The Eighth Commandment

I recently read a newspaper article of a couple, a pair of partners in crime who were arrested for petty theft. A woman, the article says, in The US was tucking her children into bed when she heard a noise somewhere in the house. Going downstairs to investigate, she spotted a man and a woman running out the back door. This lady chased after the intruders and found them loading bags of her stuff onto bicycles. They were stopped hilariously when a neighbour blocked them with his car and called the police, and they were incapable of getting away very quickly at least.

The thieves had attempted to steal a laptop, a desktop computer, a toolbox, the woman's purse, and other bits and ends, all the while thinking they could carry this off on their bikes. When questioned by police, one of them said that a friend had told her, the perpetrator, that the address was listed as a free house on Craigslist, similar to Gumtree, which said that the owners were looking to move out of their home very quickly and anyone was free to show up and take whatever they wanted. That was her reasoning. The perpetrator said that she had called out when she came into the house to see if anyone was in there even though all the lights were on and there was a purse sitting on the kitchen counter, but no one answered. So she figured, well, the place must be vacant already and started helping herself.

The police were not able to obviously find this alleged house listing, free house listing on the website, probably because at no point ever did that listing exist. And so the couple were arrested and had to wait a little while before they could enjoy another bike ride. I have a fascination with these sort of dumb criminal stories. I really get a giggle on when I read them, and we have a police officer in our church here, Darnie, that I'm sure has heard all the stories there is. And although most of us or many of us will probably never get into a similar predicament as these two people mentioned.

We're going to talk about a concept of taking something which isn't ours or stealing this morning. Now, again, for most of us, it's going to be a pretty open and shut case. We all know not to steal, even our non-Christian neighbours and friends will say the same thing, but as we've seen in the past with the Ten Commandments, there's often far more involved than what we read or see in the commandment at surface level. Let's have a read of the Ten Commandments again and we'll spend particular emphasis on the eighth commandment.

Exodus 20, we're looking at, and we're going to read from verse one. Exodus 20:1, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honour your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbour's. So far, our reading, may God add his blessing to it.

This morning, we're going to be looking at two perspectives on this eighth commandment. Remembering that God's law, as we've seen in the past, has four purposes. God's law has four purposes. Firstly, it is revelation. God's law is revelation.

It reveals the character of God. It tells us what He's like. The second aspect, the second purpose of God's law is confrontation. It shows us our character, our true character. It confronts us.

The third purpose of God's law is instruction. It gives us a chart, a path. It gives us a way to live that is life giving, that is a flourishing of human living. It is instruction, and then fourthly, it is a promise. It is a promise, and it always points to Christ, to the promise of what would be fulfilled in Jesus.

These four aspects we're going to see summarised in two perspectives on this commandment this morning. The first one we're going to put up there is the sobering reach of the eighth commandment. The sobering reach of the eighth commandment. What exactly are we being commanded to do? Or the flip side of it, what are we forbidden from doing in the eighth commandment?

Well, the word for stealing used here in Exodus 20 simply means to take something by stealth that does not belong to you. We're forbidden to take the property of others without payment or without permission. Once again, it's pretty easy for us to understand the meaning of this eighth commandment. It's not hidden. It's not confusing.

It's pretty straightforward. And like the good citizens we are, all of us probably have never stolen a car. We've probably never robbed a grocery store, but as we've seen before, with God's commandments, He gives a heading with a whole subspecies of laws, of morality, of ethics associated with it. For example, God's law to Israel regarding loans and the charging of interest on money to one another. In Exodus 22:25, God tells Israel, if you lend money to any of the people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him.

This is only two chapters later. You shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbour's cloak in pledge, as a deposit in a sense, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering and it is his cloak for his body. In what else shall he sleep?

If he cries to me, I will hear for I am compassionate, says God. Ezekiel 22, God condemns the charging of predatory interest. He says, you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbours by extortion, but you have forgotten me, declares the Lord. In other words, God is not satisfied. God is not okay with saying rather, it's not personal, it's business.

God is not happy with money lenders or a bank's indifference to the situation of someone who needs a loan for some money because they might be in a bit of trouble. He calls each banker, each money lender to consider a person's circumstances. Unscrupulous money lending, seeing the opportunity for a quick buck or a long term oppressive cash cow is considered stealing in God's eyes. Now think of, you know, again, this is very hard and I know and I've got friends who are pawn shop owners, you know, that do loan money in this sort of way. Think of the global financial crisis though, and things start getting clear as to the motives and the pain that can be caused by this.

Think of what happened ten years ago, the toxic predatory mortgages that were sold to borrowers in The United States who could not afford the houses that they were getting loans for. They could not afford the repayments. Think about the exorbitant profits that these banks were able to gain from repossessing these properties after a while. Think about the exorbitant interest rates on payday loans we see being sold all over our TVs at the moment. When God forbids Israel to fall into the habit of lending money and charging interest, He's actually warning them against these very things that we see propagated in our world today.

And it all stems amazingly, fascinatingly, from this commandment: you shall not steal. You shall not take what is not yours. You shall not take something unethically. So for people, and again I say this with a lot of sensitivity hopefully, for people that are in the business of lending money for work or between friends, you are reminded of the eighth commandment. To think carefully about why and to whom we lend money and whether we may charge interest to.

But then it goes further. The eighth commandment forbids dishonest business dealings. In Amos 8, we read about God's righteous indignation against people who abuse the system for their own gain. Hear this, God says, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end saying, when will the new moon be over? So that we may sell grain and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale.

That we may make an ephah small, as a measurement, we may make an ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances. See, what was happening in Amos' time is that people were living this hypocritical religion. They were willing to obey the Sabbath day and rest and not work on it, but they couldn't wait to get back in business the next day. And why couldn't they wait? Because they were making money hand over fist.

Their balances, their scales were weighted so that it always turned out in their favour. With unbalanced scales, they were making money and again, this boils down to, in God's eyes, the eighth commandment. The eighth commandment is ultimately in view here, and the real challenge for us is that business practices that exploit, business practices where the business or the company always wins is something that God cannot stand. Something that God stands against. And the real challenge for us who are in business, who work for businesses, we need to know that God cares about our heart and the heart of the person we deal with.

Proverbs 11:1 says, a false balance and unequal scale is an abomination to the Lord. Now that word is the same abomination that we keep hearing these days about homosexuality and all that sort of stuff. So again, there's no difference. Weighted scales is an abomination just as much as some of our other hobby horses. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just fair weight is His delight.

So the question we have to ask ourselves is are we asking a fair price for our market? Are you consistent in business when it comes to charges and do customers know you as someone whose invoices reflect a job well done? You shall not steal, says God. To turn it up a little bit more, what about Deuteronomy 24:14-15? You shall not oppress a hired worker, one who may be poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners, a Gentile, a non-believer who is in your land or within your towns.

You shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets. For he is poor and he counts on it, lest he cry out against you to the Lord and you be guilty of sin. Are you treating your employees fairly? Are you paying them what they are due? Do you expect overtime without pay?

Do you expect part time workers to do full time work so you can avoid paying the benefits? Do you make contracts and keep them? God says you shall not steal. And even our attitude regarding work as employees, so these are obviously words for employers, but employees, even our attitude regarding work is in view here. The book of Proverbs is especially poignant on this topic.

Chapter 12:1 of Proverbs, whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. Or more famously, Proverbs 6:10, a little sleep, a little slumber, a folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a thief, and scarcity like an armed man. Our attitude regarding work is even in view here. The question is, are we working in such a way as to work for the Lord? Are we working to honour God?

Or are you busy defrauding your employer because he doesn't know and no one else knows? And through this, failing to do an honest day's work for the wages that were promised to you. You shall not steal. And we could go on, multiplying the applications of this commandment. We could talk about gambling, which is always a winning at the expense of someone losing.

Earning, getting money for no work. We could talk about moving property boundaries to advantage yourself. We could talk about malicious lawsuits that extract money from the target of the suit because it's an easy target to feed your own gain or your greed. All of these things, in fact, are dealt with in scripture. All of these things are talked about.

But I hope what we're beginning to see this morning is the integrity, is the motive, is the heart and the compassionate concern for justice that God is requiring of His people. Integrity. Doing that thing in the same way as if no one is watching you. You shall not steal, God says. So we see the broad reach of this commandment.

Then the second thing, the second perspective we see this morning is the transformative power of the gospel. We've had a look at God's will for the eighth commandment. Now that we understand how we are to live and perhaps we have a few things we realise we might need to tweak and work on, we need to understand and think about why we should be more honest in business. How can we be more honest? How can we be motivated to pay people fair compensation when no one else in our industry is doing it?

Why would we resist the urge to gamble? Why would we resist the urge to get away with doing half a day's work for a full day's pay? Well, the Bible says we can only do this honestly. We can only do it consistently when the God of these laws comes into our lives. When God's love and His grace breaks into our lives.

When we are touched by the radical forgiveness offered by Christ, we stop thinking narrowly in terms of the strict demands of the letter, doing just the bare minimum to get away. We stop thinking about how little I can do in order to meet the minimal obligation. We start thinking in terms of radical, sacrificial generosity. Listen to what Paul says to the new Christians in Ephesians 4:28.

Let the thief no longer steal. He's talking to new Christians here. Let the thief no longer steal, but let him labour doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. These are God's people Paul is talking to. Some of them were thieves, but the thieves no longer steal.

What happens to the heart when Christ takes hold? Well, a man who is a thief is now a child of God by God's saving grace. And he now trusts in Jesus Christ and he no longer lives for the accumulation of stuff. He no longer has a compulsion to steal because he has found a better treasure. He has found the acceptance, the love of God in Christ.

And now he works and he makes money with a different purpose, completely differently. He no longer lives for the emptiness that comes with wealth and stuff. In fact, the money that he now makes, he makes so that he may share it with those who are in need and reap an even greater joy. The fulfilment, the power of generosity.

To be filled with pride, and think about this in your own lives when you have been generous, to be filled with pride, with happiness, with contentment and satisfaction at blessing others. Can you see how much better that is? Can you see how life giving that may be, that sort of lifestyle. And if you are a Christian, this is what your heart is going to desire.

If you are a Christian, this is what your heart is going to desire. The very fact that we may be guilty about it now shows that we are already desiring it. You've discovered a principle that Jesus taught in Luke 12:15 and following. He says, one's life does not consist in the abundance of things. Provide yourselves with money bags, he says, that do not grow old.

With treasures in heaven that do not fail. Where no thief approaches, no moth destroys because he says where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. When grace breaks in, we are released from the chains of our possessions. We are released from the constant striving of one-upmanship, of trying desperately to keep up with the Joneses. So what?

So what if they have a bigger boat? So what if they can go overseas three times a year and we can only do it once a year? What does any of that really amount to? When we gain the perspective of the gospel and the true value of this life that God is offering us, we begin to hold earthly treasures much more loosely. We begin to become radically generous because we have riches that are untouchable.

We have riches that have been given to us that cannot be taken away. Whom God has given to me, Christ said, I will never lose. The greatest example of this that I can find is the story of Zacchaeus. Remember that story? Zacchaeus is a man in Luke 19, a tax collector we're told.

And a very wealthy man by all accounts. The way that tax collectors in Jesus' time made money is that they would collect wealth, collect the taxes from all those who were either Roman citizens or under Roman rule, and they would give to Rome what was due to Rome, and in order to make a living, they would skim something off the top. They would line their pockets a little bit, and that wasn't policed necessarily very well. It wasn't a set percentage to take, so whatever you got away with, you got to keep. Now Zacchaeus, again, by all accounts, was a well-known crook, making his living on the backs of the poor.

And one day, on the road to Jericho, Jesus encounters Zacchaeus. And Jesus spots him and goes to him and says, today, I'm having lunch with you. Today, I'm eating with you, Zacchaeus. And something extraordinary happens in Zacchaeus' heart that day. Zacchaeus is convicted about his sin, and he bursts out with this massive promise.

Behold, Lord, he says, the half of my goods I now give to the poor. The half of what I have, I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone, I will give it back fourfold. Now, fourfold restoration according to God's law, again, in Exodus 22:1, fourfold restoration was only for if you'd stolen someone's livestock. If you had defrauded anyone, only a 20% restitution was required.

So paying back, plus 20%. But can you see what's going on here? Zacchaeus is saying, I voluntarily take the more severe punishment and pay the greater restitution here for what I have done. On top of that, I'll give away 50% of what I have. There's an absolute and utter extravagance taking place here.

There's almost a reckless generosity taking place. Why? Why would Zacchaeus do this? Because he found the love of God. He had found the riches found in Christ.

Something better had captured his heart. And now instead of the sin forbidden in the eighth commandment that was so characteristic of him, he models the generosity to which the eighth commandment calls each and every one of us. And so we really need to ask, what is it about Jesus that would make us live in this way? What is it about Jesus that would make Zacchaeus give up 50% of everything he had and pay four times what he had defrauded from people? And the answer of the Christian gospel is to point us to Christ's generosity for us.

You'll remember when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. Remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane? And Jesus said to them, you come with clubs and swords to arrest me like a criminal, like a thief. And then later in the next chapter, Matthew 27:28, we are told that Jesus is crucified next to two thieves, two common robbers. And He is treated and He is identified and He is crucified with and alongside breakers of the eighth commandment.

God tells us you shall not steal. But this morning, we realised we are the ones breaking it. We are the ones who have broken it, and it is in our place on Calvary between two thieves that Jesus died. Between two thieves in our place. And there is Christ, saviour, holy and harmless and blameless and undefiled, separate from sinners, treated like a thief.

That He might accomplish, that He might achieve in us a love and a desire far greater than the world will tell us we need to have. The eighth commandment does more than just rebuke our materialism. It points us to the infinitely precious treasure in whom we have riches that will never spoil or fade. And so today, He is calling you. Friend, He is calling you in the gospel like He called Zacchaeus on the road to Jericho.

I want to come to your house. I want to dine with you. And He wants to bring salvation to your house and teach you the transformative power of the gospel of grace, a new measure by which we weigh the treasures of this world. And I hope we will find them light. And I hope we will find them lacking if we are ever tempted to pursue them at all costs again.

And we may find and cherish the treasure of incalculable worth in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your son, Jesus. Lord, we thank you that He lived the life that I could never live, to die the death that I should have died. Father, I pray that as we hear your word, as we hear the clarity and the crispness, the sharpness of your will, Father, that you will give us the perspective of the far reaching implications of this commandment.

Lord, that we will be honest and evaluate our motives rightly. That where there is change needed, we will have the courage and the discipline to change. And Father, do not let go of that in our hearts. Let us go through the necessary steps and changes to do that, but then also, let us walk out of here, each one of us, free and liberated and without fear of condemnation because of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. I pray, Lord, that each of us realises this great treasure.

Lord, that if we have Him, if we have this gospel, this good news, we have everything, and nothing else is as precious or as valuable. Help us to find our great joy in it. Help us to see how we can live generous lives and find an even greater joy in that than in keeping stuff or acquiring it. Father, help us as we think these things through. Give us the grace to know you and to love you deeper. In Jesus' name.