“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Boundaries for lands matter. Just ask our current government and those countries around the world that are fighting about who owns what land. When God gave the nation of Israel their land He divided it up into 12 segments. The land of Israel today is only a small portion of what God gave them during this time frame of the book of Deuteronomy. The argument that Israel is currently possessing someone else’s land today ignores the historical data of this book and the book of Genesis where God gave the land to Abraham (Genesis 12), the father of Isaac, the father of Jacob (remained Israel). The above imperative from God to Israel through the hand of Moses is a warning to not infringe on the land of others by moving their boundaries. Property, both in those days and this day, is a valuable and precious commodity. We don’t let our neighbors sit on our property much less build on our property. Home owners have gone to county and sometimes war of property (just ask the neighbors of Russia and the Arab states). When reading this section of Deuteronomy the above passage seems out of place since he was just writing and warning about safe cities to be set up in case someone accidentally kills his neighbor. So, in the midst of the serious nature of death, Moses adds this warning about property boundaries. The issue here is not just dirt. The issue here is if you attempted to move a boundary you were in essence stealing the land and that is a direct disobedience to the eight commandment of not stealing. If you wanted the land and were attempting to move the boundary because you were simply wanting it, that is a violation of the tenth commandment of do not covet. God sets the boundaries of land. So, if we attempt to rearrange the boundaries by our own will be violate God’s sovereign choices to set boundaries:
Acts 17:26-27 (ESV)
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
The battle against other boundaries is NOT a battle against mankind (although that is how it is stated). The battle against boundaries is first and foremost about fighting God’s sovereign will. Granted there are those who take what they want. God is knowledge of that and it is God who will care for that. In the above passage God is instructed His people to recognize the boundaries that He set by His sovereign will.
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