Posted on 06/22/2022 11:51:33 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23:10-12).
There are some landmarks that absolutely have to stay where they are: Calvary, the Bible, the Local church. We live in an age where it seems that everyone wants to bring everything “up-to-date” with the times. We have to make the Bible and the church relevant. Rats! What we need to do is to make folks repent. We need to go back, not forward.
The Democrats are constantly warning that the Republicans are going to take our country back 50 years. Great! I wish they would take it back 100 years, back to the day when they had some real revivals in this country.
“Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless,” technically, the Jews were given an inheritance, and moving a landmark was stealing land from them: “Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof” (Job 24:2).
“Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour'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 it . . . Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deuteronomy 19:14, 27:17).
Ownership of the land was to be retained in the family, but if for some reason they did sell their land to meet debts—that land was to be returned to them at the year of Jubilee.
“. . . and enter not into the fields of the fatherless,” when the patriarch died, the people would take advantage of the widow. They are still doing that today.
“For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee,” God established those landmarks. “Enter not in the fields of the fatherless,” Why? Because “their redeemer is mighty.” It is like a courtroom situation and God will “plead their cause,” and anyone that messes with those ancient landmarks is going to come up on the short end of the stick. It is a direct confrontation with God.
No man can get away with doing wrong, because it is going to be made right.
First clause—read the Word of God— “Apply thine heart unto instruction.” Second clause—listen to good, sound preaching— “[Apply] thine ears to the words of knowledge.”
Solomon dealt with the important matter of receiving knowledge back in Chapters 2, 5, and 8. We are simply to work at it, apply it, get in their and study. Don’t just listen to a message and take notes and that is all the further you go with it. Heart knowledge is gained only after applying truths to your life and making them part of your character. Head knowledge is only that, and it doesn’t last as long.
There was a time when I was deeply involved with memorizing whole books in the Bible, mostly Paul’s epistles. I admit that I had them down, and could quote chapter 1, verse one clear through to the last chapter, last verse. But I had to constantly review it because I would forget them after a time. Now, the review wasn’t difficult and was back to quoting the whole book again within a couple of weeks, but again the book would fade. I simply had a head knowledge, but not a heart knowledge.
Study the stuff, look the verses up, and try to find a way to make them apply to your life. As babies growing up, we learn to identify with the things that we experience so that they become second nature to us. We don’t even have to stop and contemplate the color blue—we just know it without thinking about it. Certain verses are like that for us. John 3:16 is so much a part of a born-again believer that he doesn’t even have to try to remember it—it just flows off the top of his mind like nothing.
If anyone would like to be added to the ping list, please let me know either by post or by p.m.
For more books on all topics of the Bible, visit my web site at:
Surveyer’s mark, those metal posts driven in the ground to mark boundaries in the modern age.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.