Scripture Daily

Context No. 1754 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 20:17-21: in context

17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” 18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. 19They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.” 20Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.” 21The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.

The Ten Commandments close with one that reaches inward: you shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, servant, ox, or anything that is his. Then the scene at Sinai: the people, seeing the thunder and lightning and the smoking mountain, tremble and beg Moses to speak to them himself, lest God speak directly and they die. Moses tells them not to fear, for God has come to test them, that the fear of him may keep them from sin. And Moses draws near the thick darkness where God is.

The last of the commandments is different from the others in a telling way: it forbids not an act but a desire. You shall not covet, God says; do not crave what belongs to your neighbor, his house, his spouse, his possessions. Where the other commandments largely address what we do, this one reaches into the heart, into the wanting itself, and names covetousness, the restless craving for what is another's, as sin. This is searching, because coveting is where so much other sin begins. Before the theft, there is the craving for what is not ours; before the adultery, the coveting of another's spouse; before much of our discontent and grasping, the eye fixed on what our neighbor has. Covetousness is the root that grows into many other sins, and it is a sin of the heart, hidden, that no one else may see. God's commandment goes after this root, forbidding not just the wrongful act but the craving beneath it, and calling us instead to contentment, to be at peace with what we have rather than consumed with wanting what is another's. There is a whole spiritual discipline in this one command: to guard the heart's wanting, to notice and resist the covetous eye that fixes on what others have, to cultivate contentment with what God has given us rather than restless craving for what he has given someone else. Much of our unhappiness and much of our sin flow from coveting. To keep this commandment is to find a deep freedom, the freedom of a contented heart that is not enslaved to wanting what belongs to another.

Do I guard my heart against covetousness, the restless craving for what belongs to another, or do I let my eye fix on what others have and my wanting run unchecked, and can I cultivate instead the contentment this commandment calls for, at peace with what God has given me rather than enslaved to wanting what he has given someone else?

Sources