Ezekiel 44:28

Ezekiel 44:28 says, And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.  God said that priests were to be given no possession of land for an inheritance, since He was their inheritance and would provide for their needs.  Today, I believe that it is okay for preachers to own property, but it should never become more important than following God.  If a house keeps preacher from leaving a certain area if God calls him somewhere else, it is then not okay.  

Verse twenty-nine adds, They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering: and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.  The duty of the priest was to proclaim God's word, present the offerings, and keep the temple clean, so they didn’t have time to grow their own food nor the land to grow it on, so God provided food for them.  They were to eat what was left of the meat, sin, and trespass offerings, and everything left that was dedicated to God would be there for them to use.  Since our tithes and offerings are now money mostly, I don’t believe that this means that preachers are to receive what is left over after we pay everything that the church may owe, but it does mean that we are to pay the pastor.  Of course, smaller churches often cannot pay the preacher enough to live on, so he has to work in a secular job as well.  

Verse thirty continues, And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.  God continued by saying that the first fruits and oblations, or things given to God by a vow, would be there for the priests to use.  I believe this would be things that were not given as burnt offerings.  God provided for the need of the priests then by working through the people of Israel, and I beleive that He will meet the needs of preachers today, even if the congregation is unable to meet all their needs.  

Verse thirty-one concludes, The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.  God said that the priests were not to eat of anything that just died or was torn apart by another animal.  This would make these things unclean according to God’s law and therefore could not be eaten by the priests since eating them would make them unclean.  A preacher should never provide for his family and himself by doing anything that is against God’s law, since doing so would bring dishonor to God.