The Ten Words (10)

In many ways, this last of the Ten Words (Commandments) may be seen as the most serious!   It reads: "You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour's." (Ex 20:17).

Basically, the commandment is instructing us to control our material desires.  There is, I would contend, nothing inherently wrong with admiring that which is possessed by another; or even of wishing that I had such an item myself.  It is, however, when my desire for that item begins to take control; to eat into my being like a cancer; to become my main obsession; that I am breaking this tenth commandment.

Ultimately, to covet that which belongs to someone else is to express dissatisfaction God's provision for myself.  In the modern, materialistic, society in which so many of the world's inhabitants live, this is not a welcome thought.  Surely, if my neighbour (and cf. Luke 10:29ff) has a brand-new, top-of-the-range, car I am entitled to a similar model!  If my neighbour has just purchased a 50" flat-screen television set, am I not entitled to the same level of home entertainment?   My neighbour has a cleaning lady come in, every day, to attend to housework, and cooking.  Why should I not have the same benefit?  That, sadly, is the attitude of so many in the 'civilised', and 'developed' west!

However, I stated, above that, in many ways, this commandment may be seen as the most serious - or, at least, the breaking of it can lead to so much more.  You see, if I covet in this way, I am putting personal greed, lust, and self before God.  That is idolatry, and is the breaking of the second commandment.  However, such covetousness may lead me to break into someone's home and take the item that I desire so obsessively.  That breaks commandment number eight - I have stolen.  Regretfully, in the course of my burglary, my neighbour returns, unexpectedly.  In order to cover my tracks, I hit him with the crowbar that I used to gain entry to his home and, in so doing, I murder him.  I have now added commandment six to my growing list of transgressions! 

Having escaped to my own home without any further 'mishap', I find that, shortly afterwards, the local constabulary are questioning everyone in the street in their search for clues as to the identity of the perpetrator of this double crime.  Well, I am hardly going to confess - so I lie!  That is the breaking of the ninth commandment!   I then decide that I should, at least, put on a show and visit my neighbour's widow in order to express my shock, and offer my sympathy.  She is an attractive woman.  I return more frequently - just to be of assistance! - and, before I know it, I am engaged in an affair.  Down goes commandment number seven.  My agèd parents find out about my misdeeds, and are shocked.  This was not the way in which they had reared their little boy.  That breaks commandment number five.

Have you been counting?  I make it that I have now broken a total of six of the ten commandments - all because I coveted in the first place!

So, is there an answer?  Of course there is.  The same God Who gave us these commandments also assures us that "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (I Cor. 10:13).

Under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, Paul also writes: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." (Gal 5:16-24).

One more post on this subject - but that will have to wait until next month!

The Ten Words (2)

The second of the Ten Words - or Ten Commandments - reads: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Ex 20:4-6).

In the First Commandment we learned that it is wrong to allow any created thing, including a human being, to become more important to us than our Creator. The second, while related to the first, is slightly different.  It explains that, in our worship, we must not reduce God to a likeness of any physical object.  We might say that, in the Second Commandment, God tells mankind: “Don't try to tell Me what I am like. I will tell you what I am like! It is important that you correctly understand that I will accept no representations of Me.”

This commandment, then, has to do with idolatry.  It has to do with our attempts to, as it were, change places with Almighty God so that He becomes what we have created!  The prophet Isaiah shows the foolishness of such an attempt when he writes, with reference to both metal and wooden images: "The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains.  He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move." (Isa 40:19-20).

Mankind, alone, has been created with minds that can reason, analyse, plan, and visualise the future. We are capable of creating literature, art, music, and poetry. We are able to design, and build. We can organise, manage, and supervise things, creatures and people. We are, in certain limited ways, much like God - made in His image (see Gen.1:26-27).

However, in other areas we are far from being like Him. Our character tends to weakness. Our relationships with each other leave much to be desired. Our spiritual understanding is limited; and often flawed and distorted. Our perceptions are often inaccurate. We are biased in our opinions. We harbour prejudices and are quick to engage in conflicts. In all these spiritual areas, we fall far short of being like God.

We are incapable of making any image of the creator because, quite frankly, we do not know what He looks like.  "God is Spirit" (John 4:24), and we do not know how to properly represent 'spirit'!  Of course, we do have a perfect pattern of God's character.  Jesus, the Christ, as a human being, so perfectly represented what God is like that He told His disciples, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father…" (John 14:9); while the apostle Paul describes Jesus as "the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature." (Col. 1:15).   He also describes Christians as those who “have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” (Col. 3:9-10).

This Second Commandment reminds us that our Almighty, Creator God, Who dwells "in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes", is far greater than anything we can see, or even imagine. We must never let that knowledge be pushed aside by the use of some image or likeness in our worship of God.