You Shall Not Steal Series

Stealing has become a big business in our wireless age. A survey of 583 companies in the U.S. revealed: “90% of the respondents said their organizations’ computers had been breached at least once by hackers over the past 12 months.” More than 40% of the businesses surveyed stated they had spent more than $500,000 in security measures in an attempt to stop the security breaches. Inside the US, someone steals another’s property every three seconds.

Honesty is a rarity. The well-known painter, Norman Rockwell, painted the scene of a butcher’s shop. Behind the counter is the jolly butcher, with his apron stretched over his ample belly and his pencil tucked neatly behind one ear. Also in the picture is his customer, a respectable-looking woman of perhaps sixty. Like the butcher, she looks pleased. The two of them exchange a knowing smile, almost as if they were sharing a joke, but the joke is on them. The painting shows what they were secretly doing. The butcher is pressing the scale down with his big fat thumb so as to raise the price. At the same time, the woman is trying to get a better deal by pushing the scale-up with her finger. The reason both of them looked pleased is that neither is aware of what the other is doing.

According to some reports, larceny makes up over fifty percent of all crimes in the US. This morning I want to talk to you about being honest. We continue to work our way through the Ten Words, or the Ten Commandments. And today we cover a commandment that is universally condemned – stealing. Even people who don’t read the Bible know the eighth commandment in their hearts.

Today’s Scripture

“You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28).

This verse lays down three principles that need your attention.

First, “Let the thief no longer steal…”. Second, “let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands…”. And last, “so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” All three of these principles are wrapped up in God’s words to Moses: “You shall not steal.”

1. The Necessity of Integrity

Here is a simple, straightforward statement: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). The act of stealing is the secret taking of another’s property without the owner’s knowledge or permission. Put simply: to steal is to take something that doesn’t belong to you. This includes withholding what rightly belongs to another. Ask any mother of preschoolers and she will tell you children possess a keen sense of ownership. One of the first words each of our children learned was “mine!”

Stealing goes by many names in our society:

burglary…

robbery…

larceny…

hijacking…

shoplifting…

embezzlement…

extortion…

racketeering…

pickpocketing…

or purse snatching. It’s all the same thing – it’s stealing.

As if stealing itself were bad enough, you often follow this immoral act with acts of deception and trickery. The Bible says: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1). In the OT, dishonest acts included secretly moving boundary markers (Deuteronomy 19:14), the use of false measures and weighted balances (Deuteronomy 25:13-16), selling goods of inferior quality (Amos 8:4-6), and charging interest to poor people (Exodus 22:25).

There are all kinds of stealing within the pages of the Bible. Achan steals items that were devoted to God (Joshua 7:1). Micah steals 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother. When Naboth had a vineyard that King Ahab of Samaria wanted, his wife Jezebel conspired to get the property for her husband: So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. 9 And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. 10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” 11 And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, 12 they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. 13 And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead” (1 Kings 21:8-14).