Exo 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Boy, this commandment is something isn't it? Stealing, murder, speaking falsely, adultery, dishonoring God, dishonoring parents, worshiping idols, speaking God's name senselessly, breaking the command to rest- these are Commandments we can mostly understand- right? I said mostly, because no matter what people will inevitably debate any and everything. Yet this commandment the last of the ten great commandments written by the finger of God on stone tablets and in hearts isn't one we can readily understand and why is that? Because we here in America have grown up being taught to covet. We've grown up so commercialize, so engrained with the desire to want things we scarcely can comprehend that it's wrong. It isn't stealing someone's things- it's desiring them. Stealing is wrong, desiring is not wrong, this is how we've been taught to live. Just look at our main source of entertainment- our televisions. Just look at our magazines filled with ads, listen to the radio and you can hardly escape the lengthy commercial breaks. Our smart phones and not so smart phones are filled with advertising's for the next and best thing to desire. Our mailboxes are bombarded with sales ads encouraging us to desire what we don't have. You walk through a store and they have people encouraging you to just *try* their product so you can want it even more than you did before.
It's so incredibly sad to say, but people world wide have become corrupted with coveting so much so no one would EVER think about making it a law to NOT covet.
Can you imagine being in trouble for desiring something that belonged to another? How much jail time should a person get for desiring their neighbor's car? Sound ludicrous doesn't it? Because we've been taught from our infant-hood to covet.
We'd all be in jail wouldn't we? Seriously, wouldn't we? Yet it is a law of GOD'S! And He holds our eternal lives in His hands. How could it be wrong to desire what others have? How can desiring things be a sin?
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Eve coveted the forbidden fruit. Eve wanted that fruit that wasn't hers to want.
We get so caught up in our possessions I don't think we even realize to what extent our lives are wrapped up in the things we own and the things we want to own. We often tell ourselves most of these things are necessities, but are they? We want a better this or that because it's better, it's more efficient. We tell ourselves that it is very, very, incredibly NORMAL to desire - to covet. We tell ourselves we'd have to be crazy not to want things- the necessities at the very least. We have been so well corrupted that to keep this tenth commandment seems all but impossible.
Jesus said--
Luk 12:15 ... Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Jesus said--
Luk 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Jesus said--
Luk 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Luk 21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Jesus said--
Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Jesus said--
Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Did Jesus do away with the tenth commandment? Obviously not!
More on this subject tomorrow by the grace of God.
Please Lord, help us to comprehend fully this commandment You've given to us. We don't wish to be deceived by Satan who has a tight grip on this world, whose snares are so engrained in our lives we have begun to call evil good, and good evil. Help us Lord, please Lord all by Your grace and love!
Amen.
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