The Gospel's Property Lines
Introduction: A Faith Nailed Down
We live in a sentimental and gnostic age. For many modern Christians, the faith is a wispy, ethereal thing, a matter of the heart, a ticket to a disembodied heaven. It is a private feeling, a spiritual escape plan. The world is bad, the body is a problem, and the goal is to float away from it all. But the Bible will have none of this. The Christian faith is not a helium balloon; it is a cornerstone. It is stubbornly, gloriously, and unashamedly physical.
God does not save souls in a vacuum. He saves people, body and soul. He is not interested in rescuing us out of His creation, but rather in redeeming creation itself through us. And this brings us to a passage like this one in Ezekiel. At first glance, it can seem like a tedious exercise in ancient geography, a list of forgotten towns and dried up riverbeds. We are tempted to skip over it to get to the "good parts." But this is a profound error. This is one of the good parts. These detailed property lines are a declaration of war against all gnostic spirituality. God is concerned with real estate. He cares about borders, inheritances, and property rights. This vision is not about a cloudy harp-land in the sky; it is about the restored people of God living in a real, restored land under the blessing of God. And in this, we find the grammar for the Great Commission and the blueprint for inheriting the world.
The Text
Thus says Lord Yahweh, “This shall be the boundary by which you shall apportion the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two portions. You shall then apportion it for an inheritance, each one equally with the other; for I swore to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as an inheritance.
“This shall be the boundary of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer-hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran. And the boundary shall be from the sea to Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, and on the north toward the north is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.
“And the east side, from between Hauran, Damascus, Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the north border to the eastern sea you shall measure. This is the east side.
“And the south side toward the south shall extend from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the brook of Egypt and to the Great Sea. This is the south side toward the south.
“And the west side shall be the Great Sea, from the south border to a point opposite Lebo-hamath. This is the west side.
“So you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. And it will be that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourselves and among the sojourners who sojourn in your midst, who bring forth sons in your midst. And they shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel. They shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it will be that in the tribe with which the sojourner sojourns, there you shall give him his inheritance,” declares Lord Yahweh.
(Ezekiel 47:13-23 LSB)
The Oath-Bound Inheritance (vv. 13-14)
The foundation of this entire chapter is not human striving, but divine declaration.
"Thus says Lord Yahweh... for I swore to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as an inheritance." (Ezekiel 47:13-14)
Everything that follows rests on this. The land is not a conquest; it is a gift. It is an inheritance, which means it is received, not earned. And the gift is guaranteed by the highest authority in the universe: the sworn oath of God Himself. The Hebrew says, "I lifted up My hand to give it." This is the posture of a solemn, unbreakable vow. God swore this land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The exile did not nullify that promise. Israel's sin did not exhaust God's covenant faithfulness. God is not a liar, and His promises are not subject to market fluctuations or popular opinion. This is the bedrock of our security in Christ. Our salvation, our inheritance, is not based on the strength of our grip on Him, but on the strength of His oath to us.
Notice the detail: "Joseph shall have two portions." God remembers history. He remembers Jacob's blessing on his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. God's grand, cosmic plan does not erase the particular, personal histories of His people. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God of abstract humanity. This detail grounds the lofty vision in the soil of covenant history. God keeps His promises, down to the last detail.
The God of Lines (vv. 15-21)
What follows is a list of borders that might make our eyes glaze over, but we must see the profound theology at work.
"This shall be the boundary of the land: on the north side... This is the north side... This is the east side... This is the south side... This is the west side." (Ezekiel 47:15-20)
Our God is a God of distinctions. He is the one who separated light from darkness and the waters from the dry land. Creation is an act of establishing boundaries. And here, in this act of re-creation, He does the same. He draws lines. A line says, "This is not that." This is the land of promise; that is the land of the nations. This is holy; that is common. This is the foundation of all logic, all justice, and all sanity.
The modern spirit despises boundaries. It wants to blur every line. It wants a world without borders, without definitions, without right and wrong. It calls this tolerance, but it is actually a return to the primordial chaos, the tohu wa-bohu. God says no. A just and ordered world is a world of clear property lines. Your property is not my property. This is the basis of the eighth commandment and the foundation of a free and prosperous society. God is not a cosmic communist. He establishes private stewardship, and He does it by drawing lines on a map. These are not suggestions; they are divine fiats. This is where the border is because God says it is.
The Astonishing Inclusion (vv. 22-23)
Just when we think we understand the program, a re-establishment of ethnic Israel in its ancestral land, God throws a glorious wrench in the works.
"And it will be that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourselves and among the sojourners who sojourn in your midst... And they shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel. They shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel." (Ezekiel 47:22)
This is a theological earthquake. The "sojourner," the alien, the foreigner living among them, is to be treated as "native-born." This is not merely a call for kindness or hospitality. This is a full grant of citizenship and, most shockingly, a full grant of inheritance. The non-Israelite is to receive a plot of God's holy land, by lot, just like a son of Jacob. Their portion is not assigned by some bureaucrat in a back room; it is assigned by the sovereign lot, which is to say, by God Himself (Proverbs 16:33).
This demolishes any foundation for a kingdom of God built on race or ethnicity. From the beginning, the plan was always to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham. This is not a New Testament innovation; it is the ripening of an Old Testament seed. The principle is clear: what makes you a member of God's people is not your bloodline, but your dwelling place. "In the tribe with which the sojourner sojourns, there you shall give him his inheritance." If you live with Judah, you are treated like Judah. If you throw your lot in with God's people, you become one of God's people.
Conclusion: Inheriting the Earth
This vision, with its specific geography, is a prophecy that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ did not abolish this vision; it globalized it. The promise to Abraham was not that his descendants would inherit Palestine, but that they would inherit the world (Romans 4:13). The meek do not inherit a gated community; they inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
Who is the "sojourner" who is now treated as "native-born"? The Apostle Paul tells us plainly. It is the Gentile believer. "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh... were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:11-13). We are the sojourners who have been given a full inheritance.
The property lines described by Ezekiel are the paradigm. But the property itself has expanded to cover the globe. The river of life that flows from the temple in Ezekiel's vision has become the flood of the gospel, going out to every tribe and every nation. The Great Commission is our mandate to survey the property lines of the kingdom and to disciple the nations, teaching them that they are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
This is why we build Christian families, Christian schools, and Christian communities. We are not squatters on the devil's land. This world belongs to our Father, and we are His rightful heirs. We are here to take possession of our inheritance, not by sword or by political revolution, but by the powerful, life-giving, border-erasing, and border-drawing Word of the gospel. The whole earth is our promised land, and it is our joyful duty to claim it, one heart, one family, one town at a time, for the glory of our King. For "thus declares Lord Yahweh."