The prince must not take the inheritance from any of the people, dispossessing them of their land. He can give his sons only what he himself owns. None of my people are to be run off their land. Ezekiel 46:19 (The Message)
This section of Ezekiel talks about inheritance. Three scriptures prior to this one, God tells Ezekiel that, if the prince deeds part of his inheritance to one of his sons, it will stay in the family – but if he deeds the inheritance to a servant, the servant only keeps it until the Jubilee year when the inheritance goes back to the prince. Presumably, if the servant deeds an inheritance to the prince, the prince will have to give it back at the Jubilee.
The Jewish Jubilee is a great equalizer. Every 50 years, everything is supposed to go back to the original owners. Families can reclaim the land that they once owned, slaves are liberated, and even agricultural work is halted so that the land can rest. The idea is that God’s children are not to be separated from their land.
There’s something special about becoming a land-owner – owning a plot of ground that is just yours (well, maybe yours and the bank’s). It doesn’t matter how big the plot of ground is, you know it’s yours. You can nestle into it and make it uniquely your own. You wouldn’t even have to live on the land. Some people have taken land that they owned and created a park on it. They plant flowers and trees, put in benches for sitting and perhaps some statuary so that a person can rest for a moment in a place of peace.
Owning property is a sign that you have reached a level of maturity. You can manage your own finances (for the most part), and you can make decisions that will move you forward. The important piece is that you get to make the decisions as to the use of your property. Once you own a piece of land, you should be able to expect to keep that land as long as you want. The thing is, if you use that land as collateral for a loan, you pretty much sign away the ownership of that land until the loan is paid off.
There is a lot of responsibility involved in owning land and we often don’t think about how that can affect us. We tend to go for quick fixes. If we need a new heater or we’d like to remove that old tree that keeps losing its branches in our yard, we get a loan from the bank using the property as collateral. If we pay off the loan, the land reverts back to our ownership.
Land lasts a long time. If you treat your land well, respecting it, you will reap benefits for a long time into the future. You just need to make sure that the prince doesn’t decide that he wants your property!
Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.
