God's Property Lines and the Strong Redeemer Text: Proverbs 23:10-11
Introduction: The War Over a Boulder
We live in an age that is utterly confused about justice. Our generation speaks of justice constantly, but it is a justice untethered from the God of justice, which means it is no justice at all. It is a sentimental, envious, and ultimately tyrannical counterfeit. Modern social justice is concerned with outcomes, not righteousness. It is obsessed with equality of results, which it seeks to achieve through organized, state-sanctioned theft. It redefines theft as fairness and property as privilege. And in order to do this, it must first move the ancient boundary stones, not just of property, but of language, morality, and reality itself.
The Bible, in stark contrast, grounds all justice in the character of God and His created order. God is a God of distinctions, of boundaries, of property. The command "Thou shalt not steal" presupposes the legitimacy of "this is mine, and that is thine." Without private property, there can be no theft, but there can also be no generosity, no hospitality, no inheritance, and no dominion. A world without property lines is a world without responsibility, a commons that inevitably becomes a wasteland. So when God speaks about justice, He often does so in very earthy, tangible terms. He is not interested in abstract theories; He is interested in whether you move your neighbor's rock.
This proverb brings the issue into sharp focus. It is not just about real estate fraud. It is a fundamental statement about how God's world works. It warns against a particular kind of theft, a cowardly and predatory theft, and it issues a terrifying threat to those who would engage in it. This is not a suggestion from a self-help book. This is a declaration from the throne of the universe about how He governs His world. God cares about property lines because He cares about people. And He particularly cares about those people who are least able to defend their own property lines.
What we have here is a warning against a specific sin, followed by the reason that sin is monumentally stupid. The sin is encroaching on the fields of the fatherless. The reason it is stupid is that their Redeemer is strong. This is theology with its boots on, theology for the farm and the courthouse. And if we have ears to hear, we will find that it is also theology for the cross and the empty tomb.
The Text
Do not move the ancient boundary
And do not come into the fields of the orphans,
For their Redeemer is strong;
He will plead their case against you.
(Proverbs 23:10-11 LSB)
The Coward's Theft (v. 10)
The first verse lays out the prohibition in two parallel phrases.
"Do not move the ancient boundary And do not come into the fields of the orphans," (Proverbs 23:10)
The "ancient boundary" refers to the landmark, the stone or pile of rocks that marked the edge of a family's property. In Israel, this was a sacred trust. The land was apportioned by God Himself to the tribes and families of Israel. It was their inheritance from the Lord. To move a landmark was not just to steal from your neighbor; it was to tamper with God's divine apportionment. It was an act of rebellion against the historical goodness of God. This is why the law pronounced a formal curse on anyone who did this. "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen" (Deuteronomy 27:17). It was a profound evil because it undermined the stability and integrity of the entire community.
But this proverb adds a crucial detail. It connects this crime to a specific victim: "do not come into the fields of the orphans." Why single out the orphans? Because they are the most vulnerable. An orphan is a child who has lost his father, the one who would normally stand at the boundary line with a strong arm and a stern warning. The father was the family's federal head, its protector and legal representative. Without him, the family was exposed. A greedy, unscrupulous neighbor might see the father's death as an opportunity. He could wait for a dark night and shift the boundary stone a few feet. Who would stop him? The grieving widow? The young, inexperienced children? They wouldn't have the resources to hire a lawyer or the clout to challenge a powerful man in the city gates.
This is the coward's theft. It is predatory. It is kicking a man when he is down, or rather, kicking his family after he is in the ground. Jesus reserved His most blistering woes for the scribes and Pharisees who did precisely this sort of thing. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation" (Matthew 23:14). They used their legal and religious expertise not to protect the vulnerable, but to exploit them, to steal their inheritance under the cover of law and piety. This sin is particularly heinous to God because it is an abuse of strength against weakness. It is the strong preying on the weak, which is the law of the jungle, not the law of the covenant.
The Strong Avenger (v. 11)
The land-grabber thinks he has found an easy target. He has calculated the odds. He has assessed the weakness of the orphan and his widowed mother. He sees no one who can stand against him. But his math is fatally flawed. He has left the most important variable out of his calculation.
"For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you." (Proverbs 23:11 LSB)
The orphan may not have a father on earth, but he has a Redeemer in heaven. The word for Redeemer here is Goel. This is a rich, covenantal term. The Goel, or kinsman-redeemer, was a designated male relative who had the responsibility to protect the interests of his extended family. If a relative was sold into slavery, the Goel was to buy him back. If a relative was killed, the Goel was the avenger of blood. And if a relative lost his family land through poverty, the Goel was to redeem it, to buy it back and restore it to the family line. The story of Boaz and Ruth is the great story of the Goel in action.
The orphan's family has no earthly Goel. There is no Boaz in sight. But the proverb declares that they are not without a champion. Their Redeemer is God Himself. And notice the description: "their Redeemer is strong." The Hebrew word for strong is chazaq, meaning mighty, firm, courageous. The land-grabber thought he was strong and the orphan was weak. He was right about the orphan, but dead wrong about the orphan's defender. He has picked a fight not with a helpless child, but with the Almighty. He thought no one was watching when he moved the stone under the cover of darkness, but the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout the whole earth, saw everything.
And what will this strong Redeemer do? "He will plead their case against you." This is legal language. God Himself will step into the courtroom as the orphan's attorney and advocate. The case that could not be won at the city gates because of corruption and intimidation will be prosecuted in the high court of heaven, where there are no backroom deals, no bribes, and no statutes of limitation. The verdict is certain. The oppressor will not get away with it. God takes the exploitation of the fatherless personally. He is the Father of the fatherless (Psalm 68:5), and He will not stand idly by while His children are defrauded.
Our Kinsman-Redeemer
This proverb is a stark warning to any who would oppress the weak, but it is also a profound comfort to all who are weak. And in the final analysis, before the bar of God's perfect law, that is all of us. This passage is a pointer to a much deeper reality, a much greater theft, and a much stronger Redeemer.
Through the sin of our first father, Adam, we all became spiritual orphans. We lost our inheritance. The devil, that ancient land-grabber, moved the boundary stone of righteousness and trespassed on the field of humanity. He seized our property, took us captive, and left us helpless, impoverished, and without a father's protection. We were sold under sin, with no earthly Goel to redeem us. We had no case, no standing, and no hope.
But our Redeemer is strong. God the Father, in His infinite mercy, appointed a Goel for us. But for this Redeemer to be our kinsman, He had to become one of us. And so the eternal Son of God took on flesh and blood. Jesus Christ became our near kinsman, our brother. He was not ashamed to call us brethren (Hebrews 2:11).
And as our Kinsman-Redeemer, He did what we could not do. He stepped onto the field of our stolen inheritance to confront our oppressor. He paid the redemption price, not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). He bought back our forfeited inheritance on the cross. He pleaded our case before the Father, not by arguing our innocence, for we were guilty, but by presenting His own righteousness on our behalf. He is our Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1).
The warning to the oppressor in Proverbs is a shadow of the ultimate warning to Satan and to all who remain in his kingdom. Their case has been tried, and the verdict is in. The strong man has been bound by a stronger man, and his house has been plundered (Mark 3:27). The boundary stones of God's kingdom have been reestablished by the blood of the covenant.
Therefore, if you are in Christ, you are no longer a spiritual orphan. You have been adopted as a son, and you have a Father who defends your case. Your inheritance is secure, kept in heaven for you, imperishable and undefiled. And because you have been shown such mercy, you are now called to reflect the character of your Redeemer. You are called to defend the cause of the fatherless, to protect the weak, and to ensure that the ancient boundaries of righteousness and justice are honored in your own dealings. You are to use your strength not to exploit, but to protect. For we serve a strong Redeemer, who took up the case of the helpless, and that is our glory and our calling.