Ancient Landmarks and Human Nature

Proverbs 22:28 -- "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.

The command to not remove ancient landmarks condenses something Moses told the Israelites as they prepared to enter the promised land. In Deuteronomy Moses tells the Nation of Israel what God expects of them once they have entered, conquered, and taken possession of the land: Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess (19:14).

The command in Deuteronomy 19 and Proverbs 22:28 deters greedy neighbors, especially in a society that lacked the convenience of modern surveying equipment and satellite imaging. They needed physical landmarks in a way that modern man doesn't. Today if a couple of farmers or ranchers have a dispute about where a property-line is they can refer to a plat map; in antiquity that luxury didn't exist. Today we can refer to a map, but in antiquity they would have taken stones, stacked them into a physical landmark/monument, and going forward folks could appeal to the ancient landmark if they were trying to figure out where the property-line was. Moving the ancient landmarks would have been a real temptation; Moses was not addressing some hypothetical scenario. God knows how our crooked hearts operate. God knows that dark hearts love to steal when they think they can get away with it.

The Nation of Israel was a type and figure of Christ's Kingdom. Christ is the Eternal-Creator King and the entire world is His. So, consider this: when Christians go around and tell folks to stop being a Mormon or stop being a Muslim, to repent and be converted, one of things that is implicit in that call to repent/be converted is that all of creation is God's! Therefore, indirectly we are telling people to stop trying to (re)move the ancient landmarks with their phony-religion. Man is a type of ancient landmark; we were created in the image of God. Human nature is an ancient landmark; our creature-hood is a property line--it communicates "all this creature-stuff is the Creator's."

When somebody tries to be an atheist, or tries to be a Mormon, or tries to be a Muslim, what they are doing is trying to move an ancient landmark: they are trying to take their sins and stack them together into a little mountain of rocks and appeal to that sin-landmark and say, "Ha! This human is not made in the image of the Triune God!" Or they try to take their bricks and build a building and say, "Ha! This little patch of dirt on the corner of such-and-such a road is not part of the Kingdom of Heaven! It is part of make-believe-Mormon land!" But they are wrong. Dead, dead wrong. They can attempt to move the landmark of man with their sin, but that doesn't alter God's ownership (Creatorship) over all of creation.

The Triune Lord created this world. Not Allah. Not Joseph Smith's God. And this world was certainly not created by the atheist's depersonalized goddess "Reason." And when the Triune Lord created this world he placed at the thematic center of this world a mountain with four rivers running down, and on top of that mountain was a garden called Eden; and then God put Adam and Eve in that garden. And you know what that mountain-garden with man and woman in it was? It was the ancientest of ancient-landmarks; basically a landmark that God put in place to communicate to Satan and all the fallen demons that not only was all of Heaven His, but so too the terrestrial ball with humans that bore the divine image.

But Satan came and tempted the woman and man. They rebelled and their rebellion was a form of moving an ancient landmark. They were attempting to steal glory from God! Greedy hands said, "Don't care what God says, gonna take that that fruit God said was off-limits. Don't care where the fence is, if I want something on the other side, well, then I'm just going to pick up the fencepost and scoot it over and take it! Try and stop me."

But God did stop us. If you refuse righteousness, you will be unrighteous. If you refuse to walk in the light, then you will abide in darkness. If you cast off life, then all that is left is death. Adam and Eve thought they could move the ancient landmark; they thought they could gain more by attempting to be like God, by attempting to usurp God's glory. They tried to move an ancient landmark, casting off creaturely obedience in exchange for rebellion, and when they did they corrupted themselves with sin. Their rebellion ruined their ethical nature. Figurative real estate increased, i.e. they gained knowledge of what fruit tasted like from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the acquisition also turned them into sinners. What did Christ say about such acquisitions? Mark 8:36, For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

So, do not be a thief; do not move ancient landmarks. Do not steal temporal or physical things. But also do not move spiritual ancient landmarks in an attempt to steal God's Glory. Do not attempt to move the ancient landmark that man is a creature made in God's image. Therefore, put on humility. Be humble before the ancient landmarks. Be humble before the Creator by embracing your creature-hood. Be humble before your Lord Jesus; he took on the ancient landmark of human flesh in order to move the landmark back to its origin. Adam moved it with sin and because of sin we couldn't move it back, but Christ was righteous and he came and dealt with the sin and moved the landmark of human nature back to where it began, back to righteousness! And if you are in Christ then your human nature has been restored to the ancient landmark.

God-Centered, Other-Centered, and Servant-Speaking

Every day we demonstrate the power of saying yes and no to ourselves about our own use of language. Speaking is a series of consequential decisions about what to say and how and when to express it. By saying no to some of our language (i.e., by not speaking it), we are freer to say yes to God's Word -- and then to communicate the Word to others by how we live as well as by what we literally say (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking, 30-31).

This is applicable in public speaking, certainly. But even more so person-to-person, namely, within a marriage. Speech is powerful and reality-defining. The tongue is a fierce and mighty thing, and a husband and wife must always be discerning what to say and how and when to express it.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Proverbs 3:3-4

Husbands and wives must demonstrate the power of saying yes and no to their selves with their use of language. The demands of a biblical marriage calls each spouse to be other-centered; it is not concerned with one's own feelings or thoughts of how one's spouse needs to make them feel, e.g., the wedding vows:

I, ___, take you, ___, to be my wedded [wife/husband], to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's Word, and for His glory, I give thee my word.

To do this, you need to bind mercy (lovingkindness) and truth about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. Say "no" to self-centered language, and you will be freer to say "yes" to God's Word (freer to say "yes" to being God-centered). And God's Word instructs believers to be servants and servant-speakers, that is, to be both God-centered and other-centered.

Unifying Approach to Life: 'Is this wisdom or folly?'

"But it [Book of Proverbs] is not a portrait-album or a book of manners: it offers a key to life. The samples of behaviour which it holds up to view are all assessed by one criterion, which could be summed up in the question, 'Is this wisdom or folly?' This is a unifying approach to life, because it suits the most commonplace realms as fully as the most exalted. Wisdom leaves its signature on anything well made or well judged, from an apt remark to the universe itself, from a shrewd policy (which springs from practical insight) to a noble action (which presupposes moral and spiritual discernment). In other words, it is equally at home in the realms of nature and art, of ethics and politics, to mention no others, and forms a single basis of judgment for them all" (Derek Kidner, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: The Proverbs, 13).

Socialism: Bury the Carcase?

Gary North, a prolific author, began An Economic Commentary on the Bible in 1973. In 2012, he finished the series. Quite the providential Prolegomenon to The Affordable Care Act.

The Bible is hostile to all forms of socialism and the welfare state. I have spent over three decades proving this, verse by verse. So far, Christian socialists refuse to present detailed exegetical support for their case. They do not respond to me. Meanwhile, socialism has visibly died. Communism is defunct. There was never an intellectually coherent theoretical defense of socialism, and now it has failed visibly. It impoverished those nations that adopted it. Socialism is a dead mule. It was always sterile. It is time to bury the carcase (Gary North, Wisdom and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Proverbs (Point Five Press, 2012), 3).

 If Socialism is a dead mule, then what is The Affordable Care Act? The "last hurrah"? A funeral dirge sang drunkenly graveside of said mule? Perhaps. 

Poem: Strength - Proverbs 31:25

Girl
Thou haveth fierce strength
Comely Woman
What type of strength is this?

From your womb
Comes forth the dragon-slayer
Skeletal crushing man

Mother Mary
The offspring of your holy womb
He is
Terrible as an army with banners

Silencing, mouths of fools
Dashing, the wicked's child
They shatter against, the Rock
That Rock in the wilderness
Terrible as an army with banners

Girl
What type of strength is this?

Self Discipline: Words, Speech

Thoughts on Proverbs 6:1-5:

1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth; thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Self-control exercised over the tongue, the words of our mouth, will be like a wall around a city; disciplined speech is protection.

“Christian prudence will keep us clear from such engagements, which bring distress upon our families, dishonor upon our name, and reproach upon our religion. While the “good man sheweth favor, and lendeth, he must guide his affairs with discretion (Psalm 62:5)” (Charles Bridges, Exposition of the Book of Proverbs).

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect:

1) Our families
2) Our name
3) Our religion (Christ & Church)

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect us and our friends:

“Even to the recipient, an unconditional pledge may be an unintended disservice by exposing him to temptation and to the subsequent grief of having brought a friend to ruin” (Commentator Derek Kidner).

Heart and Speech

The Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Good looks and smooth words don't fool God. "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me" Matthew 15:8. Do not be a hypocrite. If you want to be righteous, then draw near to God with both heart and speech.

God is omniscient (Psalm 139), he knows all and cannot be fooled. The Word made all things (John 1:2), he knows all and cannot be fooled. Wicked men are always trying to fool God, as well as their peers. Christians need to avoid being deceived by the smooth words of wicked men. Be like God, be holy and do not be deceived by false words. Do not be deceived into thinking that righteousness is merely eloquent speech. It require much, much more. Righteousness requires a renewed heart.

The Lord is Holy and is not fooled by wicked, smooth words, nor should the righteous. Therefore, consider the words of men carefully. Words are weighty and ought to be carefully considered. Words are weighty, so the righteous ought to use speech carefully. "The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth" Proverbs 10:20. The wicked do not consider the weight of their words; their hearts are of little worth. They do not understand that words and reality are intimately linked.

Consider the power of words. With words a Pastor declares that a man and woman have just been made "husband and wife". That is powerful. The Pastor didn't make them "husband and wife", God did that. But what the Pastor is doing is declaring the truthfulness, that is, the objective fact of what has just occurred; he has declared that now they truly are "husband and wife," whereas ten seconds ago they were not. This is what happens during Christian Baptism too. God saves you, not water and not the Pastor sprinkling it on your head. Your body was just baptized, that means something. Your wet, baptized body is an image, it is a picture. Pictures function like words in that they say something about reality. Your wet, baptized body is saying, "I've died with Christ, therefore, I will be raised with Christ and I will be saved from my sins...my body will not be abandoned to the grave because God grants eternal life to those who trust in him."

God is not haphazard with words, nor should we be. Therefore, if you want to be righteous, then you should pray to God and ask him to transform your heart and speech. Heart and speech are not the sum of righteousness, however, it is helpful to think about them as grammar or building blocks for holy living.

Wisdom vs. Weapons of War

Ecclesiastes 9:18 - "Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good."

It can be demonstrated with ease that one sinner destroys much good (David's sinful census led to the death of 70,000 people, 1 Chronicles 21:14; Achan's sin, his disobedience and greed, led not only to the military defeat of Israel at Ai but eventually to the destruction of himself and his family, Joshua 7). It is, however, not as easily demonstrated that wisdom is better than weapons of war. Post-Hiroshima it is easier to think that the way to get things done in this world is to do so with the aid of the latest and greatest weaponry.

Well, for starters, if you fight with weapons of war (the sword), you do not truly have protection, for it is well known that weapons of war can be brought against you too (Matthew 26:52). Pagan history is exactly this--an endless circle of self-glory seekers dropping bombs on one another.

Christian history revolutionized pagan history. Christianity changed the world when it listened to Lady Wisdom, who said "Fear God, not man". Christians listened to Lady Wisdom, and as a result, they broke the cycle of pagan history with obedience to God; that is, by caring for orphans, widows, and everybody else with zero utility within the death-cycle of paganism (And who were those with no utility--they were infants, women, the elderly, the handicapped, the ill, etc).

God tells us that if you have wisdom, that is, if you love Lady Wisdom, then "she will keep you" and "she will guard you" (Proverbs 4:5-6). Guess what...the latest and greatest weaponry doesn't stand a chance against Lady Wisdom.

And how do we know that Lady Wisdom will prevail? Because we're told that the Kingdom of God has come, and that it is transforming the glory of this world into an even greater glory. As the fall-out of wisdom (not bombs) covers the land, peace shall pour forth from Mount Calvary and flow downhill to each of the four corners of the earth, and as a result the sucking child will play on the hole of the asp (Isaiah 11:8).

That is a really good reason for why Wisdom is better than weapons of war.

Do you want to break the pagan cycles of today? Then do so, by listening to Lady Wisdom--for she is better than the weapons of war. Listen to Lady Wisdom and obey God.

Proverbs 29:11, 29: Speech - Sanctification

"A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise [man] keepeth it in till afterwards (11)."

"Seest thou a man [that is] hasty in his words? [there is] more hope of a fool than of him (20)."

A very important part of our sanctification is learning how to speak with wisdom, both in content and form (God cares what, how, and when we speak). Our speech is part of us, and it will be transformed through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking is an art, but speaking wise counsel at the appropriate time is an even greater art. The Lord, however, is gracious, and readily provides instruction; the Lord teaches us what, how, and when to speak through Scripture, prayer, worship, and the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 2:1: Receiving Words

A thought regarding Proverbs 2:1: “My son, if thou wilt receive my words…”

Words are important, especially from a father to a son. With words a father can encourage his son to heed the father’s words, as we see Solomon doing when he urges his son to hear his instruction, as well as not forsaking the law of his mother (Pro 1:8). A good father will speak to his son, giving him instruction and steering him towards wisdom. Speaking, however, is tricky. Words easily fall to the ground.

A wise son will not let the words of his father fall. He will receive them, accepting them as a gift. Sound counsel, the wise words of a loving father, these can be given to sons as gifts. And we should be intentional about giving these gifts to our sons.

A grateful son will receive the words of his father. The son will take the father at his word (A son will learn how to do this because he has seen his father take the Lord at His word). Wise counsel, the words given as gifts from a father to a son, will provide rest for the son. And sons need rest to avoid becoming exasperated (Col 3:21).

What this does not mean is that fathers can simply communicate with words alone. They are required to act. For instance, men are told “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly” (Mic 6:8). However, a spoken word functions somewhat differently than an action, and Solomon’s highlights this by denoting the importance of a son’s reception of his father’s words.