Ezekiel 44:28-31 – God is our source in life.

Ezekiel 44:28 makes it explicitly clear that the priest would not be given any possession because the Lord Himself would be their inheritance. This was not something new. For right at the onset of the journey of the children of Israel, the LORD already made this known to Aaron. In Numbers 18:20, he was told, “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”

Why did the Lord not give them any possession? we surmise that just as important as holiness is to ministry, so is the attitude of dependence and trust on God. Priests are set aside specially to mind the things of God. Their minds, hearts and devotion should be rightly focused on Him. They should not have to worry about their sustenance and be distracted. God guarantees that He personally would provide for them. This is the privilege of serving the Lord.

Hence, they were permitted to eat of “the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering and everything set apart for the Lord.” And God also assured them that they would be adequately provided. In verse 30, God declared that “The first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.” Note God would bestow blessings on household who take this instruction of the first fruit offering seriously.

To emphasize His call to holiness and purity, God forbade the priests from partaking of any fowl or beast that had died unnaturally or torn into pieces. Apart from being holy and pure, priests were expected to have an attitude of trust on the Lord.

And like them Christ’s royal priests are called to depend and rely on Him. We must not be so consumed with earthly matters. Instead. we must learn to set our minds on things above where Christ is seated. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus our Lord told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all things we need shall be added to us. We believers must not be consumed with anxiety over possession like the rest.