Context No. 2924 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 44:25-31: in context

25“‘“They shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may defile themselves. 26After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. 27In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” says the Lord GOD. 28“‘They shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. 29They shall eat the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house. 31The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself or is torn, whether it is bird or animal.

These are rules for the priests in Ezekiel's temple vision. They are to keep away from corpses except for their closest family, and then, at the center of it, comes a line unlike anything said of the other tribes: they shall have no land inheritance in Israel, because, God says, I am their inheritance; I am their possession. They live from the offerings and the firstfruits the people bring.

The arresting thing is that the priests receive no portion of the land like everyone else, because God himself is their portion. Where every other family's security was in property, theirs was in God directly. It sounds like a deprivation and is meant as a privilege: to have God as your inheritance is to hold more than any field could give. And it quietly teaches all who serve him that our real security and portion is not in what we own but in God himself.

Is God himself my portion and security, or have I quietly located my real inheritance in what I own?

Sources

Ezekiel 44:28: "I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession."
Psalm 16:5: "The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You made my lot secure."
Lamentations 3:24: "The LORD is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him."