This river was made to water the garden that the garden might grow things of life. Surely it also quenched man's thirst that he might survive. All this means that this river caused life to flow. In our physical life we must drink enough water to maintain the circulation of our blood. The flow of our physical life depends on water. Likewise, day by day we must take the water of life to maintain the flow of the divine life within us. This gives us the spiritual circulation of the divine life.
The river flows out of Eden, meaning that it flows out of God. In Revelation 22, the river of the water of life proceeds out of the throne of God. It is also a flow out of God Himself. God as the very life is the source of the living water, flowing into us for our enjoyment.
This river is one river. Do you have two rivers? Although the believers here may number a thousand, we still have one river because we all are of the same source—God the Creator. Since the source is one, the course also must be one.
This one river was parted and became four heads (Gen. 2:10-14). What does this mean? This means that the river flows out of God as the source and the center to reach men in every direction. In the Bible the number one is the number of God, the Creator, for He is unique. The number four signifies man, the creature. Because men live in each of the four directions, the one river flows out of God in every direction to reach them.
The name of the first head is Pison, which means "flowing free" (cf. Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17). This river flows without price; it is free. It flows to the land of Havilah which means "to cause to grow." This branch of the river flows freely to cause everything of life to grow (cf. Ezek. 47:9, 12).
This flowing also brings in gold, which typifies the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4). If you have had no experience, you will not understand what this means; if you have had some experience you will say, "Amen." Whenever the life of God flows within us, it brings in gold, the divine nature. In the previous message I said that I do not like to be a man of gold but a man of dust because gold does not grow life. In the sense of growing life, it is very good to be a man of dust. However, we need the element of gold to be added to us. Eventually, we will be men of gold. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul warns us to be careful about our building work, telling us to use the proper materials, the first of which is gold. Furthermore, in Revelation 1 we are told that the churches are golden lampstands. The lampstands are not built with clay, but with gold. In Romans 9 we are dust; in Revelation 1 we are gold. How can dust be replaced by gold? The divine life must flow within us to bring gold into us. This is even true of physical gold which frequently is found at or in a river. Before we experienced Christ as the flowing life, we had no divine nature, no gold. Now through the flowing of the divine life we have some gold within us. Something precious and weighty, the very divine nature, has been brought into us.
The flowing of the river also produces pearl. At present, we do not have time to cover the definition of pearl except to say that it is a transformed substance. It typifies the regenerated new man (cf. Matt. 13:45) because pearl is not a created element but a transformed substance.
Furthermore, the flowing of the river brings forth onyx stone, which typifies the transformed man expressing God's glorious image (cf. Rev. 4:3; 2 Cor. 3:18). We will see more of this in the following message.
The first head, Pison, means that the river of life flows freely, making everything grow and bringing in three kinds of precious material—gold, pearl, and precious stone. If we read through the entire Bible, we will see that these materials are all found in the building of the New Jerusalem. The materials brought in through the flow of the river of life are for the building of God's habitation. They can only be brought in by the flow of the divine life. In other words, the divine life flowing within us makes us the materials for God's building. This is the meaning and significance of the first head of the river.