Why would I, or anyone for that matter, want to accept something that makes nonsense, rather than sense, out of the texts involved?
Let's see if we can work on making some sense of it then.
How does living water flowing out of one's belly possibly make sense of half of the living waters toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea?
Setting aside Hinder and former for a moment... the generic "sea" in scripture is often applied to the Nations that are not Israel, namely, the Gentiles.
Revelation 17:15 clearly exemplifies the fact that
sea or
waters represents foreign nations: “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits,
are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.”
There are many other examples in the Bible in which words like
sea or
waters clearly represent nations foreign to the specific kingdom addressed (Daniel 7; 9:26; 11:10, 40; Psalm 65:7; 144:7, Isaiah 8:7-8; 17:12; 60:5; Jeremiah 46:7-8; 47:1-2; 51:55-56; Ezekiel 26:3; Nahum 1:8):
Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners[.]” (Psalm 144:7)
Woe to the many nations that rage—they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar—they roar like the roaring of great waters! (Isaiah 17:12)
Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. (Isaiah 60:5)
“Who is this that rises like the Nile, like rivers of surging waters? Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers of surging waters. She says, ‘I will rise and cover the earth; I will destroy cities and their people.’ (Jeremiah 46:7-8)
This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza: This is what the Lord says: “See how the waters are rising in the north; they will become an overflowing torrent. They will overflow the land and everything in it, the towns and those who live in them. The people will cry out; all who dwell in the land will wail (Jeremiah 47:1-2)
The Lord will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound. A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. (Jeremiah 51:55-56)
[T]herefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. (Ezekiel 26:3)
As illustrated in some of the quotes above, this imagery also extends to related words like
rivers or
flood. In Isaiah 8:7-8 the coming of the Assyrian army to Israel is pictured as the mighty Euphrates overflowing its banks: “Therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck.” Similar symbolism is found in Daniel 11:10 and Daniel 11:40:
His sons will prepare for war and assemble a great army, which will sweep on like an irresistible flood and carry the battle as far as his fortress. (Daniel 11:10)
At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. (Daniel11:40)
The same imagery is also found in Nahum 1:8: “but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh.” The flood of Nahum 1:8 represents the allied armies of the Babylonians, Susianans, Scythians and Medes that destroyed Nineveh in 612 B.C. The same meaning is also implicit in Joel 2:9. Here an invading army is pictured breaking through a city like a surge of flood waters: “They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.”
The fact that
sea represents foreign nations is not just limited to the Bible, this meaning is also found in extra-biblical Hebrew sacred texts like the Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Talmud foreign nations are literally called “provinces of the sea.”
1 Hymn 7 of the Dead Sea Scrolls depicts a foreign besieging army in flood or water imagery: “And I said Mighty men have pitched their camps against me with all their weapons of war. . . . The clamour of their shouting is like the bellowing of many waters, like a storm of destruction devouring a multitude of men; as their waves rear up[.]” Furthermore, in 1QpNah 1:3-4 (4Q169) of the Dead Sea Scrolls the sea in Nahum 1:4 is interpreted to represent the Kittim, the Romans: “’the sea’ is all the Ki[ttim . . .].”
The Anchor Bible: Revelation A New Translation With Introduction And Commentary, (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975), 286." title="" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; color: rgb(33, 117, 155);">2 Likewise in Hymn 14 of the Dead Sea Scrolls
flood is also used as a metaphor for invading armies. And the same meaning is implied in 4Q437 (combined with 4Q434-5) of the Dead Sea Scrolls which mentions “the stream of the gentiles.” Concerning the fact that water imagery symbolizes foreigners, G. K. Beale writes the following:
The metaphor of “many waters” also stands for antagonistic nations in
Targ. Cant. 8:7;
Targ. Isa. 21:1;
Midr. Pss. 93:4-7;
Midr.
Rab. Num. 2.16;
Midr.
Rab. Cant. 8.7, §1; likewise
Targ. Isa. 8:7 (“numerous as the waters’). The “many waters” of Ps. 18:16 is rendered by the targum as “many people[.]”
The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013), 882." title="" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; color: rgb(33, 117, 155);">3
So, should Zechariah be using "Sea" the same way John uses it to mean peoples, multitudes, nations and languages, it should be simple to make sense applying it to the receivers of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Not to mention, the text also indicates it is living waters that shall go out from Jerusalem. How does one then make Jerusalem meaning one's belly?
Which peoples of what city first received the Living waters of the Holy Spirit and where did they begin spreading the living waters gospel from? Jerusalem of course, which makes PERFECT sense.
So maybe in my case it's not so much about "my preferred paradigm surrounding the application of Zechariah 14", and that maybe it's more about the texts making sense, rather than sounding nonsensical instead.
No, I still believe it's your paradigm.
