Don't steall, really? A study in Exodus 22

 Introduction

 Stealing takes from everyone involved; it takes from the person robbed and takes kindness and love from the thief. Society loses as does history and the future. Everyone loses when a thief is allowed to carry on. That’s why the Bible says in verse 9; he whom the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor. Eventually we all lose when thievery happens. For instance, the story is told of Emmanuel Nenger. 

Come with me to 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Mr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers, which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself. 

Some statistics

In 1989, in the US, 5% of what you spend goes to cover business losses from theft. Approximately $140 billion of material and time is stolen from employers every year.   Eternity, April 1989, p. 15. 

In “Time theft" by Robert Half International (headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif.) Half estimates that time theft costs U.S. businesses $230 billion a year. These crimes cover the fake sick day, getting someone else to punch in your card on the time clock, making personal telephone calls, conducting private business in the workplace.    Parade Magazine, May 27, 1990, p. 7. 

Remember the point of our study today (as we did yesterday) is to remind ourselves about protecting the innocent, and stealing just doesn’t do it!

Stealing, legal style: The role of the tax collector

In our world, there is stealing which is unauthorized and stealing which seems to be authorized by governments and such. Neither is right in God’s eyes.

Many will remember the TV show “The Weakest Link,” a show I found irritating, especially the lady presenter from the UK. She would end each segment by removing someone from the contest by saying, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.”

In Bible days, being a weak link was no great honour. In fact, the weak were the dismissed, the tossed, and the vacant. Weakness invited contempt. Weakness allowed others to conquer. And in contrast, God was seen as the God who conquered, the God of strength. Listen to these quotes, 

“And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (2 Samuel 22:2)

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalm 18:2)

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runs into it, and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

Into that situation, the Son of Man, Yeshua enters and since the beginning has been calling the weak and underprivileged, the outcast and dismissed into His family. The tax collector is welcome. There are conditions as we will see, but remember this phrase, which could have been made by Yeshua, as the TV presenter in the First Century, “You are the Weakest Link, Hello.”  

Taxes were collected everywhere in the First Century by the Romans. Just like the GST, the IRS, and the ATO today bring up images of being contemptible, so it was then.  Tax collectors were charged a certain amount for each person, then they in turn asked for more than that from each person.  Another favorite trick of theirs was to advance the tax to those who were unable to pay, and then to charge large interest on what had thereby become a private debt. 

The Roman world at the time of Yeshua was in financial crisis. Jewish tax collectors were in bad ways. Jewish leaders often declared tax collectors incapable of bearing testimony in a Jewish court of law, of forbidding to receive their charitable gifts, or even to change money out of their treasury (Baba K. 10.1), of ranking them not only with harlots and heathens, but also with highwaymen and murderers (Ned. 3. 4), and of even declaring them excommunicate. Indeed, it was held lawful to make false returns, to speak untruth, or almost to use any means to avoid paying taxes (Ned. 27 b.; 28a). And about the time of Yeshua the burden of such exactions must have been felt all the heavier on account of a great financial crisis in the Roman Empire (in the year 33 of our era), which involved so many in bankruptcy, and could not have been without its indirect influence even upon distant Judah.

Zachheus: Unlikely Hero

So here is the unlikely hero on the Gospel story, Zaccheus, one of ‘those people’ who is viewed by Yeshua and called to join him. Zaccheus says, “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back 4 times as much.” (Luke 19.8) Excellent. The ministry of God is getting into Zaccheus’ heart. He is learning what Moses wanted him to learn 1500 years earlier. That a tax collector had no right to steal any more than any other Jew did from anyone else. It’s dishonoring and it’s a lose/lose situation. 

What tree was he in? A sycamore tree, which in Israel is a variety of fig. The word fig in Greek is sukon and the word used here is very important. It’s the word falsely accused or defrauded. The Greek word is sycophant, the word we translate into a ‘yes’ man. [Sycophant— esukofanthsa, from sukon a fig, and fainw, I show or declare] for among the primitive Athenians, when the use of that fruit was first found out, or in the time of a dearth, when all sorts of provisions were exceedingly scarce, a law was made that no figs could be exported from Attica. Then this law (not being repealed, when a plentiful harvest had rendered it useless, by taking away the reason of it) gave occasion to ill-natured and malicious men to accuse everyone they found breaking the letter of it; and from them all busy informers have ever since been branded with the name of sycophants. [POTTER’S Antiq. vol. i. c. 21, end.].  In other words, the sycophant dobbed someone in, and curried favor of the king or leader. 

Here Zaccheus says in the place of the fig tree, that figging someone in (as they might have said it in our parlance) was no longer the way of life, but following Yeshua was. He admitted to being a weak link, Jesus agreed, and welcomed him.

Thus Zaccheus is an unlikely hero, but one who well understood the ministry of Yeshua, and the purpose of the Torah from its beginning.

Other thieves

Of course, when Yeshua died, some thieves were involved weren’t they? Judas, who had been one of his followers, betrayed Yeshua (John 12:6). The jailed thief Barabbas benefited temporarily from the choice of Yeshua over him (Mark 15:7, John 18:40). An earlier arrest and trial of two thieves caused them to be crucified with Messiah. While they were being crucified, one of those thieves berated him (Luke 23:39), and one believed in him (Luke 23:43). 

From this we see that thieves have a chance to repent and make right their wrong. God is always gracious [I will hear him, for I am gracious.” (Exodus 22.27)] and His nature is always to forgive and help people to make a new career of it. He wants repair to be our word and our calling. He is the God of the 2^nd chance.

From the other side

The role of the thief we have seen. It damages this person to no end. Throughout the text we see the phrase ‘his neighbour’ and are given to think in terms of location and next-door persons in our suburbs today. But the role of neighbour was one of commitment in ancient days, certainly among the Hebrews. A neighbour was someone with whom you shared covenant, not a property line. It meant you were bonded to him in a particular way and thus when he took from you, there was damage to the relationship which is much more crucial than to the pocketbook.

One last comment from our text today

 “And you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (.21-24)

Do you hear how God is involved personally in the abuse or lack of regard of the downtrodden and innocent? He takes it personally and will not tolerate this kind of power domination. The Lord welcomes the weak, and you should do no less.

In the text of our passage today in Exodus, reparations were required again and again. How can we do less in our days?

Lessons learned

I believe we should see applications from our stories today. 

1)     God’s concerns for society to run smoothly required an honouring of each other by each citizen

2)     Lying about what is ours or what is another’s will only result in death and evil and problems in our worlds

3)      Abusing the widow and orphan is so serious, God himself will require it of the dominator

4)     Forgiveness is available for all who repent and turn to God