Subject: Compassion - Ezekiel 43-48

Ezekiel 47:22-23 (ESV Strong's)
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. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God.

Subject:  Compassion to others

This section of Ezekiel provides instructions to the nation of Israel in regard to their future restoration.   Ezekiel gives them instruction in regard to the New Temple and other issues within the land.   In the above passage we see the instruction in regard to the "alien" (sojourner) who happens to travel to the nation and reside in and with the people of Israel.  How should you handle them?  How should you treat them?  Should you allow them to stay with you and live in your land?  These were questions, undoubtedly, that were being asked by the people and leaders in Israel during this time.   The irony is that we are asking the same questions today as people and leaders in the USA.   How should we handle foreigners who arrive in our country ... documented or undocumented?   God's Word is practical for us today.  In this passage we are shown the character of God.   God wants HIS people to be open to the stranger and foreigner.   We can find similar passages in God's Word that echo the same thoughts about God and His plan for His people.  His people were to even leave portions of their land unharvested so that the poor and alien would be able to glean enough food.  So, we are shown that God cares about our compassion for others ... those who don't match our culture or social structures.  Note what one commentator states about this passage:

This extraordinary provision gives further support to setting the Law of the Temple in the period of the Judean restoration under Persia. If this text were an exilic proposal for reconstruction, such generosity would be an anomaly (within Ezekiel, at any rate; however, see Isa. 66:1821). If, on the other hand, this text is a realistic depiction of restoration society, the land grant to the alien is exactly what we would expect. Under Persian rule, respecting the rights of all inhabitants in the land, no other approach would be possible. In our own day, when arguments about immigration and the proper disposition of refugees generate far more heat than light, verses 21-23 stand as a rebuke and as a worthy ideal.

However, this doesn't mean God favored allowing anyone to come into the country who didn't also come to support the laws and rules of the nation's belief structure ... outlined by God.  Those who disobeyed God would be stoned.   But, to those who want to come into fellowship with the ways of the culture are to be treated the same as a natural born Israelite.  This is the character of God and should be the character of His people.