Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.”
God has delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; however, they have a long way to go before they will become a holy nation. While adultery was very common in Egypt and was frequently overlooked, theft, on the other hand, was considered a major crime. According to an article on the National Geographic web site entitled “Power flowed from the pharaoh in the ancient Egyptian legal system,” the ancient Egyptians recognized theft as a serious crime. The article states, “When people were convicted of crimes, the penalties depended both on the severity of the offense and their level of involvement. The typical penalty for stealing was returning the stolen object and paying its rightful owner double or triple its value. If someone stole from a temple, however, the punishment was more severe: it could include paying a hundred times the value of the object, corporal punishment, or even death.”
If the Egyptians recognized theft as a major crime, then why is God making a specific commandment about it? Consider the fact that the Egyptians gradually turned the Israelites into slaves. At that point, the Israelites may have felt that stealing things from the Egyptians was a form of guerrilla warfare, of subtly getting revenge on the Egyptians. By the time the Israelites left Egypt, they may have been stealing on a wholesale basis. Once the Israelites began stealing from the Egyptians, they may also have begun stealing from one another as well. God has to put a stop to theft somehow, and this is His opening statement. Later on, God gives far more specific commands regarding theft and its consequences.
APPLICATION: Ask most of us if we are honest and we will immediately answer, “Of course! I’m no thief!” But is that really true? One lady who was coaching a kid’s swimming team told of an irate mother who called her up, complaining that someone had stolen the child’s towel at swim practice. When asked for a description of the towel, the mother had stated that the towel said “Holiday Inn” on it, indicating that this family had stolen the towel during a stay in that hotel!
Businesses that supply pens, paper clips, and other office supplies for their workers find that many of these supplies take legs and walk away. Frequently, workers excuse themselves on the basis that they are underpaid or under – valued and therefore somehow they are justified in taking small things.
Some people commit shoplifting on a large scale. When my husband was working as a security guard in a department store in Memphis, one elderly lady entered in a wheel chair being pushed by her daughter. It rapidly became apparent that the wheelchair and the large bag hanging from it were only a means to stealing as much as possible, while the afghan covering the lady’s legs was also covering a variety of stolen goods!
What harm is there in stealing? Actually, theft hurts the thief and society as a whole. People steal for a variety of reasons, but the underlying principle is that they refuse to trust that God will help them and so they are going to help themselves. The more you steal, the more you diminish yourself.
Theft obviously damages society. In recent years, politicians receiving adequate salaries have found their names on the lists of millionaires and billionaires. In many cases this money has come from political kickbacks, pay-offs, or other unsavory practices. “Public service” has become a bitter joke.
It’s all very well to point fingers at others, but what are you doing? As I write this, I am cringing at the memory of having drunk cans of Ensure from a hospital refrigerator when I was a resident on call many years ago. At the time I saw nothing wrong; now I realize that someone had to account for that and that I was stealing. Ask God to show you if there are places where you have been stealing and have made excuses for yourself. And then ask God’s forgiveness and help to stop doing those things.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for your commandments! Thank you for loving us so much that you don’t want us to wallow in sin like a pig in mud. Open our eyes to see the places where we have stolen – whether time, money, resources, or anything else. And help us to change so that our actions will please you. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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