December 11: The Eighth of Ten

As a little boy this was the most important command. I memorized all of the Commandments but I did not grasp or apply them like I did the 8th command. Exodus 20:15, “you shall not steal.” I guess it was because every Saturday when our family went grocery shopping I would see men stop at the grape counter and steal a grape or two. I was tempted also, but I worked hard at not yielding.
The temptation to take something that does not belong to you never goes away and many things seem especially appealing. If we hear someone else being praised constantly we want to say something that will take away some of the glow. If we see someone getting promotions or pay increases we want to say something about the unfairness of it all. The “yes, but” rebuttal is one of the best tools of thievery; “he is a nice person, but”. There, we haven’t really said anything bad but we sowed the doubt as to the quality of the other person. Some of us who would never steal a grape or anything material yet don’t mind stealing from another person’s good name. Or maybe we are tempted to steal the praise that rightfully belongs to someone else; that is, we get praised at Church for doing good work that really has been done by someone else.
God says,“don’t steal.” The Bible says that every perfect gift we receive in this life comes to us from a Loving God. That being true, all of the possessions that people have are like “Christmas gifts” from God for their exclusive use and we steal from God as well as the person. We deprive people of the fruit of their labor if we steal from them.
One of the most shocking parts of the Bible is found in Malachi 3:8ff, “will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings.”
Here is a picture of someone like me or you with a revolver in our hands robbing from God and stealing money that should be used for the Kingdom of God. (The most common theft is when we report on our Income tax that we gave God more money than the Church records prove.) As the Jews in Malachi’s time, we protest that we would never rob God.
We rob God of the use of our time, our talents, our minds, our spiritual gifts that were to equip us to do special things for God; the list gets very long. God wants to use our children in some special ministry and we talk them out of it so they can stay close to us and provide for us in our old age.
It’s not too late to confess this sin of thievery and resolve never to steal again.

“Help us to have thankful hearts for all that you give us so that our
gratitude can save us from being thieves. Amen”