A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You shall not steal"

(Forgive the timing compared with the theme. This is a lesson from the day after Christmas, 2010.)

Exodus 20:15—“You shall not steal.” How much, on average, did families in America spend this past Christmas? Over $1000. I'm not just talking about the extremely wealthy and well-to-do. We’re talking about middle-class families spent $1000 on stuff. So their kids could have a “good Christmas.” Which brings up another point—what is the determining factor of whether a child has a “good” Christmas? It's how much stuff he gets. So this desire to make sure kids have a “good Christmas” makes parents think that they NEED to shower their kids with a bunch of stuff. The kids grow up with this mindset, and they repeat the cycle—many times on a larger scale—and so on and so forth. BUT—at the same time, there are many people who don’t want to pay for the gifts they give. So what do they do to make sure their kids have a “good” Christmas? This is the mindset of a thief: “You have something that I don’t have. I want that. Either I don’t want to pay for it, or I can't afford it. But it doesn’t really matter to me; all I care about is what I want. And I really don’t care how many hours of overtime you had to work to pay for that, I want it and I'm going to take it from you. I'm going to have a good Christmas; to heck with you!” And that is what the heart says when it sets out to steal at any time of year, not just at Christmas—“You have something I want; I'm going to take it from you. PPPPFFFTTT.” So theft—just like adultery and murder—doesn't start with the physical act of stealing; it begins in the heart. Jesus tells us in Matthew 15:19—“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” It begins with coveting, which the apostle Paul calls idolatry in Colossians 3:5.

So we have the commandment “You shall not steal.” Stealing falls into many categories. And most of them are covered under this OT Law. There is the act of just flat-out taking something from someone. Then there are other acts which are, by default, stealing from another. Leviticus 6:1-5—1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “If a person sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about a robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, 3 or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely—in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins: 4 then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found, 5 or all that about which he has sworn falsely.” And we’re gonna stop right there for the moment. Let’s break each of these down.

Leviticus 6:2—“If a person sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping.” I'm going out of town. I call Richard, and say “I'm going out of town, I need to park my car at you house until I get back.” If he says “Okay”, then he now accepts responsibility for what happens to my car. While I'm gone, he sells my car to the scrap yard and pockets the money. I come back and I say “Hey Richard, where’s my car?” and he says “Oh, I went out this morning and it was gone! I don’t know where it went! Somebody must have stolen it!” And in all truth, someone did steal it—Richard! He has sinned and trespassed against the LORD by lying to me about what was delivered to him for safekeeping. He has stolen from me.

The next little phrase we see in verse 2 is “or about a pledge.” That is, if I go into business with Bo here, and Bo makes a deal with Dave, and tells Dave, “Well, you can just pay me and I'll make sure Wayne gets his cut”—but I never get that cut, and Bo tells me “Sorry, the deal fell through” but he can't stick around because he’s going out to buy a new boat—that is stealing.

Next phrase, “or about a robbery.” You come home from work, and you see a window busted out. Already, you know what’s happened. You walk in the house, TV’s gone, stereo’s gone—you name it, it’s gone. You’ve been robbed. I know who did it. I know the pawn shop they took everything to. I could help you get it all back. I have, basically, put in my lot with the creep that did it. I am helping someone steal from you. I have sinned not only against you but against God.

“Or if he has extorted from his neighbor.” What’s another word for “extortion”? Blackmail. Duress. If someone does something they don’t want other people to know about, and they have a car for sale—real nice Land Rover. I know about their little secret. I come to their door one day and I say “Hey John, how ya doin’? Nice car ya got there. How much of a discount can you give me if I don’t let people know about your little secret?” That is extorting my neighbor. Another way to think of it is what they call a “protection” racket. When the Mafia goes into a little store and tells the owner, “Nice store you got here. It would be a shame if it ever caught fire or someone busted it up on ya. Tell ya what we’ll do. You give us a cut of your profits and we’ll make sure nothing happens to it.” What this phrase is saying is if I benefit by threatening someone into a deal that benefits me and causes loss to them, that is stealing.

Then, verse 3 starts off with “or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it.” When we were little kids and we found something on the floor, and the rightful owner came up and said, “Hey that’s mine!” What little phrase were we likely to use? “Finders keepers! Losers weepers!” But this command is pretty self-explanatory. If I find something you lost, and I keep it, and I tell you “Nope, haven’t seen it!” I have sinned. If I am going through the checkout line, and I buy a Coke, and I forget and leave it at the cash register. I go out to the car, realize what I've done, go back in and the clerk says “No, I don’t know what happened to it”—same thing. If I'm walking down the sidewalk, and I see a $20 bill, and just kinda slip it into my wallet—do you know I have heard people who claim to be Christians who will say “It must have been a gift from God!” It was not a gift from God—it was a trap from Satan. Adam Clarke—

“On this subject every honest man must say, that the man who finds any lost property, and does not make all due inquiry to find out the owner, should, in sound policy, be treated as a thief. It is said of [one people] that if they met with any lost property, even on the public road, they never even touched it…so that golden bracelets hung up on the public roads were untouched by the finger of [thievery]. One [Greek philosopher had a law which said], Take not up what you laid not down. How easy to act by this principle in case of finding lost property: 'This is not mine, and it would be criminal to convert it to my use unless the owner be dead and his family extinct.' When all due inquiry is made, if no owner can be found, [then and only then] the lost property may be legally considered to be the property of the finder.”

In other words, if it ain't yours don’t touch it! It’s not yours—leave it alone!

So, to get the full context again, “2 If a person sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about a robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, 3 or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely—in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins: 4 then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found, 5 or all that about which he has sworn falsely.” Now, not only was the property to be restored, but the owner deserved to be compensated for the time and effort it took to get it back—and at the same time the thief also needed to inconvenienced for his actions—what we call “punitive damages.” So “He shall restore its full value, add one-fifth more to it, and give it to whomever it belongs, on the day of his trespass offering.” Say I stole $100 from someone. When the day came for me to give my trespass offering, I would repay that $100, and another 1/5—or $20—on top of it for a total of $120. And in this way, not only was that which was stolen returned, but I also suffered some kind of loss for my sinful actions.

Tax collectors—or as the KJV says, “publicans”—tax collectors in Jesus’ day would make the IRS look like a charitable organization. They would collect not only the taxes that the Roman government ordered, but they would impose their own “taxes” on the people, and collect above and beyond what the Roman government demanded. So when John the Baptist was baptizing in the wilderness, it says in Luke 3:12-13—12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." John was not telling them to not collect taxes. He was telling them to only collect what the Roman government required. A little later on Luke tells the story of one such tax collector, a man named Zacchaeus. Long story short, when Jesus came and dined in his house, Luke 19:8—Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." This man actually went above and beyond what the Law required—far beyond it. I dare say he went farther than any of the Pharisees would ever dream of going. He wasn’t simply adding a fraction of what he stole—he was giving back a multiple of what he stole. This was not one-fifth the value; this was four times the value. The Pharisees would have paid back $20 on every $100. He was giving back $400 for every $100 he stole.

Now, while we’re talking about taxes, let’s talk about taxes. People who are required by law to pay taxes—if they do not pay their taxes, they are stealing. There is a famous incident where the Pharisees test Jesus about the issue of taxes. Mark 12:14-15—14 When they had come, they said to Him…“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” That is what a lot of people ask these days. “I don’t think I should pay taxes, so I just don’t pay them.” Or they get paid in cash “under the table” so there’s no evidence. But what does Jesus say about taxes? Mark 12:15-17—15 But He…said to them, "Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it." 16 So they brought it. And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." 17 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." In other words, pay your taxes. Because the government is appointed by God. Romans 13:1-2—1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. And Romans 13:5-7—5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Now, this does not mean every single case of someone taking something from another’s field is theft. In fact, this same Law that said “Thou shalt not steal” has a provision for the poor and the stranger. Listen to this command to those who own the fields to leave something around the edges. Leviticus 19:9-10—“9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.10 And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God.” And these commands make very good sense. They didn’t have 7-11’s back then. There was no Yitzhak’s Quikie-Mart. And when people would be passing through the countryside, they didn’t always have a large enough sack to carry all their provisions. In addition, Deuteronomy 23:24-25—“24 When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container. 25 When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.” You could take some grapes; you could glean some wheat, but don’t back your F-150 up into someone’s field and go taking all their harvest. If you recall when our study of the Sabbath, the disciples were walking through the grain fields and they plucked the heads of wheat—that was someone else’s field, but they were allowed, by the Law, to do so. So God gives this command so that those who faced such a situation would not suffer from hunger on their journey. Also, there were many poor among the people. And these commands provided for them as well.

And I believe that these commands had two purposes. One, of course, it provided for the poor. BUT it also allowed for two of Jesus great-great-great-great-grandparents to meet. Long time ago there was a farmer in Bethlehem, and his name was Boaz. A young woman named Ruth came to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, and they came to Boaz, who was a distant relative. Ruth 2:8-9—8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them.” And then he goes and tells his servants to leave a little something for her when they reap. Ruth 2:15-16—15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.16 Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her." Eventually Ruth and Boaz get married, they have a son named Obed; Obed has a son named Jesse; and Jesse begets 8 sons, the youngest being a boy named David. Mary and Joseph were descended from David, and that Jesus was born of Mary. So God used this command to leave gleanings for the poor to bring together two of Jesus’ ancestors.

Now, don’t take this to mean that we can simply go taking stuff from people because we think they have so much that they won’t miss it. “Aww, those people are so rich, they can buy another TV.” Uh, no—that is still stealing. And we’ll talk more about that next week.


Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You Shall Not Commit Adultery"

To finish up what we were talking about last week, here are Keil and Delitzsch, who have a tendency to say things a whole lot better than I do and in a much smaller amount of words:

“If, therefore, the first three commandments in this table refer primarily to deeds [murder, adultery, theft]; the subsequent advance to the prohibition of desire is a proof that the deed is not to be separated from the [mindset], and that “the fulfillment of the law is only complete when the heart itself is sanctified” (Oehler). Accordingly, in the command, “Thou shalt not kill,” not only is the accomplished fact of murder condemned, whether it proceeds from open violence or stratagem, but every act that endangers human life, whether it arise from carelessness or depravity, or from hatred, anger, and revenge. Life is placed at the head of these commandments, not as being the highest earthly possession, but because it is the basis of human existence, and in the life the personality is attacked, and in that [attack,] the image of God [is attacked].”

In other words we could go through our entire life, never shooting or stabbing anyone, never physically ending someone’s life. But that does not mean we have never committed murder. Because, as Jesus said, and as the apostle John said, if we hate someone we are already committing murder—in the heart. It’s not just actions that t God wants to change—it is the heart and the mind.


Which brings us to another commandment that Jesus said is broken long before any action is taken. We are making our way through the Ten Commandments, we are number 7. Many times when the Ten Commandments are taught, they are broken up into what are called the “Two Tables” of the Law. The “First Table” contains the first four commandments, found in Exodus 20:3-11—“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image…You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” These are commandments that show us how we should view our God, and our relationship with Him. The “Second Table” contains the last six commandments, found in Exodus 20:12-17—“Honor your father and your mother…You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” These commandments show us how we are to deal with one another. Today we are looking at the third commandment of what is called the “Second Table.” And as I said last week, we may be tempted to say “Do we really need a commandment telling us this is wrong?” Well, yes we do. Because if we human beings do not have something chiseled in stone, then we are not likely to think much about it.


We saw that last week in the story of the Virginia woman who killed the child she gave birth to. She couldn’t be charged with murder because, basically, Virginia law said it wasn’t murder. Today we have another commandment that shouldn’t really need to be a commandment, it should be common sense. Exodus 20:14—“You shall not commit adultery.” It’s simple: if you're married, you are commanded to not sleep with anyone but your spouse. Also, you are commanded to not sleep with someone who is married to someone else. And again, as we saw last week, God considers the act of adultery to be so heinous that the penalty for adultery, in the OT, was death. Leviticus 20:10—“The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.” And, just as murder does not begin with the actual taking of another man’s life, adultery does not begin with the taking of another man’s wife. Adultery begins when the unmarried sees someone who is married or the married sees someone other than their spouse, and says in their heart “I would like to have that person.” The married person is not satisfied with the spouse they have made a covenant to be faithful to. The unmarried is jealous for someone that has made a covenant to be faithful to someone else.


Augustine wrote the following:

“Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.”

He is of course paraphrasing what Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28—“You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”


Now, let me take this opportunity to mention this: In the Gospel of John, we read the story of a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, and brought to Jesus to judge her. John 8:2-11—Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." Jesus is not letting her off the hook here. The main thrust of the story is the Pharisees being guilty of doing the same thing they were accusing the woman of doing. BUT—after Jesus says He does not condemn the woman, what are His last words to her? “Go forth and—” what? “Sin no more.” He was still calling what she did a sin. Let’s not forget that. He does not say that He didn’t find fault with her. He was still calling her a sinner. When He said “I do not condemn you,” He was basically saying, “I am not passing a final judgment on you at this point. Now, go forth and sin no more.”


If He said He did not find fault with her, He would be destroying the Law. What He was saying is that even someone who has committed a sin worthy of death under the OT Law could still be given the opportunity to be saved. And that is the heart of the gospel—that even though we are all worthy of eternal damnation, God sent His Son to take our sins upon Himself, to bear the penalty we deserved, that He does not simply destroy us as soon as we sin. Listen to what God said through the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 1:16-20—“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.” So, why does God take adultery so seriously? Why does God decree that the person committing adultery is worthy of the same punishment as the murderer?


Well, we find the reason if we go all the way back to Genesis. In Genesis 2, God sees that The LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him" (Genesis 2:18). And to do this, of course, I think we all know that God took one of Adam’s ribs and formed the first woman, Eve. Woman was created from man, and we see in Genesis 2:24—Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Now, Jesus expands on this statement in Matthew 19:3-6—The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh' ? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." Now, you'll hear people say “Well, yeah but God didn’t join us together. We didn’t make a covenant with God when we got married.” Yes they did. Whether two people are Christian, non-Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto—doesn’t matter. When a man declares that he is taking a woman to be his wife he is, by default, making a covenant with God. When they say “I do”, God makes those two into one flesh. And if you don’t believe me, listen to the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 6:15-18—Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh."…Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Basically, he’s saying that when two people have sexual relations, and/or commit to marriage, they have been joined one to the other. It is even more imperative for a Christian to not be joined to a heathen because once we have been joined to Christ--once we have confessed that He is Lord, and we surrender our lives to Him, and we are united with Him--our body belongs to Him. This is where we get the principle that the church is the “Bride of Christ.”


And because we are the “Bride of Christ,” we are not to use our bodies for immoral purposes. Paul is echoing what Solomon wrote in many places in the Proverbs. Listen to Proverbs 6:32—Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so destroys his own soul. In fact, in Proverbs 5, Solomon gives us a perfect illustration of the perils of adultery. There are people in the church—even elders and pastors—who are married, yet they will have an affair with another woman in the church. And they almost always have the same excuse—“This is the woman God wants me to be with.” Ummm…no. God does not endorse adultery. Listen to this from Proverbs 5:1-14—My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. Lest you ponder her path of life—her ways are unstable; you do not know them. Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner; and you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction! I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”


The culture we live in kinda gives a wink and a pass to adultery. We recently had a president who admitted to committing adultery in the White House, and most of the country just kinda passed it off as “sowing wild oats” or even “One of the perks of the job.” No, it is sin. It is just as much sin as murder. Listen to James 2:10-11—For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” In fact, many states still have laws against adultery, and one can be tried and convicted of it. It doesn’t really happen much anymore because you won’t hardly find 12 people who think adultery is a crime. But God does. And here’s why. I mentioned last week, in finishing up the verse about honoring father and mother, that the family is the building block of any society. It is the most basic training ground for submission to authority. And under the OT Law, any child who would not submit to the authority of their parents was not fit to dwell among God’s people, and the penalty for striking—or even cursing mother or father—was death.


Likewise, the union of husband and wife is the most basic unit of the family. And if one of the two members of that union does something to disrupt that union, then the family falls apart and, in the long run, the nation falls apart. The same is true of the church. When two people, who claim to be Christians, make a covenant with God to be faithful to one another, and the one says “I don’t want you anymore, I want someone else,” they are turning their back on not only their spouse, but on God as well. And God will deal with that person. Now, God does indeed hate divorce. He said that through the prophet Malachi. But, He has given us liberty, in the NT, to put away the unbelieving spouse who departs. 1st Corinthians 7:12-15—If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases.


God takes adultery very seriously, and it is not something that should be trifled with or taken lightly. Thus this command to avoid that which society treats as something that's no big deal.


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You Shall Not Murder"

Before we get into today's passage, I want to add a little bit to what we talked about last time, and that is how we are to honor our father and mother. Today we see all kinds of TV show where the kids act disrespectfully toward their parents, being very smart-alecky and acting like their parents are the biggest dorks on the planet. Yet we know from Proverbs that Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child (Proverbs 22:15) and A child left to himself brings shame to his mother (Proverbs 29:15). And as if to reinforce this principle, and to show what a shamefully disgraceful display of hatred toward God it is to disrespect one’s parents, listen to these directions God gives Moses in Exodus 21:15—“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.” That is how seriously God considers the authority of parents over their children, and how seriously He considers children’s duty to honor and obey their parents. A couple of fellows way back when said the following:

“In a modern court of justice, the smiting of a parent might perhaps receive the highest penalty incurred for the commission of an assault; but it would never be exalted to a special offence. But God in His government of Israel makes an offence against a parent to be one of the first magnitude. The severe penalty specified here corresponds with the position occupied in the Decalogue by the commandment to honor parents. God we see is ever saying and doing things to set great honour on the family, and indicate great expectations from it.” (from The Pulpit Commentary)

In other words, God has established the family as the pre-eminent model of authority and submission. It is by learning how to obey and respect our parents that we learn to respect and obey all types of authority. And God considers this structure to be so crucial, that if a child could not learn to respect and obey his own parents, he was to be cut off—not only cut off from the camp, or from the nation of Israel, but that child was to be cut off from the land of the living. Period, paragraph. Unfortunately, in our current culture, that model has been turned upside-down, and we now live in a culture that bows to the whims and wishes of the very children who should be looking to their parents for guidance. And all this because parents have neglected their duties to the ultimate authority, which is God.


Well, that said, we are going to begin studying the next three commandments that, when you think about it, should really make us say “Do we really need a commandment to tell us that is wrong?” The answer is, “Yes.” And these are the commandments, Exodus 20:13-15—“You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.” Do we really need to be told that it’s wrong to kill someone, or to sleep with another man’s wife, or to steal from our neighbor? Well, the answer to that question is yes…and no. While we may see these things as being wrong because they infringe on other’s rights, we don’t realize, in our sinful condition, that these actions are sins against God, so yes, we do need these commandments. I mean, think about it this way: Should texting while driving be against the law? Absolutely. But until somebody got it through their head that texting while driving should be illegal, there was no law against it. Until finally, when someone was killed by a driver who was working his phone’s keypad, the smart apples who make laws decided, “Hey, we ought to have some kind of law making this illegal.” DUH. So today we’re going to look at these commandments against actions that we should know are hated by God.


And think about this, too. Notice how short they are. Four or five words in English. Two each in Hebrew. Sometimes, the most forceful statements are short and to the point. What I'm about to say has nothing to do with the text, but please allow me a little folly here. During the Battle of the Bulge in WWII, the German commander sent this proposal to American general Anthony McAuliffe, short version: “There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town…If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne.” General McAuliffe gave the following response: “Nuts!” Not a lot of discussion. Just a simple declaration that said it all.


Just like these commands from God. Exodus20:13--“You shall not murder.” Quite simply, God tells us not to kill people. Is that so hard to understand? There’s not a lot of wiggle room there. “You shall not murder.” And just for the record, when I mention murder, I'm talking about murdering someone in cold blood, what we would call “premeditated” murder. I'm not talking about self-defense, or a soldier in war, or carrying out the death penalty. I'm not talking about anything similar to what we call “vehicular manslaughter”, where we run the red light and t-bone another car and kill the driver. I'm talking about murder that is thought about beforehand, the “I'm going to go over to Yitzhak’s house and put my mattock through his head” kind of murder.


The very first murder took place, as we all know, in Genesis 4:8—And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Now, God had not revealed His law to mankind yet. Did that let Cain off the hook? No. In fact, God told Cain in Genesis 4:10-11—“The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.” God has always considered the taking of another person’s life in cold blood to be a very grave matter. And in fact, any time a person takes another’s life, it should be a grave thing, whether it is murder or in times of war or the death penalty. But these days, if you have some kind of excuse for killing someone, or you “show remorse”, or if your parents just didn’t love you enough when you were a kid, they’ll let you get off with a lighter sentence. God doesn’t. Under the Law of God, if one person murdered another, that person was put to death. Leviticus 24:17—“Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death.”


This was what happened in the first hundred or so years in this country. You kill someone in cold blood, you were put to death. Things have changed over the years, however. Now that we have laws in this country that are based on people’s personal feelings, laws have come to be shaped by emotion rather than by a sense of justice and law and order. In fact, in some places, murder isn't even called murder anymore. If you don’t believe me, consider the following story. And these were actual events that took place in Campbell County, Virginia:

Deputies were called to a home in the 1200 block of Lone Jack Road…When deputies arrived, they discovered a baby had actually been born around 1:00a.m., about ten hours earlier. Investigators say the baby was already dead when deputies got there…They say the baby was under bedding and had been suffocated by her mother. Investigators say because the mother and baby were still connected by the umbilical cord and placenta, state law does not consider the baby to be a separate life. Therefore, the mother cannot be charged. Investigator Tracy Emerson says "In the state of Virginia as long as the umbilical cord is attached and the placenta is still in the mother, if the baby comes out alive the mother can do whatever she wants to with that baby to kill it…As long as it's still attached to her in some form by umbilical cord or something it's no crime in the state of Virginia." The Campbell County Sheriff's Office and Commonwealth's Attorney's office worked unsuccessfully to get the law changed after another baby died in the [same] county in a similar case. Emerson says they asked two delegates and one state senator to take the issue up in the General Assembly. He says the three lawmakers refused because they felt the issue was too close to the abortion issue. Emerson tells us there's a double standard with the law. (from WSLS-TV10, 12/15/2009, see full story here)

If someone other than the mother harms a baby still attached to the mother, that person can be charged. You see now why I say it’s not that crazy to think that we need this commandment against murder. This twisted, convoluted story and everything surrounding it is a far cry from “Thou shalt not murder.” What do you think was going on in God’s mind when He saw this story happening? Does anybody really think that God said, “Well, gee, I guess I never thought of something like this happening. And ya know, I wasn’t really very specific with that command. I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
“You shall not murder.”


In fact, God DID foresee the day when people would consider an unborn child to be less than a human. Fact of the matter is, God does not see that unborn baby as being anything less than another human being. Listen to Exodus 21:22-25—“If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” Without going real deep into the Hebrew, what God is saying is that if two men fight and strike a woman who is with child—not “with fetus”—and if the child dies, then that is murder. Does this mean that there are no prohibitions against a man killing that child with the mother’s consent? Uh, no. God doesn’t do loopholes.


Now, with all that being said, is the definition of murder confined to the actual taking of a person’s physical life? Well, in the eyes of man it may be true. But what does God say about it? In Matthew 5:21-22, God tells us exactly what He includes under the umbrella term “murder.” Matthew 5:21-22—“You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.” So, we see from Jesus’ statement that murder does not begin when one picks up a gun or a knife and shoots or stabs someone. Murder begins in the heart.


He repeats this principle in Matthew 15:19—“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” The hand simply does what the heart tells it to do. You can't commit premeditated murder unless you premeditate it. So what Jesus was doing was not so much relaxing the OT Law, He was taking it and laying it not only on the people’s actions, but also their thoughts. Much like what God said He would do in Jeremiah 31:33—“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.” God wants to correct not only our actions, but our hearts and our minds and our thoughts as well. That is why salvation is not by works. Anybody can do “good works.” There is an entire unbelieving world out there that pats itself on the back for doing “good works.” And in much the same way, it’s not simply our actions that condemn us—it’s our hearts. Because the heart is the root of all that we do. It is the breeding ground for sin. James 1:14-15—But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Any time we commit a sin it is because something—or someone—has presented us with something that we desire. If we commit fornication, it is because the opportunity to sleep with that person was presented to us, and we followed that desire. If we steal, it is because we saw something we wanted, and it was there, and we wanted it so badly that we didn’t want to pay for it. Murder is no exception. If we commit murder, it is because, for some reason, whatever it may have been, we saw that person as an obstacle that stood between us and something we wanted. And if that person were allowed to live, they would ruin our comfort or our reputation or our social or financial standing. So that person must be eliminated so that we can have what we want.


I'll finish by talking about one fellow that is the perfect illustration of that principle. King David. Turn to 2nd Samuel 11. Let me set the scene for you. King David has led the armies of Israel on one successful military campaign after another. Every time he takes them out, he goes out in the strength of the LORD. And with success comes a little complacency. He takes for granted everything God has given him. And in 2nd Samuel 11:1--It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. He should have been out there with his troops, but he had perhaps gotten a bit too prideful, too lazy, and he stayed home. You’ve heard the saying “The devil makes work for idle hands?” 2nd Samuel 11:2-3--2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Uriah was one of David’s finest and most loyal generals. But that didn’t matter. He had set his heart on what he saw in front of him; he was drawn away and enticed. Then desire conceived and gave birth to sin, 2nd Samuel 11:4--Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. BUT. 2nd Samuel 11:5--She sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” He was drawn away and enticed. Then desire conceived and gave birth to sin. Now here is where sin, being full-grown, brings forth death. David knows that if his sin is found out, he will lose the love and admiration of the people. He isn't thinking about his relationship to God. He isn't thinking about confessing his sin to God—he’s only focused on what it will mean for his popularity. So listen to what he does to cover up his mess, long story short, in 2nd Samuel 11:14-17--14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” 16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.


Murder begins in the heart. It ends with the physical act. The fact that someone would purpose and plan to kill someone is a sign that the person’s heart is not quite right. And unless that person seeks the mercy of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will die with a murderer’s heart, and will not see eternal life. 1st John 3:14-15—We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So if you know someone who is walking around with hatred in their heart for anyone, then that person is a walking murderer and they are, as Jesus said, in danger of Hell.


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.