In Israel, houses were built with flat roofs. People would walk around the roof if they didn’t want to go out, and on hot nights they would sleep up there. They treated the roof just like any other room in their house. But that could be quite a dangerous thing to do, so God said to the Israelites: ‘Make a parapet around your roof to make it safe.’ But this law is about building a house in Israel, so how can it apply to us, today?
Another way of looking at it today is: take whatever precautions are necessary to protect yourself and others. It’s all about setting yourself boundaries, and it’s especially relevant if you’re confronted with something that could tempt you away from Jesus. Proverbs 4:23 says ‘above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it’ (NIV). And as a follower of Jesus, you’ve got a responsibility to protect your own heart and keep it aligned with Him so that all your actions can also be aligned with Him. A really helpful visual image is to think of building a wall around your heart ‘to make it safe’. If you can stop a temptation before it gets in, there’s no way for it to take hold and pull you away from God. So set yourself some boundaries that keep the bad stuff out and let Jesus in.
What Now?
Find yourself a wall and a bouncy ball. Imagine the wall is protecting your heart, and the ball is all those tempting things you know you shouldn’t get mixed up in. Every time you bounce the ball against the wall, ask God to help you remove those things from your heart.
