Native-Born Israelites (Ezekiel 47:13-48:22)
What is striking in this passage is this statement in 47:22. “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.”
This is such a departure from the divisions that were so sharply divided during the time of Moses and Joshua. But in the New Creation, in the realization of God’s covenant with Abraham, when the people of Abraham have truly completed the work of being a blessing to the nations, then the divisions will no longer have meaning.
As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:27-28, in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are saved, redeemed and glorified in him. And so in terms of the Old Testament audience of Ezekiel, this meant that the Gentiles, the foreigners, were to be afforded the same status as a native-born Israelite.
Our world today is so sadly divided among racial, ethnic, and cultural lines. I pray for the realization of God’s mission, the covenant with Abraham, when all are one in Christ.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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