The Tenth word
Introduction
In Victor Hugo’s poem “Envy and Avarice,” he portrays envy and avarice as sisters.
The only words that Avarice could utter,
Her constant doom, in a low, frightened mutter,
"There's not enough, enough, yet in my store!"
While Envy, as she scanned the glittering sight,
Groaned as she gnashed her yellow teeth with spite,
"She's more than me, more, still forever more!"
In the poem, they meet the god Desire who promises to give the sisters whatever they want. The only condition he gives is that whatever the girl asks for, her sister gets double. They wait all day and Desire begins to lose patience.
Envy at last the silence broke,
And smiling, with malignant sneer,
Upon her sister dear,
Who stood in expectation by,
Ever implacable and cruel, spoke
"I would be blinded of _one_ eye!"
Today, we study the sin of covetousness which encompasses both greed and envy.
The Passage
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17
Explain the Passage
We conclude the 10 Words with the most personal. God orders our worship, our weekly schedule, and who we love. Now, He concludes with telling us what we can’t desire. This commandment is deliberately long. Commands 6-8 only consist of two words in Hebrew (e.g., no murder). The 9th word breaks the patters with five words. But the 10th has more words than 6-9 combined with a total of 15 words. In the commandment, God lists 3 pairs of things not to covet: house/wife, man-slave/female-slave, ox/donkey. He finally ends with a 7th prohibition not to covet anything that is your neighbor’s. This list of seven reminds us of the 4th word that commands us to honor God’s seven-day week. Typically, Marxists and socialists despise God’s schedule of work and rest. And they are obviously guilty of coveting the revenue of those who work. Their disobedience to the 4th and 10th Word also manifests itself in a breaking of the 5th. Marxists hate hierarchy because they envy the man or woman at the top of the hierarchy, which is envy. At the heart of covetousness is discontentment which bears false witness about God being generous.
Covetousness is Desiring Wrong Things
Covetousness is a desire that is wrong. The desire itself can be wrong like a man coveting to become a woman. Or it could be a good desire at the wrong time like an engaged couple desiring to live together before they get married. It could be a good desire for the wrong purpose like desiring a car as a status symbol instead of a vehicle. Covetousness is the personal sin that connects the other sins in the 10. Adultery, slander, stealing, and dishonoring God’s name can easily be connected to coveting. Paul in Colossians 3 connects it to idolatry (v. 5). Eve broke the First word when she desired the fruit and took it (Gen 3).
In the Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” When we rebel against God’s design, we reject the only hand that gives good gifts.
The Snare of Covetousness and Envy
Satan’s pitch to Eve in the garden was that a life with no need for God will fulfill you. The world promises us the same pitch as Satan did Eve, “if only you had. . . that house, that girlfriend, that car, that child, that phone you would be happy.” Ferdinand Mount says that the seven deadly sins have been rebranded in our world. “Covetousness has been rebranded as retail therapy, sloth as downtime, lust as exploring your sexuality, anger is opening up your feelings, vanity is looking good because you’re worth it, and gluttony is re religion of foodies.”
In our modern world, desiring equals deserving. If you desire something, you have a right to that desire. “You desire free college; you have a right to that desire.” Christians fall prey to covetousness too. You despise the honor that others receive because of their age, career, or skill. You despise another family for having the house you like or the children you want. You want her full head of hair. You envy him retiring early. Or even at church, you may think that just because you want something, you deserve to have it. Many churches believe their job is the be the magic wand for coveters.
The Cure for Covetousness is the Cross
Coveting forgets that the only reason we receive anything good is because God gives it (Matt 5:45). But because of our sinful state, even if when we notice the good gifts right in front of us, we don’t appreciate and enjoy them as we should. Coveting distracts you from looking up at God to looking across at your neighbor’s motorcycle. That’s because we can only be grateful for God’s good gifts once we accept them through the cross. Jesus models this for us in Philippians 2. We must crucify our covetousness on the cross. We need to kill our desire to have more. We need to throw away our desire to hold on miserly to what we already have. We need to cast everything we are, own, and want on the cross so we can die to our desires and our wrong desires can die for good. Only then can you enjoy God’s gifts with resurrected joy and gratitude.
I recommend praying the Lord’s prayer daily over what you don’t want to give up, specifically the part that says, “give us this day our daily bread” and “thy will be done.” When you give all that you have over to God and ask Him to give you what you need, then when He gives you more than what you asked for, you can glorify Him for giving far above you asked (Eph 3:20-21).
Conclusion
Remember to seek first God’s kingdom with all your heart (Matt 6:33). Why? Because where your heart is, there is your treasure (Matt 6:21). God wants to give you good gifts.