"Keeping the Old Landmarks" Proverbs 22:28, Genesis 17:1-8, I Kings 21:1-4
(Parallel Passage in Proverbs 23:10)
Although these verses show at first glance to be about Old Testament real estate (and may be used that way) it is NOT the point of the text. It is deeper and more profound. We are dealing with Old Testament typology that "schools us" to Christ. What are the landmarks Solomon is speaking of? We learn in Hebrews and the Old Testament that God gave His people Canaan for an everlasting possession and Naboth understood what that plot of land meant for him and his family and was forbidden to ever sell it! We need to be like Naboth!
The significance of a landmark (which today are survey stakes) here was a significance of Heaven. Abraham was a stranger in the earthly and the picture of heaven is Canaan. The land of Canaan becomes a land of Sabboth and rest (land of Jubilee, etc. as we read in Deut. 19:14, 27:17, and Galatians 3:13) We understand with Abraham that the Heavenly land belongs to us also in Christ, even though we have no right to it! What are those landmarks for us today? And who gave them? God gave the land graciously with warning to "love the Lord thy God." A land overflowing with milk and honey planted in the land to the praise of the Lord God. These landmarks have to do with the promised land...a plot of HEAVEN and a possession that was given to them continually. (They could ONLY lease the land and in the time of Jubilee the land always returned to the owners of it.) The landmarks pertain to the incorruptible. To take away the landmark is to take away the preaching of the Word of God. The atonement. The PURE Word of God that give us the eternal inheritance and the very entrance into the Kingdom!
"Do NOT remove the landmarks!" This is a FIRM warning from God (negatively.) The devil seeks to silence the Word of God and the Holy Spirit withdraws when the Word is emasculated. We know the direction in today's day and age to water down the pulpits but need to be like Naboth! We cannot sell it and/or change/remove the landmarks! What has changed? Romans 10..the preaching of God is a NECESSITY! How are we going to believe and hear without the PURE Word of God and have a God that we don't know about? The plot of Canaan that the Lord gives to us and our families! Is it any wonder that the devil attacks the Word and that the Word of God is watered down today? We stand with Naboth (who was even killed for his conviction!) God FORBIDS us to let go of our landmarks (convictions) and the preaching of the Gospel among us IS AMONG US!
Naboth seemed to have lost it all and we know what our defense of the Word of God gets us from those around us....Remember that Ahab got the land, BUT Naboth went to Heaven!