I invite you to turn with me with your Bible to Exodus 20:17. If you’re visiting with us, we’ve been studying through the Ten Commandments, which is the code of ethics that God audibly declared from heaven to the ancient nation of Israel. We’ve been taking one commandment each Sunday and exploring the depth of its meaning and relevance to us followers of Christ. Today we come to the last one, which is found in Exodus 20:17.
I heard about a kid’s Sunday school class that was studying the Ten Commandments, and they were ready to discuss this last one and the teacher asked if anyone could tell her what the tenth commandment was. Little Susie raised her hand, stood tall and quoted, “Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor’s wife.”
Well, that was pretty close, but not quite. Let’s read it. Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Definition
Covet and covetousness are not words we use very often. We use other words in their place. Instead of saying “I covet that…” We might say “If only I had that, I would be happy.” Or “I just want that so bad.” Covetousness is a strong desire for something, an inordinate desire for it. We all want or desire things to a degree. We all want to be healthy. We’re going to want lunch here in a little bit. We want friends. If the boss at work offered you a raise you wouldn’t say, “Ah, no thanks, I don’t want any more money.” We all enjoy things and want things to a degree, and that doesn’t make us covetous. Another word our Bible translations will sometimes use instead of covetousness is greed. It’s when your desire for something is stronger your concern for the will of God and the wellbeing of others. It’s an inordinate or excessive desire.
And let’s notice…
The specific things God warned the Israelites not to covet.
He said to them, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…” Well, that’s definitely relevant to us. Do you ever drive around looking at other people’s homes and think, “Boy, they have good. Must be nice. If only I could live in a house like that. Life would be good in a house like that”?
Second, God said, “you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” So this isn’t just about material things. We could too strongly desire a person, a relationship, a romance.
Then God told them you shall not covet his male servant or his female servant… Perhaps we could make a parallel to looking at someone in a position over people, a person with a staff, with people who assist him. And we might think, “I wish I had people under me like that, have people bring me coffee, and take care of paperwork and accounting and calls for me, and be able to send to people on errands for me.”
Then God said you shall not covet “his ox or his donkey“. We may never say, “If only I could have that donkey…” But we may say the modern equivelent. A donkey and ox back then were their vehicles of transportation and heavy equipment. So we may, “If only I could have that car or that truck… If only I could have a tractor like that, or those tools…”
And then finally God summed it up saying, “or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” You shall not the covet career some people have, or the muscles and fitness and beauty some have, or the friendships, or the fame, or the wealth or the life circumstances or anything else you see that others have.
We are rather to be content with what God allots to us as we listen and obey Him and go about our lives the way He’s called us to.
This last commandment overlaps much with the first one.
The first and last commandments are similar, summarizing bookends of this code of ethics.
Remember the first commandment is “You shall have no other gods besides me.” And as we talked about, that first commandment is not just about not following after other spiritual beings in the unseen realm. Its about not elevating anything to rival God in importance to you. It’s about God having supreme place in your heart and life, and not letting any thing or person or other desire into that place. According to several passages in the Bible, a person’s god is whatever is their top priority, whatever is their main concern, or their ultimate loyalty.
That’s why the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 that greed or covetousness amounts to idolarty. It is in essence putting something or someone in God’s rightful place in your heart. To break the last commandment is also to break the first one.
These commandments make clear that God is not just concerned with our outward appearance.
Religious people throughout history and still today have tended to think if they’re external conduct looks good, if they say the right things and do the right religious activities that they’ll be on good terms with God.
But God is primarily looking at what other people can’t see about us. He’s looking at what we really want, what is the delight of our heart, what do we think about most the time, what are our motives and intentions, things others cannot see.
In the first century the Pharisees looked very holy and righteous on the outside, in their strict observance of the Sabbath and their regular attendance to the temple and their offerings and how they could quote a lot of Scripture and say impressive prayers and how they kept a lot of rules. But in Luke 11:39 the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed [or covetousness] and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within [that is give God your mind, your heart, your soul], and behold, everything is clean for you.”
Can you imagine going to a restaurant to eat that only washed the outside of the bowls and cups and pitchers? If they just wouldn’t bother to clean out the gunk inside their dishes? Would you go back to a restaurant like that?
We’re vessels before God. He sees the inside. We owe Him the inside, because He created the inside just as He did the outside.
What causes us to covet?
One factor is seeing what others have that you don’t. You bring your kid to an ice cream shop and get them a vanilla ice cream cone, and he’s thrilled to get an ice cream cone; he’s perfectly content with it… until he walks past a kid holding a chocolate dipped cone covered with sprinkles. Now all of a sudden, a perfectly good vanilla ice cream cone doesn’t look as good, doesn’t taste as good, and he’s saying, “I don’t want this one anymore.” Why? He just saw what he didn’t have.
Or when you’re a kid, your parents decide to give you a weekly allowance, you’re thrilled and thankful… until Monday on the bus with your friend and you tell him that you get an allowance now, and he says , “Oh, how much?” And you say, “A dollar a week,” and he says, “Well, my parents give me two dollars.” Now you’re no longer content with a dollar because your friend gets two.
You know, when I was a kid no body coveted an i-phone or smart phone. Everybody was fine with no having one. You know, because we’d never seen one. But now that we’ve seen it, we’ve got to have it.
There’s a “Dennis the Menace” cartoon strip that shows Dennis looking through a Christmas Toy catalogue saying, “This catalog’s got a lot of toys I didn’t even know I wanted.”
So seeing stuff is part of the cause. But it’s not just seeing stuff, because there are some people who can see stuff they don’t have and not covet.
It’s interesting that in the Bible when it says someone has an “evil eye,” it’s not talking about that look your wife gives you when you track mud in the house. To say someone has an evil eye was a way of saying they were greedy or covetous. If someone was said to have a good eye that meant they were the opposite; they were content with what they had and generous.
I’ll give you a couple examples in Proverbs. Proverbs 22:9, “Whoever has a bountiful eye [or some Bible translations say “whoever is generous,” but in the Hebrew it’s literally “a good eye”] will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” So having a good eye was synonymous with being generous person who shares what you have with those in need. Proverbs 28:22, “A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.” In the Hebrew it doesn’t say “A stingy man.” It says “A man whose eye is evil.”
So why do we covet? Or why are we greedy? Well, it has to do with whether we have a good eye or a bad eye when we see what others have.
But it’s really not the condition of our physical eyes, is it? The issue is really the condition of the eyes of our heart. When we see what others have that we don’t, how well do we appraise the actual value of having that? How well do we see the true importance of that? How well do we see what life is about and what actually matters in life?
And that’s an eye condition we can improve with the help of God’s word and God’s Spirit. We can work on how well we see things.
Now, we’re going to look at some teaching of Jesus on this subject in Luke 12. In this passage we find some symptoms of covetousness, some indications that we have fallen too in love created things and too out of love with the Creator. We also see in these words of Jesus perspectives that cure covetousness, or lenses, so to speak, that improve the way we look at stuff.
In Luke 12….
Symptoms of a covetous heart are seen in what prompted Jesus to suddenly change subjects to begin teaching on covetousness.
A crowd of thousands were gathered listening to Him teach His disciples. And He was talking to them about not fearing men and being bold for Him before men, and how when they’re to stand trial before authorities they don’t need worry about what they’ll say because the Holy Spirit will reveal it to them in that very hour. Awesome stuff! Then all the sudden, v13 tells us, “Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
If you’ve ever done much for teaching, whether it was Bible class or in a secular school or other capacities, maybe you’ve experienced something like this, where someone in the class suddenly injects a comment or asks a question that is totally out of left field, completely unrelated to what you were talking about, and you wonder if the person has even been conscious this whole time you’ve been teaching.
Well, that’s this guy. Out of the blue, having nothing to do with what Jesus was saying, he brings up a squabble he has with his brother over inheritance money and property, and asks Jesus to help him get his fair share.
The first thing Jesus says basically is, “That’s not My job. There are other people who are set up to settle disputes like this and I’m not one of them. That’s not why I came. That’s the kind of thing I’m going to spend My time on earth sorting out for people.” Then He moved right in to teaching about covetousness, saying, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Why the sudden change of subjects? I believe because He could detect covetousness in this man. He could detect covetousness because of what was apparently on this man’s mind in the midst of the teaching about God and His will and truths that have eternal ramifications was temporary money and property and how to get it, and out of all the things he could have asked for Jesus’ help with, he asked for financial help. The preoccupation of his mind and his main request of Jesus indicated a problem with covertousness.
What on your mind most often? What you think about usually when you have you have time to think? It’s it the Lord, His Spirit, His word, what He’s doing, what He would have you do, and such? Or it is money and how to make more? Is it a relationship with someone? Or sensual pleasure? Or excelling at a sport, hobby or business? What we give our minds to primiarly suggest what’s most valuable to us.
And what do you primarily want Jesus to do for you? A lot of people seek Jesus mainly for what He can give them in this life, like to get them out of financial debt or into a better house and job, or to give them a spouse or friends…
Our main request ought to be “Lord, I want you. I want relationship with you. I want to please you and have unity with you. So make me compatible with you and your kingdom. Free me from my sins, clean me up, take me in as yours, teach me and change me into who you would have me be, and may I serve you forever.”
Now, notice the perspective Jesus gives to help cure covetousness in v15.
“For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
That is, I believe, the length and quality of your life does not depend on the money and stuff you have. But most, it appears to me, believe the opposite, because most think of success in terms of how much one has, and in their pursuit of happiness, their pursuit to fill the void we all have in our souls, they go after more money, and nicer and better property and things. But Jesus assures us, more wealth does not mean more and better life.
It reminds me of some of the observations of wise old Solomon that he recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes. After achieving all the wealth and power and women and status and everything anyone could ever dream of having and still feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled, realizing chasing all that is futility, he writes this paragraph, Eccleasiastes 2:24, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.” Where’s joy come from? He discovered it comes from God not things. You will never find it in things, at least not any deep lasting joy. The new car is only joy giving for a few days. Then it’s just a car and you’re back to craving your next fix. Solomon observed that when a person delights God’s heart, God gives that person joy.
When you get close to the Lord and you please His heart, you’ll be able to say what David said in Psalm 4:7. He say to God, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” He’s thinking about the joy other people have in those moments when their circumstances finally take a dramatic turn for the better and the wealth they’ve been longing for is now coming in, and David said God you put more joy in my heart those people ever experience.
If we keep going in Luke 12 and notice the parable that Jesus tells beginning at v16, we find…
Another indication of covetousness can be seen in our plans for the future.
“16 And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
So he was a rich man planning to seize one more big opportunity to become even richer and then retire and enjoy ease and luxury for the many years that he thought he had left. It’s typical today. Ask about any working man in a America for his long term plans it will likely go something like, “Well, I’m going to work for x number more years and then I should have the house and cars and stuff paid off and a decent retirement package, and then I’m going to retire.” “Okay, and then what are you going to do?” “Well, the wife and I would like to see Europe and Australia and some other places. And we’re going to get a house by the golf course. And we’re going golf and fish and bowl and play cards and go to shows and do a lot of relaxing.” How’s that different that what this guy said, “After I’ve store up my barns, I’m going to relax, eat, drink and be merry.”
If our plans for the future have nothing to do with serving the Lord and nothing to do with helping others, nothing to do with advancing the kingdom; when they have only to do with our own earthly comfort, it reveals a covetous heart. It is an epidemic in America and most people don’t even know they have the disease.
Jesus depicts in His story what often happens. Right when the man was about ready to retire, all the sudden his life ended, and he realized he spent his working life amassing treasure for someone else and he was leaving this world with nothing. But it’s a sad story even if you get to enjoy some years of retirement. A nice retirement will not have been worth it at the end of your life when you come before the One gave you your life and gave you everything and who suffered and died in your place so that you could have life forever, and you stand before Him as one who wouldn’t love Him back, as one who wouldn’t give your few years on this earth to His service?
I believe the best cure for covetousness is expressed in Psalm 34:8, “Oh taste and see that the LORD is good!”
The Lord is near and available to be known and experienced, and the more you taste and see of His goodness, the more you find that He’s all you ever wanted. He is the real joy and peace giver. He’s the one the fills the void He made in our souls. He’s the only one big enough to fill it. He’s the fountain that will never run dry. These other things are just cups of salty water. They may fill good going down, but they only leave you more thirsty. The more you experience and see the Lord, the more the futile and fleeting things of the world lose their attraction.
We sing this truth sometimes:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
Over the last 5-6 years my desire for things has really changed. I don’t have the appetite for many things that I used to. For instance, I used to so look forward to hunting season. It was one of my favorite things to do. Now I don’t really care. I still like to take my boys out hunting. I believe it’s a good teaching and bonding thing to do with them. But if I don’t get to go hunting during the season, that’s fine. It’s no big deal to me anymore. I used to really like watching football on TV and other shows. But I have no appetite for it anymore. TV has no attraction to me anymore. There are many other things that have “grown strangely dim.”
And it’s because I discovered we don’t have to wait until heaven to experience God. You can actually taste and experience God now. I didn’t know He would talk to you. But He’ll talk to you. I didn’t know you could feel His presence. But He will let you feel His presence. He will let you experience His goodness. I started to realize that, and chase after Him, seeking Him diligently. And now after what I’ve tasted, if I have some leisure time, if my wife and kids are busy and there’s no urgent needs to tend to, if I have time to do whatever I want, I want to go meet with the Lord. I want to get away with Him, set My focused attention on Him, surrender everything to Him again, and just be with Him, because He’s faithful to show up. He draws near as I draw near to Him. He fills Me. He gives Me peace. He gives Me understanding. He gives Me excitement and encouragement. And I connect deeply with Him and am feeling His presence, there is nowhere else in the world I want to be.