Building a Hedge, How is your Hedge?
Hedges are meant to keep things out. Extreme Homesteaders build hedges out of Rose and Blackberry bushes to keep the animals out of their gardens. This keeps the varmints from stealing their vegetables they work so hard to grow. If we allow God to build a Hedge around us by following His commandments it can prevent the enemy from stealing our joy!
What about our Spiritual Hedges?
Photo provided by: Christian Guthier
When we have a hedge around us built by the Lord then sin cannot break through!
Ever wonder how you can start building a hedge around you? First lets define Hedge.
Table of Contents
HEDGE:
- A fence or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs.
- Surround or bound with a hedge: “a garden hedged with yews”.
So a hedge can be a fence or an object that surrounds and protects something! It is there to keep intruders out!
If we look to the bible we can find several references to a hedge or hedges. God has put hedges around his children many times throughout the Bible. You could say the Cloud that the Children of Israel had behind them to keep the Egyptians from following them was a hedge from God.
Exedous: 14
19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
You see when God is in the works and in the lead, things happen to benefit his people. I have wondered about our Country so many times over the last few decades as the moral leadership in our Government has changed for the worse. It seems that our leaders continue to be less and less concerned about Gods laws or his ways.
I believe that we as christians have to stand in the hall of judgement for this sin!
We have stood by and allowed prayer to be taken out of schools teaching our children that it is not important to pray!
We have allowed the Government to take the 10 Commandments out of the Government places teaching our children that God’s laws are not important!
We have allowed the Pledge of Allegiance to be taken out of our schools teaching our children that having pride in a nation that was founded on the principles of the bible is not important!
We have allowed our Leaders to pass laws making it legal for men to marry men and women to marry women teaching our children that the word of God is not important!
If we aren’t careful, the Government will forbid God being taught anywhere in order not to offend all the foreign doctrines that have been forced upon us!
Somehow we the people have forgotten that the Government is supposed to work for us and not against us! They are not our masters yet but they would like to be.
The list goes on and on! Then we wonder why our country has no hedge against evil!
Lets look into what it takes to start building a hedge around the United States!
First and foremost, the Church of Jesus Christ has to forsake the Gods they are serving now!
The Gods or lust, greed, fame, fortune, recognition, bickering about doctrine, etc. You know the Gods that Joshua spoke of,
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Are we going to continue serving the Gods our Government places in front of us and the Gods of our own lust or the one true God?
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Warning: Special Conditions apply!
Hum·ble:
1. Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.
2. Showing deferential or submissive respect:
Pray:
1: To make a fervent request or entreaty.
Seek:
1. To try to locate or discover; search for.
2. To endeavor to obtain or reach:
Turn:
1: Change directions
If we want God to hear from heaven and forgive our sins and heal our land, the conditions above must first be met!
Do you want to start building a hedge around you?
Lets understand how Government works!
Romans 13
13 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Proverbs 16:4 says He works all things, good and evil, for His plan.
We move to our current Government. We gripe and complain that they are taking rights from us and not being the servants they were elected to be. Please, take a minute to think about the scriptures above! If you look back through the Bible, God appointed rulers over the Children of Israel who punished them because they forsook his commandments! How are we any different?
God ordains things to happen and they will come to pass no matter what we think. We can prolong things by our actions and cause God to forgive our sins and heal our lands but we have to take action!
We have to stand up and proclaim his commandments.
Ezekiel 22:29-31
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.
We do not want God to find us not standing in the Gap warning the people not to pass through! You see, we have to turn from “our” wicked ways and seek God and stand in the Gap! These are things we need to do in order to be blessed.
Lets look at Job!
Job was a righteous man and a man that feared God and kept his commandments! His love for God was not in the wealth that he owned but in the sanctity of his heart! Job loved God!
Job 1 – 2 – 3, Satan’s conversation with God about God removing the hedge from around Job.
Job 1:
7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
The first thing that Satan revealed about Job was, there was a hedge about him and Satan could not bother him! Imagine that, a man that Satan could not bother! Job had a hedge around him that hedged in all that belonged to him and all he was associated with.
This hedge was maintained by God! Do you have a hedge around you? Are you building a hedge?
Long story short, God removed the hedge and gave Satan power to afflict job except to take his life.
Job had some sorry friends. After Satan had taken all Job had, killed off his children, run off all his cattle and possessions and killed off his servants and caused boils to cover his body, they came to him telling him what a terrible man he must be!
Job 16
16 Then Job answered and said,
2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
Job 19
19 Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
We don’t know all the workings of God! God does things in his time and for his purpose but he will never forsake us. God did not forsake Job!
Job 4 (Why Job was so Blessed)
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
(Just a couple of things said about Job by his friends. Remember God said there was none like Job, a perfect and upright man!)
3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
By this time Job was full of boils and sitting in sackcloth and ashes to ease his pain. He was scraping his sores with a piece of pottery. His anguish was beyond anyting most of us could ever imagine. Even without his hedge he feared and loved God! His trust was in the Almighty God!
Job 14:
14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
No matter how much of how many times His friends vexed or rebuced him he still held his integrity!
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Around this time God spoke to Job’s friends and told them to make a sacrifice for their sin against Him by misrepresenting Him and accusing Job falsely! Sound familiar? Ever accuse someone falsely because you did not know the situation? God instructed them to make a sacrifice.
Job 42:
7 And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.
10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
This is such a powerful scripture. These men had tormented Job for days on end about how he must have forsaken God and sinned and must be such a horrible person for all this to have happened to him!
Then, in the end it was left up to Job to pray for their sins to be forgiven. Had Job not been the Godly man he was, his friends would have been punished severely by the Lord!
Verse 10 is so wonderful. God turns our captivity when we learn to Love our brothers as ourselves and pray for them as fervently as we pray for ourselves.
Matthew 22:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
If you want to start building a hedge around you, start seeking God’s will in your life. Remember, it is all about Jesus! Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Then the second, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Our way of living and lifestyle says a lot about our hedge! Some hedges are so small they can be walked over. They need to grow into maturity! They need nourishment and cultivating and fertilize. Just like our lives! When God builds it, it will last!
Matthew 16:17-19
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
I am thankful today that The Church has been built on Jesus and that the gates of hell have no power over it! If Satan has power over us it is because we have allowed it. We need to start building a hedge around us that God will fortify!
~Blessings~
