I can feel fairly confident that there have been times when you have been out for a ramble when you have found yourself surrounded by high hedges or experienced a similar feeling of claustrophobia walking through a field of maize just before it is cut. There is that feeling that anything might be lurking in their dark places!
In that strange but wise book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, King Solomon writes in chapter ten verse eight: ‘’Whoever breaks a hedge shall be bitten by a serpent’’. You may be thinking that may be practical advice, but how is it applicable to me? As you know, hedges are put around gardens and fields to protect the area they enclose, they are there to keep secure that which is precious to you whether it is a cat, a tortoise or a cow!
So, you are being told to build hedges around that which is alive and precious in your life: your family, your marriage, your children, your walk with God, your integrity, your honour and your calling. Obviously, we are not talking hedges made of thorns or whatever, but of godly parameters, hedges built of safeguards, good decisions, guidelines, standards and principles. Lines you will not allow yourself to be crossed.
Now, the serpent in the Bible represents evil and the enemy, Satan, who is waiting for a break in the hedge, a letting down of our guard. Billy Graham, the hugely powerful preacher, made a commitment to never see a woman on his own, because he knew that he and his crusade would be vulnerable to even false accusations if he did.
The latest scandal in the Christian world has been the fall of Mike Pilavachi, leader of the Soul Survivor festival which used to attract over thirty thousand teenagers each year. He has been accused by none less than the great singer and songwriter, Matt Redman, of molestation. He had not kept his hedge secure.
Build your hedges strong and high in order to protect what is precious in your life and your garden will be fruitful and a blessing not only to yourself but to many others too!
God bless you, David.