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Introduction
Please open your Bibles to .
Today we will look at the last and final commandment of the Ten Commandments: You Shall Not Covet.
If any of you have read or seen the Lord of the rings, there is one character who comes to mind when I think about when I think about coveting.
That character is Gollum.
Gollum was once a hobbit who turned twisted and corrupted because of the power of the ring or what he calls “my precious”.
Gollum’s real name was actually Smeagol.
As a young hobbit, he went fishing with one of his relatives Deagol.
Deagol found a ring on their fishing trip and Smeagol desired to have it.
On Smeagol’s birthday, he asked Deagol to give it to him as a gift.
When Deagol refused, he caught Deagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold look so bright and beautiful.
Smeagol would use the power of the ring to steal, spy, blackmail, and antagonize his friends.
The ring gave him great power, yet it corrupted his body and mind.
Although his life was extended through the power of the ring, it twisted his soul.
He called the ring his precious.
And he was always plotting and scheming to recover the ring when it was taken from him by the Hobbits Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins.
In fact, the ring is what eventually led him to his death in the lake of fire on Mount Doom.
The ring in Tolkein’s novels is a symbol of how greed and covetousness can corrupt a person.
And how people will be willing to harm others in order to advance themselves.
Even Frodo, who is the supposed hero of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, succumbs to the temptations of the ring itself where he cannot manage to destroy it when he is so close to bringing peace to the world.
It was only through the greed of Gollum, where the ring is finally destroyed and he falls into the fire with his last words, “My precious.”
Today, we look at the Tenth Commandment: You Shall Not Covet.
Covetousness, as we will see, is a problem for all humanity.
Because of original sin, all of us have a “gollum” inside we must learn to crucify covetousness and walk in contentment.
And only Jesus can give us the power to break its influence in our lives so that we would not use other people to advance our own agendas, but we would be people who advance the well-being of our neighbors.
So I want to look at three things this morning as we look at the Tenth Commandment:
A Covetous Heart
A Converted Heart
A Contented Heart
Scripture Reading:
This is the reading of God’s Holy, Inspired, and Inerrant Word.
I.
A Covetous Heart
What is significant about this commandment is that this commandment goes to the the very attitudes and desires of the heart.
As we looked at the previous nine, some people may think they can keep the other nine externally if you muster up enough willpower.
But this commandment reveals our sinfulness because it goes to the very root of our hearts and desires.
One OT Scholar says,
It is the function of the tenth commandment to make explicit the internalization of the whole law and reveal the sin of the heart.—Mark
Rooker
Look at the text.
This commandment forbids that we desire what belongs to our neighbor: house, wife, servants, animals, of anything that is your neighbor’s.
Desire is not wrong in itself.
It is not wrong to want a house, it is not wrong to want a wife, it is not wrong to want possessions.
What is wrong is when you want your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, and your neighbor’s possessions!
Covetousness says, “I’m sick of this apartment we are living in, why can’t we have his house”
Covetousness says, “Why can’t my wife dress like that woman on the magazine?”
Or “Why can’t my husband be more understanding or sympathetic like her husband?”
Covetousness says, “Why can’t I have his car or his job or his promotion”
Covetousness says, “Why can’t I have his toy.
Or as my son said yesterday to my daughter, why does Jie Jie get letter crackers!”
You see, the covetous heart cannot rejoice at the well-being of others.
And it envies others when others prosper and our successful.
Definition of Coveting
At base חמד means “desire, yearn for, covet, lust after” someone or something, specifically for one’s own use or gratification.
Jewish interpretation understood this commandment is only violated when the desire is acted upon, but I believe the commandment goes to the desire itself.
Jewish Rabbis said that if we applied it to the desires, then that means all would be guilty!
And that is the point!
Coveting
Coveting is desiring something that is outside of God’s law and God’s moral boundaries.To covet is to yearn and long for something that is not ours.
Coveting is in inordinate desire or a desire gone wrong.
John Piper defines covetousness as “desiring something so much that your lose your contentment in God.”
The NT word for coveting that parallels it is sinful lust.
Biblical Examples
Let me give you some Biblical examples.
To covet is to yearn and long for something that is not ours.
This commandment deals with desire.
It deals with the attitude of the heart.
A. Eve
Eve bought into Satan’s deception.
Satan deceived Eve into thinking that a good God was withholding from her by not allowing her to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And Satan was saying that when you eat, you will be like God.
And here is where deception came it: Eve was already made like God because she was made in his image!
But Satan was tempting Eve by telling her she could be more like God and she can have more power and knowledge.
In other words, her desire was to have more by going against God’s commands.
B. Achan
Or think about Achan.
The Israelite army was defeated at the Battle of Ai.
And Joshua was perplexed.
And what does the Lord say to Joshua?
Joshua
After Joshua gathered the tribes to find out who stole the devoted things, Achan came forward and said:
Achan was punished and stoned with stones because many lives were lost in the battle of Ai because of his covetous heart and greed.
C. David
And then we can even think of the King of Israel, who was a man after God’s own heart.
When he saw Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop, he called for her to sleep with her.
And David tried to cover his deception by making Uriah go to the Frontlines and be slaughtered.
D. Judas
And then in the NT, we get to Judas.
He was a thief and stole from the moneybag.
He would eventually betray his master, the Lord Jesus, for thirty pieces of silver.
D. Judas
Covetousness or greed led to the Fall of Man, the death of Israelite men at Ai, adultery, and the betrayal of our master.
Isn’t this why Jesus said,
How do you know whether you are coveting?
The command not to covet is actually the practical summation and heart-level culmination of the other nine commandments—DeYoung 161
What do you love?
What are you chasing?
What do you think about in the shower, on your way to work, on the drive, or folding laundry?
What is the one thing you think you need in order to be really, truly happy?
If the answer is anything other than God, you’re an idolater” DeYoung 165
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