To steal is to wrongfully and selfishly take something that belongs to someone else and place it amongst one’s own possessions.
Most people assume the Lord’s actions are motivated almost solely because of His love for man. Yet, God works for His own glory and for His own name’s sake.
Sin can never be flippantly disregarded. If the Lord is just, and He is, He must mete out consequences for rebellion. The biblical descriptions of the Lord’s reaction to rebellion varies from “he will be wroth” (Joshua 22:18) to “then shall the hand of the LORD be against you” (1 Samuel 12:15) to “ye shall be devoured with the sword” (Isaiah 1:20) to “I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee” (Exodus 33:5) to “I will purge out from among you the rebels” (Ezekiel 20:38) to “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings” (Malachi 2:2). Though there are variations in the response, the constant truth remains that the Lord hates rebellion and responds to the rebellion with judgment.
When you truly love someone, you find yourself developing a love for the things that he or she loves. It should be no different concerning our relationship with the Lord. The more love we have for the Lord, the more love we display for the things dearest to Him. This means that the closer we draw to Him, the more we will love things that He loves, like judgment (Isaiah 61:8) and righteousness (Psalm 11:7), the lost (John 3:16) and the saved (1 John 4:21), peace and truth (Zechariah 8:19). We will also have a greater love for the Jewish people (Zechariah 2:8). Perhaps a more accurate gauge by which to judge your love for the Lord is to gauge your love for the things which He loves.
