Sermon Deuteronomy 5:19 “You Shall Not Steal”
New Covenant Church
April 29, 2018
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In the 1981 movie, “History of the World Part 1” Mel Brooks portrayed Moses ascending the mountain of God to receive the ten commandments. According to Brooks, God wrote fifteen commandments on three stone tablets and gave them to Moses. But as Moses came down the mountain he stumbled and fell. One of the tablets shattered into a million pieces. Then, according to Mel Brooks, Moses continued down the mountain where he told the people that there were only ten commandments on two tablets.
With this somewhat doubtful history in mind, let us continue our look at the ten commandments. And today we look at the eighth commandment about respecting private property. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Deuteronomy 5:1 Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.
19 “You shall not steal.”
The eighth commandment prohibits the taking of property owned by someone else. You are not permitted to steal what belongs to another. The Hebrew word here is very broad. It refers to the stealing of anything, including a person, something we would call kidnapping.
The biblical punishment for stealing is that you must compensate the victim and pay punitive damages. We read this in the Book of Exodus.
Exodus 22:1 “Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.
So you must compensate the victim for the lost animal and then add either four cattle or three sheep for every animal stolen. Obviously many people who stole were poor and could not pay these fines. If so they were required to work for the person they ripped off. This was called slavery. You could enslave yourself to your victim for up to seven years to pay a debt.
What is most surprising about the eighth commandment is that it applies to everyone. In most ancient civilizations the king owned everything. And if the king already owned everything he could not be accused of stealing. But God gave the property to families. This land stayed in families generation to generation forever. The land was not owned by a king. So the economic system of the Bible is one based on private property. Individuals owned the means of producing an income for themselves and family. And the government could not take this away.
Eventually, the people of God decided that they wanted a king for protection from their enemies. So they went to the Prophet Samuel to ask God for a king. When the people told Samuel that they wanted a king here is the warning they got from God.
1 Samuel 8:10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
So God’s warning to the people was that a King will ignore the biblical principle of private property and will effectively steal the property God had given them. A King would steal their sons and daughters. A King would steal the best of the harvest. A King would steal their land. And so they were warned. If they were to have a King that King must respect the biblical principle of private property.
One King who went too far and ignored the biblical principle of private property was King Ahab of Israel. In the story you heard earlier, King Ahab wanted to own a field in Jezreel to feed his army. But Naboth, the property owner refused to sell his land. Queen Jezebel, with no respect for biblical principles, advised her husband to steal it by having its owner, Naboth, murdered. For stealing the property and murdering the owner both Ahab and Jezebel died horrible deaths as predicted by the great prophet Elijah.
The biblical principle of private property stood and remains standing today.
This principle of private property is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America. In the Fifth Amendment we read:
“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
According to the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the biblical principle of private property is the law of the land. Your land and personal possessions belong to you. If the government takes anything from you it would be in clear violation of the both the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and the Eighth Commandment in our Bibles. The government would be stealing from you unless they need your property for a legitimate public use and compensate you fairly. For example, if Delaware is building a new road and needs a portion of your corn field they may take it for the road provided that you are fairly compensated.
As we saw with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel governments are always pushing to take more and more. Communist countries reject the biblical principle of private property completely. They replaced it with communal property where all property is jointly owned. Of course, this means that the government owns everything. Karl Marx rejected the biblical principle of private property by saying that religion is the opiate of the masses.
Although the United States enshrines the biblical principle of private property as an inalienable human right, there has been some pressure to violate it. Throughout the 1950s and 60s the Supreme Court repeatedly expanded what the government could take for public use and still be in compliance with the fifth amendment. The biggest threat to private property came in 2005 in a Supreme Court decision in Kelo vs. New London.
In this decision the Supreme Court allowed the city of New London, Ct. to take property from homeowners. The city did not want to use the property for a school or a road. Rather they wanted to take the property from its owners and give it to another owner because the new owner would use the property to benefit the public. In a 5 to 4 decision the Supreme Court allowed New London to take the property from homeowners and give it to a developer.
The private developer wanted the property to build a commercial riverwalk in conjunction with a facility used by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. The homeowners wanted to stay in their homes. The city wanted to take the homes from the homeowners and give it to a developer. And the Supreme Court said they could do it.
So what happened? The homeowners didn’t want to move. The city had to pay millions to relocate them. The developer lost his financing and abandoned the project. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals merged with another company and left New London. And the former neighborhood is now a vacant lot. Since the Supreme Court decision, 44 states have passed laws upholding the biblical principle of private property and prohibiting local governments from taking people’s property without a clear public need.
There is a movie, currently in theaters, about what happened in New London, Ct. It is called “Little Pink House” Let’s look at a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUptZEZdT-M
Thankfully, God has given us the biblical principle of private property. We own our stuff. To take our property away from us is stealing in violation of the eighth commandment. Governments may not take our property without a compelling public purpose and with just compensation. We live in a country where private property is an inalienable right protected by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. But we must be ever watchful that we don’t lose the right of private property that God has given us.
With the right to private property, we must respect the eighth command. We must not steal what someone else owns. We must be content with what we have. But we must also be generous and care for the poor and the needy and the widow and the orphan. No one should have to steal to survive. God wants everyone loved and cared for. So don’t be stingy. Tithe to the church. And support ministries like Our Daily Bread and Neighborhood House. Use the private property God has given you as a blessing to be a blessing for others. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, we thank you for the property you have given us. We thank you for our homes and cars and clothes and children and grandchildren and great children. Protect us from those who would steal from us. Help us to respect the private property of others and always obey the eighth commandment. Amen.
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