Visions of Grandeur - Ezekiel 47:13-24

Visions of Grandeur

Ezekiel 47:13-24

Lesson Setting

Ezekiel stands outside of temple.  He surveys the topography and applies spiritual lessons as a tour guide specifies how nature symbolizes God’s power.  After realizing the river flowing from the altar of the temple demonstrates God infinite presence and abilities, Ezekiel glances across the panorama of the terrain surrounding the temple.  His divine guide converts Ezekiel’s observations into an inheritance plan for Israel upon the nation’s return from exile.

Lesson Outline

I.                 Ezekiel 47:13-14 – A Divine Inheritance

II.            Ezekiel 47:15-20 – A Comprehensive Blessing

III.        Ezekiel 47:21-23 – An Inheritance for Everyone Who Believes

Unifying Principle

Sometime life leaves people needing a new beginning.  What is available to everyone to make that happen?  Ezekiel tells the people that God restored the Israelites and the aliens among them with an inheritance of new land, signifying a new start.  Peter says that God through Jesus Christ can redeem and give those who believe in God a new beginning, with the temple as a place in which people can gather and support one another.

Introduction

An old adage posits it is impossible to grow with change.  Whereas we do not make changes for the sake of changing, periodic reassessments and readjustments in life are very necessary to maturing as persons and spiritual beings.  Remaining in the same set of circumstances, without any change, results in the absolute lack of growth.  Such a situation yields a false sense of security which ends in death as erosion and atrophy naturally occur before the cessation of life. 

Two current relational examples demonstrate the wisdom of this spiritual saying.  A friend of mine recently earned his doctorate degree which he pursued his entire adult life at the expense of marriage, family and career advancement.  Essentially, he devoted the first half of his life to achieving this deeply desired dream and goal.  Having been in school for thirty years, he really does not know the terrain of the working world even academic institutions where he has lived without interruption.  After graduation, he faces challenges of attaining full-time employment, paying his student loans, finding permanent non-collegiate housing, contributing to his neighborhood and community and earning good grades in all other areas of his personal and professional life.  These fundamental changes are necessary for him as he refines and actualizes his gifts and abilities.  The worlds between being a full-time student and a working professional, albeit a professor and a scholar, are as vastly different as galaxies and solar systems.  My friend has to build if not rebuild his life as he enters the afternoon of his life. 

Second, a relative of mine has been imprisoned in a loveless, passionless, emotionally dead, financially insufficient and relationally decomposing marriage for more than twenty-three years.  Strengthening her denial and expanding her role as an enabler to an alcoholic, her fears have become larger than life itself.  Although she mentally realizes her need to leave this relationship in which she has entombed herself, she cannot conquer the Goliath within her heart who daily intimidates her into cowering underneath her monumental anxieties.  I encourage her to muster the willingness to ask Almighty God for the courage and strength to leave this captivity and return from this exile of her life.  Upon her forthcoming departure, she faces formidable challenges of rebuilding her life.  Where will she go?  How will she begin to rebuild her life?  Will she ever find genuine love?  How will she pay her expenses and resolve longstanding unpaid debts?  What are the practical and pragmatic and steps she should take to restore the dreams and goals of her youth?

Ezekiel’s grand vision of a new beginning offers encouragement and empowerment to persons who must start over like the people mentioned above.  Termination, divorce, illness, accidents and other forms of “misfortunes” often create opportunities for restoration and renewal.  As circumstances coerce change as the Babylonian captivity and exile forces Israel and Judah to return to ruins and rebuild their lives, pain can be the pathway to a person’s divine inheritance.  In the second half of this chapter, Ezekiel details the allotments of land that each tribe will receive upon their return.  God promises this land to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis.  The Lord reiterates and faithfully adheres to this covenantal promise with each generation.  Though He disciplines Israel and Judah utilizing Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, the Lord maintains His faithfulness to the covenant by simultaneously announcing their return, restoration and inheritance with the details of captivity and exile.  As a consequence, Ezekiel reassures the nation that their return will yield practical blessings of an allotment of land and all it produces in addition to a new life.

Exposition

Point I – Ezekiel 47:13-14 – A Divine Inheritance

Although simplistic and straightforward, these two verses contain several significant details which reflect the enduring covenantal relationship between God and Israel.  In His infinite wisdom and incredible grace, God initiates the covenant with Israel through His relationship with Abraham.  As God is incapable of lying because He inherently is all-kind, He adheres to the promises of the covenant regardless of Israel’s response and behavior.  Divine will, purpose and action do not depend on human choices although we may serve as God’s instruments.  Following their emancipation from Egyptian slavery due to God’s decisive intervention and forty years of wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, Israel enters the Promised Land which God swore to Abraham and his descendants.  Despite His warnings to Israel to remain faithful after their inheritance, the people turn to other gods and commit myriad acts of idolatry and infidelity similar to Adam’s disobedience and rebellion.  In time, their offense to God’s holy character culminates in the Babylonian captivity and exile.  As He pronounces due judgment and just punishment upon Israel and Judah, God concurrently assures them of His unfailing love and unquestionable faithfulness to the covenant He made with Abraham.  Though He permits their suffering as discipline to cleanse their hearts of polytheism and infidelity and their characters of sin and rebellion, God pledges to return them to their land and restore their inheritance.  The equal distribution of the land to the twelve tribes is fulfillment of this promise made seventy years beforehand.

Notice that Joseph receives two portions to reward Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, for his faithfulness during the Egyptian famine in which Israel’s number dwindled to less than one hundred persons.  Had Joseph through his relationship with God not learned how to forgive his brothers, he would have extracted revenge and punishment upon his brothers.  Had Joseph been that small-minded and small-hearted, he possibly would have ruined his own family and posterity.  Nevertheless, Joseph’s spiritual maturity and humility enables him to be God’s servant in furthering the covenant.  His example demonstrates the reality that there are divine rewards for obedience and fidelity just as there are consequences to sin and rebellion.

In the fourteenth verse, Ezekiel quotes God as He refers alludes to having sworn an oath with uplifted hands.  These words depict a courtroom scene in witness someone approaching the witness stand has to raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth and nothing else.  Accordingly, God swore unconditionally and unreservedly to give this land to Israel.  God’s promise did not depend upon Israel’s ability to accept His magnanimous gifts.  Thus, despite the necessity of the Babylonian captivity and exile as Israel had to experience the consequences of her extended offense to the holy character of Almighty God.  The final result is Israel’s return to the land that God promised to give her.  Her return from exile will yield unimaginable protection, provision and prosperity.

Point II – Ezekiel 47:15-20 – A Comprehensive Blessing

Initially, these verses seem to bore the reader with minute details which interest architect, engineers and land scrapers.  Upon a second and lengthier glance, this section of the passage reveals a comprehensive blessing that Israel and Judah receive from the Lord.  Often, we characterize God as marvelous, mysterious, majestic and magnificent.  The details of this bequest of land to Israel reflect these divine attributes.  God specifies meticulously how each tribe will be blessed in their collective return from exile.  God equally blesses contemporary disciples whether are purchasing a house, pursuing a promotion, finishing a degree or transitioning to a new ministry.  Once, a clergyperson had to decide whether the Lord’s had approved a pastoral call the received.  Among the various ways in which he sought confirmation, he observed that the call included every financial and physical resource he needed to provide for his family.  His financial package and benefits was sufficient to enable him to devote himself primarily to full-time ministry rather than having to supplement his income with another position.  His schedule affords him the latitude and flexibility to meet the travel, administrative and logistical needs of his family.  The parsonage had the exact number of bedrooms to enable both of his children and his mother-in-law to have individual rooms.  A lover of books, he resolved that God had approved the call when he walked three blocks away and discovered a branch of the public library.  His comprehensive blessing parallels the equally thorough way in which he understands Ezekiel’s grand vision for Israel and Judah upon their return from exile.

Point III – Ezekiel 47:21-23 – An Inheritance for Everyone Who Believes

Ezekiel’s vision and Israel’s inheritance extend to anyone who has faith, the non-negotiable prerequisite of pleasing Almighty God.  These few verses acknowledge the presence of God-fearing, monotheistic Gentiles among Israel.  God rewards their faith by allowing them to share in Israel’s inheritance.  Further, the promises and blessings extend to foreigners and their children.  This generosity reflects the infinite heart of Almighty God who loves everyone and expects the same from each of His children.  We serve a God whose heart is big enough to love humankind in its width, depth, breadth and length of diversity and pluralism.  Essentially, each person of faith receives an inheritance as a child of God.  Ezekiel’s vision relates specifically to land.  Contemporary disciples appropriate this inheritance to their talents and abilities which enable them to prosper and flourish as the fertile land of the Ancient Near East offered prosperity and health to Israel.  Through Christ, God engrafts all believers within humankind into His family and amongst His chosen people.  Christ imparts abundant and eternal life, an everlasting inheritance.

The Lesson Applied

Contemporary disciples understand the Ezekiel’s vision through the prism of a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Through Him, we have forgiveness of our sin and reconciliation with our Heavenly Father.  After lengthy periods of living in captivity to personal sin and exile of personal preferences, we begin anew with restoration of our divine inheritance as children of God.  As we repent, Christ helps us to overcome guilt and shame.  The frequency with which we sinned and transgressed against the Father is irrelevant, Christ permits us to share in His righteousness which completely atones for our sin, past, present and future.  In the grand Pauline vision, we are a new creation.  Thus, we are now able to receive our divine inheritance whereas we heretofore squandered it like prodigal children.  We now embrace a new life and progress in emulating the mind, heart and character of Christ. 

Let’s Talk About It

1.     Was it fair to allow foreigners and their children to share in Israel’s inheritance?  What motivates God to share the inheritance with everyone?

2.   Share and inheritance story from your family.  Was there any favoritism?  Analyze your story in light of today’s passage.

3.   Should “step” children share in the inheritance of their non-biological parents?  Does it depend on the nature and quality of the relationship?

4.   Do parents have a moral and ethical obligation to fulfill any promises they make to their children?

5.    Do parents have a moral and ethical obligation to leave an inheritance to their children and grandchildren?  Discuss this idea in light of this passage and the bible.