“‘A curse on anyone who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.’ All the people are to say, ‘Amen!’-Deuteronomy 27:17
As we continue to move down the list of secretive sins, we encounter the admonition against illegally moving a neighbor’s property boundary marker.
Recall I’ve pointed out in the past that a good portion of these laws were actually quite the norm for the cultures of that time period.
In fact, ancient Babylonian boundary stones have been unearthed that contain similar curses engraved on them directed towards anyone who would dare to the move them.
What’s usually described on these Babylonian boundary stones is a double whammy of a punishment-one penalty from the king who owned that particular piece of property and a divine curse that would be listed upon you by the area’s local god (remember in those days, folks believed the gods were territorial in nature).
The Hebrew perspective was quite different however.
For them, removing a boundary stone was much more a crime against HASHEM than it was against the legal landowner of the property.
Why?
Because the Lord owns the land.
It’s His HOLY property.
You do recall what happens when you mess with the Lord’s HOLY property, don’t you?
This high-handed transgression usually carries the death penalty with it.
Another reminder and I’ve said this before, so don’t start losing your mind but…
…the Israelites do NOT actually own the Promised Land.
That’s right.
This is true Torah teaching.
They are just land tenants.
But they are the ONLY authorized land tenants.
Looking back in history, we can see that they’ve been allowed to stay in the land as long as they were obedient to God’s Torah.
But whenever they let the evil inclination get the better of them to the point where their rebellion crossed some divine line in the sand, the Lord had no choice but to act and kicked them out of the land…
…but only for a time.
So let me make this clear lest there be someone out there who misunderstands me.
NO ONE ELSE BUT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT TO DWELL IN THE PROMISED LAND.
That area is strictly “NO GENTILES ALLOWED” territory.
Unless one is properly grafted into the commonwealth of Israel, no foreigners or GOYIM are allowed to be there.
I’m done.
Yes,truth!
Amen!
I agree whole heartedly! Amen! But I do have a question.. How is one “properly” grafted in to Israel? I am interested in your take on this
Technically speaking, this isn’t an easy answer. But fundamentally speaking, the answer to your question is the same for any human being living anywhere on the planet.
Accept HASHEM as the only God in the universe and OBEY His Commandments.