It is natural at the end of a long journey, the conclusion of a big project, on the last day of school, or in the final strides of a race, to want to coast in to the finish line.  We want to stop work early and "mop up" or "straighten our desk" during those last few minutes that are left on the clock.  But we all know that quitting early puts the whole journey at risk.  It is important to finish strong.  In Indianapolis it is a well known part of the Colts' winning football philosophy to play hard, play fast, and play smart for the full 60 minutes.  As we come to the Tenth Commandment, it is important to remember the enthusiasm with which we started.  This commandment, far from being the last and least important Word, is more like the crucial last play called in the last few seconds of a tie game.  And the stakes for our winning or our losing are life itself.  Will we hear and obey this last commandment, so that we may live life full, abundant, and free?  Or will we falter at the finish line?  Will we hear the last play called and in living by this one commandment be able to keep them all?  Or will we fumble here and forfeit the whole game?

We might hope that the last Word would be less demanding, but if anything it is more so.  We have seen something of a crescendo, a climax, as we have neared the end.  From an attention to actions, we have moved to the realm of speech (false witness) and finally, now, to attitudes of the heart.  From prohibitions against doing, we moved first to a Word against saying, and now to a commandment against even thinking about harming our neighbor.  The terrain for the race has changed, and not for the easier.  It as if we have left the flats, moved through the hill country, and are now cycling through the mountains.  The final leg of the journey is uphill all the way to the finish line!

The Commandments do not taper off at the end.  Rather, they come to a conclusion and underscore it, so much so that it is possible to see two commandments on the same topic.  ...it is impossible to avoid the stress placed on this prohibition.  Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 389

What is Coveting?

It is helpful to begin again at the beginning, where the LORD God planted a garden and placed humankind in the garden to tend it.  The LORD God made sprout up in the garden every sort of tree that is "pleasing" (Hebrew, chamed) to the eye and good for food. (Genesis 2:9)  In the middle of the garden was the "Tree of Life" and the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."  The implication is that both these trees were pleasant to look at and good to eat.  The man and woman were allowed to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden except the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."  About that tree there was a divine prohibition: "Thou shalt not eat!" (Genesis 2:16-17)  The trouble starts when the woman sees that the tree is good for food and "pleasing" (Hebrew, 'awah) to the eyes and "desirable" (Hebrew, chamed) for making one wise, and she takes it and eats and gives to her husband and he eats. (Genesis 3:6)  Desire (Hebrew, chamed) is thus the prelude to action.  Wanting is the heart-born catalyst for words and deeds.  (Not every desire comes to fruition, because some people are too lazy to work for what they desire! Proverbs 13:4.)  Not every desire is evil (even God "desires"; see Psalm 68:17, Job 23:13, Psalm 132:13-14); not every word or deed is prohibited.  In fact, in the Garden of Eden, most desirable trees--all desirable trees save one--are a source of life.  The desirable trees in the Garden of Eden may be compared to the Torah, the commandments themselves and the statutes of the LORD, the Word of God: perfect, sure, right, pure, enduring, true, righteous, and to be "desired" (Hebrew, chamed) more than silver or gold. (Psalm 19:7-11)  The deeds that follow such desires bring great rewards and abundant life with God.  It is with the prohibited tree that desire becomes life threatening and destructive of relationships. 

Coveting is a desire for that which our neighbor has.  Acting on that desire can only harm our neighbor.  Micah 2:2 demonstrates the very close connection between desire and the dastardly deed: "They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance."   Though this final Word clearly belongs to the Second Table and is about our neighbor, coveting may also ruin our relationship with God.  (Especially when it involves "desire" for another god or for that which belongs to God; see Deuteronomy 7:25, Joshua 7:21, Isaiah 1:29, 44:9.)  This commandment against coveting is so crucial that the prohibition is stated twice in Exodus 20:17, "Thou shalt not covet (Hebrew, chamed)...thou shalt not covet (Hebrew, chamed)...."  In case we still do not get the connection between thought and deed, the objects of desire that are named in this 10th Word echo deeds already specifically prohibited by previous commandments: "thy neighbor's wife" (adultery; 7th Commandment) and "thy neighbor's ox" (stealing; 8th Commandment).  Desiring is a prelude to doing; it is a step onto a slippery slope, which is dangerous ground where prohibited deeds are concerned.

Sometimes having a good appetite is good. (Deuteronomy 12:15-21, 14:26; 2 Samuel 23:16 // 1 Chronicles 11:17, 'awah)  But desire can grow until it has become all consuming, blocking out thought of all else, as sometimes happens with greed or an insatiable, ravenous appetite. (See Job 20:20, chamed; also, Numbers 11:4, 34, 'awah.)  So closely allied is coveting with amassing treasure (Proverbs 21:20) that the two are nearly synonymous: what you "desire" before you have it, you "treasure" after you acquire it.  (This use of Hebrew chamed occurs in Psalm 39:12.)  In other words, where your treasure (the thing that is most desirable or precious to you) is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21 // Luke 12:34)  What you desire will in time define you.  (Proverbs 1:22, 21:10)  It will capture you.  (Proverbs 6:25)  

The Beginning and End of Desire

"Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny," the maxim goes.  ...There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.  Steven R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, loc. 650-51, 1489-90.

Thou shalt not covet (Hebrew, chamed) thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet (Hebrew, chamed) thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. (Exodus 20:17, KJV)

Neither shalt thou desire (Hebrew, chamed) thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet (Hebrew, 'awah) thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Deuteronomy 5:21, KJV)

The two Hebrew verbs, chamed and 'awah, that are used in the two versions of this commandment are close synonyms.  Both have to do with an attitude of the heart, which at its root is rightly named desire.  But chamed goes further than 'awah in that it includes "both the improper desire and the action to get what one has coveted." (Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 390)  Chamed is desire that is often closely followed by an act devised to accomplish or acquire what is desired.  Chamed often involves cunning.  'Awah, on the other hand, is focused "much more on the emotion within the person ... than on the act precipitated by the emotion" (Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 391).  Desire's initial effect is to stir the emotional cravings and longings of the heart, but it is not long before emotion leads to planning and the sort of premeditation, mental intrigue and scheming, that are preludes to acquiring.

There are two avenues for arriving at not "wanting."  We come to an end of wanting when we arrive at the "cursed" state of having amassed more of a thing than we can consume, however long our lifetime. (Ecclesiastes 6:2)  This is the equivalent of asking, can we wear more than one pair of shoes or one coat at a time?  If not, why do we "want" them?  And how long will we "want" them?  And God says, "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"  (Luke 12:20) But we also come to an end of wanting in the "blessed" state of knowing that our Provider owns the cattle of a thousand hills and that the LORD will also surely take care of us, one rich pasture and one clear stream at a time. (Psalm 23:1; Hebrew, chaser = no "lack")

What did Jesus say?

The only legitimate object of "uncontrolled, extravagant desire" is the LORD whom we follow, "found now in devotion to Jesus and his way. ...the way of the Lord. (Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 409)  Once again, the story of the rich man who came to Jesus (Matthew 19:16-30 // Mark 10:17-31 // Luke 18:18-30) provides a key to Jesus' understanding of the commandments, and of this commandment regarding desire in particular.  Jesus saw that the man was caught between his desire to keep the commandments (to love God and neighbor) and his desire for the things he treasured (his possessions, which possessed him), so Jesus spoke this 10th Word to him as a living, creative, freeing word: "sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and come and follow me."  What the rich man sadly rejected, a little child may yet receive--the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven, the gift of seeking first the Kingdom of God and the gift of experiencing everything in life as a gift. (Matthew 6:33)  Jesus offers the rich man, the children, and us the blessing of "not wanting."

But as usual, Jesus also goes further into wider and deeper uses of the commandment, praying and teaching us to pray like this: "thy will be done" (Matthew 5:10).  Jesus knew what it was to pray for the right kind of desire.  In the face of death, he prayed not once but three times, "yet not what I want but what you want" (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44).  Following Jesus means following his example in deed, in word, and in desire--laying down our life for our neighbor.   

How to keep the Tenth Commandment

There is, in the last analysis, only one way to stop covetousness and the destruction of body and soul that spring from covetousness, and that is to want God so much that we can't be bothered with inordinate wants for anything else.  Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain, p. 127.

Let us turn our desires, our planning and scheming, toward legitimate objects.  Toward our own spouses (Song of Solomon 2:3) and toward the LORD (Isaiah 26:9), toward God's commandments and Word, and toward the Kingdom of Heaven.  We keep the 10th Commandment when we scheme about ways to "give without sparing" to our neighbor--when we entertain a kind of "reverse craving"--giving everything away instead of hoarding yet more and more (Proverbs 21:26).  Clearly the keeping of this commandment must begin with the guarding of our hearts and minds, our emotions and intellects.  As Patrick Miller says, "the wrongful act is inhibited at its starting point when the neighborhood puts up a coveting watch over its life." (Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 392, emphasis mine.)  These days a "coveting watch" surely means limiting our exposure to media advertising, which has as its only object the stirring up of desire and which is itself sometimes a barely hidden scheme for "getting hold of what belongs to someone else" (money) in exchange for unnecessary consumer goods.  It is a new kind of "neighborhood watch" that guards against keeping up with the Joneses, which is just another name for coveting my neighbor's stuff.

The first and primary restraint of the commandment is on the desire that leads to violation of the well-being of our neighbor.  The second restraint is a reminder of the subjective dimension of desire: even when not directed toward the neighbor, it may take us over and become our "consuming" passion.  Miller, The Ten Commandments, p. 414.

Discussion Questions

Read Exodus 20:17 (Deuteronomy 5:21), Romans 7:7-12, and James 1:12-18, 3:13-4:10.

1.  Have you ever experienced a craving?  Have you ever been so hungry that you couldn't concentrate on anything else?  Do you remember ever wanting something for Christmas or your next birthday?  Do you think these desires were good or bad?  Why or why not?  Have you ever made plans to get something that you wanted? 

2.  Read Romans 7:7-12, Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:2-5.  Have you ever known sin to take advantage of desire in order to wreck havoc?  Do you see a close connection between the sin of wrong desire and the sin of idolatry?  Why or why not?  How can a person put desire to death?

3.  Read James 1:12-18, 3:13-4:10.  How does James say that we are tempted?  If wrong desire could be eliminated from the world, would there be peace?  What sort of sin is ingratitude?  Is it related to inordinate desire? 

4.  Do modern politicians appeal to our desires in an attempt to get our votes?  Do we still fall for the promise of a "chicken in every pot"?  Is the American dream just another name for desire?  Is it necessarily bad to desire a "land flowing with milk and honey"?

5.  When Jesus says not to worry about tomorrow, did he mean that we shouldn't plan our lives?  What about the desire to marry?  The desire to have children?  To go to college?  To advance in a career?  Are these bad desires?  Under what condition might they be coveting?

6.  When I was a child we did not have a television in our home.  Whenever I visited friends, the only thing I wanted to do was watch their TV.  When I left home after High School, one of the first things I bought was a tiny television set.  Now I have a flat screen in my living room and my children want the same video games that their friends play.  Did you ever want something just because someone else had it?  In what ways have you been tempted to keep up with the Joneses?

7.  Look at all of the commandments again (Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5).  How do you think coveting might lead to each of the first nine commandments?

8.  Read Philippians 4:10-20.  Is covetousness the opposite of contentment?  Wouldn't you at least desire to be free of the chains if you were in Paul's situation?  (Perhaps hungry, without clothes and in prison for telling people about Jesus.)

9.  "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." (Augustine, Confessions)  How is covetousness a kind of "restless heart" syndrome?  Have we come full circle?  Are the first and the last commandments just two sides of one coin?  Calvin calls this commandment a "sharp lancet" and Hauerwas and Willimon suggest that God uses this commandment to do "open-heart surgery." (The Truth About God, p. 131)  Does this commandment work that way for you? 

10.  This week take a look at the 10 Commandments again as a whole.  What have you learned about them that made them more real as creative words spoken directly to you?  God uses these commandments to show us both who we are and who we may become through our relationship with Jesus, so make a list of those characteristics that God is forming in you through this study.  The final commandment has shown us once again that the Kingdom of God is a gift, not something we earn.  It is a gift that frees us from our chains of imprisonment to death and renews and restores us to life.  As you read the commandments again this week, give thanks for the gift that challenges us to live in passionate, exclusive, respectful, and committed relationship with our Creator and Redeemer through the power of the Spirit.

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Copyright © 2010 by Gregory L. Glover