May the mumbling commence!

Exactly who is a foreigner in God’s Holy Temple?  It is a question worth asking when we read from Ezekiel 44:5-14 –

The Lord said to me, "Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and give attention to everything I tell you concerning all the regulations regarding the temple of the Lord. Give attention to the entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary.  Say to the rebellious house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel!  In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant.  Instead of carrying out your duty in regard to my holy things, you put others in charge of my sanctuary.  This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites.

The Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray and who wandered from me after their idols must bear the consequences of their sin.  They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them.  But because they served them in the presence of their idols and made the house of Israel fall into sin, therefore I have sworn with uplifted hand that they must bear the consequences of their sin, declares the Sovereign Lord.  They are not to come near to serve me as priests or come near any of my holy things or my most holy offerings; they must bear the shame of their detestable practices.  Yet I will put them in charge of the duties of the temple and all the work that is to be done in it.  

Foreigners are those who are uncircumcised in heart and flesh.  Though Israel was circumcised in flesh, they were not circumcised in heart.  To eradicate the foreigner from the presence of the Lord a person must be circumcised in both the heart and the flesh – and notice which one comes first, the heart.  Circumcision of the heart is more important than circumcision of the flesh, which should be an outward sign of what has already occurred in the heart.

What were the sins of the people of Israel?  Much had to do with inheritance.  We hear the echoes of this sin when we think about how to distribute or not to distribute the wealth, the power, the food, and the knowledge.  We hear the echoes of this sin when we think about what kind of circumstance we are building for future generations – our children and grandchildren.  While this type of talk includes the debt crisis (if only we could embrace the radical time of Jubilee that the Lord handed down so long ago), this type of talk includes the environment – both the physical and the spiritual and the emotional.  Let us be careful how we go about our lives.  Inheritance is a detail of design given to us by our Great Creator.  Read a couple of passages from Ezekiel:

This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the house of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes. 

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, O princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.  You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath.  The ephah and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both.  The shekel is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina. (45:8-12)

“‘The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people, driving them off their property. He is to give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people will be separated from his property.'" (46:18)

Violence far exceeds the cliché.  We do violence when we cheat people out of their share of wealth – in this case land.  We do violence when we use inaccurate ways of measuring goods and services.  We do violence when we look the other way while the wealthy cheat the poor out of the things most valuable to them.  So, let us be careful what legacy we leave behind for our children.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out