The Holy and Secular Separated

Ezekiel 45:1-8

The Holy District

1 "Moreover, when you divide the land by lot into inheritance, you shall set apart a district for the LORD, a holy section of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits, and the width ten thousand. It shall be holy throughout its territory all around. 2 Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, five hundred by five hundred rods, with fifty cubits around it for an open space. 3 So this is the district you shall measure: twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide; in it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 It shall be a holy section of the land, belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the LORD; it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 An area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the temple; they shall have twenty chambers as a possession.

Properties of the City and the Prince

6 "You shall appoint as the property of the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, adjacent to the district of the holy section; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

7 "The prince shall have a section on one side and the other of the holy district and the city's property; and bordering on the holy district and the city's property, extending westward on the west side and eastward on the east side, the length shall be side by side with one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border. 8 The land shall be his possession in Israel; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes."

Here the holy district of the land with the equivalent of the church, the sanctuary with the Most Holy Place set aside as the property of the LORD, is separated from the government of the princes and the land of the citizens next to the land of God.  This is the true model of separation of church and state, each with its own ownership and use.  The holy is God’s place of worship and service to Him while the surrounding places are for the citizens of the city state and of the nation’s leaders.  It is a good pattern which allows no governance of the Lord’s house by the princes which lead the nation, for they are not priests and have no authority or right to rule the kingdom of God.  If a ruler is godly he may enter the holy district to worship but not set laws there which only God can set in His word.  That is the pattern given then as a template for us.  Even the theocratic government of ancient Israel had this distinction, but of course there is no theocracy since and no “Christian nation” as some would have us think to blur the lines of the holy and secular together instead of holy people in power humbly serving the Holy One by those rules of Gods according to His word.  Separation need not mean not being involved in the holy things of Jesus Christ to the government rulers individually, just not ruling over the secular.  Just as the priest of Jerusalem had God’s district to serve Him under His rule, the princes under that King had their separate districts outside that place owned by God as their own to rule.  Their land was theirs and the people’s, ultimately belonging to the people of the nation whom they were commanded by the holy not to oppress.  This is a pattern for modern democracies to a point and one which we should contemplate before God and men in keeping the scriptural separation of church and state.