Restoring and Protecting Ancient Landmarks

I am watching the morning sunrise, reading God’s word when a verse so struck me. I had to stop and meditate on it.

Today, we are in South Dakota staying at my Mother’s house. She passed away 6 years ago and now my step-father is in hospice. The house is full of my Mother’s creativity. She spent the last years of her life trying building an inheritance she could pass onto her kids. After years of struggling and finding herself with nothing she worked hard her last years to have something to leave for a legacy.

I have realized that a legacy has nothing to do with personal belongings but everything to do with what matters to us, what we believe in. That is our legacy we leave. Whether Godly or evil.

Proverbs 22:28 “Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving the ancient boundary markers set up by previous generations”.

Proverbs 23:10. “Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving ancient boundary markers, don’t take the land of defenselenss orphans. For their redeemer is strong, he himself will bring their charges against you”.

Whatever was established by a previous generation don’t cheat someone out what belongs to them.

As I am pondering these verses it strikes me how we have as a nation gone so far away from our ancient boundaries that nothing looks as it should. Our forefathers of this country established ancient boundaries to protect our freedom. Over the years corrupt leaders have moved those ancient boundaries and people no longer know the difference between right and wrong. Let me explain further…

Through Moses, God established specific landmarks for the children of Israel to live by. Rules to help keep them following the correct path.

We call them boundaries. Why do we have boundaries? Why do we set boundaries? In Proverbs the ancient landmark was a reference to God’s timeless truth and standards. The Lord is telling us not to change those standards.

GOD’S ANCIENT BOUNDARIES

Land boundaries in Israel were the physical boundaries set for the 12 tribes and their families. The same way we establish boundaries in our world today. These boundaries provide structure for us to live by. God’s spiritual and moral boundaries provide us the right way in a dark and uncertain world. The Bible is an ancient boundary.

We have timeless markers on which to live by. Those markers are being moved and taking us away from the truth of God’s word. Some of these timeless markers are:

TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD - God is the source of all truth. But as people reject God, they hold to absolute truth less and less. The distinction between truth and falsehood is becoming more and more blurred in the minds of people.

WISDOM AND FOOLISHNESS - God is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. God is unchangeable.

MALE AND FEMALE - The boundary between male and female was given by God himself. Jesus himself affirmed. Matthew 19:4 “Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female”. Why did we stray from this ancient landmark established in God’s Word? Because Man decided to move this marker so man could do what he wanted to do. Instead of obeying God’s laws we established our own and now we see how fuzzy this area is to so many. It is not fuzzy in God’s Word which is our ancient landmark to live by.

LIFE AND DEATH - The boundary between life and death is the ultimate boundary set for us by God. It is one that we must all cross. The knowledge that one day we will die. Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel boken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. I have lost 2 parents and now my stepfather is in hospice. I understand more and more that death is a part of life and we are all going to die sometime. That is an absolute, we can’t live forever.

GOOD AND EVIL - The line between good and evil is daily being moved. Why do we let evil men determine what is good and what is evil? The Bible is our standard. It is our ancient landmark to protect us. Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

RIGHT AND WRONG - God’s commands are moral boundaries that show us right from wrong. He gave them to us for our protection, guidance and blessing. We are blessed emotionally, socially, and physically when we live within them.

Today the distinction between right and wrong and good and evil is being defined by everything but God’s Word. We have moved the ancient boundaries to fit our carnal desires and anything goes.

Our leaders in this nation have moved the ancient boundaries that this nation was established upon. No longer are our children taught these ancient boundaries. Leaders of this nation have abandoned these precious boundaries. God is no longer mentioned and as a nation we have forsaken the scripture boundaries set forth by God.

We are a nation in decline because we have moved these ancient boundaries. God says he will pour out his wrath on them like a flood of water. Job 24:2-4 “There are those who move boundary stones—they pasture flocks they have stolen. They drive away orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.”

We understand how precious our boundaries are in this life when companies come in and think they can take your land and do with it what they want. If your land is in their way of doing what they want they simply legally go and take your land. Evil men come in and take your land that is established by those landmarks and leave you defenseless. Our nation is taking away our boundaries and those ancient landmarks that have been established by God’s Word to give us protection and we become defenseless at their corrupt ways.

God gives us freedom to make our own decisions. His laws and decrees act as shepards to our freedom. He gave them for our good, and there is freedom in living within them.

Jeremiah 6:16 - This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

As parents we set boundaries for our children to follow. We do this to keep them safe and give them guidelines to live by so they are kept safe and free. Why as adults do we so easily ignore the ancient boundaries set by God, our heavenly Father? Why would you choose darkness and pain over His blessings, danger over His safety? Because someone (religion) told you that God was punishing you and made you believe that God was not a good Father. You believe the lie from someone who does not know God and His ways over the Bible. Man made laws and ordinances and religious standards that go against what the ancient boundaries God established for His children.

The choice is yours. God’s Word has set before us life and prosperity, health and wholeness, but people continually chose death because they don’t know the truth of God’s Word anymore. We must cherish and respect moral boundaries. We must come back to God’s standards set forth in His Word. We need righteousness to prevail in our land again. We need truth preached from our pulpits, not some watered down gospel set forth by man. We need the truth and power of God’s Word to penetrate the hearts of people and bring real conviction that leads to repentance.

We have lost our way because we have leaned on man to define the ancient boundaries as they saw fit. We must get back to the Word of God to see our nation turn.

God has provided a way to cross from spiritual death to life, from darkness to light. Crossing this boundary is easy, and countless millions have done so throughout history. Jesus Christ the Son of God told us how.

John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 8:12 - “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Let’s reestablish those ancient boundaries in our life for this next generation to follow.

Tammy