Anger at its Worst
In our exposition of the Ten Commandments, let us now move onto the sixth one, You shall not murder. This has to do with measuring the value of life itself. Every single human being belongs to God and has been created to bear His image. The death penalty is attached to transgressing this law and apparently this punishment is without parallel to other ancient laws which did not consider the life of man so important.
Three times in Genesis 9:5 the Lord spoke of requiring the blood from the hand which spilled it.
Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. The Hebrew word darash means “to seek diligently,” as a detective solving a murder. Life then belongs to God. Regardless of the social status, nationality or physical appearance, we are equal in God’s eyes. That is the message of the Scriptures.
This sixth commandment is very clear. However, when we read it, many may feel it does not concern us, after all, murders are very rare, and we would never be guilty of such a thing! But Yeshua brought it to a different and deeper level so that it touches every human being. It was during the Sermon on the Mount, when Yeshua said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Matthew 5:21-22
See how Jesus links murder with hatred. How could He speak about such a heinous act and compare that to the seemingly insignificant feeling of anger? The point here is that murder begins with anger, and anger is not so trivial a matter. In time, anger continues to grow until the person would empty themselves of all respect and honor for that other individual, and feelings of murder may set in.
Murder then really begins with a dislike, a hostility, or with a growing grudge. Jesus wants us to take hold of our thoughts and to understand that though sin begins so small, it is at that inception point where we must take hold of it. As time passes on, it becomes much more difficult to contain.
That anger which turns to hatred and rests at the core of murder, is not something new. In the Torah, if a judge had difficulty in determining a murder case, as to whether it was intentional or not, he is told to see if there was any hate in the person who committed the crime. Three verses in Deuteronomy 19 emphasize this point: in vs.4, we are told that the murder can be judged unintentional if the person did not hate him in time past. In vs.6 the person is cleared, that is, he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. In verse 11, hate is the thing to look at. The key word here is hate. If there was hatred, then the person was most likely not innocent, and we would most likely see a long trail of unresolved anger.
But this principle works for all sin. It is not true that we accidentally fall into sin. Sin is premeditated and if we understand this point, it will not surprise us anymore.
Let us move on to the eight commandment found in vs.15 which reads, You shall not steal. This commandment has to do with property; what is yours is yours, what is not yours is not, and that is the key to experiencing great freedom. This law extends itself from robbing a bank to just taking a pen which belongs to someone else.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to my bank to complete a transaction. I very rarely go to the bank these days, but I was surprised to see that after so many years, they still have these pens attached to a small beaded steel chain which is attached to a base, solidly glued to the counter.
Do you know why they have a chain attached to the pen? It is because people rob banks by taking their pens home with them. When I was asked to sign the document, I took the pen and mistakenly thinking the chain was long enough, I pulled very strongly on it. I was so surprised at what a solid chain was being used. They must have had a lot of problems with thieves in the past.
But this commandment goes beyond stealing an object. One can steal an idea without recognizing the author. One can steal time, especially from employers or we steal our own time when we waste it on frivolities. Stealing goes as far as the checkout line in the supermarket.
Here you are, waiting your turn, and suddenly, a new cashier line opens up and everyone rushes to it; but in all fairness, the person before you should have the priority. The law of stealing also goes for those items in the lost and found. If you find something that is not yours, remember, it was and never is yours.
This is how the Mosaic Law formulates it, see the wisdom in it: Deut. 22:1
“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother.” In this case, one has found something that he knows belongs to someone else: the Lord says, you shall certainly bring it back. In the Hebrew the word shouv, meaning to give back, is repeated twice; it literally says return, meaning you shall return it because the tendency on our part is to keep it.
But now, what if you don’t know who this ox belongs to? The Lord answers this dilemma in vs.2, “And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. But what if we can never find out who this person is? What if he never shows up? What if we have kept it for 10 years, surely that brother, somehow must have forgotten about it, therefore it should be ours, right? The Law does not give a time limit, it simply says that the item shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; Could be as long as a week, a month, or a life time if needed. The point is, it is not yours.
But today, it is very unlikely that you would find an ox in the street. But if you find a $20 bill, is it yours? If you find it in a private place, like a shopping mall, or the metro station, it belongs to them. If you find it in the street, it belongs to the city; they usually have a lost and found department. If you don’t know what to do with it, put it in the pushka, the donation bag, and we will give it to the poor.
Someone once said that he was short of money and suddenly he found a $5 bill on the floor for his bus ride home. He was convinced it was from God. I agree, but the Lord did not give it to him, He lent it to him. The $5 should be given back in some way, perhaps with an action of thanksgiving to someone else.