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POSTED 20 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Days of Awe: Day Eight

by Mark Huey
mhuey@outreachisrael.net

Psalm 145; Job 42:1-17; Exodus 20:15

The Eighth Commandment prohibits stealing. Interestingly, the punishment for stealing people or kidnapping is a capital offense, but when someone steals goods, then restitution is possible on various levels. One proverb describes the mercy extended by those who understand that stealing sometimes is necessary for human survival or sustenance:

“Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house” (Proverbs 6:30-31).

However, stealing on whatever level is still forbidden by the Decalogue. The Holy One has simply stated that one should not steal because He knows that the proliferation of stealing will upset the order of labor, as people are rewarded by the fruit of their work. Yet, even in Judeo-Christian influenced cultures, the amount of crime that falls in the category of “stealing” is mind-boggling. For many reasons, there appears to be a hardening of hearts toward this command as the free enterprise system stimulated by capitalism strives to encourage people to have more and more things, that are often beyond the earning capacity of most. The ability for Madison Avenue and the purveyors of perceived “need” for products and services, have been indirectly responsible for stimulating the incidence of thievery on many levels.

But before focusing on what you lose by stealing, perhaps another reading of Psalm 145 will remind us once again of whom we serve and His mercy toward us:

“A Psalm of Praise, of David. I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, and Your godly ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts and the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever” (Psalm 145:1-21).

The Eighth Commandment

“You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

There exists in every society the innate understanding that stealing is wrong. Somehow wired into the genetic coding of humanity, from the Fall when the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was consumed, the human soul knows that stealing is wrong. Yet it is from that very prohibition Adam received in Eden, when he was told not to eat the fruit from one tree, that he exhibited his will and partook of the forbidden fruit. This defiant act, in reaction to Eve’s beguilement by the serpent, required expulsion from the Garden:

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die’” (Genesis 2:15-17).

Eve, the wife of Adam, looked upon the beauty of the forbidden fruit. Having been deceived by the serpent, she willfully stole the fruit from the tree and ate it, perhaps believing that she could get away with her indiscretion:

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6).

It seems that stealing, a result of eating the forbidden fruit, could be considered the first larcenous act ever committed by humans, it certainly reflects what is in the heart of those who venture to take something from someone else—even if the prohibition has been clearly understood. Eve looked upon what obviously looked good for food. It must have looked especially good, because it delighted her eyes. She knew that it would make her wise, or at least improve her status. She freely grabbed one of the pieces of fruit and ate it. In like manner, her husband Adam chose to be her accomplice, and he took what she gave him and ate it. Without getting into all of the theological implications and theories about what was going on between Adam and Eve, suffice it to say they willfully stole a piece of forbidden fruit.

All human beings inherit the nature and characteristics of fallen Adam. Since Adam and Eve were able to so readily choose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the propensity to want to take things that do not belong to you is inherent in the fallen nature of their descendants. Hence, by extension, it became imperative for the Holy One to prohibit His creatures from stealing, knowing that the tendency to steal is endemic from the very Garden of Eden.

Of course, we know that the issue of covetousness is embodied later in the Tenth Commandment. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul elaborates on how the Torah is to convict us of our sin:

“For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful” (Romans 7:5-13).[1]

Wanting something that is not yours, and then executing the act of stealing, completes the cycle of covetousness that leads to stealing. When you find yourself stealing something—if you are spiritually minded—then you should be convicted to the core.

Is it possible that the Holy One of Israel is keeping an account of every time we break His laws and that one day we will be held accountable for those we have not confessed and repented of? I am not sure how it will all work out, but during this season of repentance, I am asking Him to bring to mind even the smallest of indiscretions that might be in my thought life, so that I can confess my sin to Him and avoid His displeasure either now or in the future. Without any reservation, I am reminded of the proverb that says so much regarding our station in life, and how we should be thankful for where the Father currently has us economically, which incidentally is one of the primary reasons for stealing:

“Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).

Rather than profane the name of our God through our actions, let our lives instead be a sweet savor of prayer seeking righteousness before His holy throne. May He purify us, and let us steal only moments of time when we can seek to commune with Him from the bottom of our hearts.

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.

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