John is done shopping at The Home Depot and he mistakenly leaves his wallet behind. What normally happens in these scenarios is that an employee or a shopper finds it, and turns it in. The lost wallet is kept in a drawer or safe until the person who lost it realizes. This is what people normally do. Let’s think about that. Why do most people consider it wrong to take what someone else lost?
Throw $100 cash into the wallet. The shopper who finds the wallet lying on top of the power tool display picks it up, looks around, opens it, and sees two of those crisp green Ulysses S. Grants. He decided not to take the money, although the thought had crossed his mind. One might say that he didn’t take them because he knew that there were cameras in the store. He was afraid of getting caught stealing and facing the consequences. Say that there was no one around him and he knew that there were no security cameras in the building. Why doesn’t he pocket the cash?
“Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.”
Deuteronomy 22:1-3 KJV
The above passage is from the Old Testament Law. These were God’s instructions to Israel, and God saw fit to include laws related to things lost and things found. The ancient scenario was one losing their ox rather than dollar bills, but the principle remains the same. This law is about stealing.
The 8th commandment is “thou shalt not steal.” What is interesting is that the Ten Commandments were given to the people of Israel before the rest of the laws were. The Ten got the ball rolling, with many others given after. I believe that the rest of the moral and judicial laws that follow after the Ten Commandments, from Exodus to Deuteronomy, are the Ten Commandments, but they are expounded upon and applied to specific situations in life. They are practical applications, and the above passage relates to theft.
Other ancient civilizations had “finders keepers” laws as well. Ancient Roman law articulated a concept of a person’s abandoned property remaining under their ownership under certain conditions. These were property lost accidentally or abandoned out of necessity, such as throwing cargo overboard a ship in perilous seas. Taking property that was lost unintentionally was considered theft.
The fact that other ancient cultures besides Israel had customs about lost property is telling. It tells us that nations without special revelation (the scriptures) understood that holding onto found property without attempting to return them to the owner is morally wrong. At all times and in all places a person may know that theft is wrong without ever hearing the Ten Commandments articulated. I think the reason for this is that the Ten Commandments themselves are written on the hearts of every human being.
The Apostle Paul writes the following in his letter to the Roman Church.
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
In the past I thought Paul was referring to some unspoken, undefined moral code that existed in the hearts of everyone. I knew that people understood something about good and bad, but these were general terms.
The Ten Commandments are the perfect summary of the moral law, from which the rest of the Old Testament laws come from. What we often see after Exodus 20 is the practical application of the Ten, excluding the ceremonial laws. (The ceremonial laws such as animal sacrifice, dietary restrictions, clean and unclean rituals, and observances of feasts and festivals were given by God as temporary administrations of the covenant of grace, all meant to shadow Jesus Christ, and were done away with at his appearance.(Eph. 2:15)).
What do you think – are the Ten Commandments specifically the laws written on the hearts of every man and woman?
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