God’s Word for You

Proverbs 28:15-17 Seventh and Fifth Commandments

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

15 Like a roaring lion or a charging bear
  is a criminal who rules over poor people.
16 An oppressive ruler lacks judgment,
  but he who hates dishonest gain will enjoy a long life.

These two proverbs go hand in hand, expressing the same thought from two points of view. First we see how terrible a wicked man is to the people; next we see how much better another kind of man would be.

In one of Daniel’s visions, the rulers of four kingdoms are permitted to rule by God. One is a supernatural lion (Daniel 7:4), another is a bear fed by the Lord (Daniel 7:5), yet another is a fantastic winged leopard, given authority to rule (Daniel 7:6). The fourth is completely different, with a set of ten horns (Daniel 7:7). The difference between those beasts and the one in this proverb is that they were aided in many ways by God to accomplish God’s purpose. A government must rule, defend its people, and discipline them when they commit crimes and sins (Romans 13:1-3). Here, however, Solomon describes a ruler who is himself a wicked criminal, oppressing the poor, fleecing and devouring his own sheep. He is no defending lion or bear of discipline. He is a madman, a man asking to be overthrown. Just because the government is established by God does not mean that those who govern will not be held to a high standard by God. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Let the oppressive ruler and the criminal in power prepare to whimper and scream for mercy in hell as they are “beaten with many blows” for all eternity.

In Proverbs 1:18-19, a man who runs after dishonest or ill-gotten gain will lose everything in the end. Such riches “are of no value” (Proverbs 10:2). The prophet Micah said in his sermons that such wealth would be of no use to the thief who took them (Micah 6:10, and it would be taken away from the wicked and devoted to the Lord (Micah 4:13).

Theft violates the seventh commandment, a commandment that casts a wide net. Waste, negligence, petty theft, larceny (theft of personal property), all manner of villainy, embezzlement, and outright robbery, are just a few. This commandment is broken when we squander the gifts God gives us like the wicked servant with the single talent (Matthew 25:18, 27). Also, when we cheat an employer of time, when we destroy the natural resources of our world, or when we fail to help a neighbor or poor man who is in need. About theft of every kind, Luther says curtly: “a person who willfully disregards this commandment may indeed get by and escape the hangman, but he will not escape God’s wrath and punishment” (Large Catechism, Seventh Commandment, par. 234).

17 A man tormented by the guilt of murder
  will be a fugitive till death.
  No one should support him.

Ancient and modern literature are filled with examples of murderers who rush to their inevitable judgment and obsess about it all along. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (Macbeth II,2, 58-59). Solomon’s warning is that no one should “grasp / lay hold” of them. This either means that no one should take revenge into their own hands by “laying hold” of the murderer, or else that no one should help them by “lending a hand.” Most translations, including mine here, favor the second option.

If, however, we consider the first option, that we should not lay hands on a murderer, it must be in the sense that only the proper authority should do so. Moses commanded, “The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, the murderer shall be put to death” (Numbers 35:19). This was the task of the closest kinsman, which is what terrified Cain so much after he killed his brother Abel. Every human being alive at that time was an acceptable avenger of Abel’s blood since everyone was Abel’s brother or sister or parent, so that Cain cried out, “I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me!” (Genesis 4:14). But it isn’t for you or me, ordinary citizens that we are, to seek revenge. God declares: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19). Today we no longer use the kinsman as an avenger. Instead, this role has passed on to the government. “If you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4). Inflicting capital punishment when necessary is one of three ways God permits mankind to take a human life. The other two are (1) self defense in life-threatening cases (Ecclesiastes 4:12; Exodus 22;2), and (2) war, when that war is just (Deuteronomy 20:1). With regard to capital punishment Chytraeus says: “Retributive justice or zeal is indignation against shameful deeds or just (righteous) pain because a crime against another has been committed, and [there is] the desire to remove and punish it” (A Summary of the Christian Faith, Fifth Commandment, XIV).

The Fifth Commandment protects human life because the lifetime is the only moment a human being has in which to come to faith in Christ and be rescued from the sinful state of our conception and birth. To rob a person of that time of grace is to automatically condemn that person to hell, whether an unborn fetus, a stranger in the street, or a madman. We must seriously consider whether, if our places were reversed, we would want a mere human to decide that our time of grace was at an end? “God determined the times and the very places where people would live, so that they would seek God, so that in that way they might feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:26-27). We show our love by seeking to share Christ with people, so that they will be found by the Savior and know the joy of eternal life, just like you and me.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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