Thou Shalt Not Covet

THOU SHALT NOT COVET

By

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (April 21, 2018)

“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 anything that is thy neighbour’s” [Exodus 20:17, King James Version, The Ten Commandments].

Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus,

My sisters and brothers, the world is full of demons all aiming to hitch the ride of their life acting out inside of your holy vessel, unless you resist them as God asked you to do---all the emotions of envy will most certainly engulf you without fail, forcing you to hate your best friend---your mother and father and of course, your siblings, leaving you without fail all alone---a miserable individual, poison to those who thought they knew you, at one time, in your life. The snake will get in your tree. You’ve heard folks say anything he can do, I can do better. You’ve heard folks say anything she can do, I can do better. This awareness awakens the community-at-large to improve upon their status quo for the competition of neighbor’s is fierce with betrayal, for anything they can do; I can do better than that.

Let us not dwell in the confusion of whether this meant we should not or ought not to feel we could do better than before, for to improve oneself is good, however, to strive to condemn others---your fellow neighbor and take all that they have without the instructions of God to do so, is wrong even pretending that God told you to do it, is wrong---morally unsound in judgment. Covet means to desire enviously what belongs to another. The repercussions of covetousness could open the door for widespread, indirect or unforeseen effect visited upon what covetousness words were spoken or what covetousness acts were done---out of envy. With that said, some folks call it karma, others say, just desserts, even more say you get what you deserve, because the envy of coveting a neighbor is dark and gravely foreboding could cause death as the ripple of the tide floats fiercely against the water to bring back---right back to you, the bread that you cast upon the waters; obviously spoiled bread---a boomerang.

Most importantly, the Word of God tells us that we are not better than our fathers; in which this thought alone coupled with the thought of the slain prophets caused the only surviving prophet, Elijah great distress, as he sat under the juniper tree when he fled from Ahab and Jezebel, in the wilderness, on the back side of mount Horeb [“But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers” I Kings 19:4, KJV]. The

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angels comforted Elijah with cake and water; eventually, God spoke to him with a small voice [I Kings 19:2] to anoint Hazael King over Syria, anoint Jehu king over Israel, and anoint Elisha prophet in his room {I Kings 19:15-17]to bring down those who escaped the sword since the slaying of the prophets. This is but one bible story of man’s desire to be better than those before him, a byproduct of coveting his neighbor’s house even Ahab and Jezebel’s ruler ship which was a wicked ruler ship, indeed, of heavy darkness in a land that worshipped Baal [I Kings 16:31-33]. In modern times, we find further evidence in neighborly one-on one talks of demonic possession present in the neighborhood.

I spoke to one first cousin maybe one decade and on-half ago who spoke of a man named Punk visiting her in dreams who she felt was responsible for the death of her son who left with another cousin’s family sect for a one-night outing of entertainment but all returned except her son who they later found out was dragged by a car of strangers unto his death. Recently, another first cousin of another family sect spoke of a man named Punk who planted peppers and charged $5 per can. Could it be that the Punk in the cousin’s dreams is the Punk in the planter, demonic possession used to take life, now masquerading as a planter to mock the farming neighborhood when actually the demon is set up in the holy vessel of the planter just waiting to prevail again---just hanging around waiting, coveting everything the neighbors say and coveting everything the neighbors do---taking/killing pets---giving pets to whom he sees fit with little regard for the rights of the property owners; trapping pets in cages to starve them to death or placing snakes in the cages with the pets, unto death then lying them in the road, to say the pet was in the road? Punk was the name. Do you suppose this Punk is a demon?