek a simple made-up interpretation. This book was written 2600 years ago by Ezekiel while he was a captive in Babylon. For hundreds of years when preachers would speak from Ezekiel, they always spiritualized the texts. To spiritualize is the same as using allegory to interpret a portion of the Bible. Prophecies such as Ezekiel’s predictions would most often be looked at as simply figurative language, but certainly not literal. When the Bible speaks it can in most, not all, but most cases be read literally. There are times when figures of speech and poetical language are used, but for this preacher the literal is the way to go. In recent times, you can read accounts about the freshness coming into the Dead Sea along with many videos of people documenting this miraculous change.

It is now estimated that 81% of all Bible prophecy has been fulfilled with total accuracy. That means that only 19% is left if those estimates are correct. Let me take the rest of this article and walk us through a few verses in chapter 47.

  1. He takes Ezekiel to the door of the house. The house is the Temple, so this is the door of the Temple. The Third Temple will be rebuilt during the Tribulation period. 47:1-2 tells us about water that will be flowing from the Temple. Where is that water headed? 47:8, tells us it is headed down toward the desert and ultimately into the Dead Sea. As Ezekiel sees the man with the line (think plumb-bob) in his hand to measure the depth of the waters. It starts ankle deep, then rises to the knees, then to the waist and then it is so high, deep, and wide, you can’t swim it (47:3-5).
  2. The man says to Ezekiel “Hast thou seen this?” He was looking at trees that lined both sides of the river that was flowing from the Temple. A short moment ago this was a desert area with little vegetation and now it is as if an orchard and shade trees are now everywhere along the banks. The man goes on to declare that the waters will be healed. The salt will be gone, and life will return (47:6-8).
  3. The once dead water is now prophetically teeming with life just like the Great Sea, the Mediterranean. Every fish they would catch from the Great Sea (that’s how the Bible describes it) will now be caught in the revitalized Dead Sea. The waters will reach from En-Gedi unto En-eglaim. En-Gedi is the only place in the Negev that has water year-round. It is near the Dead Sea. En-eglaim’s location is not exactly known. Some think it is just south of Qumran, the place of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It will flourish so much that fishermen will be overwhelmed, “exceeding many,” with fish. They will spread their nets at the end of the day with joy that has come to Israel (47:8-10).

I don’t think I have ever dreamed of fishing in the Dead Sea. I swam in it. I have floated in it. Even then, I never thought about fishing in it. After taking another look at Ezekiel 47, I may need to borrow a Zebco 33 or a casting net from one of the fishermen and give it a shot.