A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Statutes Concerning Theft

Last week we covered the statutes and ordinances that dealt with the command “You shall not kill.” And they were a way of closing loopholes that people would try to get through when their actions caused the death of another. For example, a person with an ox that was known to “thrust with its horn in times past”—if that ox killed a person, the owner could no longer claim, “Well, it’s an animal, that’s what an ox does, I'm not responsible.” God said “Oh yes you are! You knew that animal was out of control and you did nothing about it. You are just as guilty of killing that person as the ox is.” Today we are going to look at a set of statutes that deal with property rights, whether it is livestock that has been stolen, or the accidental loss of property, or property that has either been borrowed from a neighbor or has been hired out.


Before we start, I really think most translations didn’t quite get it right when they split up the verses in this section. If you look at this passage carefully, I really think the last part of verse 3 should be at the beginning of verse 4. And you could almost read verses 2 and 3 as being in parentheses. So that’s how we’re going to read it. Exodus 22:1, 3b, 4—“1 If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep…3 He should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4 If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore double.” The first principle is real simple. If you steal an ox or a sheep, you restore what you stole—and then some. In the day that we are living in, most of the time when a person steals something, it is a thing of relatively little importance. If someone breaks into your house and steals your PlayStation, is your life going to come to a screeching halt? Are you going to suffer any long-term harm if someone steals your 52” plasma TV? You are going to be out the money you paid for it, but really, can you live your life without it? And if you’ve got homeowner’s insurance, it will probably cover a replacement. But do you think Allstate or Progressive existed when the book of Exodus was being written? That being the case, there were statutes covering the punishment of those who were caught stealing by whatever means they used. If you had slaughtered it or sold it, you gave me five oxen for my one. What would happen if you stole five of my oxen and had sold them or slaughtered them? How many would you have to give me? If the animal was found alive, and in your possession, you gave me two for each one. So if you stole 5 sheep, and they were found alive, you would give me 10 of yours. So the thief, if he was found out, could wind up paying a huge amount of restitution. Because, when these commands were being given, were sheep and ox slightly more important than a PlayStation?


Why was the theft of an ox or sheep or donkey so atrocious? Well, because that was how the person made their living. I might make my living raising and selling sheep, either for their wool or their meat. I would raise oxen to plow my land. I would raise donkeys to sell as beasts of burden. So if someone steals one of my ox or sheep or donkeys—they are taking money out of my pocket and food off my family’s table. If you had sold it or slaughtered it, you gave me more than if it was found alive in your hand. Why do you think this penalty was greater than if they were found alive in your hand? Because if you sold it or slaughtered it, it was gone. There was no getting it back. But, if you still had it with you, I could get it back, so you give me what’s mine and you also give me one of yours. But what happens if you don’t have anything? Look at the end of verse 3. He shall be sold as a slave. And how long would he serve as a slave? Six years at the most. He would go free the seventh year.


Now, let’s look at the verses in between these, Exodus 22:2-3—“2 If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. 3 If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed.” And now that we have separated these verses properly, I think we can see why it makes more sense this way than reading verse 3 to say “If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. He should make full restitution.” If someone breaks in to steal from me, and I kill them, how are you going to make restitution? And in fact, some translations put the restitution clause at the end of verse 1. Basically, if you break into my house at night to steal from me, I can strike you so that you die and I will not face any criminal charges. BUT, if the sun had risen—if it happened during the daylight hours—you had the responsibility to NOT kill him. Why? Well, because at night, it’s dark. I don’t know what your intentions are. I can't see if you have a weapon in your hand. I'm scared. And I have the right to do whatever I feel is necessary to defend my family from any possible harm. So I could kill you and not worry about it. But, during the daylight hours, you can see the man. You can see whether he has a weapon or not. Not only that, but are there going to be more people awake and about during these hours? And you can call them for help. So even though this man meant to steal from me, it was not likely that he meant to kill me, and even the life of the thief must be spared in such a case.


So now that we've dealt with theft from the one raising work animals and food animals, and we've covered the theft of personal property, now we come upon statutes covering the loss of grain to the crop farmer. Exodus 22:5—“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.” If you were out taking your cattle to graze, and one of them wandered into your neighbor’s field or vineyard and started chomping away—again, taking away from another what rightly belongs to them and is their livelihood—you not only compensated them for their loss, you gave them from the BEST of your field or vineyard. John Calvin—

“This kind of fraud is justly ranked among thefts…For if a person makes improper use of his servant to steal by him, the master is deemed guilty of the offense, even though he may have touched nothing with his own hand. A man is no less in the wrong who has caused injury by means of a brute beast.”

What he’s saying is that if I send my servant to go steal from someone, I am just as guilty of theft as my servant is. The fact that I have gained wrongly because of a dumb animal does not make my offense any less punishable. This was another way of reminding you to keep your animal under control. Because for however much your animal ate of my crops, you gave me the best of yours. And you may have had a really good crop growing. The best harvest you’ve had in years. Tough luck. Next time, take someone with you to help graze your animal.


The next ordinance covers accidental loss of crops. Exodus 22:6—“If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacked grain, standing grain, or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.” What do you get when you combine a dry desert climate, a wheat field, and a spark? Oh, and there was no such thing as Rural/Metro. There was no Sinai F.D. Here’s what would happen: the farmer would be harvesting his crop. Once he separated the wheat from the chaff (the outer covering), he would take the chaff and burn it. Now, in the area where they were at—in fact, throughout much of the Middle East—fields were often bordered by thornbushes. Thorns caught fire and burned real easy. So when you started a fire to burn something, you better be careful. Because all it took to get a thorn bush burning was just a little spark, especially in a dry desert climate. And as hard as animals are to control, how much more difficult is it to control a fire—especially when you don’t have a vast supply of water at your disposal. The best you could do was a cistern, and even then all you could do was scoop it out by the bucket. You might as well spit on it. Well, guess who was responsible for that fire destroying their neighbor’s crop? Since the person who started the fire did not benefit from the fire—What do I gain by burning your crops?—he would simply make restitution.


Now we get to a principle we studied when we were going through the Ten Commandments. Exodus 22:7-8—“7 If a man delivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep, and it is stolen out of the man's house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. 8 If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges to see whether he has put his hand into his neighbor's goods.” You're going out of town, and you don’t want anybody stealing your car. You ask me if I can keep it at my house until you get back. I say “Sure, you bet!” Well, you get back and my car is gone. If someone stole it from your garage, the thief brought my car back to me—and bought me another new car to boot. Now, suppose your car winds up missing and nobody can find it. KPD calls around to all the junkyards and chop shops around Knoxville, and what do you know they find it. I am brought before the judges—who are acting by the authority of God—and they determine whether I stole your car or if someone else did.


Now, there was a way of what we would call “settling out of court.” Exodus 22:10-12—“10 If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies, is hurt, or driven away, no one seeing it, 11 then an oath of the LORD shall be between them both, that he has not put his hand into his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall accept that, and he shall not make it good. 12 But if, in fact, it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner of it.” Here we see two of the Ten Commandments being brought into the matter. First, of course, “Thou shalt not steal.” The second being what? “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.” If I accuse you of stealing something, and you vehemently deny it, and we are standing before the judges, then you have the option of taking an oath in the name of Almighty YHVH, saying that you did not steal those goods, and that is that. We see this principle restated in Hebrews 6:16—For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. And the owner of the stolen property had to be satisfied with that. And if you think about it, if the person did in fact steal from you and they stand before God and swear an oath to God, then they have a far greater problem than repaying you what they stole. What they are doing, in essence, is calling God as a witness. “I call YHVH as a witness, and He will testify that I did no wrong!” You better be telling the truth. Because guess what? Exodus 20:7—“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”


Now, suppose something happened, and a pack of wolves, or a lion or a bear got into my sheepfold and got after the sheep you had given me to hold on to. There was a provision for that. Exodus 22:13—“13 If it is torn to pieces by a beast, then he shall bring it as evidence, and he shall not make good what was torn.” You come before the judges, and you say “I have his ox right here. And here. And they're bringing some more in right now.” It wasn’t enough to say that it had been torn by beasts. You had to prove it. And you proved it by bringing in the various parts. Now, if could be determined that the animal was indeed torn by wild beasts, then there was no penalty incurred by the keeper. Sometimes nature just acts like nature, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You don’t need to risk your life for my animals.


Now we get to statutes dealing with borrowed property and the presence of the owner. Exodus 22:14-15—“14 And if a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it becomes injured or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make it good. 15 If its owner was with it, he shall not make it good; if it was hired, it came for its hire.” I need to borrow an ox to plow my field. You say “Here, you can use one of mine. Just make sure you have it back before Thursday, and make sure you top off the gas tank.” And then you go home. And while I am out plowing my field with your ox, it stumbles in a rut, breaks its leg, and is now useless. My bad, I give you another ox to make up for it. But suppose I borrow your ox and you are helping me plow my field with your ox. That ox steps in a rut, breaks its leg—the owner was with it, there is no restitution. Matthew Henry—

“If a man lent his team to his neighbour, if the owner was with it, or was to receive profit for the loan of it, whatever harm befell the cattle the owner must absorb: but if the owner was so kind to the borrower as to lend it to him freely, and put such a confidence in him as to trust it out of sight, then if any harm happened, the borrower must make it good. Let us learn therefore to be very careful not to abuse any thing that is lent us; it is not only unjust, but base and deceitful, inasmuch as it is rendering evil for good; we should much rather choose to suffer loss ourselves than that any should sustain loss by their kindness to us.”

Have you ever let somebody borrow your car, and sat at home the whole time asking yourself “What in the world was I thinking letting him borrow my car?” If I'm with you when you're driving my car, and we wreck, it’s my fault. If I lend you my car while I'm at work and you wreck that car, you pay for it.


Now, let’s tackle a sticky situation. Suppose Bo buys that car from me. He didn’t know I stole it. He bought it from me thinking he was getting a good deal. That is where the next word comes in, Exodus 22:9—“For any kind of trespass, whether it concerns an ox, a donkey, a sheep, or clothing, or for any kind of lost thing which another claims to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whomever the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.” Sorry, Bo. You owe my friend two cars. Bo tells the judges, “Hey, now wait a minute—I bought it from him!” (That is, me. The thief) I am found out, therefore I am the one who owes the neighbor I stole from two new cars. This is getting expensive, isn't it? That’s why we now have rackets like fencing stolen merchandise; money laundering. Criminals have gotten smart and they go through other parties to get rid of any trace of evidence that they had anything to do with that theft.


Now, let’s fast-forward to the NT. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us something peculiar. In Matthew 5:40—“If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” The NASB reads like this, and this is closer to what we would be familiar with today, Matthew 5:40 (NASB)—“If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.” The context of this verse is Jesus teaching about taking vengeance. And He’s saying that if someone wants to take you before the judges and take away your shirt—give him your coat as well. Do not go after the person to take vengeance on him, because who does vengeance belong to? Romans 12:19-21 (NASB)—19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. 20 "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The point of the penalties in the OT Law, and the point of Christ’s teachings about vengeance, and Paul’s teachings about vengeance, all spring from the same principle: that is, all sin will be punished. God will make sure of that. We may never see justice done to evildoers here on earth. but remember that the Great and Glorious Judge is sitting on the bench, as we speak, and He will make sure His docket is cleared and that justice is done to those who deserve it. Vengeance is whose? Vengeance belongs to God. And He knows how to dish it out a whole lot better than we do.


Jesus is Lord. Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You Shall Not Steal" (part 2)

One excuse that some thieves make is this: that the victim either left their front door unlocked or they forget and left their keys in their car. In fact, in a stroke of “genius”, the Tennessee Court of Appeals just recently ruled that a woman was responsible for a car thief crashing her car and injuring other people. Knoxville News Sentinel, 12/10/10—

“The Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit against the city of Murfreesboro and its police department over a wreck that involved a fleeing stolen vehicle that crashed with a car carrying three people. But the higher court reversed a decision by the circuit court of Rutherford County and said the suit against a man who left the keys in the car before it was stolen should continue.”

Uh, no. It is not the car owner’s fault if someone steals their car—whether they left the keys in it or not! The only fault lies with the thief. One person at the Knoxville New Sentinel website hit the nail on the head—

“Just because keys are left in a vehicle is not an open invitation to steal what does not belong to someone else. The thief still has to take what does not belong to them in order to possess the car long enough to do the damage this thief did, and the thief is solely responsible for their actions. The thief is the one that broke the law and crashed into an auto carrying three other people.”

Just like dropping that $20 bill on the sidewalk. It’s not yours—leave it alone!


As we talked about last week, 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. 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 12:13-15—13 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. 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. The tax that is in question was called the “Head Tax”—once a year, the head of the family was to pay one day’s waged to the Roman government. Now, think about the mindset of the Pharisees. There was a tiny speck of truth in their opposition to paying this tax. After all, this was one way that pagan Rome paid for the construction of temples to pagan gods, and it also supported the very Roman army that was oppressing them. So, they had kind of a good reason for not wanting to pay it.


BUT—this wasn’t the reason they posed this question to Christ. Look back at Mark 12:13—Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. They took this legitimate concern and used it as a way to try and trip Jesus up in His own words. But, Jesus let them know that we are to submit to all government, and says this about taxes, Mark 12:15-17—15 But He, knowing their hypocrisy, 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." Depending on your translation it may say “denarius” or “penny” or “copper coin.” At any rate, what they brought him was a coin which was equivalent to one day’s wage at that time.


Look at that little phrase—“Render unto Caesar That which is Caesar’s.” Jesus is saying “That denarius belongs to Caesar—so give it to him.” Now, if Jesus commanded His people to pay what the government of a wicked government like Rome commanded, then we have no excuse for saying “Well, yeah but the taxes I pay go to programs I don’t agree with, so I'm not going to pay it.” It doesn’t matter whether you agree with what the government does with that money, we are obligated to pay your taxes. Christ teach this. The apostle Paul taught that within the context of the fact that all 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.


There is another area of theft I want to talk about. That is when we steal from our employers. I used to work at Pepsi, and there were a couple of fellows—OK, I was in the same boat with them—that would sneak out cases of drinks to take home, which we were not allowed to do. What do you think our excuse was? How do you think we justified what we did? “We’ve earned this.” Or, “They don’t pay us enough” or something along those lines. The problem with that line of thinking—other then the fact that what we did was stealing—is the fact that no one was forcing us to work there. If we were unhappy with our jobs, we were more than welcome to find employment elsewhere. But if we stayed voluntarily, we were, in effect, agreeing to work for the wage they were offering. Listen to Colossians 3:22-25—22 Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. The men that ran Enron and AIG and Goldman Sachs into the ground while they walked away with millions—will God punish them? Absolutely. But He will also punish the lowly servant that is an unrepentant thief stealing from his boss.


Jesus Christ Himself teaches us this same principle in Matthew 20:1-16 in the Parable of the Vinedressers. The greater point Jesus is making is that whether someone gets saved as a child or they call on Christ on their deathbed, everyone who is saved will receive an inheritance in the Kingdom of God. The smaller point is this—if you agree to work for a certain wage, for a certain job, then you can either work for that wage or go home. Just because you don’t like how much you're being paid does not give you a right to steal from your boss.


Another principle this parable brings out is part of the reason people steal: they think God hasn’t given them enough. Although they may not realize it, they are saying within themselves “God hasn’t given me all I want, but He has given it to someone else.” What that means, of course, is that, if I'm the thief, I feel like God needs a little help balancing the account between what I have and what that other person has. But listen to what the owner of the vineyard says. Matthew 20:14-15—“14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” How much of the universe belongs to God? Psalm 24:1—The earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof. It all belongs to God. And if He wants to allow one person to have more than you, then that is His right. He owns it; He can do what He pleases with it. Wealth itself is not inherently evil. It’s our attitude toward wealth that can be evil. 1st Timothy 6:10—The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.


Now, we’re gonna take a side road here for a moment. The heresy that is the prosperity “gospel” is rooted in the love of money. It is rooted in the belief that You deserve to be wealthy and that you can command God to give you wealth. One of Kenneth Copeland’s most famous quotes is when he said, "As a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus. Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent, because it is His Word." And what are these people commanding God to do? Give them more stuff. We’ll talk more about that when we get to covetousness.


Now, let’s finish up by looking back at the provisions in the Law for the poor and the traveler to glean from the corners of fields. We looked at two of those provisions last week, Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 23:24-25. There is also the passage found in Deuteronomy 24:19-21—“19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” I tend to believe that all these commands had more than one purpose. One, of course, they provided for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 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.


Ruth 4:13-17 (KJV)—13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. 14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. I want to stop right here and briefly introduce a principle from the Law known as the provision of a “kinsman redeemer”, and we’ll skim a little more about that next week. Well, Boaz was Ruth’s “kinsman redeemer”, while our “kinsman redeemer” is Christ, as we see in Hebrews 2:11-12—11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying, "I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise." Any way, Ruth 4:15-17 (KJV)—15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him…17 and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Of course, this is King David, of whom both Mary and Joseph were direct descendants. Their genealogies are recorded in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Matthew traces Joseph’s ancestry and Luke describes Mary’s. All because a poor widow and her daughter-in-law were allowed to glean stubble in a wheat field. See now how this Law is pointing to Christ? It was because of the many provisions for the poor that two of His ancestors came together. But all this OT stuff is so boring, isn't it!


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

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 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.