DO NOT (PART 4) – EXERCISE INTEGRITY

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors.

Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you.

Proverbs 22:28, 23:10-11          

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

NOTE: Will be at sea for the next two weeks and may be off the grid. If I can post, I will. If not, I will begin posting again as soon as I get to where I have connectivity.

Today we look at two very similar maxims within Solomon’s 30 sayings of the wise. Here is what Saying 5 (Proverbs 22:28) and Saying 11 (Proverbs 23:10-11) bring us in extending the fourth in our series of “do not” warnings:

Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors. Proverbs 22:28

Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you. Proverbs 23:10-11

What is the warning?

“Do not” intentionally deceive someone to your own advantage because God sees everything and is the Great Defender of all.

To put the Proverbs particular example of deceiving another to gain an advantage, let me use this illustration:

Supposed that we would mark our properties today with stones. There would be four stones and if you drew an imaginary line between them, you would have your property marked out. Within those boundaries, the land was yours.

Now, let’s say that you went away for a few days and when you returned, you noticed something strange. Two of your boundary stones had been moved and your neighbor had placed a nice storage shed on property that used to be rightfully yours. They had also plowed up the ground and placed a nice row of shrubs along the newly established property line.

What would you do? I can tell you that you wouldn’t be happy and would be on the phone to the police in a hurry, reporting a crime as your neighbor had stolen your property. They had acted deceitfully, taking advantage of your absence to create gain for themselves.

Such was what Sayings 5 and 11 were getting at. They didn’t have the kinds of advanced property measuring and accounting we have today. No one should even consider trying to steal property today given the legal ramifications of doing so. It simply is too easy to prove property theft. But in Solomon’s day, the boundary stones were the primary way of marking off land ownership and they could easily be repositioned or even removed as people attempted to take property that didn’t belong to them. 

So what recourse was there for those victimized by property theft?

Well, they could take the matter into the Jewish legal system for resolution but Solomon made sure that everyone knew there was a higher level of defense and prosecution in place for anyone who would think that stealing was a good idea. Look one more time at these words from Saying 11:

 “Their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you.”

The Defender here is none other than the greatest Defender of all time, THE Defender of those in need of defense. His name is the Lord God Almighty and He will take up the case of anyone who is violated against the violator.

The message here is clear:

“Do not” be the violator who has to stand before the Great Defender.

It’s a case no one will be able to win. Make it easy on yourself and exercise integrity in everything you do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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