685. The Ten Commandments - #8 - You Shall not Steal - November 15, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverbs 15 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

[00:00:48] The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.

[00:00:57] The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

[00:01:04] A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

[00:01:11] A fool despises his father's instruction, but he who receives correction is prudent.

[00:01:19] In the house of the righteous there is much treasure, but in the revenue of the wicked is trouble.

[00:01:26] The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the fool does not do so.

[00:01:33] The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

[00:01:42] The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who follows righteousness.

[00:01:50] Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die.

[00:01:59] Hell and destruction are before the Lord, so how much more the hearts of the sons of men.

[00:02:06] A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, nor will he go to the wise.

[00:02:13] A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

[00:02:22] The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

[00:02:31] All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

[00:02:40] Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble.

[00:02:47] Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred.

[00:02:53] A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention.

[00:03:01] The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway.

[00:03:09] A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother.

[00:03:17] Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment, but a man of understanding walks uprightly.

[00:03:27] Without counsel plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.

[00:03:36] A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season.

[00:03:43] How good it is!

[00:03:45] The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below.

[00:03:52] The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the boundary of the widow.

[00:04:01] The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant.

[00:04:09] He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.

[00:04:17] The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.

[00:04:26] The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

[00:04:32] The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones healthy.

[00:04:41] The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise.

[00:04:47] He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.

[00:04:56] The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.

[00:05:05] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 3.

[00:05:10] And Proverb 15, verse 3 tells us this.

[00:05:14] The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

[00:05:22] Now friends, we will come back and revisit that verse prior to closing today.

[00:05:28] But what I'd like to do is to continue our study of the Ten Commandments.

[00:05:35] Today we'll be taking a look at commandment number 8.

[00:05:39] But before we begin today's lesson, what I'd like to do is to review all ten of the commandments.

[00:05:47] I think they all bear repeating, and I think it's something that we should all be aware of,

[00:05:54] are the Ten Commandments that we are supposed to keep on a daily basis.

[00:06:00] So the Ten Commandments are found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, beginning in verse 2.

[00:06:07] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

[00:06:16] So before we begin the Ten Commandments, God is reminding his people Israel of what he has done for them.

[00:06:25] They were in bondage for over 400 years, and he delivered them from that situation.

[00:06:34] And basically he's saying the very least that you should be able to do is to follow these Ten Commandments,

[00:06:42] which I am writing for you.

[00:06:45] So the first commandment is found in verse 3.

[00:06:58] Verse 3.

[00:07:01] Verse 4.

[00:07:10] Verse 5.

[00:07:29] So friends, I'm just going to pause here for just a moment.

[00:07:33] I'd like to highlight part B of verse 4, where it says,

[00:07:37] For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

[00:07:43] Now friends, that is such a powerful portion of Scripture,

[00:07:49] and one I think that at times we may forget.

[00:07:54] Let's go to verse 7.

[00:07:56] You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,

[00:08:00] for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

[00:08:05] And commandment number 5.

[00:08:07] Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[00:08:11] Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

[00:08:15] but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

[00:08:19] In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter,

[00:08:26] nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle,

[00:08:31] nor your stranger who is within your gates.

[00:08:34] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,

[00:08:38] the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.

[00:08:44] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

[00:08:49] And the fifth commandment is,

[00:08:52] Honor your father and your mother,

[00:08:54] that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving to you.

[00:09:01] So friends, when the disciples asked Jesus what are the two greatest commandments,

[00:09:07] he said, Love the Lord your God with all your mind, your heart, and your strength.

[00:09:13] Everything that you have, love God.

[00:09:16] And the second is like unto it, Love your neighbor as yourself.

[00:09:22] So friends, if we follow that commandment, if we talk about the fear of the Lord,

[00:09:29] if we do everything that he has asked us to do,

[00:09:32] and if we honor our father and mother,

[00:09:35] we will have no problem following the last five commandments.

[00:09:41] I believe these, beginning in commandment number six,

[00:09:47] have to do with our flesh.

[00:09:49] And we literally have to try to break God's commandments in order to do these following.

[00:09:59] In verse 13, it says, You shall not murder.

[00:10:03] If we are thinking about God, and if we are trying to honor God,

[00:10:08] or our parents, we are not going to murder.

[00:10:12] Verse 14, You shall not commit adultery.

[00:10:16] You should never think about that.

[00:10:18] In today's lesson, we're going to do verse 15, which is, You shall not steal.

[00:10:23] Number 16, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:10:29] And the tenth commandment is, You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

[00:10:34] You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant,

[00:10:41] nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

[00:10:47] So friends, the first point of today's lesson is the eighth commandment.

[00:10:54] And the eighth commandment simply says, You shall not steal.

[00:10:59] So friends, whenever I think about stealing, I think of a very famous story in the Bible,

[00:11:08] which is found in the 21st chapter of 1 Kings.

[00:11:14] And it's dealing with a man named Naboth, and he has a vineyard,

[00:11:20] and he is literally murdered for having his vineyard.

[00:11:26] So let's begin chapter 21 of 1 Kings, verse 1.

[00:11:32] And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard,

[00:11:39] which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.

[00:11:47] So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard,

[00:11:53] that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house.

[00:12:00] And for it, I will give you a vineyard better than it.

[00:12:06] Or if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.

[00:12:11] But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.

[00:12:20] So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him.

[00:12:31] For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.

[00:12:38] And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

[00:12:45] So friends, my second point of today's lesson is, I will not give you the inheritance of my father.

[00:12:54] And friends, Naboth had every right to do that.

[00:12:59] I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible.

[00:13:02] And what I'd like to do is go over the commentary in my Bible.

[00:13:06] It said, Technically, all land was the Lord's, who granted it in perpetuity to each Israelite tribe and family.

[00:13:18] Accordingly, the property belonged to Naboth.

[00:13:22] It had been in his family line.

[00:13:25] His father had owned it.

[00:13:27] And so now, once his father died, it became his.

[00:13:32] And he did not want to give it up.

[00:13:35] But I'm going to go into a little bit more detail about this law.

[00:13:40] And if we go to the book of Numbers, chapter 36, I would like to read what the original law actually says.

[00:13:49] Let's begin.

[00:13:51] Numbers 36, beginning in verse 2.

[00:13:53] And they said,

[00:13:55] The Lord commanded my Lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel.

[00:14:04] And my Lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

[00:14:12] Now, if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers.

[00:14:23] And it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry.

[00:14:30] So it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

[00:14:34] And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry.

[00:14:46] So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

[00:14:53] Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, according to the word of the Lord, saying,

[00:15:01] What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right.

[00:15:05] This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying,

[00:15:12] Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father's tribe.

[00:15:23] That is so key.

[00:15:25] So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe.

[00:15:32] For every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

[00:15:39] And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father's tribe,

[00:15:50] so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers.

[00:15:57] Thus, no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another.

[00:16:04] But every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.

[00:16:11] So, friends, when Naboth said no to King Ahab, he wasn't trying to be mean.

[00:16:18] It simply had been in his family, and he was telling the king,

[00:16:25] Listen, this was my inheritance that has been down, coming down from my father.

[00:16:32] So anyway, I'm going on with a commentary.

[00:16:35] It says, Even the king was obliged to obey the law.

[00:16:41] Now, let's go back to our story, verse 5.

[00:16:44] But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him,

[00:16:50] Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?

[00:16:54] He said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him,

[00:17:01] Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.

[00:17:08] And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard.

[00:17:12] Then Jezebel, his wife, said to him,

[00:17:16] You now exercise authority over Israel.

[00:17:20] Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful.

[00:17:25] I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

[00:17:29] Now, friends, she doesn't have the ability to do that.

[00:17:34] So she is going to make it happen,

[00:17:38] since she is the queen and the wife of the king.

[00:17:43] And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with his seal,

[00:17:49] and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth.

[00:17:56] She wrote in the letters saying,

[00:17:59] Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people,

[00:18:05] and seat two men, scoundrels before him, to bear witness against him, saying,

[00:18:13] You have blasphemed God and the king.

[00:18:18] Then take him out and stone him, that he may die.

[00:18:23] So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city,

[00:18:30] did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

[00:18:38] They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people.

[00:18:43] And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him.

[00:18:49] And the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people,

[00:18:56] saying, Naboth has blasphemed God and the king.

[00:19:00] Then they took him outside the city, and stoned him with stones, so that he died.

[00:19:08] Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead.

[00:19:14] And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead,

[00:19:21] that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite,

[00:19:30] which he refused to give you for money.

[00:19:33] For Naboth is not alive, but dead.

[00:19:36] So it was, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead,

[00:19:40] that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

[00:19:49] So friends, my third and final point of today's lesson.

[00:19:53] When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead,

[00:19:57] he got up and went to take possession of that vineyard.

[00:20:02] Now friends, Jezebel was an evil person.

[00:20:05] And many of you know that it did not end well for her.

[00:20:10] If we go to the book of 2 Kings,

[00:20:12] we'll find out that Jezebel was literally thrown off the top of a tower.

[00:20:19] And she basically splattered on the ground.

[00:20:23] She died immediately.

[00:20:25] And actually, her body was separated in pieces.

[00:20:29] It's actually an awful story.

[00:20:31] But it goes to show you that God watches every single thing we do.

[00:20:38] So before we close today, I'd like to go to our third verse of Proverbs 15.

[00:20:45] And it says,

[00:20:47] The eyes of the Lord are in every place,

[00:20:50] keeping watch on the evil and the good.

[00:20:55] So friends, listen to the commentary for that verse.

[00:20:59] That the eyes of the Lord are in every place,

[00:21:01] watching everything,

[00:21:03] chills those who are evil.

[00:21:06] And we're talking about Jezebel.

[00:21:09] We're talking about King Ahab.

[00:21:12] And comforts those who submit to him.

[00:21:18] So friends, our commandment of the day is do not steal.

[00:21:25] Jezebel and Ahab connived and made this elaborate plot

[00:21:33] and ended up stealing the vineyard of Naboth.

[00:21:39] Naboth had done nothing wrong.

[00:21:41] Many times in our lives,

[00:21:43] we can sometimes have things happen to us

[00:21:47] that should not happen to us.

[00:21:51] But friends, the key element of today's lesson is do not steal.

[00:21:59] It's very simple.

[00:22:01] Friends, either something belongs to you or it doesn't belong to you.

[00:22:09] There is no gray area.

[00:22:11] There is no, is it mine?

[00:22:13] Isn't it mine?

[00:22:14] You never have to ask yourself that.

[00:22:16] You know if it's yours or not.

[00:22:18] So my call to action today is do you ever steal?

[00:22:26] Do you ever take anything that does not belong to you?

[00:22:33] Very simple question.

[00:22:35] Give it some thought.

[00:22:36] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:22:44] If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:22:52] Father God, thank you for sending your son Jesus to earth.

[00:22:56] Jesus, thank you that you were willing to come to earth and die on a cross for everyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:23:05] Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:23:11] I ask that you come into my heart.

[00:23:13] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.

[00:23:19] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:23:23] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:23:27] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:23:31] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:23:37] Friends, it is the weekend.

[00:23:40] Go out with your spouse.

[00:23:41] Go out with your kids.

[00:23:44] Have a great time.

[00:23:45] Let them know how much God loves them and how much you love them.

[00:23:50] And I will see you back on Monday as we further explore wisdom today.