Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [221] You shall not covet

 Today's blog was written by Martin Davids, a member of Manor Park Church.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female
servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.

You shall not covet.

A number of years ago I heard a preacher say that his father would often take him and his siblings to the local tip/recycling centre.  Why you may ask?  Well it was an object lesson for them.  As they looked at all the ‘junk’ – furniture, bicycles, TV’s and computers he would tell his children that at some point all this ‘junk’ was highly desired by the owner.  They probably saved hard for it, dreamed and hoped (coveted) it but now it all lay discarded and unwanted.  The preacher said he never forgot this lesson as it taught him the futility of coveting – so many things that people spend so long desiring ends up as ‘rubbish’ – what a waste of time!      

In Exodus 20:17 the Lord, having come down upon Mount Sinai, spoke to Moses these words, “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

In this final Commandment we are charged by God to flee from, what is termed in our modern English translations of the Bible as, “covetousness”. In order to understand what God’s will for us is in this particular command, we need to begin by understanding exactly what it is that God is telling us here.

What does it mean to covet?

As I write this, those parents who have young children who have listened to ‘Slugs and Bugs’ have got a certain character asking this question. Yet we need to begin by asking the question, “What is covetousness and/or what does it mean to covet?

The Hebrew word for covet, which is used in this verse is the word which literally means, “to desire, to treasure, to long for or to crave something”. In essence, that word “covet” contained in the 10th commandment is all about DESIRE. As we have seen with many of the Commandment we have already looked at, though so many of them have an outward manifestation many start with an inner desire.  This 10th Commandment, deals exclusively with our inward attitudes and our inward affections. It’s a commandment regarding our internal desires.

What this Commandment not about.

Now for many of us, if we’ve read through the 10 commandments before, we may have assumed that what God is saying is that it is always a sin to covet something. But if we stop to think about that for a moment, we’ll realize, that cannot be what God is trying to relay to us in this verse. For if it is always a sin to covet something, that would mean that it would always be a sin to desire something. But as we know from the rest of Scripture, that is simply not the case.

While it’s very true that there are many SINFUL things that we can desire for, at the same time there are a host of GOOD and HOLY things that we are to desire and seek after as well. In fact, that same Hebrew word for covet in Exodus 20:17 is used all over the Old Testament in regards to positive things that we are to crave for and desire. For example, one of the things are told by God that we are to “covet” the Word of God! In Psalm 19:10 we read that God’s Word is, “More to be desired (or coveted) are they then gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” You see the Bible gives us many examples of good and holy things that we are encouraged to “covet” or seek out and desire. As believers we should “covet”, or desire a closer relationship with Christ. We should “covet” or desire a closer obedience to God’s will. We should “covet” or desire for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of our friends our spouses and our children. We should covet or desire those things which Paul tells us in Philippians 4:7 are “true, noble, just, pure, lovely, virtuous and praiseworthy.” It is perfectly appropriate for believers to covet those kinds of things. 

What the Commandment is about.

So if it is not always a sin to “covet” something or someone, what exactly is the 10th commandment prohibiting when it tells us, “You shall not covet…”? Well, the answer is found in the rest of the verse in its complete context. What the verse actually says is that, “You shall not covet…your neighbour’s house…wife…male servant…female servant…ox…donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

You see, what God is telling us in this commandment is that you and I as Christians are not to “covet” or desire, that which God has not in His good
providence chosen to give us. Sinful coveting or covetousness occurs, when we are no longer CONTENT with the provisions God has placed in our lives.

Sinful coveting begins when we say to the Lord in our hearts, “You haven’t given me enough! You haven’t given me all that I truly need”.

So we begin to “covet” or desire that which God never intended us to have in the first place. In fact, we could say, that the very first sin committed all the way back in the garden of Eden, was none other than a breaking of the 10th commandment. God had given Adam and Eve more blessings and more bounty and more beauty than we can ever imagine, but a thought crept into our first parent’s minds, “Surely God hasn’t given us enough…”. And so we read in Genesis 3:6 that, “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Interestingly enough, when we read those words, that the tree was “desirable” to Eve, it’s the same Hebrew word used in Exodus 20:17. It’s the same word for coveting. It’s also the same word used in Psalm 19:10 where we are told that God’s word is to be more “desirable” to us than gold and honey.

 Summing it up.

You see we break the 10th commandment when we set our affections and our desires on anything other than Christ and what He has graciously chosen in His good providence given us. So, brothers and sisters, the question is: what is it that you desire most? What is it that you covet? Is it Christ and pleasing Him? Or is it something or someone else?

Prayer for the day.

Loving Father

We thank you for all that you have given us to enjoy our lives.  We confess that all to often we take your provision for granted and covet that which you have, in your sovereignty, withheld from us.  Allow us the truly godly desire for more of your Word – to covet a closer walk with you and to daily, be more like your Son.

We ask all this through the precious name of our Saviour Jesus Christ

Amen.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash