The Commandment to not steal is another one that seems very simple – if it doesn’t belong to you, don’t take it. But, it will help us understand the commandment better when we discover that the traditional Jewish understanding of the Commandment didn’t relate to property at all.
Here are some other verses where the word is used:
Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession. (Exodus 21:16)
If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 24:16)
In both these cases, the thing that is being forbidden is stealing and trafficking people, not things.
In our contemporary society this commandment may seem superfluous because slavery has been outlawed in the West. We look back at the fight waged by William Wilberforce against slavery in the British Empire and we look at the American Civil War and we look at the battle for voting rights in Australia and we celebrate that we live in a free society.
But the reality is that slavery and human trafficking is now more widespread than at any other time in history. Destiny Rescue estimates that every 26 seconds a child is trafficked, the majority into sexual slavery. So, Christians have a great opportunity to call for justice and for human dignity to be restored.
Some may say, “That’s all overseas. What can I do in Australia?”
The answer to that question is the fact that Australians make up some of the worst users of child sex slaves in South-East Asia.
So, what can we do? We can:
– Get involved with organisations like Destiny Rescue who fight sex slavery;
– We can speak out when we hear people talking about it;
– We can pray and advocate.
As a Church, we believe that “Every Person Is Important To God.” Let’s go out of our way to show it.