Within his description of the new temple, Ezekiel envisioned a new acquisition and redistribution of land to the Israelites (Ezekiel 45:1). The entire block of land was to be a perfect square, approximately 50 miles long and 50 miles wide. A square area in the center of the land was to be set aside for the Lord and owned by no tribe (Note on Ezekiel 45:1).  The Lord’s portion included about 500 square miles of land, which is equivalent to the size of the city of Los Angeles. According to the National Geographic magazine, the current world’s population (7 billion) could fit into 500 square miles of land standing shoulder to shoulder.

There is no indication as to why the Lord’s portion was the particular size it was or why the size was so large. In the first distribution of land, there was no portion given to the Lord. It can be assumed that the Lord was given a portion of land in the second distribution because he would be dwelling among his people and that the temple was the house in which he would live, but the excessive amount of land suggests there might be more people than just the Lord living there. For instance, the 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel that survive the tribulation (Revelation 7:3-4) or perhaps all the believers that are killed during the tribulation (Revelation 20:4).