Ezekiel 48

September 18

Ezekiel 48

The last chapter of Ezekiel deals with the division of the land between the tribes of Israel as God had done when Joshua led the people to take the land originally. But throughout God’s instructions He tells them; “in the center of it will be the sanctuary of the Lord.” God was going to restore Israel, but He wants to remind them what caused them to be exiled in the first place. God was not satisfied with being one of many gods. He was not satisfied that they brought their offerings as part of a religious exercised. God wanted to be the center of the community, the center of the lives of the people of Israel.

God does not change. He wants to be in the center of our lives. God does not want to be someone we put on the side of our lives until Sunday morning or until a crisis occurs. God wants to be the center of everything in our lives. If there are parts of our lives where we don’t want God involved, we need to examine whether they are activities in which we need to be involved.

God left the temple and allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed because they were going trhough the motions, but were not walking in obedience to God. They were not putting Him at the center of their lives. It is easy to get busy with life and to lose focus. Periodically we need to do a self evaluation and to ask ourselves, ask God if He is in fact at the center. If He is not, we can always re-center our lives around Him.