Ezekiel 47: 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.
Like the other prophets, Ezekiel received visions and/or messages from God to address the people of Israel about their great sin and departure from His covenant with them, given when they entered the Promised Land. They also got glimpses of future times of restoration. Here Ezekiel saw a time when God would restore His people to their land and reapportion it like in the days of Joshua. What He wanted them to remember this time - something they had forgotten before - is that the Land was His, not theirs. When they divided it this time, they were to make sure that the sojourners with them received a portion as well. The last time, they had shut the sojourners out with no hope of ever being a part of God's people. They had misinterpreted their call to "come out and be separate" as rationalization for hoarding and greediness. This time, God wanted them to get it straight and include the sojourner in the division of the land. We must never twist God's blessings into a view that only we deserve to taste of His goodness and share in them.
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