christianity

Keep Living a Life of Faith was the theme of yesterday’s passage.  Today we learn from Ezekiel 47:13-23.

13 Thus says the Lord God: “This is the boundary by which you shall divide the land for inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. 14 And you shall divide equally what I swore to give to your fathers. This land shall fall to you as your inheritance.
15 “This shall be the boundary of the land: On the north side, from the Great Sea by way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, and on to Zedad, 16 Berothah, Sibraim (which lies on the border between Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran. 17 So the boundary shall run from the sea to Hazar-enan, which is on the northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north. This shall be the north side.
18 “On the east side, the boundary shall run between Hauran and Damascus; along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel; to the eastern sea and as far as Tamar. This shall be the east side.
19 “On the south side, it shall run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah-kadesh, from there along the Brook of Egypt to the Great Sea. This shall be the south side.
20 “On the west side, the Great Sea shall be the boundary to a point opposite Lebo-hamath. This shall be the west side.
21 “So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They
shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall
be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God.

The land is to be divided.  The portion for Joseph to be doubled. 12 sections of land as per the 12 tribes of Israel. The travellers who live among them are to be counted among the inheritees.   They are to be treated no differently among the tribes than any native born individual.

Hmmm… What can I take from this?
God does not differentiate  between people who grew up in the church, the natural born offspring you could say and those who came into the church from the outside.   To him.. they are all his children.  All his children share in the inheritance of the Lord.    No one gets anything more than another.  All share equally as those “naturally born”. 

Pretty cool that eh?   Best to not forget it.

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Yesterday, God’s Protections in the Kitchens, today Ezekiel 47:1-12.

  Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the
threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east).
The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of
the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.
3 Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again
he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was
knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water,
and it was waist-deep. 5 Again
he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass
through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river
that could not be passed through. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes,
every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very
many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 10 Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11 But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but
they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them
flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

In today’s passage we find water, water that becomes a river that becomes a what???  A lake?   A lake that will be teeming with wildlife and plants and trees.

This water stems forth from the temple and flows to the east. Becoming deeper and fuller the farther out it goes. 

Can you see how the temple is a source of life and hope?   People working, thriving, wildlife thriving, trees growing and being a good food source.   

All because of the temple, the sanctuary of God. 

Can you picture it?

The people bring in the sacrifices.
An aroma pleasing to God wafts from the temple.
And out of the sanctuary flows life-giving water, so abundant that it in turn brings life to all those around it.   Birds, fish, wildlife, plants, trees, and the people who harvest it all.  Fresh water except for the marshlands. 

God’s special place brings life to the land.
  
I dunno about you, but the imagery of this boosters my faith.   It shows me a real picture of what God does.   How our sacrifices, our living for him brings forth life that we don’t always see it?  This water that pours out from God’s people that sustains so much…. 

When you see how churches who follow  after God can change communities, how a person following after God changes the folks that are around, and sometimes even beyond.  We can’t always see how we influence and change the world for the better by our faithful actions.  

4,000 cubits the man walked…one cubit is 45 centimetres or a foot and half.  That’s quite the distance you know….   To those right next to the sanctuary it would have looked like an insignificant trickle… but further out… a mighty river!   Flowing out of the sanctuary, sustaining so much.   It boggles the mind eh?  (just a bit).   To see this as God’s people, changing the world in ways we don’t always see… every little bit matters. 

This gives me hope!   It makes me take heart it does!  🙂 
Let’s keep living our lives as a sacrifice of praise to God… it makes a difference. 

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Last time we met we learned about the sacrifices and protections God set in place. Today we are going to discuss Ezekiel 46:19-24.

 19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people.”
21 Then
he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four
corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was
another court— 22 in the four corners of the court were small courts, forty cubits long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 23 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who minister at the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

You know, I never thought about that.
About where the sacrifices were taken care of once the people brought them.
Also never thought about how God would want to be careful about where they were prepared for the sake of the people.
God took care of that detail.  Protecting them from what the message says as ” endanger the unprepared people out there with The Holy.”   God wanted to keep his people safe.  The priests were set apart by God for the work they did, so they could handle the holiness of God.  The common people were not.  So God set apart a special area for his sacrifices were his holiness wouldn’t endanger them.

God made all these little kitchens for the cooking of his sacrifices and the protection of his people.

God still does this you know?   The watching out for his people. 
We often aren’t truly aware of it.
At least that’s what I bring away from this passage.  What about you?

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9 “When the people of the land come before the Lord
at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship
shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate
shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate
by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 10 When they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

Verses 11-15 discuss the sacrifices.    The next verses talk about inheritances.  Any inheritance the prince leaves for his children needs to come out the land that is HIS, not the peoples, not the temples, just his.  If he makes the gift to a servant they only have until the year of liberty to use it and enjoy it, after that, it reverts back to the prince so that any offspring of the prince don’t lose any of their inheritance.

16 “Thus says the Lord God:
If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it
shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 17 But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance — it shall belong to his sons. 18 The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting
them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance
out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property.”

I read these verses and I wonder about God’s care for his people.
Assuring that the prince remembers the importance of the sacrifices.
I wonder why the people had to walk in the straight line from one gate to the other.  I wonder if God was just keeping things orderly, or if there was a reason behind it. 
I kinda wonder if it’s a foreshadowing of how we can’t turn back to our old ways after we accept the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf.   Once we’ve “gone through that gate” there is no turning back.   God’s call upon our heart is too strong for that.  Nothing can separate us from his love, we’re his through and through.  

The last verses have me feeling kinda sad and at the same time more aware of God’s protection on our behalf.   Imagine your employer giving you a gift, and you know you can only have it for a short term… nothing long term… because whatever the employer has, has to be kept as an inheritance for his children.   Kind of a bummer to know you have to give it back, but at the same time an incentive to make good use of it and to keep it good shape as you know if will be going back to him!    At the same time it’s good to see those protections in place for the future generation, so that you know that the land God gave the prince can’t to wastefully given away and thereby affect the long-term needs of future generations.

No squandering to be done here!
Only protections offered.   I just find myself intrigued.
What about you?

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/