Divine Geometry: Your Place in the Kingdom Text: Ezekiel 48:1-7
Introduction: The War on Borders
We live in an age that despises lines. The modern mind, which is really just the ancient mind with a smartphone, recoils at the thought of borders, definitions, and distinctions. It wants a world of blurred edges, of gray areas, of fluid identities. It wants a god without sharp attributes, a morality without firm commands, and a salvation without a narrow gate. The spirit of the age is the spirit of the blob. It is the spirit of tohu wa-bohu, the formless and the void, masquerading as sophistication and tolerance.
And so, when the modern Christian comes to a passage like Ezekiel 48, his eyes glaze over. What is this? A divine surveyor's manual? A tedious list of geographical allotments for tribes that have not existed for millennia? It seems irrelevant, archaic, and frankly, boring. But this is because we have been trained by our culture to be allergic to the very thing God is revealing here. God is a God of order, of distinctions, of property lines, and of holy geometry. This vision is not a dusty artifact; it is a direct assault on the chaotic worldview of our time. It is a blueprint for the kingdom of God, a kingdom with definite shape, a defined people, and a determined geography.
The dispensationalist reads this and starts looking for survey pegs in modern-day Syria, preparing for a future millennial kingdom where ethnic Jews get this literal real estate. But this is to miss the music for the notes. The New Testament is clear: the Church is the Israel of God, the New Jerusalem, the Temple from which the healing river flows. Ezekiel's vision is not a political roadmap for the modern Middle East; it is a glorious, symbolic prophecy of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is now, and which is to come, filling the whole earth. This is not about a future Jewish state; it is about the state of the entire world under the reign of its true King.
This chapter is God's answer to the shapeless, borderless, meaningless utopia promised by secularism. Secularism promises you a world without fences, but it gives you a wilderness. God promises you an inheritance with clearly marked boundaries, and He gives you a garden city. This is not boring administrative detail. This is the architecture of home. This is the layout of our inheritance in Christ.
The Text
Now these are the names of the tribes: from the northern extremity, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath, running from east to west, Dan, one portion.
And beside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion.
And beside the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side, Naphtali, one portion.
And beside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one portion.
And beside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one portion.
And beside the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side, Reuben, one portion.
And beside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion.
(Ezekiel 48:1-7 LSB)
God of the Map (v. 1)
We begin with the declaration of order and place:
"Now these are the names of the tribes: from the northern extremity, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath, running from east to west, Dan, one portion." (Ezekiel 48:1)
The first thing to notice is the sheer specificity of it all. God does not deal in vague generalities. He names names. He draws lines. He gives coordinates. Hethlon, Lebo-hamath, Hazar-enan. These are real places. This is not "somewhere over the rainbow." This is a kingdom that breaks into our history and our geography. The incarnation of Jesus Christ was not a myth; it happened in a particular place at a particular time. And the kingdom He is building is not a state of mind; it is a concrete reality that is taking over the entire globe.
The vision begins at the "northern extremity." Why? Because in the Old Testament, the threat, the chaos, the judgment almost always came from the north. Assyria, Babylon, they all invaded from the north. God is showing Ezekiel that in the new creation, the very place from which destruction came is now the starting point of divine order and inheritance. The gospel pushes back the darkness. The kingdom of God advances against the gates of Hell and reclaims the territory for Christ.
And notice the first tribe mentioned: Dan. This is stunning. In the original conquest under Joshua, Dan failed to secure its inheritance and migrated north, where it became the first tribe to establish institutionalized idolatry in Israel, setting up a rival priesthood and a golden calf. In the book of Revelation, Dan is conspicuously absent from the list of the sealed tribes. Yet here, in this vision of ultimate restoration, Dan is not only included, he is listed first. This is the gospel in flashing neon. God's grace is a restorative grace. He does not just forgive; He reinstates. He takes the chief of sinners, the first idolaters, and gives them the first portion in the new land. This is a declaration that no one is outside the reach of His redeeming power.
Each tribe receives "one portion." The Hebrew word is simply "one." Dan, one. Asher, one. The emphasis is on the unity and equity of God's provision. But it is also a declaration of ownership. This portion belongs to Dan. This is his. The kingdom of God is not a commune where all property is abolished. It is a kingdom where true ownership, secure tenure, is established under the ultimate ownership of God Himself. God loves property lines because He loves justice, and He loves His people having a place to call their own.
A Place for Everyone (v. 2-6)
The text then proceeds with a systematic, orderly listing of the northern tribes.
"And beside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion. And beside the border of Asher... Naphtali, one portion. And beside the border of Naphtali... Manasseh, one portion. And beside the border of Manasseh... Ephraim, one portion. And beside the border of Ephraim... Reuben, one portion." (Ezekiel 48:2-6 LSB)
The structure is repetitive, and that is the point. It is the rhythm of divine order. "Beside the border of... from the east side to the west side." These are not haphazard settlements. They are perfectly parallel strips of land, running the entire breadth of the restored land. This is divine geometry. There is no gerrymandering here, no fighting for scraps of territory. God's design is perfect, equitable, and beautiful in its symmetry.
This is a picture of the Church. In Christ, there is a place for everyone who belongs to Him. We are fitted together, side by side, border to border. "In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). Your place in the kingdom is secure, defined, and placed in perfect relation to your brothers and sisters. You are not an isolated individual floating in a spiritual ether. You have a portion, a border, a place. You belong.
Furthermore, these tribes listed here, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, were all part of the northern kingdom of Israel that was scattered to the four winds by the Assyrians. They were the "lost tribes." But they are not lost to God. He knows their names, and He has reserved a portion for them. This is a prophecy of the great ingathering. God is bringing His people home. And who are His people? Paul tells us in Romans that we, the Gentiles, have been grafted into the olive tree of Israel. This vision is fulfilled as the gospel goes out and gathers a people for God's name from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We are the lost tribes being found. We are the scattered people being brought home.
The Royal Tribe (v. 7)
The list of the seven northern tribes concludes with the most significant one.
"And beside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion." (Ezekiel 48:7 LSB)
This is the hinge. Judah is the seventh tribe listed, the last of this northern block. But Judah is not just another tribe. Judah is the royal tribe, the tribe of David, the tribe from which the Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, would come. Its placement here is deliberate and crucial. It forms the northern border of the most central and holy part of the land, which Ezekiel describes next: the sacred district containing the new temple, the property for the priests, and the city of God.
Everything is arranged in relation to the center, and the center is the presence of God. But the access to that center is guarded and defined by Judah. What does this mean for us? It means that our entire inheritance, our place in the kingdom, is defined by its relationship to the King. Our portion is beside the border of Judah because our life is bound up with Jesus Christ. There is no access to the presence of God, no entry into the holy city, no inheritance in the land, except through the King from Judah. He is the border. He is the gate. He is the way.
The perfect order of the tribes, this divine geometry, all finds its reference point in Him. Our lives are not random assortments of events and relationships. When we are in Christ, our lives are given a divine order. We are placed beside the border of Judah. Our identity, our security, our purpose, and our future are all defined by our proximity to the King.
Conclusion: Finding Your Place
So, what does this ancient surveyor's report have to do with us? Everything. It tells us that the kingdom of God is a real kingdom, with a real structure, for a real people, on a real earth. Our God is not the god of the blob. He is the God of the blueprint.
In Adam, we lost our inheritance. We were exiled from the garden, and we became wanderers in a chaotic wilderness, a land of tohu wa-bohu. We were spiritually homeless, people with no portion, no border, and no place.
But in Christ, God has not only forgiven us, He has given us an inheritance. He has given us a portion. He has drawn the lines for us in pleasant places. This vision in Ezekiel is a picture of that inheritance. It is secure, it is well-ordered, and it is guaranteed by the King Himself.
Your life in Christ is not a formless mess. God is arranging it with divine precision. He is establishing your borders. He is giving you "one portion." He is placing you beside your brothers and sisters in the great project of building His kingdom. And He has placed you right next to Judah, right next to the King.
Therefore, do not despise the lines. Do not despise the definitions and the doctrines and the duties that God has given us. They are not restrictions on our freedom; they are the property lines of our inheritance. They are the walls of our city. They are the blueprint of our home. The world offers you a formless void. God offers you a portion. And your portion, your place, your inheritance, is to be found nowhere else but beside the border of Judah, forever secure in the kingdom of the Son He loves.