One of the ways to avoid unprofitable labour is to keep within the boundaries of God’s purpose and calling. Unholy ambition may push one beyond boundary; but it will only yield a frustrating experience. The only way that God is going to preserve us is for us to operate within boundaries. The warning could not be sterner to Israel than when God told them not to meddle with the land divinely allocated to the descendants of Esau. God warned them not make any attempt at taking it because not the least stretch of that land would be given to Israel. Had they failed to comply with God’s warning they would have laboured in vain.

Lovers of order will never argue against the necessity of keeping boundaries.

Among several reasons, there are two things we can point to why God wants people to respect boundaries. First is to prevent oppression. Without this the mighty will always appear right. The children of Esau were already afraid of the sheer size of the children of Israel. But God stepped in and shielded them. The other reason is that order is preserved when boundaries are kept. You will not read too far in scripture before discovering how serious God is regarding order. Lovers of order will never argue against the necessity of keeping boundaries.