Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script:

You shall not steal.

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 15, New International Version

VK: Hi and welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re glad that you are able to join us for another episode of Anchored by Truth. Today, as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. Just about everyone in our culture has heard about the Ten Commandments if for no other reason the famous movie by that name. Yet few people today understand that the commandments are more than just a list of 10 “dos and don’ts.” The Ten Commandments were an essential part of God’s way of establishing a new chapter in the national identity of the people from which God was going to produce the Messiah. With us today in the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. Today, we are going to discuss the 8th commandment which we heard in our opening scripture. RD, like many of the commandments it seems like it shouldn’t really have been necessary for God to tell His people not to steal. But I guess it was necessary, wasn’t it?

RD: Well, before we get into today’s discussion I would also like to welcome everyone to this episode of Anchored by Truth. The 8th commandment was necessary for a number of reasons. But let’s clarify something up front. As we have mentioned in a couple of our episodes on the Ten Commandments the Ten Commandments were not new in the sense that God had never made it plain that it was wrong to steal before he gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Theft, like other sins, had been prohibited right from the beginning of man’s existence. Sadly, theft was part of the first sin recorded in the Bible when Adam and Eve stole fruit from a tree that did not belong to them. God had given Adam and Eve the fruit from most of the trees in the Garden of Eden, but He reserved one tree for Himself. The fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil belonged to God and only to God. So, when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of that tree part of what they were doing was taking something that didn’t belong to them. That’s theft. And as we’re going to talk about today, theft comes in a lot more forms than most people usually think about. The sad fact is that the 8th commandment was certainly necessary because man had demonstrated a propensity to steal things that didn’t belong to him right from the beginning.

VK: So, God was not giving Moses a new requirement when He said “do not steal.” God was simply restating an obligation that had existed from the beginning of man’s own existence. And the book of Genesis contains other illustrations that people long before the Hebrews of the Exodus knew that theft was wrong. For instance another early chapter of Genesis, chapter 14 contains the well-known story where Abraham rescued his nephew Lot from the hands of raiders and marauders who had attacked the city Lot was living in. The raiders had kidnapped the city’s residents and stolen most of their goods and property. When Abraham rescued Lot he didn’t just bring the people back but he also brought the property back. Genesis, of course, is the first book of the Bible so this is another example from the first book of the Bible that the prohibition against theft existed long before God gave the 8th commandment.

RD: Right. But the 8th commandment does something else besides just establishing that stealing from others is wrong. The 8th commandment provides us with the God-given legal basis for recognizing the private ownership of property which has often been denied by various political and economic philosophies. Throughout history there have been various supposedly utopian philosophies that disparaged the right of private property ownership. There have even been attempts to build socialist and communist societies where private property ownership is either eliminated or severely curtailed. But none of these attempts has ever built a successful or prosperous culture or community because God designed the human economy to include the ability for people to be productive and for individuals to benefit from their productivity.

VK: The 8th commandment was God’s ratification in the basic legal code of the nation He was establishing that private ownership of property is an essential part of human society and economy. This does not mean that the Bible does not recognize that some level of common property ownership is sensible. One of the things God commanded the Israelites to do right after giving them the Ten Commandments was the instructions for building the wilderness tabernacle which was owned by the nation not be any individual. But just because the Bible recognizes that public ownership of some property and facilities is beneficial, the Bible does not endorse the notion that governments may steal from their citizens under the claims of public welfare. So, one of the first points we should note about the 8th commandment is that it is not just concerned with someone stealing their neighbor’s garden tools or shoplifting from the department store. The 8th commandment is concerned with a wide variety of human behavior including that of both individuals, groups, and governments.

RD: Bible scholars down through history have recognized that governments are as capable of violating the 8th commandment against theft as well as individuals. For instance, one of the best known Bible commentaries was written by Matthew Henry in the latter part of the 17th century and early part of the 18th century. Henry wrote this: “Plunderers of kingdoms though above human justice [break God’s law]. Defrauding the public, contracting debts without prospect of paying them, or evading payment of just debts, extravagance, all living upon charity when not needful, all squeezing the poor in their wages; these, and such things, break this command; which requires industry, frugality, and content, and to do to others, about worldly property, as we would they should do to us.”

VK: Matthew Henry’s observation helps us to see that the 8th commandment, like all of God’s commandments, are designed to help us recognize the sin that lurks deep within our hearts. All you have to do is watch the 3 year old steal a cookie to know that you don’t have teach people to steal. We all have a built-in desire to take whatever we want when we want it. You don’t have to teach kids to have that desire. What we have to do is to teach kids that even though there are some things that are very attractive to us that we can only have them at certain times and within certain limits. There is nothing inherently wrong with us desiring to have good things but we must all be trained to bridle those desires so that they serve us rather than leading us into sinful practices. That’s one of the primary purposes of the Ten Commandments and the laws of God. But one of our big problems is that often we do not think carefully about how easily we can drift into sin. We think about the commandment not to steal and we think that as long as we haven’t taken anything from our neighbor we haven’t broken the commandment.

RD: But as another Bible scholar John Gill, who wrote in the early 18th century, noted there is actually a wide variety of behaviors that violate the 8th commandment. Gill said this. “Thefts are of various kinds; there is private theft, picking of pockets, shoplifting, burglary, or breaking into houses in the night, and carrying off goods; public theft, or robbing upon the highways; domestic theft, as when wives take away their husbands' money or goods, and conceal them, or dispose of them without their knowledge and will, children rob their parents, and servants purloin their masters' effects; ecclesiastical theft or sacrilege, and personal theft, as stealing of men and making slaves of them, selling them against their wills.” And all this is exactly what God did not want for His people as they were leaving Egypt and heading for their permanent home in Palestine. As we have mentioned, God did not want the new nation to start a new chapter of its national identity be mimicking the patterns of the surrounding culture.

VK: And the last part of the quote you read from John Gill is a good illustration of how God wanted to be sure that His nation and His people did not adopt the economic or cultural depravities of the people that they were displacing. For instance, slavery was a common part of the economic systems and social cultures of just about all of the Canaanite nations. And a myth that is sometimes circulated about the Bible is that the Bible approves of or endorses slavery because the Mosaic law regulated slavery rather than completely outlawing it. But this is a more complicated topic than most people think, isn’t it?

RD: It is true that the Mosaic covenant regulated rather than outlawed slavery. There were a number of regulations in the Mosaic covenant that instructed Hebrew masters on how they were to treat slaves. But we need to understand that the kind of servitude that was in view was not the kind that we think about when we hear the word “slave.” Famines and economic distress were common in agricultural economies and it was easy for poor people to be in danger of dying because they couldn’t provide for themselves. In that kind of a circumstance it was preferable for some people to enter a period of prolonged service to someone else who could provide for their basic needs. And the Israelites were never permitted to treat another Hebrew as a slave. Leviticus, chapter 25 makes it clear that they were to help their neighbors who got into economic distress not force them into unwanted servitude. This, in and of itself, was a radical departure from all of the other cultures of the ancient world where there were few, if any, restrictions on mistreatment of the poor. In most cultures the rich and powerful regularly mistreated the poor in all kinds of way. But, as Gill noted, the kind of action that we tend to think of when we hear the word “slave” – forcing another person to serve someone against their will and without compensation - is a clear violation of the 8th commandment.

VK: So, it would be fair to say that the Bible does prohibit slavery in the way that that term is typically used in our day and age. All of this points to the need for us to be at least somewhat familiar with the historical, cultural, and social context of the Bible’s text, doesn’t it?

RD: Yes. One of the things that is often not recognized about the Ten Commandments is that they are not just 10 separate directives about 10 different things. There is a common thread that binds all of the Ten Commandments together.

VK: Which is?

RD: Which is what we might term “dignity.” Let’s think about this for a second. The first 3 commandments all concern themselves with the dignity of God. This is entirely appropriate because God existed before He made any part of the created order. The next two commandments concern themselves with preserving God’s dignity as that dignity begins to manifest itself in the created order. The 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath refers us back to God’s period of creative activity. The 5th commandment to honor our mother and father refers us back to God’s partial delegation of the oversight of His created order to the creature He created in His image: man. God conveyed a portion of His authority to Adam and Eve in what is often referred to as the “Dominion Mandate.”

VK: Genesis, chapter 1, verses 27 through 30 say, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

RD: Right. There is so much power in those 4 verses that we could spend many episodes of Anchored by Truth just going through it all. But our focus today is still the Ten Commandments and especially the 8th commandment. So, after God delegated a portion of His authority over parts of the created order to man in the Dominion Mandate God pronounced everything “very good.” And things would have remained “very good” except that in chapter 3 of Genesis we have Adam and Eve succumbing to the temptation of the serpent/Satan, stealing the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and bringing sin and death into the created order.

VK: And after Adam and Eve’s fall God immediately began His plan of redemption which unfolds throughout the rest of the Bible. And part of the plan of redemption was the restraint of the sin that had been introduced through the rebellion of our first parents. God immediately pronounced a series of curses on both Satan and man and began giving commands for how man was to live in a fallen creation. Part of the way God continued that pattern or restraining sin was to give the Israelites the Ten Commandments as they were leaving Egypt heading for the Promised Land. So, the last 5 of the Ten Commandments were all about the restraint of sin. But why do you say all of the commandments are concerned with “dignity?”

RD: Well, as I mentioned the 4th and 5th commandments are concerned with the dignity of God as God’s presence is going to be manifested in the now fallen creation. The 4th commandment is about God’s dignity which remains present in how we order our lives in terms of time through the work week – 6 days of work, one day of rest. The 5th commandment is about God’s dignity with respect to His organizational plan and transmission of authority among people – the creatures created in His image. The first societal institution ordained by God was the family and God implanted the authority for governing the family in the mother and father. Well, the 6th commandment – do not murder – is obviously concerned with the dignity of innocent human life. All human beings are image bearers of the Almighty God and so they possess the dignity that is inherent from bearing God’s image.

VK: And the 6th commandment tells us that we are to disdain that inherent dignity by willfully taking the life of someone who has done nothing to deserve that. Further, we are to protect God’s image bearers by protecting life. I see where you’re going with this. The 7th commandment is to not commit adultery. In other words, we are to protect the sanctity, the dignity, of marriage because it was the first institution created by God. God created the family for many reasons – to ensure companionship for a creature intended to live in community, to perpetuate human life in accordance with his command to “be fruitful and multiply,” to ensure a means for transmitting sacred orders and instructions, etc. So, the 7th commandment is concerned with the dignity of marriage.

RD: And the 8th commandment, at its heart, is concerned with the dignity of work. God always intended man to be a creative, productive creature – just as God is creative and productive. And God intended for men to enjoy the fruits of their labor. If you grow the crop you get to eat from the crop. You tend the flock you get to derive benefits from the flock. You tend the garden you get to enjoy the beauty of the garden and derive satisfaction from your work.

VK: I think a lot of people forget that work is not a curse. God gave Adam work before the fall. Adam was to name all the animals and to tend the garden before the fall ever occurred. Work only became cursed after the fall. After man disobeyed God man’s productive efforts would now be laborious and not simply a matter of joyful productivity. And you can’t separate work from productivity. Well, I guess you can if you look at some businesses and government offices. But, as a general rule, work produces a product or a result and the one who works is entitled to the benefit of their productivity. In modern society we usually use money as a medium to measure the value of work and products but the basic principle remains the same. Work produces a product. That basic right to the benefit of that product belongs to the producer. And for another person to steal or use that product without the consent of the producer is theft. So, when someone commits theft they are exhibiting a disdain for the work of someone else. They are demeaning the dignity of the work and effort that someone put in to earn the money, produce a good, or generate something of value. That’s not only a disregard for the dignity of another person’s work it’s exhibiting disdain for God and His economy. We sometimes think that economic systems are human inventions but the most basic economic system is working as God commanded to obtain benefits God permitted.

RD: God’s economy makes perfect sense. It is not only reasonable it is fair and just. Now, human beings distort God’s economy in all kinds of ways. Both individual human beings and collective organizations such as governments distort God’s economy and it would be impossible to catalog all the ways they do it. But one thing is certain – a great many of those distortions violate the 8th commandment. We think the 8th commandment means you shouldn’t steal your neighbor’s bike or ball but it also means that a corrupt government shouldn’t take money that’s earned by one person and distribute it to another who refuses to work or contribute.

VK: And that’s a really important point. Now we’re not talking here about cases where people can’t work and are unable to provide for themselves. Just as the Bible is clear that theft is wrong, it is equally clear that we have a duty to provide for the poor and less fortunate. Verses from the Old Testament such as Leviticus 25:35 make this duty mandatory. And verses from the New Testament reiterate this command. James, chapter 1, verse 27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” That’s from the New International Version.

RD: So, the point of all this is that the 8th commandment, like the commandments that precede it is concerned with dignity. The 8th commandment is concerned with the dignity of work. Next time we will see that the 9th commandment is concerned with the dignity of words, speech, and truth. So, one thread that ties all of the commandments together is that are concerned with the dignity of God and the dignity of people because they are God’s image bearers. The 6th commandment is concerned with the dignity of their lives, the 7th the dignity of marriage, and the 8th the dignity of work. And one final point we should cover before we close for today is all of these observations point us back to reality of the creation record that is contained in Genesis.

VK: Well, the 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath is a clear reference to the creation story. God conducted His creative activity over a period of 6 days and rested on the 7th day. He directed that the example that He set be replicated in the lives of people. But how does the 8th commandment against theft remind us of the creation account?

RD: Because it reminds us that when God made the world part of God’s plan was that man would have a role in the created order that was different from that of all other creatures. Notice that other than giving other creatures a generalized command to reproduce God did not give them any commands or instructions. But as soon as man was created God gave man a command to “subdue” the earth and to “rule” over the birds, fish, and land animals. Said differently, God gave Adam work that went beyond simply doing what he to survive. And God always intended that man’s work would produce results some of which would belong to the producer. I say “some of which” because from the beginning man was expected to honor God with part. None of that would make sense if it had been permissible for other people to steal the results of others.

VK: It’s impossible to say what the world and the economy would have been like if the fall hadn’t occurred. It did. But we see from the first offerings that Abel and Cain brought that from the beginning God expected men to bring offerings to Him. Well, how can we bring offerings from the produce of others? We can’t. We can only offer to God that which we have produced and that means work and that means the producer is entitled to the results of their work. God built production and retention into the economy of the world and He protects the dignity of that system in part by means of the 8th commandment. We do know the 8th commandment would not have been necessary except for the fall because the 8th commandment restrains the sin that came from the fall. And that’s a topic we will to continue to explore in this series. If the ancient Israelites hadn’t been like us they wouldn’t have needed the commandments to ensure they separated their behavior from those of the people they were displacing. But they were like us. So, God wanted them have a right relationship with Him and a right relationship with each other so He gave them commandments to further that goal. Sounds like a good time to go to our God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for those who have dedicated their lives to take God’s world to all tribes, tongues, and nations so that all people may benefit from God’s grace and the Bible’s wisdom.

---- PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Opening Bible Quote from the New International Version)

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 15, New International Version