Joel M Bradshaw

14Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.–Deuteronomy 19

When my wife and I bought our house years ago, the house next door was being rehabbed to sell. It then sat empty for a year and the owners paid a service to come mow their lawn. I mowed where I thought the property line was.

When the house sold, the new neighbors wanted to build a fence, and so they located the exact property line. This was helpful as it brought precise clarity to the situation. We have good neighbors and they were very respectful regarding the property line. In fact, in turned out that I had been mowing too much and the proper line gave me less to mow!

In the ancient world, those property stones would be far afield where shepherds led their flocks. If the stone would be moved by someone, most likely nobody else was around. If you are a person that cares about boundaries in relationships, then these were LITERAL boundaries!

1. Moving the stones disrespected the God who gave the land as an inheritance.
2. Moving the stones stole from your neighbor.
3. Moving the stones caused you to be a liar.–JMB