God's Property Lines: The Prince, His Portion, and Political Piety Text: Ezekiel 45:7-9
Introduction: The Delusion of Autonomous Government
We live in an age that believes in the divine right of politicians. Our modern rulers, whether they wear crowns or business suits, operate under the grand delusion that their authority originates with themselves, or perhaps with that vague and easily manipulated deity called "The People." They draw their own property lines, define their own powers, and invent their own moralities. The result is a government that knows no limits because it acknowledges no God above it. A government that refuses to acknowledge God as its source of authority will inevitably try to become God. And a government that thinks it is God is, by definition, a tyranny.
Into this arrogant political landscape, the prophet Ezekiel speaks a word that is as relevant today as it was in the sixth century B.C. He is laying out the blueprint for a restored Israel, a new society ordered by God's own hand. And right in the middle of these grand visions of temples and sacrifices, we get a nitty-gritty section on zoning laws and property rights for the civil magistrate. This is not some mundane detail. This is theology. This is where the rubber of God's absolute sovereignty meets the road of civil governance. God cares about property lines because He cares about justice. He cares about what the prince owns because He cares about protecting what the people own.
The modern secularist wants to have a just society without a transcendent lawgiver. He wants rulers to be fair without being accountable to the ultimate Judge. He wants to stop oppression while denying the very standard by which oppression is defined. This is like wanting to build a straight wall with a crooked ruler. It cannot be done. Ezekiel shows us that true justice in the public square begins with the recognition that God owns everything, and He is the one who sets the boundaries. All legitimate human authority is delegated authority, and it is therefore limited authority. Any government that forgets this will eventually begin to steal, first your property, and then your liberty, and finally your life.
This passage is a direct assault on the idea of the autonomous state. It establishes that the ruler's power and provision are not his by right of conquest or political maneuvering, but are a measured, defined, and limited grant from God Almighty. And with this grant comes a fearsome command: stop the violence, stop the devastation, and do what is right. This is God's charge to all who hold civil office, from the ancient prince of Israel to the modern president, governor, and city councilman.
The Text
"Now the prince shall have land on either side of the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, adjacent to the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border. This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer mistreat My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.”
‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Enough, you princes of Israel; put away violence and devastation, and do justice and righteousness. Stop your eviction of My people,” declares Lord Yahweh.
(Ezekiel 45:7-9 LSB)
God's Zoning Laws (v. 7-8a)
We begin with the divine allocation of property for the civil magistrate.
"Now the prince shall have land on either side of the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, adjacent to the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border. This shall be his land for a possession in Israel..." (Ezekiel 45:7-8a)
The first thing to notice is who is doing the allocating. This is not a political land deal brokered in a back room. This is God drawing the map. The land belongs to God, and He is the one who parcels it out. This establishes the fundamental principle of all property rights: we are stewards, not ultimate owners. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. This truth is the only secure foundation for private property. If God does not grant property rights, then the state can take them away. If rights come from the state, they are not rights at all; they are temporary privileges, subject to the whims of the powerful.
God provides for the prince. The civil magistrate is a minister of God for our good, and he is to be supported in his work (Romans 13:4-6). God is not an anarchist; He establishes civil government. And here, He makes sure the government is funded and has what it needs to function. The prince is given a generous portion, a substantial holding. This is a legitimate provision. But notice the crucial detail: it is a defined portion. It has boundaries. It is "on either side of the holy contribution," "adjacent," and "in length comparable to one of the portions." God sets the limits.
This is the biblical basis for limited government. The ruler's authority, like his land, has borders. There are vast territories of human life that are not his business. His portion is next to the "holy contribution," the land for the priests and the Temple. The state is not the church. They are adjacent spheres of authority, both under God, but they are distinct. The prince does not get to run the church, and the priests do not get to run the state. God's design is one of distributed, limited, and defined governments. The modern totalitarian impulse, whether from the secular left or the authoritarian right, is a rebellion against God's zoning laws. It is an attempt to erase the property lines God has drawn between family, church, and state.
The Purpose of Limited Government (v. 8b)
God then gives the reason for these clearly marked boundaries. It is not an abstract exercise in political theory; it is intensely practical and protective.
"...so My princes shall no longer mistreat My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.” (Ezekiel 45:8b LSB)
Here is the heart of the matter. God limits the power and provision of the state in order to protect the people from the state. The history of Israel's kings was a sordid tale of abuse of power. Think of Ahab seizing Naboth's vineyard. Think of Solomon's heavy taxation and forced labor to fund his lavish projects. The natural tendency of fallen men with power is to accumulate more power, and they do this by taking from those they are supposed to protect. Power centralizes, and as it does, it corrupts.
God's solution is not to abolish government, but to leash it. By giving the prince his own designated portion, God removes the pretext for him to steal from the people. His needs are met. He is not to look with covetous eyes on the inheritance of the common man. The purpose of his provision is so that he will "no longer mistreat My people." The primary role of government is not to provide for the people, but to protect the people as they provide for themselves.
And notice the result: "they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes." The government's job is to secure the people in their own possessions. The land is to be in the hands of the families of Israel, not consolidated in the hands of the state. This is a vision of a decentralized society, a nation of freeholders, of families with their own property, their own inheritance, their own little platoons. This is the opposite of socialism and communism, where the state owns everything. It is also the opposite of crony capitalism, where the state uses its power to transfer wealth from the people to its favored corporations. God's economic plan is widespread private ownership, protected by a limited government that stays within its God-given property lines.
The Divine Rebuke (v. 9)
After laying out the positive vision, God issues a sharp, direct, and thundering command to the rulers.
"‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Enough, you princes of Israel; put away violence and devastation, and do justice and righteousness. Stop your eviction of My people,” declares Lord Yahweh." (Ezekiel 45:9 LSB)
"Enough!" This is the voice of a sovereign who has seen too much. It is the cry of a father who has watched His children be abused by the very shepherds appointed to protect them. Enough of the land grabs. Enough of the oppressive taxes. Enough of the regulations that drive families off their land. Enough of the eminent domain abuse. Enough of the strong-arm tactics. The Hebrew for "violence and devastation" refers to the kind of plunder and ruin that comes from unchecked power. It is what happens when the state forgets it is a servant and begins to act like a god.
The command is twofold. First, the negative: "put away" the evil. Stop the plundering. This is a call to repentance. Rulers must confess the sin of overreach and turn from it. Second, the positive: "do justice and righteousness." Justice is about rendering to each his due according to God's standard. Righteousness is about conforming to that standard in all dealings. This is the fundamental task of the civil magistrate: to punish evil and to praise good (Romans 13:3-4). He is to enforce God's law, not invent his own.
And God gets painfully specific: "Stop your eviction of My people." The word for eviction here means to drive someone out from their possession. This is what happens when taxes become unbearable. It is what happens when regulations make it impossible to run a family farm or business. It is what happens when the government seizes property for its own pet projects. God takes this personally. He does not say "stop evicting the citizens." He says "stop your eviction of My people." These are His people, and this is His land. The ruler who oppresses the people is not just committing a political crime; he is committing a theological crime. He is trespassing on God's property and abusing God's children.
Conclusion: The Prince of Peace and His Portion
This vision in Ezekiel is not just a political science lesson. Like all of Ezekiel's temple vision, it points forward to a greater reality. It points to the true Prince, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only ruler who never coveted what was not His. He is the only king who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
The princes of Israel were commanded to stop their violence. But the Prince of Peace had violence done to Him on our behalf. They were commanded to put away devastation, but He was devastated by the wrath of God for our sins. They were commanded to do justice, but He became our justice. He satisfied the demands of God's law perfectly, so that we who are unjust might be declared righteous in Him.
And what is His portion? The Father has given Him the nations for His inheritance, the very ends of the earth for His possession (Psalm 2:8). He is the rightful owner of all things. And yet, His method of rule is the opposite of the grasping princes of Israel. He does not evict His people; He invites them in. He does not take their inheritance; He secures for them an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for them (1 Peter 1:4).
Therefore, our duty as Christians in the civil realm is clear. We are to call our earthly princes to obey this text. We must demand limited government, not because of some Enlightenment theory about the rights of man, but because of a biblical theology of the rights of God. We must insist that the government stay within its boundaries, protecting property and punishing wickedness. We must cry out "Enough!" when our rulers engage in violence and devastation through oppressive taxation, unjust wars, and the seizure of property.
But we do this not as revolutionaries seeking to establish our own kingdom, but as ambassadors of the true King. We work for earthly justice because we have tasted heavenly justice. We seek to protect the property of our neighbors because our own eternal property has been secured by the blood of Christ. And we know that while we work and pray for reformation in our own land, the final and perfect fulfillment of this vision awaits the day when the King returns. On that day, there will be no more violence, no more evictions, no more oppression, for the Prince of Peace will rule in perfect justice and righteousness, and we, His people, will dwell securely in the land He has promised.