The book of Ecclesiastes 10:8, made an astonishing statement. It says, “he that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
The above talked about the implication of breaking the hedge. It says that whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
In other words, most of the calamities that some people are suffering or going through are the result of the poisonous bite of serpents due to broken hedges.
We should as believers realize that the Almighty God had made hedges over us. In the case of Job as seen in Job 1:10 the devil told to God saying, “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
The cardinal questions one should ask is, “how the devil did know that God had made hedge over Job and about his house, and about that entire he hath on every side?
The answer is not farfetched, it is obvious that the devil might have tried time without number to attack Job and his household but could not penetrate as a result of the hedge.
As believers, we should realize that as long as we are born again and had a relationship with God that He has made hedge are over us. For that reason, the devil is unable to penetrate to attack us and our household.
However, this is not the case in reality as the devil had laid siege and attacks many believers. The reason the devil succeeds is that he first fights to get us to break the hedge ourselves through sin and ignorance.
For instance, look at what happened with Joshua the high priest as seen in Zechariah 3: 1 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him”.
The reason Satan was standing at his right hand to oppose him can be seen in Zechariah 3: 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
Once Satan succeeds to get iniquity or sin into us which we fail to confess and repent of it, the hedge gets broken there by giving Satan the legal ground to oppose us as we get clothed with a filthy garment as in the case of Joshua the high priest.
That calls for us to do what Paul asks us to do which can be seen in 2 Corinthians 13:5. It says, “Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? –unless, indeed, you are disqualified.
Any believer that wish to stay clear of every pollution of the devil we must endeavor to engage in a daily self-examination to ensure that we do not break the hedge ourselves.
In reality, many people on their own get the hedge broken as a result of ignorance of the devices of the devil. Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:11 saying, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices”
As Paul said, he was conscious not to allow the devil to take advantage of him by been ignorant of his devices. In reality, some people are suffering under a severe siege and attack of the devil because they ignorantly allowed the devil to take advantage of them.
By taking advantage of them, it was easy for the devil to manipulate them into doing things that leads to their breaking the hedge. One of the greatest weapon the devil uses is to get believers to break the hedge is by getting them live in iniquity or sin.
Sin or iniquity makes somebody to be clothed with filthy garment and once one is clothed with filthy garment, the hedge automatically gets broken as the Holy Spirit leaves the person. At the same time, the devil has legal ground to stand beside you to oppose you.
To this end, I must appreciate God for using the message by Pastor Raphael, Grant of prayer city to teach me a valuable lesson. That message is captioned “REMOVING LEGAL GROUNDS
Please take time to listen to that message. If you really wish to see a stop of the harassment of the devil, then we should ensure that we don’t break the hedge which could give the devil the legal ground to attack us.
In other words, we should ensure that we take personal responsibility to remove all the legal grounds as Asa did similar thing in 1 King 15:11-13. It says, “Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David.
And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
Also, he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron..
The End of part one, I summarize by saying that we should be careful not to break the hedge and equally ensure that we take personal responsibility to remove all the legal grounds. Shalom!.
