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So vital is this relationship, that the Lord uses it as the most fitting figure of His
covenant relationship with Israel. Their very land is to be called Beulah or "married",
and the climax of revelation, apart from the mystery, is "the marriage of the Lamb", with
its Satanic counterpart, "the whore" of Rev. 17: and 18: Even the members of the
church of the one body may manifest the love of Christ and the church in their own
married relationship (Eph. 5:). Idolatry and adultery are convertible terms in the
Scriptures.
If holiness is involved in the sin of adultery, righteousness is involved in the sin of
stealing.
8: Thou shalt not steal.--Satan was a murderer from the beginning. Satan has
sought down the ages to corrupt the true seed. Satan entered into Judas, who betrayed his
Lord, and Scripture says Judas "was a thief" (John 12: 6). Malachi whose words we have
quoted above says, "Will a man rob God?" (Mal. 3: 8).
The weights and measures of Israel were not beneath Divine legislation, for in them
were set forth the equity and righteousness of the Lord. "Just balances, just weights, a
just ephah and a just hin, shall ye have" (Lev. 19: 36), and this command is immediately
followed by a reference to the Lord Who brought them "out of the land of Egypt".
Deut. 25: 15 puts the same truth in connection with the land of promise:--
"Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have,
that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
Righteousness is the foundation of the throne of God, the basis of the covenant with
Israel, the bed rock of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the lasting character of the
new heavens and earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness", when "the tabernacle of God
will be with men and He will dwell with them". Any system of interpretation that juggles
with good and evil, until at last their distinct difference is bedimmed, must stand
condemned before the simple example of "the just weight and balance".
9: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.--Satan, the breaker of
the commandments already cited, is also the arch-false witness. "He is a liar, and abode
not in the truth." Eph. 4: 25 and 28 bring together two of the commands of this table:--
"Wherefore putting away the lie, speak every man truth with his neighbour . . . . . Let
him that stole steal no more."
Stealing transgresses righteousness, false witness transgresses truth. The new man of
Eph. 4: created in righteousness and holiness of truth. If Satan entered into Judas the
thief, he inspired Ananias; "Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie?" (Acts 5: 3). It
appears from Zech. 5: 3 that among the last phases of the curses of Babylon to the earth
is the condoning of stealing and false swearing. The Hebrew word naked should be
translated declare innocent or let off:--