A COMMON LAW FOR A COMMON-WEALTH
SABBATH BIBLE STUDY
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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com
Thou Shalt Not Steal
Exodus 20:15 / Deuteronomy 5:19
The Hebrew word for theft is a word many people already know, as similar slang is used in American-English for the same action: GNaB or nab, perhaps a help in remembering the word?
The universal Idea of stealing or theft as a wrong among cultures and laws of diverse peoples as well as creatures is absolute, that is the Idea of one or many taking from another or others what is not theirs is a wrong; yet it may come as stumble to those who wish primary laws of morality held as Christian to be universally understood to all peoples that theft or stealing is not the same for every culture, while most peoples have a general idea of what is theft, what is so for one culture is not to another. This is the case even among cultures which are genetically identical, yet generationally separated by time. This is the case in today’s so called christian culture opposed to the christianity of our separateist ancestors in America, and those to their Israelite ancestors of Moses to Nehemiah’s day.
When Citizenship is spoken of with in the Common-Wealth their are 2 particular words which God Law uses over and over again, that is Brother and Neighbor as well the 3 biblical words the English Bible calls ‘Stranger’ are all brought into focus when we speak on this matter, and it is indissoluble inherited rights which make other peoples strangers to the common-wealth, and as such strangers are excluded from some protections afforded to the brothers of the citizenship of Israel, which are sin when commited one upon each other. As the philosophy of the Idea mentioned that most every people of the world have a custom against theft, it is just a mater of what theft is to that people; at Law, even in modern law, this aspect of persons is what divides stealing from authorized behavior (either authorized by law or by the peoples conplacency, it makes no difference, both set the standard of the people’s constitution at that given time).
For instance, as was spoken of in the prior message on the 7th Commandment as well as touched on in the 5th Commandment message in this compilation is the God ordained concept of Land possession, which in the Common-Wealth of Israel was YHWH owned, He is the land LORD and He has delegated stewardship or governance, dominion by tribal family possession:
Lev_25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine;for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Lev 25:24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Lev 25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
Lev 25:26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
Lev 25:27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
Lev 25:28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
…
Lev_25:34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
Yet in our modern day the concept of Land is not possession in YHWH’s stead it is ‘private’ ownership, which in God’s vacancy through his ordained Law is more like Rent; for consider the modern culture and cultures of European descent: With out some form of payment required, the ruling principality and powers of government will come to your home, land or business and remove you and your family from it, and you will have no right that any court will recognize which will grant you possession with out payment of what that principality determines to be ‘due’.
In a society based upon God’s Law where land ownership is Almighty God’s and it is possessed as an inheritance by the Ethnic-nation of Israel, only a citizen of the Common-Wealth may claim his own ancestral land indefinitely that is perpetually with no intervention, by any ruler or any other person, none save the eviction by the Land LORD via war and dispossession, all other forms of a brother citizen or Israel being removed from his possession is theft. At such points when citizens of Israel are being removed, a clear line is drawn that a dyer need to repent before Almighty God is at hand, and a God ordained opposition to tyranny is of necessity.
So the culture most Europeans live under today would be tyrannical to their father’s who lived in the days of king Saul or perhaps Ahab, it is a matter of culture.
So it is, when speaking of stealing or theft in God’s Common Law it is defined by statute, YHWH, God of Israel is the determiner according to His Law of what theft is and is not, and as well what situations will determine the particular punishment to be executed by the Elders: Judges and Officers, the crime is to be judged according to Justice by the ordained diligent inquisition, and then as the well known Biblical Maxim teach:
Deu 19:21 And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Restitution
When contemplating Biblical stealing with in the Common-Wealth of Israel as Governed by the Common Law of the 8th Commandment, the understanding of Judgment for particular crimes being diverse one from the other becomes obvious as the Commandment’s violation is dealt with differently based upon the nature and object of the theft, as well as the circumstances surrounding it, yet one pervading absolution is consistent in judgment for this sin-crime between brother and brothers, neighbors and neighbors as well as Citizen and stranger, this is the idea of Restitution.
The term Restitution is in our legal language even today, Noah Webster defined it thus:
Restitution is made by restoring a specific thing taken away or lost.
2. The act of making good, or of giving an equivalent for any loss, damage or injury…
When we speak of restoring in the KJV we speak to the same point, as well.
In all cases Restitution is the final “act of making good”, and the determiner of what good is, is GOD.
Just Weights and Measures:
A Common Standard of Value
By the demand for Just Restitution the essentiality of equivalent value must arise, that is the equal value of a thing payed in money, yet only when allowed by the damaged party instead of the actual lose by similar representation, such as beast for beast, thus an estimation of value must at times be set as to it’s equivalent with in the common-wealth in the event settlement of Restitution may be had by an acceptable medium of exchange, and that set by God’s Sanctuary.
Beyond the days of Abraham Adam’s people have been using precious metals as this medium of exchange.
Gen 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
Both precious and common metal weighed as Shekels (ShQuL), a Shekel is simply a determined weight current at a given instance or time, or as currency among a Common-Wealth; in the case of Israel’s “The Sanctuary’ is to assay the shekel or weight that is currency:
Lev_27:25 :
And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
This shekel was assayed in 3 precious metals, which until the 1900’s did not change in European societies.
Exo_25:3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
(copper: biblically known as Brass, not to be confused with the modern alloy of zinc and copper)
Bibically speaking the word for current money and Silver are one and the same, KeCeF. Silver was the common money of the common people, not withstanding the more valuable gold and less valuable copper coinage.
Thus the Law of God dictates from the commoner to the priest such law:
Lev_19:35 Ye shall not act unrighteously in judgment, in measures and weights and scales.
Lev 19:36 There shall be among you just balances and just weights and just liquid measure. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Lev 19:37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.
AND
Deu_25:13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
Deu 25:14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.
Deu 25:15 Thou shalt have a true and just weight, and a true and just measure, that thou mayest live long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance.
Deu 25:16 For every one that does this is an abomination to the Lord thy God, even every one that does injustice.
When the word ‘weight’ is used in Lev_19:35 it is translated from the Hebrew word M-ShQuL, and is specifically dealing with the aspect of Currency or Money, that is the medium of exchange with in the Common-Wealth of Israel.
In Speaking of money we speak of silver as the average standard of currency between men of that citizenship.
It is that in order for any commerce beside simple trade a valuation and estimation is of necessity to be had in any society which will govern upon Law, as to allow for brothers to stranger to deal Justly one with the other, as to determine fair dealings from stealing and theft. While any honest agreement for any thing, either in buying or selling or in the case of restitution, their is an estimation of value in a monetary sense as to aid Justice between in commerce or controversy.
Exo 21:18 And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
Exo_21:19 If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
As well
Exo 21:28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
Exo 21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
Exo 21:30 If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
Exo 21:31 Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
Within the Common-Wealth of Israel the simple and intrinsic Common law of God couples Just measures and weights and scales by a monetary system using the ordained hard currency of Gold, Silver and Copper according to the precept of it’s Common purity, estimated and assayed by the Sanctuary, that is the same God ordained authority that over sees Judgment with in the Common-Wealth according to: Deu_17:9, Deu_19:17, they are the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days.
Therefore, by debasing the monetary system of the Common-Wealth with injustice or counterfeit coinage, as to adulter it’s purity commanded by precept, or to to attempt to replace hard money, by any person of any rank, is a debasement of the effectiveness of the justice of the Common-Law, and a robbery upon the Nation as a whole: such monetary debasement over turns the 1st commandment, as well, it is both an undercover attempt to man-steal the citizens of the Common-Wealth, along with a way to steal property and possessions of the Nation.
By the severity of the impact of debasing a hard and lawful money system is so severe that the use of any man made or fiat means, such as our modern use of Paper and or Electronic Bank transfers of contrived credits called money, would create a ‘monetary’ like system that would be controlled by the creators of the system, which would in effect control the holders and users of the contrived wealth. And thus the proverb which we are taught (1Ti_6:10) that the love of money is the root of all evil allows those who love to creator money to create all evil, as well as to get away with all evil with it; thus a government or banking system such as had today may easily escape the recourse of actual restitution even though that system may compensate an injured party, yet they do so with nothing, except for a currency they created out of thin air.
To allow the monetary system of a people to be controlled by a non-substance, such as paper and or electronic transfers, inevitably sets that society up for control by the selfish will of it’s creator…which is not YHWH God Almighty.
The Worst Forms of Stealing
are
Punished
by
DEATH
MAN-STEALING
Exo_21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
Deu_24:7 If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.
Within the Common-Wealth of Israel among the most heinous thefts a Citizen or Brother may commit is that of man-stealing.
Yet consider our modern day standard: In the matter of an arrest and detainment of an adult person, in some events the men or women are imprisoned and their freedom taken, in biblical language is man-stealing when the time In such Ward is not being used to determine the detained’s fate as to life or death.
“In-Ward”
Biblically, the status called “In-Ward” (Gen_40:3; Gen_40:7; Gen_41:10; Lev_24:12; Num_15:34) is the only time a Brother may be detained by Law, and it’s sole use it to determine life or death, with out such a status, especially when any form of price is attached to the persons release, it is Man-Stealing; the lawful examples found in Lev_24:12; (In one cercumstance we have a 1st generation Egyptian man born to an Israelite woman who blasphemed the Name of YHWH by cursing, by Deuteronomy 23:7-8 this man was not an Israelite nore would his child be for 2 more generations, thus In-Ward is used for the Stranger that is not of thy people), and in Num_15:34 (In-Ward is used upon a Citizen who broke the Sabbath wilfully, and was ass well put to daeth.)
Due to the prior understanding laid out from the prior commandments (found in this series) particularly that of the 5th Commandment pertaining to Parents, the absolute authority and ownership of children within the Common-Wealth resides in those children’s life givers, the contained in the generative Parents and lead in Headship by the Fathers. Thus, when another of any rank comes from the out side of this Righteous Paternal Headship and takes away another’s child with out absolute and evident consent of the Head holder, which may be had in hired or indentured servitude of ones Own Child, this act of taking a child with out consent, however, we now call Kid-Napping, but in Reality and according to YHWH God’s Law it is Man-Stealing as well.
Judiciary Judgment of Restitution by Elders
and
Summary Judgment by Land Owners
Exo_22:1 If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
Exo 22:2 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
Exo 22:3 If the sun be risen upon him, blood for him; he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
Exo 22:4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
KJV from Hebrew
Exo_22:2 And if the thief be found in the breach made by himself and be smitten and die, there shall not be blood shed for him.
Exo_22:3 But if the sun be risen upon him, he is guilty, he shall die instead; and if a thief have nothing, let him be sold in compensation for what he has stolen.
Brenton from LXX
In the case of this particular theft two words from the Greek and Hebrew must be reconciled and the then the aspects of verse 3 as well need applied in context.
במחתרת / B-Me-HeThR-Th literally saying: double prefix B-in & M-from or of. together meaning With-in or by it: in the act of +HeThR: Digging, Braking, Rowing: the Idea of Uncovering (see Jer_2:34) + Th: shalt be, they are (femanin construct) = English: they are uncovered (discovered) within. Leaving us with the plain Idea of what we call breaking and entering, tresspassing, or burglary, (while not being limited to night time activity) Yet night activity would automatically constitute undercover actions.
(Uses of the root word HeThRH2864: Exo_22:2; Job_24:16; Jer_2:34; Eze_8:8; Eze_12:5; Eze_12:7; Eze_12:12; Amo_9:2; Jon_1:13)
In the Greek LXX the word διορυγματι / Dio-Rugmati is used.
The word Dio or Dia G1223 ..In composition it retains the same general import: – after, always, among, at, to avoid, because of (that), briefly, by, for (cause) . . . fore, from, in, by occasion of, of, by reason of, for sake, that, thereby, therefore, X though, through (-out), to, wherefore, with (-in).
And Rugmati which may be seen in Titus 1:3 used with the prefix of κή / KeH
G2782 κήρυγμα kērugma: From G2784; a proclamation
Rugus may indicate the English: to make a ‘Ruckus’
Thus in a compound understanding the same Idea is conveyed, that is in the discovery or uncovering of one, in this case the Greek speaks to the aspect of alarm. ‘they be within ruckus’.
It is by such an understanding that the understanding is offered that when the worst form of thief is found in the act of theft with in ones possession, and that thief is harmed or killed there is no case for recourse for that thief, or for charges of murder against the defender of his possession for such an action against a thief, day or night who he is caught in the act. Yet, according to verse 3
Exo_22:3 If the sun be risen upon him, blood for him; he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
KJV
Exo 22:3 But if the sun be risen upon him, he is guilty, he shall die instead; and if a thief have nothing, let him be sold in compensation for what he has stolen.
Brenton -LXX
In this aspect of the verse it seem to indicate liability to the protector of his stuff and the restitution owed by the thief. The mention of the sun, is not to differentiate between day and night but indicate the length of time that had passed from the smiting and incident, therefore, consider this compound understanding ” If a thief is uncovered and he be smitten and die no one should bleed for the killing of the thief. But if the smitten thief live until another morning and be then killed by the own it is murder as the thief has been subdued, rather the caught thief is to pay restitution after the following morning by servitude, by the evaluation according 4 or 5 times the original theft or in equal value, as per verse 1 or by no less than 2 times according to Exo_22:4 And if the thing stolen be left and be in his hand alive, whether ox or sheep, he shall restore them two-fold.
Thus within the Common-Wealth of Israel, Governed by YHWH God’s Common Law, man committing undercover theft upon anther’s possessions would be non-existent and those with such tenancies would be swiftly culled from the flock or taught by the Justice of Restitution.
Before leaving off from the Idea of theft punished by Capital, the Justice of Almighty God speaks to the easily comprehensible maxims of His Perfect Law, as to deal with those thefts which would be interposed upon another and lead to the eventual or immediate death of the victim:
And so such Laws as well stand as the standard of Justice such as:
Exo_22:26-27 If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.
Deu 24:6 No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
Setting the example of the 2nd Protos Commandment operating upon Charitable Love:
Lev_19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Evasion of Compensation and Liability is Stealing
Exo 22:5 And if any one should feed down a field or a vineyard, and should send in his beast to feed down another field, he shall make compensation of his own field according to his produce; and if he shall have fed down the whole field, he shall pay for compensation the best of his own field and the best of his vineyard.
Exo 22:6 And if fire have gone forth and caught thorns, and should also set on fire threshing-floors or ears of corn or a field, he that kindled the fire shall make compensation.
Exo 22:7 And if any one give to his neighbour money or goods to keep, and they be stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief be found he shall repay double.
Exo 22:8 But if the thief be not found, the master of the house shall come forward before God, and shall swear that surely he has not wrought wickedly in regard of any part of his neighbour’s deposit,
Exo 22:9 according to every injury alleged, both concerning a calf, and an ass, and a sheep, and a garment, and every alleged loss, whatsoever in fact it may be, –the judgment of both shall proceed before God, and he that is convicted by God shall repay to his neighbour double.
Exo 22:10 And if any one give to his neighbour to keep a calf or sheep or any beast, and it be wounded or die or be taken, and no one know,
Exo 22:11 an oath of God shall be between both, each swearing that he has surely not at all been guilty in the matter of his neighbour’s deposit; and so his master shall hold him guiltless, and he shall not make compensation.
Exo 22:12 And if it be stolen from him, he shall make compensation to the owner.
Exo 22:13 And if it be seized of beasts, he shall bring him to witness the prey, and he shall not make compensation.
Exo 22:14 And if any one borrow ought of his neighbour, and it be wounded or die or be carried away, and the owner of it be not with it, he shall make compensation.
Exo 22:15 But if the owner be with it, he shall not make compensation: but if it be a hired thing, there shall be a compensation to him instead of his hire.
Stealing Chastity
Exo 22:16 And if any one deceive a virgin that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her for a wife to himself.
Exo 22:17 And if her father positively refuse, and will not consent to give her to him for a wife, he shall pay compensation to her father according to the amount of the dowry of virgins.
Stealing by Usury
And if thou shouldest lend money to thy poor brother who is by thee,
Thou shalt not be hard upon him thou shalt not exact usury of him.
Exo_22:25
The word Usury is not a word used nowadays nearly as much as in the past, this most likely due to modern societies’ desire toward exacting usury as well as having it exacted upon them as to satiate all wants beyond need.
When one speaks of usury, we speak of the Idea of gain upon the principal or original sum payed by the debtor for Using another’s wealth. Today we call this Interest. Some in our modern day who would wish usury to only be what they have termed “excesive interest” oppose the strictness by which Nehemiah believed God to have demanded in His Common Law for Israel when he rebuked the nobles and ruler for exacting 1/100th % and to prove it’s understanding as no meaning less than 1 % the nobles and rulers response to the rebuke was, “We will restore them, and will require nothing of them…” (Neh_5:11-12)
No matter what the substance loaned is:
Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Deu 23:19-20
True Brotherly Love
When two citizens, yea brothers, are dealing with one and other, as to be in benefit for the Common- Wealth, that is to be Patriotic in the patriarchal sense, ones own people His Brethren are preferred as to establish the Kingdom by love and charity. The true citizen od the Common-Wealth of Israel is in fact brothers by flesh and bone and common parentage to his fellow citizen, it is by such a division between brothers, as to rule over one another with rigor (Lev_25:43) with in the lose of sight of the fear of God we divide our nation, it is as well by Not dividing our selves from all other peoples who are not our brothers, that the universal destruction of all peoples shall creep in as a thief, allowing the stranger to spoil the Common-Wealth which he is forbidden from entering.
Lev_25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger (GuR), or a sojourner (resident alien); that he may live with thee.
Lev 25:36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
Lev 25:37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
…
Lev 25:39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
Lev 25:40 But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
Lev 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
Lev 25:42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
For an example of the intertwining relationship theft has with usury, and usury against Ethnic homogeneity and the well being of a Nation, the context of Love for God and neighbor according to the Protos commandments of God’s Law found, Neh 5:1-19 is a strongly recommended study.
Stealing, Theft, Robbery and Usury no mater of what it is, or of what the statute evaluates it’s Restitution at is a destructive force when allowed in a society, especially a Biblical Society. Its violation as stated prior in prior messages strikes at the very heart of God’s Kingdom, which in fact strikes at the New Covenant. Though theft may be among the least crimes to be committed in society, it is among the most severe Sins to be allowed to go unpunished.
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