The 8th commandment: broken by Jesus

"You must not steal"”

"He's not the messiah he's a very naughty boy"-Monty Python (The Life of Brian)

This passage (Luke 19, verses 29 -– 36) is set just before Jesus enters Jerusalem, it describes how Jesus obtains a donkey in a less than lawful way. Jesus tells his disciples to go into a nearby town and take a colt (donkey) that no man has ever sat on. He tells them that if the owner asks why they are taking it they should say "“the lord needs it"”. They do this and tell the owner that the Lord needs it. At no time do they ask the owner for permission to use the donkey and at no time afterwards is there any mention of it being returned to it's owner. Telling the owner that the lord needs it is explaining why they are taking it, it is not asking for permission and it is not giving the owner any choice in the matter. This basically amounts to the breaking of the 8th commandment: do not steal. This is robbing a (probably) hard working citizen of a valuable resource and livelihood, who knowns how much work it would have done in the future for it's owners.

Maybe I'm being too pedantic and maybe I shouldn't expect the word of God to be perfect and unambiguous. However one explanation might be that the bible writers did not regard such details as to how the donkey was returned very important so did not put it in the Bible. However the way in which it was taken is more tricky to explain.

The 10th commandment - a jealous God

“You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour."

This commandment is basically saying do not covert and that jealousy is wrong, not bad advice as jealousy is not the best of traits a person can have. Why then a few pages latter (Exodus 34:14) is God described as a jealous God?

“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”.

If jealousy is so bad why is God described as having this less than perfect trait? Shouldn't God follow his own advice and not desire anything that belongs to any man including their worship of other gods? Just a thought.