BOUNDARIES — A GOD OF LIMITS AND LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canale

As Michael and I discussed this blog and how to best present it, my mind went back to a time years ago when I read about a fascinating study where several young children and a considerable number of toys were placed in a field that had no fencing or borders of any kind. The children were observed as they looked around, picked up the toys and began to build a boundary with them, separating themselves from the vast openness of their surroundings. Only after they had finished this, did they take the remaining toys and begin to play with them, content within the encircling fence they had created. I’ve remembered this all these years because it was so interesting to think about their reaction to unrestricted freedom. Today, upon reflecting on this again, it brings to mind these verses from Scripture:

“The blind and the lame came to him ( Jesus) at the Temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the Temple area, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.
‘Do you hear what the children are saying?’ they asked him.
‘Yes,’ replied Jesus. ‘Have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise.” (Jesus quoting David in Psalm 8:2)  (Matthew 21:14-16) KJV

Truly, the wisdom and instincts of these children in the field study is a reflection of the wisdom of the children in this Bible passage. The latter saw the beauty of what Jesus was doing as he healed those in the Temple. We can turn around the accusatory sense of the Temple officials’ question for Jesus and ask sincerely of ourselves this same question, as we perceive the activity of the children in the aforementioned study, i.e. “Do we hear what THESE children are saying?” Their statement is, as in the Biblical verses, very wise. It is that there is safety for us in setting boundaries around where we play and live.

As a former prosecutor, I saw this with regard to the importance of laws within our secular world. As Christians, we can see it in God’s laws, the very foundation of our secular statutes today. God, the Father, made such boundaries the heart and soul of the Ten Commandments. Jesus made these Commandments the bedrock of his iconic Sermon on the Mount, the infrastructure of his principles for conduct in our lives.

Let’s look first at the Ten Commandments. Even before God delivered them to Moses, He set boundaries for the people to whom these laws would be announced. As to them, God told Moses to limit how close they were to Mount Sinai, the mountain on which God would give Moses the Commandments:

“Post BOUNDARIES (emphasis added) for the people all around, telling them, ‘Warning! Don’t climb the mountain. Don’t even touch its edge.” (Exodus 19:-12) The Message

Why did God do this? It was because He was saying, as Moses himself said, “Respect the holy mountain.” (Exodus 19:23) The Message. Only after setting logistical boundaries, did God come down to Mount Sinai to set our behavioral boundaries.

If there has ever been any doubt about whether our Father in Heaven is a God of order, the Ten Commandments dispel that. The first three Commandments appropriately address our relationship with Him, in a vertical exchange between us. The remaining seven focus on a horizontal association with other people. Therefore, when the question was posed to Jesus by a Jewish religion scholar, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (Mark 12:28), NIV, Jesus answered,

“…love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy. And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself. There is no other commandment that ranks with these.” (Mark 12:29-31) The Message

In essence, then, Jesus consolidated all the Ten Commandments into these two – the vertical laws and the horizontal, as well.

In the first, God’s rules say we are not to do the following;
1) “…have any other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
2) “…Make for yourself an idol.” (Exodus 20:4)
I have heard many pastors preach that there are no true atheists. They explained, “Every person has a god. On the negative side, it can be a house, a job, a relationship or any number of things or people in this world. The possibilities are endless. Or, on the positive side, it can be the one, true and living God.

Also, we are not to,
3) “…misuse the name of the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:7)
We are to carry God’s name with the responsibility inherent in that name. We often associate this commandment with cursing, but, while it includes this, it is much further reaching.

The remainder of the commandments convey God’s rules regarding our observance of the Sabbath and our treatment of our neighbor, i.e., everyone in or outside of our lives. Strictly prohibited are murder, adultery, theft, giving false testimony and coveting. With reference to our parents, we are to honor them, in particular.

In my book, “How to Find God in Under Five Hours,” I quote G.K. Chesterton, who wrote,

“The Ten Commandments may be walls, but they are the walls of a playground.”

How providential that the earlier-mentioned study about the children in the field involved just such a point. True freedom and happiness do not now and never have derived from an “anything goes” society. God, in His infinite wisdom and love, is assuring us that this is not the case. As we are all well aware, what He is saying is that a holy life makes for a great journey.

I also quote C.S. Lewis in my book as to holiness:

“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing…it is irresistible.”

Michael said it so well:

“When you know what not to do, it opens the door for so many other things to do. It gives you a whole garden of possibilities.” He adds, “ A life with boundaries is the one with the most options.” This is both profound and counter-intuitive. How sad that our world sees things so differently.

In the New Testament, Jesus expands on the boundaries of the Ten Commandments without, in any way, usurping the authority of these foundational Commandments. Jesus is speaking:

“Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures – either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to COMPLETE. (emphasis added) I am going to pull it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out, God’s Law will be alive and working.” (Matthew 5:17-18) The Message

Jesus goes on:

“Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly, he will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19) NIV

Any idea that Jesus is in any way abrogating the clear authority of the Ten Commandments is firmly dispelled. How then, does he COMPLETE these, his Father’s Commandments? Countless books have been written on this subject. With the constraints of this blog, we focus on the very heart of the matter, which is, in fact, a matter of the heart. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear:

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my law in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:16) NIV

Michael and I also very much like The Message translation of this verse:

“This new plan I’m making with Israel isn’t going to be written on paper, isn’t going to be chiseled in stone; this time, I’m writing out the plan IN them, carving it on the lining of their hearts.” (Hebrews 10:16) The Message

The law is a heart and mind matter with Jesus. Where the Ten Commandments say, “Don’t murder,” Jesus says, “Don’t be angry with anyone.” Where the Ten Commandments say, “Don’t commit adultery,” Jesus says, “Don’t let your mind look lustfully at another.” He goes on to say that we will not be in a state of obedience if we return animosity to our neighbor who is expressing this toward us. We must be a People who forgive others not seven times but seven times seventy or, in other words, endlessly. All of these principles are set forth in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Michael gives us excellent advice on how to follow the way of Jesus’ guidelines for our lives. He says “not to react but to embrace the limits God the Father and Jesus have placed on our actions and attitudes.” We will find inner peace when we, “Pull ourselves into the space where there is full acceptance of the checks God has placed on us. Satan is a master of reaction, of the caustic confrontation.” Michael adds that, “Our job is to live in the moment, the now, where there is trust that God knows what is best for us within the boundaries He and Jesus have set.”

Speaking prophetically of the Second Coming of Jesus, Isaiah writes of a time when all hostilities on Earth will cease. In this age,

“…you will call your walls Salvation
and your gates Praise.” (Isaiah 60:18) NIV

These boundaries will be our redemption. Isaiah further says that, in this golden era, “A little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6) NIV Looking forward to that glorious time, but living now, may we look back on the study of the children in the field, all safe and sound, their wall of toys surrounding them, and ask ourselves the question of Matthew 12:15:

Do we hear what the children are saying?

Will we, also, be led by a child, observing God’s boundaries for us, praising His walls?