5, 6. (a) In Ezekiel’s vision, what territory was to be assigned? (See opening picture.) (b) What was the purpose of the vision of land assignment?

⁵ Read Ezekiel 47:14. In vision, Jehovah directed Ezekiel’s attention to a portion of land that would soon resemble “the garden of Eden.” (Ezek. 36:35) Then Jehovah stated: “This is the territory that you will assign as the land inheritance of the 12 tribes of Israel.” (Ezek. 47:13) “The territory” to be assigned was the restored land of Israel to which the exiles would return. Next, as recorded at Ezekiel 47:15-21, Jehovah went on to describe in detail the precise external boundaries of the whole land.

⁶ What was the purpose of this vision of land assignment? The description of the precisely measured boundaries reassured Ezekiel and his fellow exiles that their beloved land would definitely be restored. Imagine how that reassurance from Jehovah, in such detailed and descriptive language, must have lifted the hearts of the exiles! Did God’s ancient people indeed receive land that was allotted to them as an inheritance? Yes, they did.

 7. (a) What events began in 537 B.C.E., reminding us of what? (b) What question will we consider first?

⁷ In 537 B.C.E., some 56 years after Ezekiel received his vision, thousands of exiles began to return to the land of Israel and take possession of it. Those remarkable events of long ago remind us of a similar development that has been taking place among God’s people in modern times. In a way, they too received an allotment of land. How so? Jehovah allowed his servants to enter a spiritual land and take possession of it. That being the case, the restoration of the ancient Promised Land can teach us much about the restoration of the spiritual land of God’s people today. But before we consider these lessons, let us first answer the question, “Why can we conclude that a spiritual land truly exists today?”

 8. (a) Jehovah replaced the nation of natural Israelites with what nation? (b) What is the spiritual land, or paradise? (c) When did it come into existence, and who have settled in it?

⁸ In an earlier vision given to Ezekiel, Jehovah indicated that prophecies about Israel’s restoration would see a greater fulfillment after his “servant David,” Jesus Christ, began to rule as King. (Ezek. 37:24) That event occurred in 1914 C.E. By that time, the nation of natural Israelites had long since been replaced as God’s people by a nation of spiritual Israelites, made up of spirit-anointed Christians. (Read Matthew 21:43; 1 Peter 2:9.) However, Jehovah replaced not only the natural nation of Israel with a spiritual nation but also the physical land of Israel with a spiritual land, or paradise. (Isa. 66:8) As we saw in Chapter 17 of this publication, the spiritual land is the secure spiritual environment, or realm of activity, in which the remnant of the anointed ones have been worshipping Jehovah since 1919. (See box 9B, “Why 1919?”) As time progressed, those with an earthly hope, the “other sheep,” also began to settle in this spiritual land. (John 10:16) While the spiritual paradise continues to develop and expand today, its blessings will be experienced to the fullest extent only after Armageddon.

¹³ First, the land. Moses had been instructed to give the larger tribes more land than the smaller ones. (Num. 26:52-54) However, in Ezekiel’s vision, Jehovah gave specific instructions to assign all tribes “equal shares [“each like his brother,” ftn.].” (Ezek. 47:14) Thus, the distance from the northern border to the southern border in a tribal inheritance was to be exactly the same in each of the 12 allotments. All Israelites​—no matter which tribe they belonged to—​would have equal access to the natural bounty that the well-watered Promised Land was capable of producing.