Day 77

"But the Lord said to Joshua, 'Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this? Israel has sinned and broken my covenant. They have stolen some of the things I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but they have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel has been set apart for destruction.'” Joshua 7:10-12

I don’t find the eighth commandment, Thou Shalt Not Steal, all that compelling – until I read scripture. I just want to say unequivocally that stealing from God is not a good idea. Frankly I am disturbed by what I read on the subject in scripture. God does find this commandment compelling. He’s quite serious about it, especially when we are stealing from Him.

Stealing, it appears, was the first commandment broken upon entering the Promised Land. It happened during the battle of Jericho. It was done by a man named Achan who pillaged some of the good stuff while conquering the land. It may seem trivial, but it was not. God had told the Israelites not to do that, but to collect all of the silver, gold, bronze and iron and put it in the Lord’s treasury.

God insists we comply with a few expectations. These are usually laid down by Him, without our approval, as His conditions for being our God. Don’t eat the fruit of that tree. Don’t touch the Ark of the Covenant. Don’t steal the goods from Jericho that are mine. Breaking these, it seems, brings death.

In conquering Jericho, the people were to take nothing except the land, NOTHING for their own personal gain. We are compelled to ask WHY?

I am sure Bible scholars could run circles around me on this one. This whole event of entering the Promised Land is disturbing. I know people who cite it as a reason they cannot believe in the “angry” God of the Bible. The short story is that God instructs the Israelites to kill every living thing as they take in Jericho, including men, women, children and animals. Then they are told not to pillage but to set aside all of the valuables for God’s treasury. After someone steals treasures in Jericho, God insists that the thief and his whole family be put to death, or all of the Israelites will suffer destruction instead of “promised land” living. Achan and his family, in fact, are stoned to death. God seems cruel and self serving. Is He? We have to reconcile this God with the merciful, loving God.

So, this is what I think: Entering the Promised Land was a do-over. It is the third time God planted people in an uncorrupted environment. Re-wind to the Garden of Eden, which was the first and totally uncorrupted environment, except for a certain fallen angel. Next we witnessed the flood when God spares only eight people from destruction in hopes of pushing back man’s corrupted nature, which by Noah’s time had run rampant. That didn’t work because now instead of a fallen angel lurking about we are starting over with fallen man. The Promised Land is a much smaller cleansing on earth. God wants to destroy or set aside all corruption in this one small area on earth. For the first time He actively includes mankind in the cleansing process, but even during the first battle corruption sets in with Achan stealing that which belongs to God. Is it because God needed all that silver, gold, bronze and iron? No. It is because he wanted an uncorrupted people in this new land of promise SO THAT THEY WOULD BE A LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD. It was God’s third attempt at this with us. It didn’t work. There is only one time on earth that man was not seduced by this world and He is calling us to follow Him with His Spirit’s help.

Stealing is the explicit evidence that we are grafted to the things of this world and not to the things of God. Coveting is a lesser degree of the same problem. If the followers of Christ cannot let go of the things of this world, let God provide for them only what they need, what hope is there for the rest of the world?

Let’s put aside stealing in all forms and let God decide what we need, when we need it and how we will get it. Then we will be of great use to this kingdom of Christ on earth. In Christ we are in the Promise Land, there is lots of good stuff all around us, what will we do with the valuables we find here?

Pray: Father: Stealing corrupts us. Grabbing for things in unbelief that you will provide what we need grieves your heart. Even those of us that do not steal and have little desire to grasp for things cannot really depend on you for our provision. We are self-sufficient, which is an offense to you, for all things belong to you. Wipe our eyes clean that we might have a greater vision of our life on this earth. Call us again and again to something greater than the treasures and the mundane life of this world. No, help us to stand in the Promise Land with Jesus putting all earthly treasures in your treasury. Amen.

Day 76

"You shall not steal." Exodus 20:15

"You shall not steal" is not a commandment that I personally struggle with. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because somewhere along the line someone (likely my father) instilled in me a very strong sense of right and wrong where stealing is concerned. Perhaps it’s because I’ve too often been on the receiving end of this sin – a hand-tooled silver bracelet; pictures of an entire summer spent backpacking through Europe; a VCR; a favorite shirt; my engagement ring; my words (I happened upon them on a web site in Canada - thank God for Google, I guess!); a digital camera with an irreplaceable span of my daughter’s life on the memory card; my identity (that was a whole lot of fun trying to rectify, let me tell you!); a man I loved . . . enough said about that. The list, as I think about it, seems endless.

I know all too well the utter violation of mind and soul that occurs with theft, the loss of security and trust in your fellow man that follows. After the theft of my VCR from my home, my porch lights stayed on every night for five years. It wreaked havoc with the electric bill, for sure, but offered at least a modicum of (false?) security to my mind.

So, while I struggle with many things, yes, stealing just isn’t one of them. In fact, I’m almost anti-theft. I’m the one you want to find your wallet with $1,000 tucked inside, because I’ll go to great lengths to ensure you get it back. And have . . . I don’t cheat on my taxes. I don’t pad my expense reports. I don’t "borrow" so much as a paper clip from the office without asking. That doesn’t make me a saint, mind you, just someone for whom this particular sin doesn’t seem to be a problem.

And so, having been tasked with writing not just one, but several devotionals on the subject, I’ve had a hard time coming up with something that "fits," that’s meaningful, that’s relevant. This particular devotional is no exception . . .

But here’s what I’ve observed, having been on the "front lines" of the commandments we’ve studied so far and due to be for the ones that are yet to come: they are intricately connected. Hello?! This should surprise me why? Isn’t that so like God? Isn’t that so like us that he has to tell us what he desires of us from 10 different angles before we finally (hopefully) get it?

Stealing, adultery, murder, taking the Lord’s name in vain, forgetting the Sabbath, not creating images, not honoring our mother and father – and, still to come, not bearing false witness and not coveting – all have to do with God’s first command: not having any other gods before Him. When we fall prey to any of these sins, we are really guilty of breaking the first commandment, of not putting Him first, of not trusting fully in Him, of not making Him Lord of our lives.

Wow! And it only took me 8 whole commandments to realize that . . .

p.s. to our blog readers: Hindsight is 20-20 . . . I reread this devotional after a brother kindly commented on it and realized that for someone who doesn't know me, I probably came across as a sanctimonious brat. Please know that is not my heart, nor was it my intent in writing this to convey that I am somehow above the sin of stealing, or immune from it. I most assuredly am not, and as my brother in the Lord wisely pointed out, to have that attitude makes us very vulnerable to the enemy's wiles.

My point, although I can now see how it was not conveyed very well, was that in the pecking order of personal sins that plague me, stealing is not at the top of the list, which, for the first time this summer, made it hard for me to find something to share in a devotional. And then, God, in his wisdom, revealed something important to me: that any sin we commit causes us to put Him second in our lives.

To steal a line (pun intended) from Carol Wimmer's poem, "When I say I am a Christian, I'm not claiming to be perfect; my flaws are far too visible, but God believes I'm worth it."

Pray: Father, thank you for your patience, for your perseverance, for your slowness to come to anger in teaching us the paths upon which you would have us walk. Help us, Lord, to fix your words in our hearts and minds, to tie them as symbols on our hands and bind them to our foreheads; to teach them to our children, talking about them when we sit at home and when we walk along the road; when we lie down and when we get up. Let us write them on the door frames of our houses and on our gates, to carefully observe them, and above all, to love you Lord; to walk in all your ways and to hold fast to them.

Day 75

"We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves." Romans 15:1

"Perhaps the reason why God hates stealing so much is that it is a crime which completely contradicts His character. God is gracious; the thief is greedy. God gives; the thief takes. God responds to the cries of the needy; the thief callously creates needs and tragedy. Nothing could be more contrary to the graciousness of God than the cruelty of the thief." - Bob Deffenbuagh, http://www.bible.org/

As a child, I grew quickly, reaching my current height of 5'8" by the time I was 13. I was always the tallest in my class, was eventually taller even than either of my older sisters. As a result, my clothes seldom had a chance to wear out. Each summer, my mother would pack these barely-used items and take them with us on vacation to give to my cousins in Canada.

One cousin, I’ll call Barbara, came from an affluent family. Her father owned a successful lumber business and shipbuilding yard. She had few real needs in her life.

The other, Debbie, came from a family of seven children. Her father suffered a brain injury in a car accident and was unable to provide for his family. They relied heavily on the charity of others to survive.

Barbara and Debbie lived side by side in houses that were as different as night from day. You could not visit one house without being seen by the occupants of the other, so there was no hiding our annual arrival from Barbara. And every summer, she would dive immediately into the clothing and greedily take the best items for herself, while Debbie stood meekly by waiting for her turn.

Even as a child that angered me to no end. My mother, too . . . but rather than risk making a scene with the relatives, she remained silent.

On Sunday, Rob outlined a variety of ways in which we can steal from one another. As I reflected on what he was saying, my two cousins came to mind and I thought, "Here’s yet another way that we can steal; by standing passively by and doing nothing when we see an injustice like this taking place."

Pray: Father, your word clearly tells us how we are to treat those whose needs are greater than our own. Help us to realize that in not taking action when we should, that we are stealing, from others and most of all from you.

Day 74

"If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need." Ephesians 4:28

This scripture is one of the few that you can pluck out of the Word and you don’t have to "put it in context." It sits alone and is the antidote to a life of taking, stealing and cheating. It is wisdom for counselors who might otherwise spend months, if not years, helping a person understand what drives the stealing and cheating. It can be very helpful to uncover the cause for stealing, grieve the hole in one’s life and move on; but to complete the healing it has to come full circle. The thief must become the philanthropist to be free.

How do we make a change like this in life? It starts with a decision to take it on day in and day out until we come through the other side. Any time we are tempted we need to do more than try and not fall into the temptation. We need to turn around, stare it down, seize the moment and fight. The fight that Paul suggests, and Rob brought to our attention, is to walk out the opposite way of living. If we are tempted to steal from our income taxes, let’s stop it, but also combat the urge by giving a double portion to charity. Let’s rid ourselves of these heart problems that plague us. God will be with us in this fight.

It reminds me of something I recently read. Leonard Sweet, in his book The Church of the Perfect Storm, outlines a five-point plan for surviving a storm at sea.

-Lift anchor and go into the deep
-Steer into the storm
-Throw extra cargo overboard
-Lash yourself to the mast
-Enjoy the ride

The storms of life are often internal. Paul describes it well when he says, "I want to do what is right, but instead I do the very thing I hate." The more we try to run from our storm the more likely we are to drown in it. Steer into the storm. Lash yourself to Jesus.

Sweet points out that during snowstorms cows try to outrun the storm or lie down until the storm passes, while buffalo turn, put their heads down and walk into it. Statistically buffalo have a much greater chance of surviving a storm than cows. Let’s be buffalos.

It doesn’t matter which commandment we struggle with. I once heard someone teach that stealing is an underlying problem with breaking all of the commandments. In the first we are stealing from God and His rightful place in our life. In committing adultery we are stealing from our spouse. In cheating on our income taxes we are stealing from the government, and by extension our neighbor. We may struggle with all of the commandments, but there may be some we need to tackle first. Go into the deep. Face and conquer this weakness. God is with us. He is our mast. If we need help in the flesh, let’s get it. The first storm we may have to go into is the storm of pride in asking for help. Let’s get out of the closet. It’s time we shared our troubles with others who can help.

The flip side of the original sin of pride is shame. Satan successfully shamed Eve, causing a counter action. Let’s not just counter our failure to follow the commandments with a cessation of bad behavior, let’s be buffalo and walk through to the other side and become, in the case of this commandment, known for our hard work and generosity.

Father: Would you convict each of us of the one thing in our lives you want us to fight against. Please make it very clear and help us to know you are with us in this fight. Help me not to ever slander another person again (coming soon). Make me into a person that speaks well of everyone. If we need help in the flesh please keep convicting us of this until we are willing to release our pride, feel our shame, and grasp for help. How grateful we are that you are relentless in your desire to heal us and bring us into freedom.

Day 73

"All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:40

When Rob read all those weird laws on Sunday, it got me to thinking about the comparative simplicity of the Ten Commandments. In fact, in the beginning, it was even simpler. God gave us just two laws:

1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

That's it. What a gift to memorizers! But we couldn't handle two laws. That was too simple. Too vague. We like our laws to be more precise. Besides, we kept breaking those. So God gave us some help. He broke it down into the ten very basic rules that we're spending 91 days studying. Surely we could deal with those. We might even still be able to memorize them. (We might forget "covet" from time to time, but that's not as important as the rest anyway.)

But we weren't content with that either. We had to improve on what God gave us. Thus we got the dozens of laws that the Pharisees heaped on the Jews of their day. Little nits about what to tithe, how far to walk on the Sabbath, what to wash and when, ad nauseum.

Thank God we're more sophisticated than that today! Oops. I'd estimate that those rules now number in the thousands, unwritten prohibitions ranging from dancing and card-playing to R-rated movies and voting for Democrats. You can probably think of a few more.

This is our modern Talmud. By these rules we can be assured of living holy lives, pleasing God, and not being judged by the fellow in the next pew. How did we get here? From two simple laws, we've developed a convoluted web of restrictions and requirements that only serve to frustrate followers and scare off seekers.

It all goes to prove the words of G. K. Chesterton. "When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws." And you get lots of 'em. Such as not giving Cubans to your Shih Tzu in Zion, CA.

Is it too late to go back to basics? Can we recapture the Eden of the two Big Laws? If so, we can be assured that the Ten Commandments (and even a lot of the little laws) will come naturally.

But your Bassett hound will be on his own for his smokes. . .

Prayer: Dear God who is Love, it wasn't supposed to be like this. You created us to be free. Free to love you and to love one another. But the Grand Inquisitor in all of us is afraid of freedom. We asked for a king and we got one. As a result, we are enslaved once more. In Jesus, you gave us a new Exodus. Freedom from sin. Freedom from the law. Freedom to love you and one another. Let us accept this gift and cherish it by not "improving" it. Amen.

Day 72

"If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic." Luke 6:29

There Jesus goes again, turning everything on its head in His Sermon on the Mount.

The Big 10 tells us not to steal. Jesus tells us to be complicit in our own mugging. Or, as Rob told us, give it away before it's taken away. What we give away can't be stolen. The verse above is one of those inconvenient commands Jesus gave us that we conveniently pretend aren't there. Are we any better than the rich young ruler who walked away from Christ's command to him? I'm not sure I see the difference. If anything, it's merely a matter of scale.

In truth, we don't give anything away. All we have belongs to God. We are only stewards. It's all there for His use. If we hold onto too much for ourselves, we're actually stealing from God. Sounds harsh, but that's the way the prophet put it. (Malachi 3:8-9) That's a place I don't wanna be.

One more thing: The barriers to theft have been all but demolished by technology. Few of us would rip off a convenience store, but some don't think twice before ripping MP3s or downloading movies. That's theft, but we pretend it isn't because it's so easy. Besides, everyone's doing it. (Why does that matter again?) How about plagiarism, i.e. stealing another's words? Besides stealing, there's also pornography, gambling, slander, etc., etc. Technology has revealed weaknesses we may not have even been aware of.

This failing on our part was pointed out long ago by Mark Twain, hardly a Christ follower, when he wrote, "The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire." The fire in this case is the easy access that technology provides. Or in the words of another irreligious pundit, Oscar Wilde: "'I can resist anything, except temptation." Sad that we so often find ourselves thrown in with that lot. Jesus deserves better from us.

Prayer: Lead me not into temptation. But when temptation comes, which I acknowledge it will, show me the way out that you have already provided. Amen.

Day 71

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." James 1:17

One of my sisters once observed that, "we tend to parent from our youthful absences," meaning that we strive to provide for our children the very things we feel were missing from our own childhood.

For our father, a child of the Depression Era, this tendency was most visible when it came to material things. Both his parents had struggled to eke out a living, but there was seldom money enough for the necessities in his childhood home, never mind the extras. In short, he grew up in poverty.

Growing up, we weren’t exactly wealthy, either. We never lacked for the basic things, but my father managed his money carefully and the indulgences in our house were few. Come Christmas, however, he always worked hard to make up for that. Many of our presents were of the utilitarian variety – socks, sweaters, pajamas – but he also made sure there was at least one, sometimes two, cherished items for each of us waiting under the tree on Christmas morning. He watched us open these gifts with joy, a grin spreading wide across his face. It was only in later years that I realized how very much these moments meant to him.

When I was seven and my sisters were 11 and 12, my parents left the house one Christmas Eve to do some last-minute shopping. By then, we all knew that Santa Claus was a myth. We also knew that our carefully wrapped presents were stashed in our parents’ closet. As we collectively wondered what each of us might get that year, temptation and curiosity overtook us. We sneaked into their room, opened the closet, and tore a tiny hole in each present, "cleverly" patching it up again with Scotch tape. We giggled with guilty glee in anticipation of Christmas morning, when we could open our gifts for real.

My parents had only been home a short time when my 6' 4" father stormed out of the bedroom and down the hallway toward us, his anger flashing violently like lightning in a summer sky. "SNEAK and PEEKS!" he roared. "That’s ALL you are! SNEAK and PEEKS! You little THIEVES!"

Our hearts trembled in fear.

"GET INTO YOUR BEDROOMS, NOW!" he yelled. "I CAN’T EVEN STAND THE SIGHT OF YOU! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO CANCEL CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!"

Lying on my bed, tears streaming down my face, the memory of the Easy Bake Oven I’d glimpsed slowly ebbed away and I wondered what it was we’d done to upset him so.

There are so many ways to rob and steal . . .

My father relented by morning and we had our Christmas after all. Our heads hanging in shame we opened our gifts – I, my Easy Bake Oven, my sisters their Mattel "Creepy Crawlers" and SkilCraft chemistry set (that later burned a hole in my sisters’ bedroom floor). But Christmas that year was absent of its usual joy.

Once I got past the trauma of it all, I realized that I’d learned a very valuable lesson that day, about the give and take of life, about it not always being about ourselves. My heart went out to my father, and I forgave him his outburst, the terror he created in our hearts. I also vowed that I would never, ever make someone feel that way again.

Pray: Father, we know that every good and perfect gift in our lives comes from you. We also know that there are times when we rob you of the joy that these gifts were intended to impart in our lives, to impart to you. Forgive us. Open our eyes, Lord, to see your heart, your intent, your desire, to give only good things to your children.

Commandment #8 (Sermon)

Commandment #8
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August 9, 2009 Speaker: Rob Strong