Many years ago a major American company had trouble keeping employees working in their assembly plant in Panama. The laborers lived in a generally agrarian, barter economy, but the company paid them in cash. Since the average employee had more cash after a week's work than he had ever seen, he would periodically quit working, satisfied with what he had made. What was the solution? Company executives gave all their employees a Sears catalogue. No one quit then, because they all wanted the previously undreamed-of things they saw in that book. Advertising executives spend a billion dollars a year in marketing research. A vast network of people, from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, spend their full work week designing novel ways to trigger our desires. Music, slogans, Technicolor sights, digitally produced sounds, and dramatic movement all collaborate to create a passion to possess. Nothing is beyond consideration. They use envy, pride, fear, jealousy, nostalgia, and sex to produce the desired effect. Their goal, like that of all salesmen, is to temporarily suspend our self-control. They capitalize on a pattern of thinking, an attitude of covetousness that will continue long after their product is forgotten. They exploit dissatisfaction with life. They want you to want more. Visualize it. Desire it. See yourself in it. And you will possess it! (adapted from Developing Contentment, 6/13/99. J. David Hoke) I came across a survey that said 93% of teenage females listed their favorite pastime as shopping. Shopping! 93%! That even beat dating! These young women are going to lavishly decorated malls, where they can see finery displayed behind shinny panes of glass, in settings that have been carefully crafted to stimulate all of their senses. No wonder they come home with the need lists, with the "I've got to have lists," with the "I'll die if I don't get" lists. In light of this culture of covetousness, Milton Bradley developed a game called Mall Madness. On the back of the box it reads, "Will you be the first to lose all of your money? You're let loose in a shopping mall with $200 dollars. Go to it, and spend it all. Empty your pockets first, and win the game. When you have spent every cent, and your marker moves into the triumphant winning space labeled 'Broke,' you win!" We are constantly being bombarded with the passion to possess. We need to possess more money, possess more status, possess more fame, possess more house, more excitement, more travel, more free time, more pleasure. This passion promises that only if we possess will we then be content with what we have. But have you stopped long enough to you notice how you are always just one possession away? One person away? One position away? One deal away from being able to say "Enough!" The frightening thing is that, without you even knowing it, the passion to possess can confine you to an entire lifetime of discontentment, frustration and unhappiness. It is for this reason that God’s Law points out the problem with this passion to possess. The Tenth Commandment calls it coveting, some may call it greed, but many of us know it at this time of year merely as Christmas. It was not my plan to be a Grinch by preaching on this final Commandment this close to Christmas, but providentially it may serve as a reminder that there is a problem with our passions when they aim at that which is contrary to what God desires for us.
What is coveting? The first word used here is not necessarily a word denoting something evil or wrong. In Genesis 2:9 Moses says "The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." The word "pleasing" in Hebrew is hamad, the same word translated as "covet" in our passage. It is something that is desirable and desire is not inherently evil. Before we describe what it is, we need to know what it is not. It isn’t sinful to appreciate something for its beauty or workmanship. God created us, as dependent creatures, to desire things. He placed us in a world surrounded by beauty. When we are hungry, we covet food, when thirsty, drink. We desire friends, happiness, joy. None of this is evil. In some eastern religions it is thought that coveting is evil because we covet things and created matter is inherently wrong. But that is not the thought here. This is not a passage which extols the repudiation of the material world. The next time hamad is used is in a negative form as a desire to possess what is forbidden. When the passion to possess takes control, there we see the sin of coveting. In Genesis 3:6 we are told how the woman saw that the forbidden fruit was "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom..." There we see coveting illustrated. To covet is to desire to possess regardless of the cost or consequence. We covet when we desire that which cannot legitimately belong to us. We covet when we want something so badly that we are willing to exploit others to get it. It is an inordinate desire to obtain for ourselves what is not ours. It is a grasping beyond what we possess. In Deuteronomy 5, God makes coveting a specific desire for specific things We’ll look at this list in a moment, but the sinfulness of the desire comes when we desire what belongs to another. It is not just "I want" but "I want yours." Coveting is a desire to control what is not ours and a desire that another not control what is his. I want what I cannot have. So there is an internal conspiracy to commit evil to take control. What is the problem with coveting? It seems unfair for God to be so concerned with our desires. Of the Ten Commandments, this is the only law regulating our thoughts. Unlike human laws which cannot legislate against thinking evil, God, who knows our thoughts, can. The other nine deal with overt actions. This deals with our thoughts. It is for that reason this sin is so insidious, so dangerous. In Matthew 5 Jesus clarifies God’s Law by telling us that not only is the act of adultery sin, so is lust, that not only is murder sin, so is anger. What Jesus said was not outside the parameters of what God revealed before on Sinai. These internal steps are at their heart coveting, desiring what you may not have. They are internal, but still wrong. This passion to have what is not rightfully yours is the root of all sin. The First and Tenth Commandments serve as bookends to the rest. When you covet, you are worshipping something other than God, who provides all your needs. Just as the First Commandment clearly stands at the foundation of all the other Commandments, so the Tenth Commandment forms the perfect conclusion to them all. The command not to covet emphasizes that nothing less than perfection will ever satisfy God. The Tenth Commandment is most severe. For this reason, Luther, in his Larger Catechism says: "This last commandment is addressed not to those whom the world considers wicked rogues, but precisely to the most upright-to people who wish to be commended as honest and virtuous because they have not offended against the preceding commandments.... Yet we all pretend to be upright. We know how to put up a fine front to conceal our mischief. We think up artful dodges and sly tricks ... under the guise of justice. We brazenly dare to boast of it, and insist that it should be called not mischief but shrewdness and business acumen. In this we are assisted by jurists and lawyers who twist and stretch the law to suit their purpose, straining words and using them for pretexts, without regard for equity or for our neighbor's plight." The Reformers faced a litigious society, not unlike our own, where it was fashionable to even use and abuse the legal system and business opportunities in order to advance one's piece on the board. Notice also Luther's remark that the Tenth Commandment is meant to deal the final blow to those who think they are left standing after the others. This Commandment, he says, is not addressed to those we usually put behind bars and consider the real criminals, but to the rest who think they have actually conformed to the Law. (Horton, Law of Perfect Freedom, 241) How do we covet?We covet another’s spouse While the Seventh Commandment forbids adultery, the Tenth forbids its thought. But it is more than just lusting after another man’s wife. Sex may have nothing to do with coveting your neighbor’s wife. Rather, you may think that spouse would be a better companion than the one you have, a better conversationalist, better housekeeper, better breadwinner. Kids, you're not married, but how often have you looked longingly at a friend’s parents, wishing yours would be as kind, considering, giving, fun as theirs? Their parents take them to Disneyworld every year. Parents – do you ever covet another family’s kids? "Why can’t you be like....?" We covet another’s style The next item listed in Deuteronomy 5 is house and land. There will always be people you know whose home is bigger and better. Maybe you covet not its size, but that it's orderly and clean. We covet another’s station I can say I’ve never envied another man’s donkey or ox and I don’t know many people with servants for me to covet... but have you ever been envious of someone having a cleaning service? What about the frequency they eat out or buy new cars instead of driving an old clunker like yours? What thoughts have gone through your mind at high school class reunion? Do you think, "Why haven’t I done as well as...?" You miss a promotion that another gets; it is so easy to let that stew in your mind, harboring anger and frustration. That’s coveting. We covet another’s stuff Then there is the all inclusive last line. Anything not listed above fits here. While the Israelites may not have coveted big screen TV's, braces for their kids, or a more successful investment portfolio, these fit in this category. Our sinful nature eats up the consumerism of our age. A generation ago Will Rogers aptly stated, "Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." But far too often we are driven not by our needs, but our need to appear to be without needs. To this the Tenth Commandment comes, showing us a greater need than we ever could imagine. We may think we’ve satisfied God’s holy demands until we recognize how exacting God’s Law really is and how we fall short so often. We could profit from a visit with the 11th century theologian Anselm, who warned those who thought they were keeping their noses clean, "You have not yet considered how great sin is." What are the effects of Coveting? Coveting makes you discontent with life We all want things or people or possessions that we don't have. We want more and more of what we have enough of already. We focus on what we lack and ignore all that we possess. In this passion to possess we spread a gravy of discontent over the feast already ours. As a result we don't enjoy what we already have. A covetous person is never satisfied. It is awful to covet something, manipulate it from one who owns it, only to realize that you are still desperately unhappy. This is called "destination sickness" - getting what you want and discovering it to be unsatisfying. Hope is destroyed as we can never attain what we desire. In the end we find ourselves in a dark hole of self pity with no energy left to succeed because we are consumed with what we lack. There was a man who was tired of his friends owning nicer homes that his, so he felt inferior to them and decided to even things out a bit. He went to see a realtor and put his home on the market and began to search for a new one. One day as he was reading the paper, he came across a listing for a home that seemed to be just what he was looking for. So, he called the realtor and said that he would like to see this home, that he was interested in purchasing it. The realtor replied, "Sir, that is your house! That is the house we are trying to sell for you." Coveting makes you discontent with others A covetous person hoards rather than gives, is galled when another finds success. James 4:1-3 describes this spiral we find ourselves in. Once, Abraham Lincoln was seen walking with his two sons and both the boys were crying. As passerby asked the President what was wrong with his boys. "Exactly what’s wrong with the whole world," said Lincoln, "I have three walnuts and each boy wants two." Coveting makes you discontent with God What lies at the heart is ultimately believing the lie of the serpent in the Garden, that God has short changed you; He really can’t be trusted with your welfare. This desire to have distrusts God’s provision; this passion to possess denies God’s providential care. The author of Hebrews understood this when he wrote in 13:5: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." What is the solution to Coveting? We must be concerned for other’s need Whenever we read God’s Law we must concern ourselves with not only the sin that is prohibited, but the right action which is commanded. The goal of these commands is love of God and others. So the positive command here is to do good to our neighbor. Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." But the next few generations weakened a bit, to where they shortened that statement to say, "Give me liberty." Our materialistic generation has weakened to the point where we've shortened it to simply say, "Give me." In a world that is bent on getting, the Christian must be bent on giving, for we know what we keep we lose, and what we give we have. Puritan Isaac Barrow said that to dispense our wealth liberally is the best way to preserve it. We must be content with God’s provision Contentment is the key to fulfillment, freedom, and security. Whereas a covetous heart is never satisfied, a contented heart is always secure. God calls us to be contented. Now you may be saying, "You must be kidding! How can I live like that? I’ll never get anywhere. I have ambition, drive, motivation. I’m going someplace important. I am not going to let the world pass me by!" You may think this, but this is not the picture of contentment painted by Scripture. To be content does not mean to be passive. To be content is not the absence of ambition. A person can be extremely well motivated, with a great personal drive, and still be contented. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:11-12 says: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." How did Paul do this? The secret is found in the next verse, verse 13: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Contentment is not resignation to the status quo; it is not shutting oneself off desire. Contentment is finding your fullest desires meet in Christ, knowing that the God who gave His own Son so that you would be declared righteous and adopted as His own child will provide for you through good and right means. Contentment comes as a gift of God’s grace to those who look to Christ, knowing their sin and trusting in His perfect righteousness as their own. Paul’s advice to Timothy flows out of how he lived. In 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Paul makes it clear that contentment comes from a right perspective, a properly directed love. We can put an end to coveting not by trying to turn off an imaginary switch, but by receiving the gift from another. When we acknowledge that we are covetous people, that we are controlled by a passion to possess, that self consumption is what we naturally tend toward, and that God sent His own Son to die for greedy people such as us, that He gave sacrificially, completely, so that we could be possessed by Him, then we will learn what it means to be free. We have before us on the table simple elements of provision. This nourishment, though, is not for our bodies, but for our entire lives. Here is the solution to coveting, when we finally come to the end of our need to possess and are willing to be possessed by another, when we stop trying to find happiness through what we own, but find it in being owned by God. Here, in these simple elements we find the grace to be like Christ who came not to hoard and possess, but to give and die. On the Cross, Christ gave so we might live. |
