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The Beginning of the End
(8) “You shall not steal.”
This prohibition condemns kidnapping and slave dealing, wars of
conquest, theft and robbery. It demands strict honesty in the smallest
details of life. It forbids shady business dealings and requires the
payment of rightful debts or wages. Every attempt to gain advantage
by the ignorance, weakness, or misfortune of another is registered
as fraud in the books of heaven.
(9) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
An intention to deceive is what makes a lie. By a glance of the
eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the face, we may tell a
lie as effectively as by words. It is a lie even to state the facts in such
a way as to mislead. Every effort to injure our neighbor’s reputation
by misrepresentation, slander, or gossip, and even hiding truth in
order to injure others, is a violation of the ninth commandment.
(10) “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not
covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female
servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neigh-
bor’s.”
The tenth commandment strikes at the very root of all sins—it
prohibits the selfish desire, from which springs the sinful act. The
person who refuses to indulge even a sinful desire for something that
belongs to another will not be guilty of a wrong act toward anyone
else.
God proclaimed His law with demonstrations of His power and
glory, so that His people would never forget the scene. He wanted
to show everyone the sacredness and permanence of His law.
God’s Law Is a Law of Love
As God’s great rule of right was presented before them, the
people realized as never before how offensive sin is to a holy God
and how guilty they were in His sight. They cried out to Moses,
“You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us,
lest we die.” The leader answered, “Do not fear; for God has come
to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not
sin.”
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Blinded and depraved by slavery and heathenism, the people
were not prepared to fully understand the far-reaching principles