Either Way It’s Not Yours
Exodus 20:15
There is a lot more to the eighth commandment than its few words might suggest. As with
the others, this one takes us to the character of God and His image in our lives. We need
to understand both.
The Eighth Commandment is brief, it seems to be uncomplicated. But what I am learning
is that it really is not simple. It simply says in Exodus 20, “You shall not
steal.”
I have been thinking about theft lately. I imagine we could go around the room and tell
our stories. When I was in sixth grade, back when it took shoveling a few driveways to get
a dollar I had a kid over after school I kind of wanted to get to know. I had a dollar
sitting on my dresser. A dollar was quite a bit to me. When he went home that day, so did
the dollar. I noticed it was missing right away because I always pay close attention to
something like that. I asked my mother what I should do, because I know that kid ripped me
off. My mother gave me good counsel. She said call him first, tell him if you don’t
get your dollar back you are telling his Mom. I got my dollar back.
When I was in school in Portland, I went to go to school and noticed that the front
door of the car was slightly ajar. Hanging down beneath the dash were just wires. The tape
deck was gone. I was ripped off.
Have you ever been ripped off? Just plain ripped off? Burglarized or vandalized, or
victimized somehow? There is an anger and a helplessness that you can’t quite put
your fingers on that seems to pervade the soul. Correct? If only! Oh, I wish I could have
caught him! Oh, I wish I could have seen him!
The idea of theft, taking something that is not ours, has played to different reviews
down through history and in different cultures. Sometimes stealing has been regarded as
virtuous. For instance, in the Native American culture you steal the horses from the other
guy -- that is a good thing. Or Robin Hood -- he is a hero because he robbed from the rich
and gave to the poor. The sheriff of Nottingham couldn’t catch him and that was good.
He was a thief, but a good thief, wasn’t he?
Sometimes theft is sort of funny, like school rivalries when the glorious and virtuous
cadets from the U.S. Military Academy steal that goat from Annapolis just prior to the
Army Navy game. That’s a good thing. That’s a funny thing, sort of.
We can get confused too. I remember watching westerns and every time, without
exception, on a western movie, whoever it was robbed the stage or the train was always the
bad guy. Then time goes by and they start making movies where in a casino in Vegas the
thieves are the good guys. I wonder about that. It could be confusing.
My uncle has been in the convenience store business. He was telling my dad, his
brother, how he learned that you really have to watch those delivery people. He said with
these guys it’s like a game. When they add up the invoice and submit to you a bill,
if they can somehow add in the date or the invoice number to the total and get you to pay
it, that’s cool. So check them! Watch that. My dad knew a guy who was a bread truck
delivery man. He said to him one day after church, “Is this true? My brother is
telling me about adding up the tally of your delivery and if you can get the date or the
invoice number or whatever else in there and rip them off, that’s kind of a game and
you like to do that?” The guy said, “Well, they’re supposed to check
you.”
So here come the Christians, and sometimes we play the game too. Sometimes with taxes,
sometimes with software, sometimes with downloading copyrighted material illegally.
Sometimes, as in the Bitterroot Valley, with water. We pad our accounts, perhaps. The list
could go on and on. It seems people who are churchgoers revel and celebrate the unchanging
standards of an unchanging God, but sometimes miss the mark. We get confused perhaps, but
we sin. We violate this very simple command, “You shall not steal.”
I think when we do that we forget something about the Ten Commandments or about that
one in particular we find so easy to forget. That is, these are more than expressions of
what God wants. These are an expression of what God wants based on who God is. It all goes
back to His character. God says you shall not steal, because God owns everything.
That’s why for you and me, our goal, our design needs to be to remember the
distinction between who owns it, that is --God, and who manages -- that’s us. Who is
the owner and who is the manager.
I used to work at a goldmine. For some reason the owner of the mine figured the
preacher would be the right one to do the refining of the gold. We would refine this gold
out of solution and come away with pouring this molten slag into this cone and dump it.
Sure enough, you dump the cone after the hot slag is poured in and there’s a gold
button sitting there looking at you. I don’t know how many times I had people say,
“Did you carry any of those buttons home with you?”
We had a leach operation going. Someone had to deal with the cyanide. It came in 55
gallon drums. They are snow white briquettes, the same size and shape as a charcoal
briquette except snow white. These drums have to be rolled up a ramp and the bricketts
dumped into a 1000-gallon holding tank where they dissolve, then are sprinkled on the
leach pad. James was young, a year or 18 months old and here I am completely decked out,
respirator, rubber suit and everything rolling this barrel up this ramp, opening the lid,
staring into 55 gallons of instant death, dust swirling about, thinking to myself, for $6
an hour I am keenly aware of the difference between owning and managing.
There is a difference between owning and managing and when we steal, when anyone
steals, that distinction is lost and somehow we have adulterated the notion of who
actually is the owner. That is the issue. The sanctity of stewardship is what theft is all
about. We will clearly improve our relationship with the living God as we grasp that
difference.
Ownership
True ownership is God’s rightful position. It is His. It is unrivaled. It is
undisputed. When Jesus told parables, God, in Jesus’ parables, in always the owner.
Matthew 20 begins with a parable, laborers in the vineyard. It talks about the kingdom of
heaven is like a landowner. We know who He is as we read the parable and come to grips
with who the players represent. A landowner who went out early in the morning to hire
laborers for his vineyard. The ownership issue is clear. He had agreed with the laborers
for a denarius for the day and he sent them into the vineyard.
The point of the parable is as the day progresses more guys are standing around. He
continues to hire more guys. He pays them all the same. The guy he hires at 8 in the
morning gets paid the same as the guy who got hired at 4 in the afternoon. He is paying
the later guys first and he gives them what he told them he would. The earlier guys are
thinking if they started earlier and the later guys started at 4, I’ve been here
since 8 in the morning, I should gets lots more. But he paid them a denarius. That’s
the point -- when you are the owner, you are the boss and you make the rules. End of
lesson.
Matthew 21:33 -- the idea here is to ingrain in our brains the exclusive ownership of
God.
33"Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard
and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out
to vine-growers and went on a journey.
There is an owner and renters, tenant farmers. Harvest time approached and he sent
slaves to collect. They beat them up, killed them. Then Jesus puts the question: finally
they kill the heir. Jesus said what should be done when the owner shows up.
The scoundrels should be done away with after what they have done. The owner’s
prerogative is to make the rules and certainly to enforce them. Perhaps the best known of
Jesus’ parables along these lines is in Matthew 25. If we only remember this we will
be way ahead.
14"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own
slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.
That makes him the owner and they the hirelings. This is God and us the way it is
supposed to be represented. He entrusts five talents to one, another gets two, and third
one has one. They are supposed to do something productive and fruitful with them because
there will be a day of accounting when the owner comes back and says to these people,
“What have you done with what I gave you?” They are supposed to give an account.
Why? Because it is his stuff, not theirs. They are supposed to use it. They are supposed
to invest it. They are even allowed to enjoy it. But eventually they will need to account
for it. That’s what the parable is about.
Psalm 24 is a Psalm of David. David was the king. David had whatever David wanted. That
wasn’t a problem and yet it was David in Psalm 24 who said, “The earth is the
Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” It is all His. The world and those who dwell
in it. David correctly put his finger on who the legitimate owner of all was. Of course,
he knew it was the Lord. By the way, when David later fell into sin, when he looked from
his rooftop and saw Bathsheba he decided to take advantage of his kingship and her
subservience, orchestrated adultery and the murder of her husband, all kinds of defrauding
and all kinds of sin. The charge against David in II Samuel was David, you were not
satisfied with what I have let you use. You wanted more.
Psalm 50 -- God says:
10"For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11"I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.
12"If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
He owns it!
In the early going of Dallas Theological Seminary where later people like Howard
Hendricks and Chuck Swindoll and others would be trained, when that seminary was just
getting started it was going on a shoestring. It’s God’s shoestring so it is
fine, but the seminary was in serious financial straits at one point. H.A. Ironside was
one of the early founders. They called a great big school-wide, faculty, staff, everybody
prayer meeting because the school needed money or it wasn’t going to be able to keep
its doors open.
They all gathered around and Harry Ironside, famous preacher, got up to pray. His
prayer was very short and very simple and, as it turned out, all that was necessary. Dr.
Ironside bowed his head and said, “Lord, your Word says that you own the cattle on a
thousand hills. We would appreciate it if you would sell a few and send us the money.
Amen.”
Within no time a check arrived from, yes, a cattleman who had felt burdened to sell a
few and send the money. The point is, Dr. Ironside understood what the Bible teaches. The
earth is the Lord’s, the fullness thereof. It is His and we need to submit to that in
our thinking.
I have three reasons why God is owner of everything, according to the Bible.
First, God is owner by virtue of the fact that He is the designer and the creator. Does
that sound simple? Genesis 1:1 begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.” He spoke into being all that is. The most inexplicable and unfathomable
of all the mysteries of all time happened then. The mere power of His Word and the design
of His will spoke worlds into existence. It is an amazing thought. Whose are they? Who was
there to compete with Him. Certainly, no one.
He said, “Let there be light.” Big lights, little lights. Let there be water.
Lots of water. I am told that the Marianas Trench is deeper than Mount Everest is high. It
is all His, from top to bottom, from one end to the next. All the land, all the water, all
the fish, all the snakes, all the animals, everything. God had no consultants. God
didn’t need to go to a bank to get a loan. There was no committee to draft anything.
It was simply God creating. All His.
I like how the book of Job ends, with God making a point after Job and his friends had
their dialogue and their agony together. None of them had a complete picture, although Job
was more accurate than the rest. What Job clamored for throughout the book was an audience
with God. Please God, I just want an audience with you so I can get an answer to some of
my questions. God actually showed up and at that point Job forgot all about his questions.
God showed up and it was God who asked the questions. Questions like these -- imagine
hearing this from God.
“Gird up your loins like a man and let Me ask you a few things and you instruct
Me.” Job is thinking I just brought a knife to a gunfight. God is saying that’s
an understatement. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Who
sets its measurements?, Job, since you seem to know. Who stretched out the chalkline on it
and made straight what’s straight. On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its
cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted? Where
were you, Job?
He goes on. Who enclosed the seas with its doors, when I made a cloud its garment, when
I placed boundaries on the ocean and said you can go this far and no further. Have you
ever in your life, Job, commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place. Have
you entered into the springs of the sea? Have you walked the recesses of the deep? On and
on He goes.
What is He saying? He is overwhelming Job with the reminder that “this is all
Mine. I thought it up. I made it. For My pleasure, I made it.”
God is owner first by virtue of His being designer and creator. Secondly, God does all
the maintenance.
Colossians 1 -- a mind-boggling passage.
By Him all things were created in the heavens and on earth.
Things we cannot see and things we can. The visible, the invisible, thrones, dominions,
rulers, authorities -- it doesn’t matter -- the categories, the hierarchies. We
attach these, it doesn’t matter. God has made them all, owns them all. All things
have been created by Him and for Him. That pretty much says it all.
He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
Those laws of physics we study are His laws. Those forces of the higher heavens that
keep the planets in their orbit and in their rotation, that keep the stars burning with
the tremendous heat we cannot even begin to fathom, the distances involved, all into the
continuum of life in this universe from the vastness of space down to the heartbeat of a
mosquito -- He keeps it going. It is His.
He maintains all things. I think of that in the fall when the leaves turn color. I
think of that in the winter when the seasons change and the snows come and in the spring
when life returns. The cycles of nature, the cycles of life are His. He has created it and
He maintains it.
Third reason God is owner. He is also responsible for the demolition. I grew up in a
really nice house. My dad strained to get us into it and to keep us in it and after I
graduated from high school, to my horror, he sold it. It was a large house in a beautiful
spot on the shore of Lake Pend O’reille outside Sandpoint, Idaho. He bought it in
1967 and he sold it in 1974 to a family who owned it up until last year. I learned
recently that that gentleman finally sold it for lots and lots of money. He sold this five
bedroom, 3-˝ bath, 40 year old house for all this money and the new owners immediately
tore it down. They had other plans. They can do that. It’s theirs. They own it,
humanly speaking. They bought it and if they want to tear it down or burn it up or put
chickens in it, it’s theirs to do because they own it.
Revelation 4 is enlightening for us. Certain things only the owner has a right to do.
One of those is demolition. Notice in the last verse of Revelation 4 -- this is the
heavenly scene, the courtroom of heaven and God is being rightfully worshipped by the
heavenly host. Here is what they are saying in verse 11:
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for
Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.
We read that verse and think, yes, we can go along with that. God wanted it, God
designed it, God created it, God sustained it, but do we realize what happens beginning in
Revelation 5. The rest of the book comes into play because now Revelation 4:11 leads to
Revelation 5:1. In my opinion there is an unfortunate chapter break there because what is
happening is an ongoing event. Now we have a book sealed up with seven seals and no one
found who could open it. They looked everywhere. John the Apostle is weeping large tears
because no one could open this scroll and look into it.
We can understand why he is crying because this scroll in the hand of him who sat on
the throne represents, dare I say it, the title deed to all creation. How do we know?
Because when it finally is opened, judgment falls. Cataclysmic, bad stuff from the sky and
the earth and the kingdoms of the earth begin to experience the judgment of God as He
begins the process of what Peter says is rolling it all up with fire in preparation for
yet a new one. It is His to do.
Who can open the book? Only the Lamb who was slain. If we read in Revelation 5, how do
you get to open the book, Lamb? We know that to be Jesus. The Bible says because You were
slain and You bought it with Your blood. So You get to open it, it’s Yours. He is the
owner and only the owner has that right.
Bringing it down to where we live today: Sometime you have to fill this out on a form
like an application for something. The question sometimes appears: Do you rent or do you
own? I like to think I own because I pay a mortgage, so I am the owner. No, actually if
push came to shove, the bank or the mortgage company or somebody else actually would come
and pick me up and move me off because I am not the owner. Just try not making your
payments; you’ll find out who the owner is eventually. They will find you.
But I have it paid off! It’s mine. I burned that mortgage. OK, so just quit paying
your taxes and you’ll see soon enough who comes along and says it really is not
yours. Doesn’t that just gravel you? Who owns it? Well, I guess the government. Who
puts the government there and who is it that the Bible says raises up kings and kingdoms
and deposes them.
God owns it. The bottom line -- God owns it. Job had it right. When his wife, after Job
had lost everything, children, possessions, everything, health, his wife came and
challenged him to say, Job, curse God and die. Get it over with. He said, “You speak
as one of the foolish women speaks.” He was being kind. A foolish woman would be one
who speaks without reference to God being in the equation. That’s what he is saying
here. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not adversity? The Lord gives, the
Lord takes away. Job said naked I came into this world, naked I will go out. Blessed be
the name of the Lord.
Job understood. Job had more than most, but he understood that it was not his. He
understood before there was an IRS, before there was a mortgage lender. Job understood who
the owner was. He knew it was not him and he knew it was the God in whom he had put his
faith. We really are not owners, we are managers. We are stewards. We are those to whom
God has entrusted certain items, certain responsibilities. Matthew 25 says certain
talents, if you will. That’s our place. Our place is stewardship. Theft occurs when
we get these confused. Theft occurs when we overstep as stewards and fancy ourselves to be
owners.
When we take over with regard to property, whether it is someone else’s or our
own, we stand in position before God as a thief and He very clearly says, You shall not
steal.
We’ll talk about stewardship in a week. We’ll talk about taxes, money, and
things. I find it interesting and enlightening and actually I find it liberating to be
reminded that God is the one who owns. He will take responsibility. We simply manage. I
think it is interesting too that our Lord Jesus was crucified not between two adulterers
or two idolators, but between two thieves. One kingdom standing against another.