DIVINELY APPOINTED RESTRICTIONS

William J House

Ecclesiastes 10: 8

Numbers 21:4-9

Acts 28: 1-6

         As taking account of the terrible conditions in the world through which we are passing one realises that there is great power in what is objective; the secret of being held here for God lies in having a right object.  We are here in the wilderness, and we need to be on our guard that we do not fall into the hands of the enemy.  Satan is presented to us in the Scriptures as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; his opposition and destructiveness are manifest, and looking back we see that there have been periods when Satan was active in that way, but the people of God have been wonderfully preserved.  The roaring lion is manifest, he can be heard and seen; his activities are in the open, and that casts the saints on God.  We can see that in the persecution in the early church, when Herod took James and slew him with the sword, and proceeded to take Peter, and all the distress and persecution that followed; what days of spiritual prosperity they were, because the enemy was located and known, and the saints prayed; they had to do with God. 

         So it was in the period that followed, referred to in the address to Smyrna.  So it was in Luther’s day.  But the other character of Satan’s activities is much more serious to us.  He is the old serpent, not only the devil and Satan, but he is the old serpent, which means that from ancient times part of his activities have been on the line of deceiving men, stealthily moving about in secret, often unnoticed, like a serpent.  Those who have met them in the bush will know that one can scarcely distinguish them at times from their surroundings; they are so hidden, and they are so marked that they are disguised; so it is with Satan.  One has in mind to say a few words that might put us on our guard against the serpent, against the subtle deceptive influences that would draw us into his power. 

         The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” - not it might.  There is no doubt about it; it is one of those many statements of Scripture that are absolute - that if anyone breaks a hedge a serpent will bite him.  What I understand by a hedge is a divinely established restriction, a barrier that God has instituted.  Every creature has been placed by God within hedges.  Only God knows no restriction.  As David says, “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me”, Ps 139: 8-10.  Indeed, God says of Himself, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” Jer 23: 24.  More than that, dear brethren, He not only fills the creation that He has made, but He extends beyond it; for the Psalmist says, “He shall call to the heavens from above”, Ps 50: 4.  A wonderful passage - God calls to the heavens as above them. 

         In the creation of the first responsible creature the principle of restriction was imposed.  Satan may have been the first and perhaps the greatest of God’s creatures, but limitation was put upon him, and there came a moment, we do not know when, in which he decided to break down the hedge, to overthrow the restriction that creatorial power and wisdom had imposed.  As we read in Peter, there were “the angels that sinned”, and Jude tells us that they “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation”.  That means, they broke the barriers God had imposed.  Satan as the serpent came to man in Eden in that same way.  God set man within hedges, limited, restricted by His will, and the serpent induced him to break the divinely established hedge in order to poison him. 

         Now, before I speak of that further I would like to speak about Christ, for as in everything He is in manhood the great Model for us.  While Scripture tells us that He was holy, it also tells us that He was undefiled; never a taint of the serpent’s poison entered there - He never at any time broke down a hedge.  From His birth to His being carried up into heaven He never, at any time, moved contrary to one principle of restraint that God in His wisdom had imposed upon man.  It does us good to think of Him.  Think of Him first in relation to the first limits that come upon mankind - the authority of parents.  Every child of Adam’s race comes within the hedge of that authority, by divine institution.  Of the Lord Jesus we read that “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them” - to Joseph and Mary.  Then think of Him as recognising divinely appointed government here.  The Lord said to Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all ...  except it were given thee from above”.  Never did the Lord lift a finger to disturb the principle of government in the earth: He accepted it.  He said to those who tempted Him, “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s”; showing how the Lord in manhood recognised the hedge of constituted government as ordained of God.  Greater than all this, He had, in becoming Man, accepted the place of dependence upon and obedience to God.  Satan sought to induce the Lord, in the temptations, to disobey, showing Him, it says, all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; suggesting to Him how He could become conspicuous before all in casting Himself down, and proving God on His side.  But the Lord says, “Get thee behind me, Satan”.  He remains perfectly within the restrictions that applied to the position which as Man He accepted.  Later on, Satan drew near on another line; the Lord was going up to Jerusalem to suffer and to be put to death; He was treading a path of suffering.  He had accepted the path of obedience to God’s will at all costs.  It was said in Micah 5, “thou Bethlehem Ephratah … out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” - a wonderful passage.  “Out of thee shall he come forth unto me”, indicating that every step of the path of Jesus would be unto God, not one step for Himself.  Wherever that path led He would tread it to God.  The Lord saw where it was leading, and told His disciples.  Peter said, “Be it far from thee, Lord”.  Or in another place, “Pity thyself, Lord”.  Self-consideration would have set aside the will of God.  The Lord recognised behind Peter’s remark the subtle working of Satan, and the Lord said, “Get thee behind me, Satan”.  I have no doubt at Gethsemane the serpent was there, hoping that the Lord would step aside from the path of the will of God.  One has often thought of the pressure of that scene, for the pathway the Lord was treading was leading to those awful sufferings, and Satan appears again seeking to move the Lord so that he might have Him in his power; but though the Lord sees where the road is leading, He says, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”. 

         If we are to escape the poison of the serpent we must live within the divinely established hedges; there is no other way.  The other side of every divine restriction is the serpent, and if we break through he will bite us.  There are not many children here tonight, but one would refer to them first.  How often the tempter seeks to induce a child to break the authority of its parents, to abandon it; holding out benefits and present gain, but really with the intention of poisoning the soul.  So with every relationship; each divinely established relationship constitutes a hedge which God has set up.  I speak to those who are young, who may be contemplating marriage.  Scripture indicates a hedge; it says, “only in the Lord”; that is to say, as both under His control.  The serpent will, no doubt, and does, alas, with many induce them to break the hedge of “in the Lord”, in order to poison, in order to damage, in order, if he can, to slay them.  So it is, dear friends, with every relationship, the enemy is constantly knocking at the door of believers’ hearts, to induce them to break the restraints connected with divinely established relationships.  He said to Eve: “the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”.  There are great advantages to be secured, says the serpent, in breaking the hedges.  And alas, the foolish heart listens.  We have all done it; and we have suffered governmentally, and have been weakened through it, perhaps all our days. 

         I want to appeal specially to those who are young to recognise that God has set those hedges to save you from the serpent.  You do not know what is on the other side, but God does, and every hedge is to save you.  They are not arbitrary, but for your salvation.  So with relationships of servants: how often the serpent has put his head over the hedge, as it were, and whispered the gain of not being marked by fidelity; but oh! the awful loss to the soul that listens.  The apostle says to servants, “shewing all good fidelity”.  Servants are under obligations to be true to the trust imposed upon them.  It is a hedge, and on the other side of the hedge is the serpent.  I appeal to the young particularly, and to all of us.  Never heed his entreaties as to the gain of letting go fidelity.  Faithfulness to trust placed upon us is a hedge that God would have us maintain.  So it is, dear brethren, with regard to the powers that be.  The governments of the world, whatever they may be, are not for our destruction; they are for our protection, and subjection to authority saves us from the serpent. 

         Then there is the hedge of fellowship; for Christian fellowship is a barrier.  What for?  To save us.  How often it does save us if we are true to it.  We have been called to the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; therefore we cannot have fellowship with darkness.  Oh, but the gain, says the serpent, of having a wider path, of having links with the world, having associations that are not in keeping with Christ and the truth.  Dear friends, it is only to poison you.  Break the hedge, and the serpent will bite you, is the word.  The holy fellowship is to save us from what is outside, that is, the serpent.  Do not let us look upon it as arbitrary, as irksome.  The apostle says, What fellowship has light with darkness? If as having light we break the barrier we shall get into darkness.  What fellowship has Christ with Belial?  What fellowship has a believer with an unbeliever?  You say, that is a narrow path!  It is to save us from the serpent; do not let us break it.  Many a time in your history, if the Lord tarries, the serpent will come to you on this line, and you will come under the poisonous influences of the serpent if you forsake or break down the hedge that God has established.  What a world we are living in!  Every divinely established restraint is disappearing, and who knows where it will end?  Both men and women are giving up restraint.  Man was made in the image of God, to represent God.  Oh, what departure as we look upon men!  What departure from God’s great thought!  How necessary it is for the people of God in accepting Christ as Lord to abide within the divinely appointed hedges.  The epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, which deal with such great and holy subjects, also refer to husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants.  The apostle indicates that the Christian, as recovered for the pleasure of God, accepts the hedges which divine wisdom has established, and thus shall we be preserved. 

         Now, I read the other two passages just to enlarge a little on that.  What brought about the activity of the fiery serpents was that the people became discontented in the wilderness; they were murmurers.  They had been delivered from Egypt, from slavery and hard bondage, from a land that was under the judgment of God.  They had been freed from that power, that was something, was it not?  Then they had a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, the guidance of heaven.  To be guided by heaven through a wilderness is no small matter, for heaven is the source of all true guidance.  Then they had Moses - typically, the Lord Jesus Christ.  What a man Moses was!  God’s prophet, who wielded the rod of God, symbol of God’s power.  And they had Aaron the priest to support them, to pray for them, to teach them.  And they had the manna each morning coming down from heaven.  And they had the rock that followed them.  Wonderful thing!  So that they were never without water.  But they murmured, they were discontented, they complained about the way; and it opened the door for the serpents to come in.  Dear brethren, let us not murmur; the way is hard at times, especially to the flesh; it is always hard to the flesh, for there is nothing in the wilderness that will minister to the lust of the flesh or to the lust of the eyes or to the pride of life.  That all belongs to Egypt, to the world; but the wilderness is a place of constant self-judgment, where there is constant conflict.  “Put to death ... your members which are upon the earth”.  But what provision there is on the part of the Lord.  Though the wilderness is a great howling wilderness, God is with His people as were the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and the Lord is with us for protection and to support us as High Priest.  We are supplied with support for each day.  Let us not murmur, for it is the avenue by which Satan will reach us.  A complaining and murmuring spirit will soon find you in the serpent’s hands.  As sure as we are marked by discontent or murmuring, so surely will the serpents be upon us.  We can never go on until we judge that.  So the serpent of brass was put on a pole and the thing was condemned.  That is the idea - the murmuring and complaining spirit that tempts God is condemned, and every one that looks, lives.  Let us remember this - if the wilderness is barren to the flesh, as it is - if it is a place of constant exercise, constant conflict, constant necessity to be ready to move - and that is what we do not like naturally, for we would like to settle down at some point - the spirit of murmuring will open the door to the serpents. 

         The passage in Acts 28 gives us another view.  We see there a man that could not be poisoned.  Things are difficult; he is on an island; the ship had been broken up.  It is a figure of the present state of things in the professing church.  There they were on an island with all the limitations that an island imposes, but there is a man who cannot be poisoned; the serpent cannot bite him.  Why can he not bite him?  I have no doubt the first two scriptures were understood by Paul.  He had said to Jesus: “Lord”; thus he came inside the hedge of God’s kingdom and never went out of it; and whatever came upon him in the wilderness, he did not murmur.  He suffered more in the wilderness than we know - peril of robbers, nakedness, hunger, having no certain dwelling-place; of the Jews five times he received forty stripes save one.  Are you complaining, Paul?  Never!  What is he doing?  He is using his hands to provide for the warmth and support of those who are with him.  The viper fastens on his hand.  Satan says, I cannot allow a hand like that to continue, I will poison it.  That kind of hand cannot be poisoned.  They thought he would swell, but he had judged all that.  “To me”, he says, “less than the least of all saints, is this grace given”.  “In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing”.  That man could not swell; the poison could not work in a man like that.  In spite of all the brokenness of the day, his hand was engaged in providing for the comfort and warmth of those who were entrusted to him.  “God hath given thee all that sail with thee”.  What are our hands doing? Scripture says, “Lift up the hands which hang down”.  I often challenge myself, especially lately, as to what there is in one’s Christianity more than talk.  It is a wholesome exercise for all of us to face - What are our hands doing?  The serpent did not fasten on his lips, he fastened on his hand; he resented a hand like that.  “These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”.  No serpent can touch a hand like that.  If our relationship with God is in word only, then, dear brethren, we are exposed to the serpent, and if a viper comes out we shall be affected.  But if we are in accord with the apostle who said, “Ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”, and we use our hands for the comfort of God’s people, then if the viper appears there is an antidote in our moral being that will not allow the poison to work.  It says, “They looked when he should have … fallen down dead.  They looked a long while, but they never would see a man like that fall down dead. 

         The Lord help us first to remember that on the other side of every hedge - the hedge for children, the hedge for husband, for wife, for man, for woman, for masters, for servants, the hedge of governments, the hedge of fellowship; on the other side of every hedge there lies the serpent, waiting for the man or woman or child that breaks the hedge.  Let us remember also that when we begin a line of discontent or complaint of what God allows in the wilderness, we are opening the door to the fiery serpents.  But let us use the strength of our hands as well as our lips for the support of what is of God in a broken day, and if a viper comes we will not be affected, thus shall we be preserved. 

Date and place not given

From Words of Grace and Comfort, 1936