This “true tent” came into existence in 29 C.E., when Jesus made himself available to be offered on the “altar” of God’s will for him as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” After Jesus’ resurrection he entered into the Most Holy compartment of that temple, heaven itself, to present to God the merit of his perfect human sacrifice that he had offered on earth upon Jehovah’s spiritual altar, God’s “will.”​—Heb. 9:23, 24; John 1:29.

LIFE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS NOW DEAD

However, God does not leave his purposes uncompleted, neither is he partial. (Isa. 46:9, 10; Acts 10:34, 35) The life-giving benefits of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ are for mankind in general. Of its application to many others, we read: “We behold Jesus, who has been made a little lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor for having suffered death, that he by God’s undeserved kindness might taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9) Also: “He is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.” (1 John 2:2) “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.”​—1 Tim. 2:5, 6.

On the basis of this, Jesus Christ said: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) Ah, yes, as the apostle Paul declared: “There is going to be a resurrection [of the dead] of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”​—Acts 24:15.

As the dead are resurrected, there will be enough of life’s water to heal and restore them to fullness of life. This is assured as we see the stream increasing in depth: “And he [the angel] continued measuring a thousand [cubits] and then made me pass through the water, water up to the knees.”​—Ezek. 47:4.

But here the stream did not stop deepening. From this we may assume that not all the thousands of millions of dead will be resurrected at once, which would cause the survivors of Har–Magedon to have a great population explosion on their hands. How, then, could the necessary material provisions be made for the resurrected ones, not to mention their teaching and training in Jehovah’s way of life?

The next measurement found the stream much greater in volume: “And he continued measuring a thousand [cubits] and now made me pass through​—water up to the hips.” (Ezek. 47:4) As the thousand years progress, the numbers resurrected will increase, for there will be more loyal subjects of the Kingdom to take care of them. Some among the resurrected ones, however, will not appreciate Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and will not be obedient, as we shall see in the further development of the prophecy, to be discussed in a later issue of The Watchtower. But the obedient thousands of millions will become co-workers in paradise restoration and in assisting the later-resurrected ones to come to know Jehovah the Life-Giver and his Son, the King, receiving his life-restoring ministrations as God’s High Priest.

Finally, the angel “continued measuring a thousand [cubits]. It was a torrent that I was not able to pass through, for the water had got high, water permitting swimming, a torrent that could not be passed through.”​—Ezek. 47:5.

Before the thousand years of Messiah’s reign are ended the common earthly grave of mankind (Haʹdes) and the sea of watery graves for many humans must be emptied of those held in them in death. (Rev. 20:13, 14) The symbolic ‘water of life’ must be extended to the very last one of the ransomed dead of mankind. Nothing can prevent the torrent of the ‘water of life’ from coming to mankind to bring them life in abundance.