September 6: Ezekiel 44-48

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Ezekiel 44–48

Today’s passage continues the vision that God gave to Ezekiel regarding His temple.  Aside from giving direction on a physical temple and city, the passage offers additional prescriptions for the Israelites, now in Babylonian exile:

 

1.  The exclusion of the uncircumcised foreigners.  God indicates that the Israelites’ casual welcoming of “foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary” had become detestable in His sight.  The Israelites had apparently “outsourced” their “duty in regard to my holy things” to the foreigners among them.  Foreigners would proclaim their commitment to God through their circumcision of heart and mind.  This lesson is instructive, pointing to the fullness of a true disciple’s commitment to God the Father and to Jesus.  The foreigners would endure physical pain in making a sacrifice and outward commitment to the God of Israel.

 

2.  The priests’ freedom from possessions.  When we consider possessions, our hearts may burn with envy or hunger for more “stuff.”  Often, we may find ourselves spending a great deal of our free time maintaining and updating our “stuff.”  Indeed, Americans list shopping among their top-five leisure activities.  In ancient Israel, God declared that the Israelite priests would live solely from God’s provision:  “I am to be the only inheritance the priests have.  You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession.”  God would bless them with the fruits of the various offerings so that “the best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests.”  God greatly cares for His servants and will bring them their daily bread.  The great missionary to inland China, Hudson Taylor, explained:  “God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.”

 

3.  The freedom from oppression.  God further explains that the princes ought to “give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right.  Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.  You are to use accurate scales... “  The princes had apparently come to take advantage of those living in their regions.  Throughout the history of Israel, God had sought to offer provisions for the poor in the land, allowing them to graze after the fields had been picked and giving them years of jubilee and freedom from long-standing debts.  God urges princes to rule justly and not to tyrannize the poor.  Because of God’s creation of all people, each individual is dearly valuable to Him.  Jesus’s attitude towards His friends should inform our others-minded orientation:  “Greater love has no one than this:  that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

 

 

Ezekiel also shares about a river from the temple.  This river will bless the people, both with fish and fruit trees.  These trees’ “leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail.  Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.  Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”  This picture ties closely with the words of Revelation 22:1,2:  “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.  On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

 

We have the promise that God will make everything new in His time.

 

 

QUESTIONS

 

1.  Do you ever feel entrapped by your possessions?  How would coming to treasure God’s presence more than your possessions affect your day-to-day habits?

 

2.  What are your present attitudes toward the poor?  In light of Ezekiel’s words about oppression, how could you help to ease the oppression of the poor?

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