Don't Break the Hedge

Ecclesiastes 10:8

He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

The verse above reminds me of two stories in the Scriptures. The first is in Isaiah 5. God said that He planted a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, fenced in this vineyard, planted it with the choicest of seed, and built a tower in the midst of it with hopes that this vineyard would produce good grapes. However, instead of producing good grapes, it produced wild grapes. The fence this man used to plant the vineyard was a hedge that was often used as fencing in those days. The hedge was there to protect the vineyard from the outside world.

The other story is found in Matthew 21:33. The Scripture says this man planted a vineyard and hedged about this vineyard. The hedge was there to protect that vineyard from the outside world. The hedge was there to protect the inside from the death that comes from the outside. The hedge was not there to be restrictive, but it was there to give freedom from sin’s venom.

God says in Song of Solomon 2:15, Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. What is the purpose of the hedge? The purpose of the hedge was to keep the little foxes from spoiling the vines. That hedge was a thorny bush planted around the vineyard to keep the foxes out so they would not destroy the vineyard and the fruit of it.

The verse above says, whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. God warned about trying to break the hedge, because outside of that hedge is a serpent that will bite you. That hedge keeps you from the poison of the serpent that can make you gravely ill or even kill you.

You would think that keeping your hedge strong would be the primary focus of every believer, yet we find many believers hate the hedge and try to break it. The hedge is the rules and boundaries that God gives us to live by within His Word. Those rules and boundaries are not there to keep you from enjoying life, but they are there to keep you from the bite of the serpent.

That serpent is a type of sin. Outside of the rules and boundaries that God has set for your life is a serpent that wants to bite you with the pleasure of sin, but leave you gravely ill or destroyed from its venom. The rules and boundaries that God has set for your life are not there to keep you from enjoying life, but they are there to keep you safe from the venom of sin. Too many people try to break the hedge to get outside the vineyard, thinking that God does not know what He is doing, but He does. God knows outside of that hedge is the venomous serpent, that once it bites you, you will have to deal with its effects for the rest of your life.

Instead of trying to break the hedge, you would be wise to make up the hedge to keep sin that would love to come in to destroy your life. It does not take much of a hole for a serpent to crawl through and bite you. Every little sin has venom that will affect the rest of your life. Stay away from those who are trying to get you to break your hedge, for outside of that hedge is the serpent that wants to bite you with the venom of sin. Always remember that the safest place to live is inside the hedge of the Word of God that God has placed in your life to keep you from suffering from the venom of sin.