SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our family service.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we are talking about one of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: So this whole year we have been following the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: This week we are talking about the seventh commandment.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not steal.
SPEAKER_00: Hear now the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: First, as it is written in the book of Genesis, part of chapter 44.
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph commanded him that was over his house, saying, Fill the men's bags with food, as much as they can bear, and put a man's silver in his bag's mouth, and set my goblet, the silver goblet, in the bag's mouth of the youngest, and the silver of his rations.
SPEAKER_00: And he did according to the word of Joseph that he had spoken.
SPEAKER_00: The morning gave light, and the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.
SPEAKER_00: They were gone out of the city, not yet far away, and Joseph said to him who was over his house, Arise, pursue after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, Why do you repay evil in return for good?
SPEAKER_00: Is not this it in which my Lord drinks, and in which foretelling he foretells?
SPEAKER_00: You have done evil in what you have done.
SPEAKER_00: And he overtook them, and he spoke to them these words.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Why does my lord speak according to these words?
SPEAKER_00: Far be it from your servants to do according to this word.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the silver which we found in our bag's mouth, we returned to you out of the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: And how should we steal out of your Lord's house silver or gold?
SPEAKER_00: And with whomever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be to my Lord for servants.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Even now, according to your words, so shall it be.
SPEAKER_00: He with whom it is found shall be to me a servant, and you shall be innocent.
SPEAKER_00: And they hastened, and they made each man his bag come down to the earth, and opened each man his bag, and he searched.
SPEAKER_00: He began at the eldest, and completed at the youngest, and the goblet was found in the bag of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00: And they tore their clothing, and loaded up each man his donkey, and they returned to the city.
SPEAKER_00: And Judah and his brothers came into Joseph's house, and he was yet there, and they fell before him to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph said to them, What is this deed that you have done?
SPEAKER_00: Did you not know that a man who is such as I, foretelling, foretells?
SPEAKER_00: And Judah said, What shall we say to my Lord?
SPEAKER_00: What shall we speak?
SPEAKER_00: And how shall we be justified?
SPEAKER_00: God has found out the iniquity of your servants.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, we are servants to my Lord, both we and he in whose hand the goblet was found.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Reading further from the Gospel of John, part of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Amen, Amen, I say to you, he who enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.
SPEAKER_00: But he who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
SPEAKER_00: And when he lets out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
SPEAKER_00: But a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.
SPEAKER_00: This parable Jesus told to them, but they did not know what things they were which he spoke to them.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus said again to them, Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: All who have come before me are thieves and robbers.
SPEAKER_00: But the sheep did not hear them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: By me, if any one enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes not, except that he may steal and slaughter and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I am come that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Reading finally from Arcana Celestia, part of number 57, 47.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph's brothers are accused as if they had taken Joseph's cup.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why they were so accused, although the cup had been placed there, is plain from the internal sense, which is this.
SPEAKER_00: The truth which is given by the Lord is first received as if it were not given.
SPEAKER_00: For before regeneration, a person supposes that he procures truth for himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so long as he supposes this, he is in spiritual theft.
SPEAKER_00: To claim good and truth to oneself, and to attribute them to oneself for righteousness and merit, is to take away from the Lord that which is his.
SPEAKER_00: Before he has been regenerated, a person's belief about how he acquires truth cannot be any different.
SPEAKER_00: He may, it is true, say with his lips, because of what he has been taught, that the truths of faith and the good of charity come entirely from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, he does not believe it until faith has become implanted in good.
SPEAKER_00: Only then does he begin to acknowledge it in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Here end our lessons.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we have been talking this year about the Ten Commandments, about one commandment every month, and this week we are talking about the seventh commandment, you shall not steal.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the most basic sense, stealing means taking something that doesn't belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is something all of us know.
SPEAKER_00: From the time we're little, we learn you shouldn't take something that doesn't belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over, we get this message: don't take that, it's not yours, please give it back.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a lot of practice from the time we're young with not stealing.
SPEAKER_00: And so it might seem like this commandment is one of the easiest ones to follow.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we think, well, this one I don't have to worry about.
SPEAKER_00: I already know that one.
SPEAKER_00: Learned that one when I was little.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not stealing.
SPEAKER_00: Thing is, stealing is sneaky.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say stealing is sneaky, in one sense it's because uh you you you act sneaky in order to steal, right?
SPEAKER_00: You imagine a burglar sneaking into someone's house at night.
SPEAKER_00: They're sneaking in, they don't want to get caught.
SPEAKER_00: Or uh imagine someone who is cheating to get something that they don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's at a game or in business or in taxes, they're cheating to get something that isn't theirs.
SPEAKER_00: That's another form of stealing, and it's sneaky.
SPEAKER_00: So stealing involves uh deception, sneakiness, trying not to get caught.
SPEAKER_00: But stealing is sneaky in another way as well, in that we can steal without realizing we're stealing.
SPEAKER_00: This is part of what the story we read in Genesis is all about.
SPEAKER_00: In that story, it's a story of Joseph and his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph was the eleventh of twelve brothers.
SPEAKER_00: And his older brothers didn't like him very much.
SPEAKER_00: And so one day they caught him and they um put him in a pit, and he was sold to be a slave in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's in Egypt, he's thrown into prison, even.
SPEAKER_00: But then the Lord raises him up.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord lets him interpret a dream for Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: That there will be seven years where there's plenty of food, followed by seven years where there's not enough food.
SPEAKER_00: And because Joseph has interpreted this dream, Pharaoh raises him up and makes him second in command of all of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, they store up food during those seven years of plenty.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the famine.
SPEAKER_00: Not enough food anywhere, not just in Egypt, but anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so Joseph's brothers back in the land of Canaan come to Egypt to get food.
SPEAKER_00: And it's Joseph who's giving out the food, but they don't recognize him.
SPEAKER_00: He's been in Egypt so long, they don't know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives them food, sends them back home, but he says to them, I'm not sure I believe your story that you're all brothers.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're spies.
SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna come back again, you have to bring Benjamin, your youngest brother, with you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Benjamin had not sold Joseph to be a slave.
SPEAKER_00: So years go by, time goes by, and the famine is still bad, and they need to come back, and they bring Benjamin, even though their father is really reluctant to let him go.
SPEAKER_00: And they come back and they get food again, and they're sent on their way and they go on their way.
SPEAKER_00: But as we read, Joseph has the one of his servants take Joseph's own silver cup, put it in Benjamin's bag.
SPEAKER_00: So they're walking along, and then someone comes from Joseph's household and says, Wait, wait, wait, you've stolen Joseph's cup.
SPEAKER_00: They say, if we've stolen his cup, let the person who has it be put to death.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be your servants.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I'll make you, I'll make whoever stole it be a servant.
SPEAKER_00: They don't think anyone's taken it.
SPEAKER_00: They all empty their grain, and sure enough, there's the cup in Benjamin's bag.
SPEAKER_00: They tear their clothes, they go back, Joseph says, What have you done?
SPEAKER_00: And they admit we have been evil.
SPEAKER_00: And when they admit that, they're not really just admitting about the silver cup, which they actually didn't even know about, but they know what they did to Joseph years earlier.
SPEAKER_00: And later on in the story, Benjamin is, they say, We're going to take Benjamin, you guys go home, and Judah says, No, I want to take his place, and Joseph realizes that they have changed, and he reveals himself, and there's a reunion.
SPEAKER_00: But for this part of the story, where there's this seeming uh theft of the cup, the passage we read from Arcana Celeste says that this tells us something about the way stealing can work in our spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_00: Because early on in our regeneration, while we are still first trying to follow the Lord, whether we like it or not, we are going to be stealing.
SPEAKER_00: We can steal without even meaning to.
SPEAKER_00: And this is true even in the natural level.
SPEAKER_00: We've probably all had the experience of you walk somewhere and you take something out of your pocket and you're like, I did not mean to take that with me.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your fault you've taken something, but the question is, what will you do next?
SPEAKER_00: Joseph's brothers immediately came back.
SPEAKER_00: There can be sort of an embarrassment, right, when we've accidentally taken something.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to admit I took this, that's embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: So we can choose to just hold on to it and hope they don't notice, or we can choose, I'm going to give it back anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just that embarrassment embarrassment.
SPEAKER_00: Other times it's we really want to keep the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe when you were younger, you've had the experience of uh you pick up a toy, you start playing with it, so much fun.
SPEAKER_00: Then someone comes and says, uh, that's mine, can I please have it?
SPEAKER_00: Now you didn't intentionally take it.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't know it was theirs.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a reaction when they say, That's mine, can I have it back, that if we're really enjoying it, that makes us want to say, no, I had it first.
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly this accidental stealing becomes something more intentional.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it's sneaky.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just with things either.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just with stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You can steal attention.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone's talking and you jump in and not interrupt and want to share your story.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't do it trying to hurt them or trying to do anything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You're just excited about your story.
SPEAKER_00: But what do you do when you realize you've done it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you say, sorry, you go ahead, or do you just keep going because you've got to finish your thing you're saying?
SPEAKER_00: That's where the choice is with stealing, often, is what do we do once we've realized we've started stealing?
SPEAKER_00: Another example, credit, taking credit.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone comes to you and says, Oh, you did such a great job on this project, and you realize you didn't actually do much of the work on the project.
SPEAKER_00: That was actually your partner who did more of the work.
SPEAKER_00: Do you just let it be, or do you give your partner credit?
SPEAKER_00: Do you let go of that, oh, that does feel good to be acknowledged?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you say, no, you know, I did some work on it, but my partner actually did a lot of work too.
SPEAKER_00: And that gets more to the spiritual and the celestial sense of this commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the highest sense of this commandment, it's about taking credit for what actually belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Which is everything.
SPEAKER_00: Every single good idea we have is an idea from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Every single good intention we have is a gift from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we can't help the fact that it feels like it's our own stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It is going to feel like this.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to think, hey, I had a great idea.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: As long as when we realize, ooh, I've been taking credit for something that is actually the Lord's, we're willing to let go of that.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to act like Joseph's brothers and say, oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I've been taking credit that isn't actually mine.
SPEAKER_00: I've been saying this good thing comes from me when actually it's just a gift.
SPEAKER_00: I happen to receive it from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard thing to do, but when we make that choice to do that, every time we realize, oh, I've been accidentally taking something, I'm going to give it back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say that's a gift from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We can form a habit that replaces that habit of sort of wanting to hold on to things with a desire to give back, to act in integrity and in sincerity, to not need to be sneaky anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Just as there's reconciliation with Joseph and his brothers, as we practice more and more fighting the temptation to hold on to things, to take things, and instead let go of them, give them back, give the credit to the Lord, we can be filled with a sense of joy and gratitude that is far greater than any joy we could ever get from taking things for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.