“YOU SHALL NOT COVET” Ex. 20:17
FBCF – 8/7/22
Jon Daniels
INTRO – There are a lot of things that we Baby Boomers experienced during our childhood & adolescent years. We had the best music, & we also had some of the worst hairstyles. Asked baby-boomers & almost-boomers to respond on FB about the best things about growing up when we did: bikes no helmets, barefoot outside all through the summer, water out of garden hoses, rode in back of pickup trucks, never wore seatbelts, chased mosquito truck down street on bikes, breathing in all that wonderful DDT fog (never said we were the most intelligent generation!), lots of fishing, swimming (pools & creeks), running, riding, playing, talking, staying outside until after dark. It was the best time ever to grow up!
Sears Wish Book: Huge 600–800-page Christmas-themed catalog that was released every year in Aug or Sept. It was our Amazon! First printed in 1933 w/ only 78 pages, it was sent to every Sears customer in the nation. Up to 7 million copies were printed every year. You could buy almost anything in that catalog – clothing, jewelry, farm equipment, tools, pianos, guitars, banjos, appliances – you name it – you would probably find it in there somewhere. You could even buy a kit to build a house (we have a friend in B’haven who lives in one). But for us as kids, it was the toys! 100 pages of the catalog were dedicated to just toys. Page after page of toys of every kind imaginable.
- Wonder if this started us all down the road to covetousness? So many pages had something we wanted – something that wasn’t ours – something that someone else had or might have – someone whose parents had more money & could buy them more toys, or bigger toys, or more expensive toys.
Read a story about a man who put poison out on a hill of fire ants. Granule type poison poured in a circle around the ant mound. hundreds of ants came out & began taking granules down into colony, which is what you want to happen. Man came back to check progress. Noticed some of granules moving away from ant hill. Some other ants saw what the first ants had & began taking the poison away for themselves.
The 10th & final Commandment talks about the poison of covetousness.
EXPLANATION – Exodus 20:17
Alistair Begg – “The 10 Comm are there not in order to enable us to meet requirements for God – b/c Jesus is the only one who can meet those requirements – but in order to enable us to walk in the fullness & freedom that our Heavenly Father intends.”
Coveting definitely negates that fullness & freedom that God wants for us. It is a very pervasive sin. And yet, as John Bevere says, “Covetousness isn’t something we really talk about these days.” (“Killing Kryptonite” YouVersion devotional). Ray Pritchard sermon title: “The Sin No One Will Admit” (https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/the-sin-no-one-will-admit/). But as we begin to unpack it, we will see that it is the root of many other sins we commit & Commandments we break.
Define it: Heb word used in both positive & negative sense. Positive: simply means, “strong desire.” Can also mean “delight, dear, precious, desirable.” Negative: “a strong desire for something I have no right to have.”
Interesting that the word “covet” is repeated twice in this Commandment, maybe to emphasize its importance.
This Commandment is not prohibiting having strong desires for something. Nothing inherently wrong in desiring to have a better job, or a nicer home, or a cool vehicle, or a loving spouse. It is the object of our desires that causes us to cross over into sinful coveting. And it is the depth of our desire that causes us to cross over into sinful coveting.
- Paul David Tripp – “A desire for a good thing becomes a desire for a bad thing when that desire becomes a ruling thing.”
- If your desires for things which you don’t have are ruling your life – if you’re obsessing over things that other people have that you don’t have – if you’re finding yourself willing to do things you know are sinful in order to satisfy your desires for things you don’t have, then you’ve moved into covetousness. And you’re in dangerous territory.
Man living in Detroit. Stepped into backyard. Looked up & saw speck in sky. Got larger & larger until he realized it was a living, moving mass of something hurtling toward the earth. 2 bald eagles were locked in deadly combat, fighting over a fish. The fish had already dropped to the ground, but the huge birds kept fighting in bloody combat. With one final scream, they both made a fatal plunge at each other & fell to the ground dead, just a few feet from the man in his backyard. Covetousness – the driving desire to have something that belonged to someone else – had destroyed them. And it will do the same thing to us.
APPLICATION – Guarding yourself against coveting is a key component to satisfaction in your Christian life.
IT’S SIMPLE – Plain & simple, coveting is a sin. Like murder, stealing, & adultery, this Commandment is simple to understand. You simply can’t have that which is off limits to you, & anything or anyone that belongs to someone else is off limits to you. And not only can you not have it, you can’t have a desire for it.
To covet is to wish to have the possessions of another. Goes beyond just admiring or appreciating what someone else has. Nothing inherently wrong in thinking, “I’d like to have one of those” – fill in the blanks. The sin happens when we begin to think, “Not only do I want to have one of those, I want THAT one that belongs to him/her.” That’s when you’ve crossed the line. It is an evil desire that must be resisted.
William Barclay: “Coveting is a sin w/ a very wide range. If it is the desire for $, it leads to theft. If it is the desire for prestige, it leads to evil ambition. If it is the desire for power, it leads to sadistic tyranny. If it is the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin.” (https://gracequotes.org/topic/covetousness/)
IT’S SPECIFIC – Specific objects are given in this Commandment. Don’t covet these things. I have no right to possess a person’s:
- HOUSE – Where he/she lives
- SPOUSE – Who he/she loves
- SERVANTS, OX, OR DONKEY – Modern-day application: His/her livelihood – job, work, position on team or company, tools of trade, land, cattle, crops, clientele
- ANYTHING ELSE THAT BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE – That person’s entire life.
That pretty well covers it all! One writer: “The society God intends for His people is based on love for neighbors, not envy.” (note – Disciples Study Bible) God has made it abundantly clear to us that we are to love our neighbors, not envy them. We are to celebrate His blessings on their lives, not resent them. We are to pray that He will bless them even more, not secretly wish they would fail & we would be able to capitalize on their failures.
IT’S SNEAKY – When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he didn’t announce his arrival & his intentions when he showed up. As the serpent, he slid into the Garden to engage Eve in a compromising conversation. Remember: Every time he speaks, he’s lying.
- Genesis 3:1-6
- Genesis 2:9 says that God had made “every tree that is desirable & pleasing to the sight” (AMP)
- Satan distorted God’s beautiful creation, capitalizing on the desirability of what God had created.
- Then he lied about what God had said about taking that which He had forbidden.
- And Eve gave into her covetousness, yielded to the temptation in front of her to take something that was off limits to her, & sinned. And Adam fell in right behind her.
Covetousness sneaks up on us. It happens to all of us. We are going along fine, happy w/ our place in life, content w/ what we have & where we are. Then, we find ourselves beginning to notice that others seem to have it better than we do. And we start the “If only I had…” thoughts – new house, new spouse, new set of kids, new job, new school, new position, new friends, new portfolio. Surely THAT would make me happy! Coveting has done its evil work with us. Like a slippery serpent, it has snuck its way into our hearts & thoughts. It’s no wonder we’re so unhappy, so discontented, so miserable, so unsettled.
Song of Solomon 2:15 – “little foxes that spoil the vine” – Covetousness is one of those little foxes that sneaks into our lives & subtly destroys us.
IT’S SERIOUS – Hits hard w/ the other commandments:
- #1 & #2: Stop worshiping God & start worshiping other things & other people. Substitute them for your relationship w/ God – Covetousness is the root of idolatry & God hates idolatry!
- #3: You take the name of the Lord in vain b/c your coveting shows that you don’t truly value the honor & reputation of the Lord.
- #4: No rest until you have those things – You forget about God – don’t expect Him to work – You take your mind off Him b/c you’re consumed w/ getting this thing that doesn’t belong to you – You turn away from Him b/c you’re pursuing this other thing so strongly
- #5: You ignore the counsel & advice of your parents who are trying to help you stay focused on the Lord.
- #6: You find yourself hating others who have what you want – Wish they were out of the picture
- #7: You’re willing to throw away your marriage vows
- #8: You’d steal this thing you’re coveting if you knew you could get away with it
- #9: You lie about it.
CONCLUSION/TAKEAWAYS -
- Commitment to Christ
- Contentment in where you are
- Cultivation of your relationships – w/ Christ, w/ others, w/ spouse
