Landmark

by Wayne Blank

A landmark is a durable object used as a legal reference point between properties, whether on a relatively minor scale, such as adjoining fields between farms, to boundaries between nations, or territories within nations. Known from the most ancient times (and throughout Bible History - see text below) right to the present (the photo shows a landmark on the national border between Canada and the United States), landmarks very often were a stone, hence the reason that landmarks were also often known as boundary stones. Moving or violating a landmark is a high crime in the eyes of God, not only because it is a violation of the Commandment against theft, but also because it is an arrogant attack on God's sovereignty i.e. "for all the earth is Mine" (Exodus 19:5 KJV) and "Thou hast set all the borders of the earth" (Psalm 74:17 KJV).

"Remove not the old landmark ... For their Redeemer is mighty"

Property law was codified by God very early. Violating a property or border landmark has always been very easy - the difficulty, the lethal wrath, begins from the homeland defenders, and from God, after the criminal crosses the line i.e. "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark" (see below).

Landmark

"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance" (Deuteronomy 19:14 KJV)
"Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28 KJV)
"Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark" (Deuteronomy 27:17 KJV)

When the Israelites entered their physical promised land, they were not taking the property of the people who had been living there (i.e. Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites - references to "their land" meant simply that the Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites were occupying the land, not the God-decreed owners of it). All of the earth has belonged to The Lord right from the time that He created it. As the sole ultimate Owner, He granted that particular territory to the Israelite descendants of Abraham centuries before they arrived to claim it after the Exodus. The Israelites were already the prescribed owners long before they arrived.

"The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18 KJV)

Nevertheless, when The Lord decreed the boundaries of Israel, He was not merely protecting the rights of the people of Israel; He was also protecting the property rights of the other nations across the borders from Israel. If that were not the case, The Lord would not have decreed borders for Israel at all. With The Lord with them, the Israelites were invincible, they could have over-run the world like a cancer - with the same devastating result as a cancer (as lustful and covetous humans have been doing throughout history - see Ancient Empires - Assyria, Ancient Empires - Babylon, Ancient Empires - Greece, Ancient Empires - Persia and Ancient Empires - Rome).

But unlike the foreign policy of man, God's "foreign policy" is not a malignancy toward the rest of humanity, the rest of God's children. An example, when The Lord protected the property rights of the people of Esau and the Moabites, among all others across the boundaries of Israel, from invasion by the Israelites:

"Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession" (Deuteronomy 2:5 KJV)
"The Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession" (Deuteronomy 2:9 KJV)

Fact Finder: Even within Israel itself, did The Lord decree legal territorial allotments for each of the tribes of Israel?
See Tribal Lands

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