Boundaries

 December 11, 2022

Boundaries. We’re hearing a lot about them lately, particularly about our southern border. Many in our government essentially want to eliminate our southern border, while others battle against the administration’s “borderless” policies. I’ve been reading in the Biblical book of Joshua where the borders of the twelve tribes are spelled out in detail over the course of eight complete chapters. Why is this listing of tribal boundaries so important that it takes up such space in the Biblical record? Weren’t there more important matters to record?

Boundaries are important. I believe the detailed description of these borders serves an important purpose. For the early Israelites, they were a way of maintaining one’s identity so as not to get lost in the larger matters of the nation. Personal identity and responsibility were relatively new concepts those thousands of years ago when for most people, the individual was  merely a part of a larger whole, and wasn’t important as an individual.

For us, I think boundaries are essential for the ordering of life. Look at any object and it’s defined by clear visual boundaries. Your house is identifiable as yours by the boundaries we call walls, roofs, doors and windows. Your bodily shape distinguishes you from the person next to you or down the street. In the same way, moral and ethical boundaries are essential. They distinguish good from evil, right from wrong. For most of our country’s existence, these boundaries were based in the Judeo-Christian heritage rooted in the Bible.

Our society’s increasing rejection of these boundaries is intentional and predictably disastrous. We were systematically unravelling the cords that bind society together. Freedom from “archaic” boundaries, the erasure of what traditionally has been called good or bad leaves us with no way to pass judgment on a person’s or society’s behavior. Without such ability, a society must inevitably collapse under its own weight.

The boundaries listed in Joshua are to me, symbols of the boundaries we (read “I”) need in life, boundaries that let me know whether certain beliefs and actions are beneficial or destructive. They help tell me who I am, and for that, I am grateful tonight. I am a Christian, bound by the Ten Commandments and free to live by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.