Why does Proverbs 23:10 tell us not to remove the ancient landmark?

"Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set" (v. 28). Landmarks may be set to distinguish one person's property from another, and this must not be ignored. To remove such a landmark may cause undue confusion.

Heartless dishonesty toward any and especially the fatherless draws out a far graver warning. It matters not whether it take the crafty shape of removing the ancient landmark, or the open boldness of entering into the fields of the fatherless. If they have no father, they need no lawyer any more than taking the law into their own hands. Their Kinsman, their Redeemer, is strong; He will plead their cause against the rogue, high or low.

We have been told before not to remove the ancient landmark (v. 10). Truth is as ancient as creation, and if we remove truth from its place of proper dignity, how can others discern their way? Entering the fields of the fatherless, in this verse evidently refers to one taking possession of an orphan's property. This kind of oppression will certainly incur the displeasure of the mighty Redeemer, who, in pleading the cause of the fatherless, will not spare in punishing the oppressor.

Anything, as a stone or stake, that marked the boundary of a tribe, or of a man's possession. The moving of such was forbidden by the law. Deut. 19:14; Job 24:2; Prov. 22:28; Prov. 23:10.

Before quoting for the reader the closing paragraph of our chapter, we would just call his attention to verse 14, in which we have a very beautiful proof of God's tender care for His people, and His most gracious interest in everything which, directly or indirectly concerned them. "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God gives thee to possess it."

This passage, taken in its plain import and primary application is full of sweetness, as presenting the loving heart of our God, and showing us how marvellously He entered into all the circumstances of His beloved people. The landmarks were not to be meddled with. Each one's portion was to be left intact according to the boundary lines set up by those of old time. Jehovah had given the land to Israel; and, not only so, but He had assigned to each tribe and to each family their proper portion, marked off with perfect precision, and indicated by landmarks so plain that there could be no confusion, no clashing of interests, no interference one with another, no ground for lawsuit or controversy about property. There stood the ancient landmarks marking off each one's portion in such a manner as to remove all possible ground of dispute. Each one held as a tenant under the God of Israel, who knew all about his little holding, as we say; and every tenant had the comfort of knowing that the eye of the gracious and Almighty Landlord was upon his bit of land, and His hand over it to protect it from every intruder. Thus he could abide in peace under his vine and under his fig-tree, enjoying the portion assigned by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

A third curse is pronounced against one who moved his neighbor's landmark (v.17). This would likely be with the object of cheating a neighbor out of some of some of his property, an evil matter literally, and even worse spiritually, for there are many who falsify the Word of God in order to cheat others out of the spiritual property that God has provided for them. Again, the people were required to back this up by their "Amen."

If one did not respect the life of his neighbor, it might well be that he would not respect his neighbor's landmarks, so Israel is warned not to remove these. These were marks to indicate the borders of the people's possessions. They had been established by "men of old." These are typical of truths that are basic to the testimony of the Church of God, -- truths that will enable us to remain within the borders that God has prescribed for the order of His Church. These may be called traditions, but true traditions are good. If they are merely men's traditions, we must refuse them. But too often efforts are made to negate truths that are taught in Scripture by calling them "traditions." This is removing the old landmarks. May we not be guilty of this.

The proverb of verse 28: "Remove not the ancient landmarks, which thy father has set," is a restatement of Deut. 19:14. It is repeated in chapter 23:10. In Job 24:2 we read "Some remove the landmarks." These landmarks were for Israel sacred things, for their possessions were staked off according to the Lord's will; to meddle with them was a transgression. While Israel, God's earthly people had landmarks, God's heavenly people also has landmarks of the heavenly realm, the blessed doctrines of the Word of God, which constitute the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints. And how man removes these landmarks in our day! How true it is, "Some remove the landmarks," that which our fathers cherished, believed and trusted in. The rationalist, the ritualist and the delusionist do it constantly and thus destroy the foundation upon which everything rests.

Secondly, the law against the removal of landmarks comes in here, no doubt, as generally seen, because the land was their life, as sustaining it. They were to be a nation of husbandmen, each for himself cultivating the soil of that good land, — a much-needed lesson of what God would have His people to be spiritually now. Here is our wealth and sustenance indeed; and "much food" — would that we did believe it! — "in the tillage of the poor."

We do not attempt to go into the question of what these landmarks are; we have sought to do this in our first volume of "Notes on Deuteronomy," as well as in the other four volumes of the series; but we feel it to be our duty to warn, in the most solemn manner, all whom it may concern, against doing that which, in the church of God, answers to the removal of the landmarks in Israel. If any one had come forward in the ]and of Israel to suggest some new arrangement in the inheritance of the tribes, to adjust the property of each upon some new principle, to set up some new boundary lines, what would have been the reply of the faithful Israelite? A very simple one, we may be sure. He would have replied in the language of Deuteronomy 19:14. He would have said "We want no novelties here; we are perfectly content with those sacred and time-honoured landmarks which they of old time have set in our inheritance. We are determined, by the grace of God, to keep to them, and to resist, with firm purpose, any modern innovation."