How to be a good neighbour? “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” So anyone who causes mischief or hurt to his neighbour is in fact injuring himself. He ceased to be good so neither he can help his own case nor of his truth. A good society depends on truth the basic article that God has left in his inward parts. We hear about societal collapse and the middle class disappearing all of which began with man who forgot to be good to himself. We lie a white lie, which we rationalize would avoid embarrassment. It all begins on such banana peels and it sure does set off an avalanche. It is an unwritten law that sin never comes singly. A lie to save a friend from going to prison makes him a false witness and he is as much prey to consequences as others equally affected in that specific case.
The Israelites are here given sundry laws.
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
The ox( shor) and the oxen (bakar) are doubtless creatures of the beeve kind, and are used in different parts of the sacred writings to signify the bull, the ox, the heifer, the steer, and the calf.As שור shor is used, (“Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf”-Job 21:10) for a bull probably it may mean so here.Tson צאן is used for a flock either of sheep or goats, and seh שה for an individual of either species. For every seh, four, taken indifferently from the tson or flock must be given; i.e., a sheep stolen might be recompensed with four out of the flock, whether of sheep or goats: so that a goat might be compensated with four sheep, or a sheep with four goats.(Adam Clarke)
We are on more sure grounds when we see numbers four and five as tags used by the Holy Spirit. The scapegoat recalls the atoning work of the Son who came from above. Four as a tag sets this aspect of the word becoming flesh (four gospels and four carpenters in the Book of Zechariah). He is our Good Shepherd and goats and sheep are interchangeable. What does the number five signify? An ox is a working animal, crucial element for a farmer subsisting from labor and as such the man and his ox are deemed as one. Restitution is five times as the Ten Commandments are equally applicable for man and the thief.(cf. Parable of Five Foolish Virgins and Five Wise virgins)
2 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
3 If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
4 If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
5 If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.
If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
7 If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief be found, let him pay double.
8 If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods.
9 For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour.
If a man deliver unto his neighbour an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it:
11 Then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.
12 And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof.
13 If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn.
GuidetohisWord 