Last But Not Least Series

A French taxi cab driver once played a joke on Sir

Arthur Conon Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He

had driven Sr. Arthur from a station to a hotel, and when he

received his fare he said, "Merci, Mr. Conon Doyle." "Why,

how do you know my name?" asked Sr. Author. "Well sir,"

he replied, "I have seen in the papers that you were coming

from the South of France to Paris; your general appearance

told me that you were English; your hair had been clearly

last cut by a barber of the South of France. I put these

indications together and guessed at once that it was you."

Sir Author was astounded and said, "So little evidence to go

on. This is very remarkable." "Well," said the driver,

"There was also the fact that your name was on your

luggage."

This clue, though mentioned last, was far from the least.

Often this is the case, and we have a saying to express it, "

last but not least." Sometimes we save the best for the last.

However, we also tend to associate the last with the least.

We attach degrees of merit and value to position. The

bottom man on the totem pole is a phase we use to describe a

negative position. When a list of names is made up, it is

necessary to put them in alphabetical order or someone will

be offended by being further down the list, or most

humiliating of all, they could be last on the list. Last is

associated with least so often, this could be interpreted as a

slam at your personal worth.

This is subjective nonsense, of course, but it is a fact, and

therefore, it is good for us to see the last from another

perspective. We ought not to have a stereotyped negative

attitude about last things on a list. This false attitude has

affected peoples interest and concern about the last

commandment. It is the commandment least preached on.

After indexing hundreds of volumes of sermons I have not

found a single sermon on this text. I must confess that I also

felt a tendency to by pass it. If it was the fourth or fifth I am

sure this feeling would not arise, but being tenth and last, it

gets associated with the concept of the least important. It

takes a conscious effort to overcome this false perspective,

and discover that the last is not the least. This caboose on

the train of duty is of primary importance, and is essential if

we hope to live the righteous life.

Paul in the great love chapter writes, "Now abideth faith,

hope, love these three, but the greatest of these is love."

Love is last, but it is not least. It is, instead, the greatest.

The last days of Jesus are the days of greatest value, and

they fill the bulk of the Gospel records. More sermons are

preached on His last words than on all the others. It is the

last, the end, the conclusion, the climax, that gives meaning

to all that has gone before. The last is not least in God's

listings of values.

So it is with the last of the ten commandments. It is not

least, but goes deeper than the rest. It gets to the heart of

the matter of sin by getting to the heart of men of sin. This

commandment takes us behind the scenes to the very origin

of sin. If we heed this one we can nip sin in the bud before it

bears any of its bitter fruit. This is the commandment of

prevention. Moody called this the root extraction. It gets at

the root of sin which is covetousness. Paul said that the love

of money is the root of all evil. It is not money that is evil,

but the love of it. The covetousness that turns one to an

idolater. If a man does not stop sin at its root, he will be led

to violate all of the other commandments. A Jewish

commentary says, "He who violates the last commandment,

violates all of them."

If covetousness is not brought under control it will lead to

idolatry, for desire becomes the highest value in your life,

and thus, your God. If you fail in number ten, all of the

others will break like ice sickles cut loose from their base.

Paul calls the covetousness man an idolater in Eph. 5:5, and

in Col. 3:5 he writes, "Evil desire and greed, which amounts

to idolatry." Naboth's garden was coveted by Ahab. He so

desired it that he murdered to get it. Coveting will lead to

stealing, lying, or murder, for there is no other way to get

what doesn't belong to you except by one sin or another.