Let's Go Back to the Bible

Ancient Landmarks

It was recently discovered that a stone that marked the border between France and Belgium had been moved. It had been moved by a farmer that was annoyed that it was in his way. It was set in place in 1819 after the signing of the Treaty of Kortrijk and the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. He made Belgium bigger and France smaller by seven and a half feet. The mayors of the towns on either side of the border joked about it but essentially said, “But seriously, you need to put it back.” No charges were brought against the farmer as long as the marker that has stood as a boundary for over 200 years is put back in its original place.

We can see how moving a boundary can have a ripple effect of issues. Now all property lines are shifted. What had been established and set is now uprooted and changed. That is why the Bible condemned the practice of moving the ancient landmarks. “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set… Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark. And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deut. 19:14; 27:17).  In speaking against the leaders of Judah, God said, “The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary; On them I will pour out My wrath like water” (Hos. 5:10). There is an underlying principle that is violated when moving a boundary. It is not just that someone has stolen land and an inheritance. It is the violation of established order. We see that played out over and over again in human history and our own society. The systems and institutions that God put in place should not be moved. So many landmarks were put in place during the creation. The first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God,” is a landmark (Gen. 1:1). God was the origin and first force of all things. It was not in the beginning big bang. Another is the marker of “After their kind” (Gen. 1:11-12, 21, 24-25). All living things were to produce after their kind. An apple tree can’t produce a banana and a monkey can’t produce a human—a boundary was set. God made man, then made a “suitable helper for him” and then established marriage and the home (Gen. 2:7,18, 24). In so doing, several landmarks were established. There are two genders and that can’t be changed. Marriage is one man and one woman for life; it cannot be redefined. Under normal circumstances that is the ideal for the conceiving, rearing, and nurturing of children. Even Jesus used this moment as a landmark in dealing with false concepts of marriage. He said, “from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:4-8). They had corrupted marriage.

For centuries men have sought to move the boundary on what God has established. There are moral, social, and ecumenical lines that cannot be crossed. May we defend and never be among the cursed that move what God has established.