Removing the Bound

In the book of Hosea the Lord condemned the “princes of Judah” because they “were like them that remove the bound” (Hosea 5:10).  In ancient Israel property was apparently designated with stone landmarks, and the student manual suggests that this phrase was referring to those who “removeth his neighbor’s landmark,” which the Law of Moses forbade since it was akin to stealing property (Deuteronomy 27:17).  The commentary continued in these words, “If one who destroyed a neighbor’s boundaries was cursed, how much more cursed were the princes of Judah who destroyed the moral and spiritual boundaries that guarded the worship of Jehovah?”  That seemed to be one of the great offenses of the Israelites during much of their history: they tried to redefine the boundaries of the law given them, thus perverting the true worship of God. 

One example of changing the bounds of the law was the attitude of Laman and Lemuel, who said amidst their complaining, “We know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people” (1 Nephi 17:22).  This was the same two who had tried to kill Nephi and their father, with Nephi commenting of them, “And they were like unto the Jews who were at Jerusalem, who sought to take away the life of my father” (1 Nephi 2:13).  Neither Laman and Lemuel or the Jews at Jerusalem seemed to think their actions went against the “Thou shalt not kill” part of the Law of Moses, despite their verbal allegiance to the law.  They had “removed the bound” that the Lord had set.  On the other side of things, there were also those who changed the “bound” of the law by making it more restrictive and pretending it said more than it really did.  We see this of course in the attitude of the Jews in the days of Christ when they condemned him for healing on the Sabbath day, believing that the law prohibited such an action.  On one occasion after miraculously giving sight to the blind on the Sabbath, they said, “This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day” (John 9:16).  They were trying to change the “bound” on the law for their own purposes of controlling the people. 

We have to be careful I think in our day not to do the same thing with the requirements of the gospel.  We might be tempted to pronounce as law our own interpretations of the Word of Wisdom, tithing, the commandment to have food storage, etc., but we cannot add to or take away from the laws the Lord gives us.  After declaring very clearly His doctrine to the Nephites, the Lord said, “And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock” (3 Nephi 11:40).  It is not our prerogative to add to or take away from the doctrines of the gospel the Lord gives.  The Lord reiterated it this way in our day: “Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church.  Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me” (D&C 10:68).  We must not seek to “remove the bound” like the wicked Israelites who would secretly change the landmarks in order to have a more favorable plot of land, but we are to simply seek to understand what the Lord has said and where He has marked the bounds for us.