Scripture Daily

Context No. 1620 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 48:21-25: in context

21“The remainder shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, alongside the portions, it shall be for the prince. The holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the middle of it. 22Moreover, from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the middle of that which is the prince’s, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince. 23“As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one portion. 24“By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one portion. 25“By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one portion.

In Ezekiel's vision of the restored land, the territory is carefully divided among the tribes, each given its portion. This passage describes the land allotted to the prince, the ruler, whose holdings lie on either side of the central sacred district. And at the very heart of the whole arrangement, the text says, the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the middle. Even the prince's portion is defined in relation to that central holy district; the ruler's land is arranged around the sanctuary at the center.

What is worth noticing is where the sanctuary sits and how even the prince's portion relates to it. The holy district, with the sanctuary, is at the center; and the prince, the ruler, the highest human authority in the land, holds his portion around it, defined by it, bounded by it. Even the prince is not the center; God's dwelling is, and the ruler holds his place in relation to that center, not above it. There is a quiet but weighty truth in that arrangement. In the ordered life of God's people, God's presence is the center, and everything else, including human authority, is arranged around it and subordinate to it. The prince does not occupy the middle; the sanctuary does. Even the highest human power holds its place under and around God, not in the center that belongs to God alone. This is a needed corrective in every age, for human authority is prone to place itself at the center, to imagine that the ruler, the state, the leader is the point around which everything turns. Ezekiel's vision says otherwise: God is at the center, and even the prince holds his portion in relation to God's central place, bounded by it, subordinate to it. There is order and rightness in that, and also a limit on every human authority. No ruler, no power, no leader is the center; God is. And a life, or a society, is rightly ordered when God's presence holds the middle and everything else, including whatever authority we hold or are under, takes its place around him, not above him.

Is God's presence genuinely at the center of my life and my ordering of things, with everything else, including the authorities I hold or am under, arranged around him and subordinate to him, or have I let some human power, my own or another's, occupy the center that belongs to God alone?

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