Limited Borders

Numbers 34:1-3 KJV

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)

Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward: (ff)

When God sent Israel into Canaan He did so with a great deal of power. They were to fiercely and almost mercilessly conquer the land. But before they entered that land, before Moses had even passed away, God placed boundaries beyond which Israel was not to venture. God gave them a land and the power to overthrow that land but God set upon them limitations. This was in contrast to what would soon become a common scene in their world. First the Assyrians, then the Babylonians and finally the Grecians followed closely by the Romans would try their hand at world wide domination, each one with more or less success. Israel was never to attempt that. God had given them a place and in their place they were to be content.

It seems for the moment that those nations of people prone to world domination are in a stalemate. The borders of the world are relatively defined and little has changed in those borders in my lifetime. But the spirit of discontent, the desire to gain, to break out of our boundaries and to grab more than our rightful share still pervades the human soul. This is as true in the realm of spiritual things as in any other realm in existence today.

·       Religions

·       Denominations and even

·       Local churches

Get themselves caught up in what they generally believe is the just cause of growth. They see the commission to “go ye into all the world” as a command to take what they can along the way, regardless of what pain it might cause.

·       Religions who commit war against other religions

·       Denominations who persecute those of other faiths

·       Churches who decimate other churches, even of like faith, in order to claim growth

Truly James was in the spirit when he wrote; James 4:1-3

From whence comewars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Paul was spot on when he said, Galatians 5:15

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Never were we told to force our way into growth. Not once are we commanded to build churches at the expense of others. We are to be witnesses; Christ is to build His church.

Israel suffered greatly, and suffers still today, because she kept out of the growth game. But she was still the people of God and uniquely blessed because of it.

I want the blessings of God rather than the praises obtained through abusive methods of greater domination.