Do you notice the emphasis placed on the "Water Gate"? The Water Gate is mentioned three times in the chapter. Verse 1 β "the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate". Verse 3 β "And he read from the Law facing the square before the Water Gate". Verse 16 β "they made booths...in the square at the Water Gate."
Why do they meet at the Water Gate?
In Ezekiel's vision, he saw a trickle of water flowing from the temple out toward the nations, and as the stream flowed, it grew deeper and wider until it was a great river that no one could swim across. Ezekiel's vision was rooted in the rivers of paradise. In Genesis 2:9-10 we are told that a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
The temple had been designed as a picture of Eden β with cherubim still guarding the way back into the Most Holy Place. And outside the temple there was a great basin of water called "the sea." And Solomon had built ten "water chariots" that spread out from sea, as reminders of how the living water of the temple was to flow out to the nations.
So when Ezekiel saw a vision of a trickle of water issuing from the temple β on the east side β flowing out of the gate that faces toward the east β Ezekiel would have recognized that the living water from the temple is now flowing out to the nations! The water chariots are on the move!
And now, 150 years after Ezekiel's vision, Ezra gathers the people at the Water Gate β on the east side of Jerusalem, near the temple.
Beginning at Jerusalem, the water of life will begin to flow!
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