OUR HEDGE OF PROTECTION

By Nathele Graham

Everyone needs protection from enemies and from invaders who want to take what isn’t rightfully theirs. People put fences around their property to keep intruders out, and security cameras take pictures of anyone who tries to breach the hedge of protection against human invaders. There’s a more destructive enemy who seeks to utterly destroy you. That enemy is Satan. For those of us who have placed our faith in God, our protection comes from Him.

“In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God” (Psalm 62:7).

Scripture records many instances of God protecting the people who trust Him. Job was such a man. Job lived long before the Law was given to Moses, but he knew God. Scripture records that he was a man who tried his best to honour God.

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1).

Job had everything…a large family, much wealth, and he loved God. Satan sees people like Job as a challenge and tries to destroy them and their faith, but he is no match for God and cannot destroy anyone who has God’s protection.

“Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 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” (Job1:9-10).

Satan couldn’t breach the hedge of protection around Job but he wanted to destroy him. God knew that Job’s faith would triumph over Satan’s attack. Job’s faith would only grow stronger. When the hedge of protection around Job fell, Satan attacked in every way possible. At first Job listened to worldly advice from friends. When he finally listened to God, his faith was restored.

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:25-27).

Satan cannot destroy the soul of a person who has placed their faith in God.

God knows the importance of hedges and walls. Walls are built to protect from enemy invasion. In ancient times when the wall protecting a city was breached, that city would fall to the enemy. This was true for ancient Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple stood. God had given the Jewish people the Law in order to protect them. Many of the Laws were to keep them separate from the pagan influence around them, while others were to help them prosper. Ignoring God’s Law was, in fact, ignoring God; and the hedge of protection He provided was compromised.

The more pagan influence allowed in, the less protection God gives.

There came a time when God’s chosen people chose to ignore the Law. Because of that, God allowed them to be taken captive by the Babylonians. When the wall of protection was breached, Jerusalem was left in ruins. The wall of protection from enemy attack was reduced to rubble, and the Temple was then destroyed. God eventually allowed the Jewish people to return to their land, and they began rebuilding the city and the Temple. The problem they faced was that they didn’t build a hedge of protection against the enemy…they needed a wall.

Nehemiah was the man whom God chose for this task. Nehemiah was Jewish but he held an important position in the Babylonian court at Shushan. He was cupbearer to the king of Babylon. When some men came from Jerusalem to visit him in Shushan, Nehemiah inquired about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and received some unsettling news.

“And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire” (Nehemiah 1:3).

Without a wall to protect the city, the efforts to rebuild Jerusalem were useless. The enemy was able to attack at will. God used Nehemiah, a man of prayer who listened to God’s guidance, to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem and protect all within from the enemy.

Is a hedge of protection a bad thing today?

Governments should do everything possible to protect against an invasion from the outside, so walls of protection are still needed. Only fools invite attackers in. That’s also true of Christians. Why would we allow the hedge of protection from God to be breached?

We need to understand that God wants His Temple protected. His Temple? There’s no Jewish Temple standing today because there’s no need for one. Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice that takes away sin…He sprinkled His own blood on the altar in Heaven. At the moment He gave up the ghost, the veil of separation was lifted.

“And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Mark 15:38).

In 70 AD, the Temple was completely destroyed. Make no mistake; it will be rebuilt after the Rapture. Right now the Temple of God is not one built by men.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

At the moment a lost sinner realizes their need for salvation through Jesus Christ and accepts Christ’s sacrifice for redemption, he or she is sealed by the Holy Spirit and indwelt by Him.

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).

That seal cannot be broken, but the hedge of protection surrounding a Christian can be breached. If a Christian chooses to embrace worldly ways, the hedge of protection is weakened by his or her own choice.

God won’t force you to do anything against your free will. Everyone has a choice to accept or reject Christ’s sacrifice for salvation. Everyone also has a choice whether to walk according to His ways or walk in the ways of the world. His ways are found in Scripture. Nehemiah followed God’s guidance, and the wall was built in 52 days. Then it was time to restore the people.

“And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law” (Nehemiah 8:2-3).

Once the Temple was protected by the wall, the people needed to return to a right relationship with God. They needed instruction in the Law of Moses. When Jesus came to dwell among us, He fulfilled that Law. We are no longer under the Law, but that doesn’t give us the freedom to live in opposition to God. Before coming to a saving faith in Jesus, we followed the ways of the world, and the world follows the ways of Satan. Christians need to turn away from the wickedness of the world.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:2-3).

The word “anastrepho” is translated “conversation” and means the way we conduct our life. Before coming to Christ, lusts of the flesh ruled, but there should be a change after accepting Christ. Study Scripture to keep the hedge of protection strong. Turn away from the world and follow Christ.

Very few pastors today teach line upon line through Scripture to instruct their congregations in God’s ways. Don’t wait for your pastor to teach you. It’s your individual responsibility to walk in the ways of the Lord.

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

No matter how long we have claimed to be Christians, we can never study God’s word enough. God’s ways don’t change even if man’s laws “legalize” sin. The only way to keep yourself within God’s hedge of protection is to not allow that hedge to be breached. Study Scripture and apply it to your life. Fellowship with other believers and encourage each other to stand strong on God’s word.

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Christians are one in the Lord, and He indwells all of us. We are His temple. Many liberal ideas are entering our congregations, and the hedge of protection is being breached. By being “open-minded” you allow the enemy in. Job understood that the enemy could cause no end of pain and suffering, but the protection of his eternal soul only came from God.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Everyone is plagued by satanic attacks on our physical life, but he can only attack your spiritual life if you allow the Holy Spirit’s hedge of protection to become weak. If you’ve given your life to Christ, Satan can’t take your salvation from you.

Job faced many problems, and when he listened to worldly advice he became weak. Nehemiah knew that Jerusalem would never be strong until a wall was built to keep invaders out, and then the people had to understand God’s Law. Christians need to keep strong by not allowing the ways of the world to weaken us.

Brothers and sisters, be vigilant and walk in the ways of the Lord. Don’t neglect the hedge of protection He provides.